What Are The Five Characteristics Of A Bureaucracies?

1. Social institution is the standard or usual way that a society meets its basic needs, how it vitally affects your life. Functionalist first priority is to survive in the book there are a few functional requisites that each society must meet to survive. Replacing members so society can continue to thrive and exist, they do this by teaching a child at a young age what it means to be a member in the group the child was born into; showing them the group’s basic expectations. Another would be producing and distributing good and services, they must be able to produce the basic resources for example food, clothes and an education they see everyone working together to meet the needs of a human being. Those are just a few key points functionalist

There are 5 characteristics of a bureaucracies; separate levels, a division of labor, written rules, written communication and records and impersonality and replaceability. With separate levels a university would reflect this with its teachers and students. The higher level being the teachers assign the lower level the student’s homework assignment and quizzes or a paper to show they understand the information. With division of labor in a university it would be with their staff then employed. They hire the people they need to fix the problems that arise, a janitor to keep the campus clean, a dean to ensure the staff is doing its job and teachers to show the students the materials they need to learn in order to succeed later in life. In order for things to run smooth there would need to be written rules; it would make the university run more efficient. The larger the university the more rules that would need to be set in stone, they would need rules to help certain situations that would cause a problem which they have put inside a student handbook that is given to each student. Written communication and records is a vital part with a university a record is something that will follow you throughout life whether it be good or bad. With a written record there is proof that certain classes or activities were performed that the university may require. And with impersonality and replaceability it is simple, if the professor or dean where to retire they would need someone to come

Group dynamics refers to how we influence a group and how the group can influence us. In 1900s George Simmel analyzed how the size of a group would affect stability and intimacy he used the term dyad for the smallest group possible. A marriage, love affair or close friends are dyad the small group. Since they dyad is such a small group it requires both members to participate if one doesn’t show interest then the group would collapse. Simmel also talks about triad which is group of three people and how by adding the third member to the group changes the group fundamentally. If a couple were to have baby, while they would still be intimate the baby would consume most of their attention. Simmel states that a triad is not a stable group however because two people from the group can alienate one member causing the group to fall apart for example if you had to people who were best friends that lived next door to one another, and a new person moved onto their street and they decided to becomes friends with him or her. Then slowly the two that were best friends start to talk less and one hangs with the new kid more than the other the group falls apart. With attitudes and behaviors a group size would have a dramatic impact. In the book Essentials of Sociology a down to earth approach, it states that you can no longer assume member of the group are “insiders” and how they have to have a “larger audience” into consideration and now instead of talking to one another they are