Formal Organizations
A formal organization is a highly structured group formed for the purpose of completed certain tasks or achieving specific goals.
Many of us spend most of our time in formal organizations, such as colleges, corporations, or the government. This lesson analyzes the characteristics of bureaucratic organizations. Bureaucratic organizations are a very important component of social structure in all industrialized societies.
We expect such organizations to educate us, solve our social problems (crime, poverty, terrorism, etc.), and provide jobs for us later in life.
Basically, formal organizations are large secondary groups that are deliberately and rationally designed to achieve specific objectives.
There are three types of formal organizations:
Normative Organizations are organizations that people join because they perceive their goals as being socially or morally worthwhile.
Coercive Organizations are typically organizations that people are forced into.
Utilitarian Organizations are organizations that people join because of some tangible benefit which they expect to receive.
Normative Organizations: We voluntarily join normative organizations when we want to pursue some common interest or gain personal satisfaction or prestige from being a member. Political parties, ecological activist groups, religious organizations, parent–teacher associations, and college sororities and fraternities are examples of normative, or voluntary, associations. Class, gender, and race can be important determinants of a person's participation in a normative association.
Classsocioeconomic status based on a person's education, occupation, and income is the most significant predictor of whether a person will participate in mainstream normative organizations. Those with higher socioeconomic status are more likely to be not only members but also active participants in these groups. Normative organizations rely on volunteers to fulfill their goals; for example, Red Cross workers in New Orleans aided the relief efforts there following Hurricane Katrina.
Coercive Organizations: Unlike normative organizations, people do not voluntarily become members of coercive organizations. Total institutions, such as correctional boot camps,* prisons, and some mental hospitals, are examples of coercive organizations. As discussed in module on socialization, the assumed goal of total institutions is to resocialize people through incarceration.
*Military boot camp is not considered coercive in the US because we have not had a draft since the early 1970s.
Coersive environments are characterized by restrictive barriers (such as locks, bars, and security guards) that make it impossible for people to leave freely. When people leave without being officially dismissed, their exit is referred to as an "escape."
Utilitarian Organizations:
We voluntarily join utilitarian
organizations when they can provide
us with a material reward we seek.
To make a living or earn a college
degree, we must participate in
organizations that can provide us these opportunities. Although we have some choice regarding where we work or attend school, utilitarian organizations are not always completely voluntary. For example, most people continue to work even if the conditions of their employment are not ideal.
