Social and Formal Groups Comparison Essay Example for Free

Social and Formal Groups Comparison Essay I suppose that the Cornerstone Hospice center where I do volunteer work counts as a formal organization. As for a social group I did attend a church social club for mother’s years ago. With the social group all activities were pretty much the same for all. We did potluck each week and rotated who brought what. We did arts and crafts and rotated on who’s idea would be used and we had older more experienced moms as guest lecturers. As for the Formal group activities varied from one’s education and or experience and training. Only nurses could do their jobs and so on. I worked the office doing filing, sorting, or putting together booklets or filling orders for the nurses. They trained me to see and spend time with hospice patients but everyone pretty much had their place. Hierarchy in the social group didn’t exist and in the formal it went according to their position in the company. The norms for the social group were just to participate and for the formal group we had pages of information we had to go through study sign and were tested on. Membership Criteria for the social group was just that you were a mom or an expectant mom. They advertised in the city local paper and the church paper. As for the formal group anyone can volunteer however a back ground check has to be passed, you also have to be trained and pass all tests, and have a current Hepatitis vaccine. I sought them out since I wanted to do volunteer work and knew hospice centers took volunteers. Relationships with the social group were primary whereas with the formal group it seemed to be more of selective primary ties. Communications in the social group were always face to face and very friendly whereas in the formal group it varied from face to face to formal and in writing. Focus of the social group was person oriented and the formal group was task oriented because the task of seeing to it that the patients on hospice were getting the right kind of care was the number one goal and task of all of us. Reference: Macionis, John J. (2011). Society: The Basics (11th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Retrieved from University of Phoenix Axia, Soc120 – Sociology course website.