Critically Evaluate The Need For Conformity In Organizations.

Q. Critically evaluate the need for conformity in organizations.

Groups and organizations, one is a part of are very important for the social and psychological development of an individual. A group is “a collection of individuals who interact and communicate, share goals and norms, and who have a subjective awareness as вЂ?we’.” (pg 642, Sociology, 4th edition, M. L .Anderson and H. F. Taylor). According to Shaw (1981), a group consists of two or more people who interact with each other in such a way that each influences and is influenced by the other. They give the individual a social identity, which is “the part of the self concept which comes from the membership of groups; it contributes to ones self esteem.” (pg 356, Organizational Behavior, 5th edition, Buchanan and Huczynski). Tajfel and Turner came up with this social identity theory. Tajfel states that individuals not only compare themselves to others but also compare their groups with similar, but distinct, out-groups. When an individual recently becomes a member of a new organization, the existing members will build and transmit complex ideas and those ideas may seem unfamiliar. This process is termed as social representation. This name was coined by Serge Moscovici in 1984. It is important to point at this time that via social representations, group members gain a shared frame of reference. “This is a set of assumptions that are commonly held by all the group members, which shapes their thinking, decisions, actions and interactions while being constantly defined and reinforced through those interactions.” (pg 357, Organizational Behavior, 5th edition, Buchanan and Huczynski). Organizations and groups tend to exert tremendous influence on their members to fit in with the norms of that group or organization.

Such type of influence is referred to as вЂ?social influence’; it can be defined as a “change in the judgments, opinions, and attitudes of an individual as a result of being exposed to the view of others.” (Page 404, Introduction to Social Psychology, Third edition, by M. Hewstone and W. Stroebe). Also according to Cialdini (1994), it is efforts by others to change our attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, or behavior. Social influence is a basic fact of social life. It plays a key role in many forms of social interaction, such as leadership and some others. For instance, everyday one receives a number of direct requests from people they know such as friends, family members, coworkers and many times even total strangers such as panhandlers or salespersons; they all try to influence us in some way or the other. However this process is not one way, even we attempt at exerting influence on to others. Many individuals tend to be under the false belief that they are not victims of social influence or group pressure, this belief according to social psychologist Philip Zimbardo is referred as the вЂ?Not-Me Syndrome’. We all think: “Other people yield to group pressure, but not me.” However experimental evidence reveals that there is a gulf between what people think they will do and what they actually do. The group or organization that one is a member of tends to exert heightened pressure on its members either consciously or unconsciously. If one doesn’t comply with the norms and values of the group, they are considered an outcast. It must be noted that organizations, that one is a part of , have the same effect on individuals as groups because groups also exist in organizations and organization themselves are one big group. Social influence that tends to be exerted by organizations consists of three main types, they being, conformity, compliance and obedience. Obedience is the most coercive in nature and conformity is the least coercive.

Obedience “is a form of social influence in which one person obeys direct orders from another to perform some action(s).” (pg 319, social psychology, 8th edition, Baron Byrne). Obedience is very obvious in organizations whether large or small. One normally obeys his senior more willingly than in other situations. Obedience is rarer than conformity and compliance but not unheard of because even individuals who possess authority and power generally prefer to exert it through the velvet glove-by requests rather than direct orders (e.g., Yulk & Falbe, 1991). This can be witnessed when business executives issue orders to their subordinates in organizations or in other such situations. More astonishing than this is the fact that often, persons lacking in such power can also induce high levels of submission from others. This can further be supported by Hedy Brown’s statement “Obedience has to do with the social power and status of an authority figure in a hierarchical situation.” The clearest example of such statements is the experiments conducted by Milgram on obedience. “These experiments on what happens when the demands of authority clash with the demands of conscience have become social psychology’s most famous and controversial experiments.” (pg 109, exploring social psychology, second edition, David G. Myers). In the experiment the participants are led to believe that if the answers given by the learner, experimenter’s confederate who is sitting on the electrical chair are wrong then they have to administer electric shocks to him. These shocks were not real shocks but the confederate reacted to them as if they were, and with more and more answers wrong, the intensity of the shocks increased. The participants were led to assume that they were real cries of pain. The participants were hesitant to continue but the experimenter kept on making them continue. Not all of the participants were able to continue till the end as the experimenters had predicted but surprisingly sixty five percent of the participants went on till the very end. Milgram concluded that a substantial portion of people do as they are told, so long as they perceive that the command comes from a legitimate authority. This can be witnessed practically in all organizations. The subordinates have to carry out tasks that they are not comfortable with or carrying out that task can be against their ethics but still they have to carry them out because if they do not follow the orders their jobs will be jeopardized.

Another experiment portraying obedience was Phillip Zimbardo’s experiment on prison stimulation. At the end of that experiment which ended before its proposed finishing date, Zimbardo discovered that the prisoners were very obedient towards the guards even though they were not told in any way to take