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Formal and informal organizations concept and types - abstract. The influence of formal and informal organizations on company performance

An organization is understood as a stable group of individuals interacting with each other through material, economic, legal and other conditions in order to solve existing problems or achieve set goals.

The organization is an open, complex socio-economic system that actively interacts with environment. Receiving resources from outside, the organization transforms them on the basis of appropriate technologies into the required final results.

The features of organizations as socio-economic systems are as follows:

· Variability (nonstationarity) of individual system parameters, stochastic behavior;

· The uniqueness and unpredictability of the behavior of the system in specific conditions and at the same time the presence of maximum capabilities determined by the available resources;

· Ability to resist system-destroying trends;

· Ability to adapt to changing conditions;

· Ability to change structure and form behavioral options;

· The ability and desire to set goals, i.e. formation of goals within the system.

In an organization as a system there are the following elements:

· Functional areas of the organization;

· Elements of the production process;

· Control elements.

Formal organizations– companies, partnerships, etc. registered in the prescribed manner, which act as legal or non-legal entities.

Their primary function is to perform specific tasks and achieve the goals of the organization. Relations between people are regulated by various kinds of normative documents: laws, regulations, orders, instructions, etc.

Signs of a formal organization:

Focus on achieving your goals

Availability of legal and regulatory framework for activities

Defined structural design

Setting and regulating the tasks of employees at all levels

Availability of the necessary resource base

Internal orderliness and organization of all production processes.

Internal environment

Org. culture

Informal organization- an organization not registered with a government agency that unites people connected by personal interests, has a leader and does not conduct financial and economic activities aimed at making a profit.

Relations between members of such a group are formed on the basis of personal sympathies. Group members are bound by a commonality of views, inclinations and interests. There is no list of team members, responsibilities, or agreed upon roles.

Informal, or shadow, groups exist in every organization. They invariably “grow” out of friendly relations and relationships not defined by an organizational chart. It is important for an organization that informal groups do not dominate.

Informal organizations can be both similar and different from formal organizations.

Signs characterizing informal organizations:

Social control. Informal organizations exercise social control over their members. It's about about establishing and strengthening norms - group standards of acceptable and unacceptable behavior.

Resistance to change. In no formal organizations There is always a tendency to resist change. This is partly due to the fact that change may pose a threat to the continued existence of the informal organization;

Informal leaders. Informal organizations also have their leaders. Their difference from formal ones is that the leader of a formal organization has support in the form of official powers delegated to him and acts in the specific functional area assigned to him.

Formal organizations. In the literature, a formal organization is understood as a system of relations representing an officially established structure of statuses, a program of activities and a set of norms and rules prescribed by a given social organization.

The basis of the formal organization is the division of labor associated with the specialization of the activities of officials. Taken together, these individuals constitute a special administrative apparatus, without which a formal organization does not exist.

A formal organization has a number of features, two of which are rationality and impersonality - the most important. The first means, first of all, the expediency of one’s own activities aimed at implementing the program of a formal organization. The essence of the second feature - impersonality - is that the organization is not designed for specific people, but for abstract individuals - officials.

Formal organizations are duly registered societies, partnerships, etc., which act as legal or non-legal entities.

Informal organization. Unlike formal, informal social organization is a spontaneously developing system of social connections, norms, and actions, which is the result of long-term interpersonal or group communication.

They are either informal service relations, which carry functional (production) content and exist in parallel with the formal organization, or a socio-psychological organization in the form of a spontaneously emerging community of people, based on personal choice of connections and companionship. As such informal organizations Amateur groups can perform, relations of prestige, leadership, sympathy, etc.

If official relations are regulated by relevant instructions, orders, instructions, then informal relations are not regulated by anyone or anything. Therefore, it should be kept in mind that the management process refers to the creation and operation of a formal organization. However, you need to know that within any formal organization there are also informal organizations that to a certain extent influence the policy of the formal one. This is due to the fact that each member of the work collective belongs to many groups at the same time.

An informal organization is an organization not registered with a government agency that unites people connected by personal interests, has a leader and does not conduct financial and economic activities aimed at making a profit.

Informal organizations can be both similar and different from formal organizations.

Therefore, we can identify the characteristics that characterize informal organizations:

1. Social control. Informal organizations exercise social control over their members. It is about establishing and reinforcing norms—group standards for acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Naturally, those who violate these norms will face alienation.

2. Resistance to change. In informal organizations there is always a tendency to resist change. This is partly due to the fact that change may pose a threat to the continued existence of the informal organization.

3. Informal leaders. Informal organizations also have their leaders. Their difference from formal ones is that the leader of a formal organization has support in the form of official powers delegated to him and acts in the specific functional area assigned to him. The support of an informal leader is his recognition by the group. The sphere of influence of an informal leader may extend beyond the administrative boundaries of the formal organization. An informal leader performs two primary functions: helps the group achieve its goals, supports and strengthens its existence.

Existence informal groups This is quite normal in an organization. Such groups most often strengthen the workforce, and the formal head of the organization should support them. Friendly contacts during work and after it, cooperation and mutual assistance form a healthy psychological climate In the organisation.

Thus, the formal structure is created by the relations between impersonal official and professional positions, and the informal structure is created by the relations between living people in the process of their joint activities. Both forms of organization coexist in an enterprise, complement each other, and sometimes even compete. The need for informal organization as an element social organization due to the following factors:

The impossibility of standardizing the entire set of relations that arise in production regarding labor activity;

The inevitability of unforeseen situations arising in the organization that require non-standard solutions;

The need to develop new standards of behavior that initially arise in an informal organization and only then are transferred to a formal one;

It is impossible to reduce relationships between people only to business tasks, which is why there is a whole variety of non-business relationships.

It was the last condition that gave specialists the opportunity to divide the informal organization into two blocks: an informal organization as a type of informal organization that arises in connection with work activity, and the so-called socio-psychological organization that regulates non-work relations of people. Characterizing the role of the informal organization of the non-production sphere, they note its role in maintaining social integrity, in relieving social tensions in the team, in maintaining high self-esteem and self-esteem. Apparently, the informal organization acts as a kind of buffer between a person and a rigid formal organization. It manifests itself mainly at the level of contact groups, small groups and is based on spontaneously formed interpersonal norms, values, mechanisms of cohesion and leadership, and on sanctions developed by the group for deviant behavior.

Formal and informal organizations

The term "governance" is generally applied to formal organizations, but there are also informal organizations. In each team, along with formal organizational structure there are informal (unofficial) relationships between team members.

Formal organization- created at the will of management to achieve the goals of the organization. These are command groups, committees, working groups. Their functions are to perform specific tasks and achieve goals.

Informal organization- this is a spontaneously formed group of people who entered into regular interaction to achieve certain goals (goals). Differences between formal and informal organizations:

In a formal organization, relationships are regulated; in an informal organization, they are not. The management process refers only to the creation and operation of a formal organization;
A formal organization is planned by management, while an informal organization is created spontaneously. The foundations of relationships are personal sympathies, commonality of views, goals, interests, and friendships.

The existence of an informal organization can create management problems. For the normal functioning of an organization, it is important that informal groups do not dominate. This is especially important for large organizations large quantity of people. Under these conditions, the power of the informal group increases. The way the informal organization influences is informal communication, "secret telegraph" is one of the ways in which an informal group exercises its power ( informal communication ). Another way that an informal group uses to exercise power is its ability to act or fail to act (unauthorized management): unauthorized establishment production normal. This is one of the ways in which informal groups influence people. This may be diligence that exceeds the norm, or vice versa, underestimation of the norm. Thus, an informal group can either promote or hinder the development of an organization. Therefore, the task of managers is to minimize the influence of these groups.
The influence of the informal organization can be controlled, but the manager must have an understanding of the underlying motivation for the functioning of the informal group. To develop a behavior strategy, it is important to understand that an informal organization is born from interaction.

How to make informal organization work for you?
(principles of managing informal organizations):

1. recognition of the existence of an informal organization;

2. clarifying the value of informal organization for achieving the manager’s goals;

3. identification informal leaders and their management;

4. combining the goals of informal and formal organization; recognition of the fact that no matter what the manager does,
informal organizations continue to exist.

Reasons for the existence of informal organizations:

a sense of belonging- the most powerful of emotional needs. Formal organizations deprive people of opportunities for social contacts, therefore informal organizations are necessary;
mutual assistance;
protection(strength is in unity);
O communication- access to informal information;
sympathy.

Academy of Labor and Social Relations

Department of Labor Economics and Personnel Management

Essay

"Formal and informal organizations."

Moscow 2009

Introduction

1. The concept of groups and their significance 2

2. Formal groups 3

3. Informal groups 5

3.1. The emergence of informal organizations 5

3.2. Characteristics of informal organizations 6

3.3. Managing an informal organization 9

4. Factors influencing the effectiveness of groups 9

Conclusion 14

References 15

Introduction

Therefore, in every formal organization there is a complex interweaving of informal groups and organizations that have formed without the intervention of management. These informal associations often have a strong impact on the quality of operations and organizational effectiveness.

Despite the fact that informal organizations are not created by the will of management, they are a factor that every manager must take into account because such organizations and other groups can have a strong influence on the behavior of individuals and on the work behavior of employees. Moreover, no matter how well a leader performs his or her functions, it is impossible to determine what actions and attitudes will be required to achieve goals in an organization moving forward. The manager and subordinate often have to interact with people outside the organization and with departments outside their subordination. People will not be able to perform their tasks successfully if they do not achieve proper cooperation between the individuals and groups on which their activities depend.

To cope with such situations, the manager must understand what role this or that group plays in a particular situation, and what place the leadership process occupies in it.

One of the necessary conditions for effective management is also the ability to work in small groups, such as various committees or commissions created by the managers themselves, and the ability to build relationships with their direct subordinates.

The concept of groups and their importance

A person needs communication with his own kind and, apparently, receives joy from such communication. Most of us actively seek interaction with other people. In many cases, our contacts with other people short-term and insignificant. However, if two or more people spend a lot of time in close proximity to each other, they gradually begin to become psychologically aware of each other's existence.

The time required for such awareness and the degree of awareness very much depend on the situation and on the nature of the relationship between people. However, the result of such awareness is almost always the same. The awareness that others think about them and expect something from them causes people to change their behavior in some way, thereby confirming the existence of social relationships. When this process occurs, a random collection of people becomes a group.

Each of us belongs to many groups at the same time. We are members of several family groups: our immediate family, the families of grandparents, cousins, in-laws, etc. Most people also belong to several friend groups—a circle of people who see each other fairly regularly. Some groups turn out to be short-lived and their mission is simple. When the mission is completed, or when group members lose interest in it, the group disbands. An example of such a group would be several students who get together to study for an upcoming exam. Other groups may exist for several years and have a significant influence on their members or even on the external environment. An example of such groups would be associations of teenage schoolchildren.

According to Marvin Shaw, “a group is two or more persons who interact with each other in such a way that each person influences and is simultaneously influenced by the others.”

Formal groups

Based on Shaw's definition, an organization of any size can be considered to consist of several groups. Management creates groups of its own free will when it divides labor horizontally (divisions) and vertically (levels of management). In each of the many departments of a large organization, there may be a dozen levels of management. For example, production at a factory can be divided into smaller units - machining, painting, assembly. These productions, in turn, can be divided further. Eg, production personnel, engaged in machining can be divided into 3 different teams of 10 - 16 people, including the foreman. Thus, a large organization may consist of literally hundreds or even thousands of small groups.

These groups, created by the will of management to organize the production process, are called formal groups. However small they may be, they are formal organizations whose primary function in relation to the organization as a whole is to perform specific tasks and achieve specific, specific goals.

There are three main types of formal groups in an organization:

leadership groups;

production groups;

committees.

The command (subordinate) group of a leader consists of a leader and his immediate subordinates, who, in turn, can also be leaders. The company president and senior vice presidents are a typical team group. Another example of a command subordinate group is the aircraft commander, co-pilot and flight engineer.

The second type of formal group is a working (target) group. It usually consists of individuals working together on the same task. Although they have a common leader, these groups are different from command group the fact that they have much more independence in planning and carrying out their work.

The third type of formal group, the committee, will be discussed below. All team and work groups, as well as committees, must work effectively as a single, well-coordinated team. There is no longer any need to prove that effective management of every formal group within an organization is critical. These interdependent groups are the blocks that form the organization as a system. The organization as a whole will be able to effectively fulfill its global objectives only if the tasks of each of its structural divisions are defined in such a way as to support each other's activities. In addition, the group as a whole influences the behavior of the individual. Thus, the better a manager understands what a group is and the factors behind its effectiveness, and the better he masters the art of effectively managing a group, the more likely he is to improve the productivity of that unit and the organization as a whole.

Informal groups

The emergence of informal organizations

A formal organization is created at the will of management. But as soon as it is created, it also becomes a social environment, where the rules of interaction between people are not formed according to the instructions of the leadership. From social relationships many other associations are born - informal groups, which together represent an informal organization.

An informal organization is a spontaneously formed group of people who interact regularly to achieve a specific goal. These goals are the reason for the existence of such an informal organization.

In a large organization there is more than one informal organization. Most of them are loosely connected in some kind of network. The work environment is particularly favorable for the formation of such groups.

Because of the formal structure of an organization and its missions, the same people tend to come together every day, sometimes for many years. People who would otherwise be unlikely to meet are often forced to spend more time in each other's company than in their own family. Moreover, the nature of the tasks they solve in many cases forces them to communicate and interact with each other frequently. A natural result of this intense social interaction is the spontaneous emergence of informal organizations.

Informal organizations have much in common with the formal ones into which they find themselves embedded.

They are organized in some ways similar to formal organizations - they have their own hierarchy, leaders and tasks. In spontaneously emerging organizations there are also unwritten rules called norms, which serve as standards of behavior for members of the organization. These norms are supported by a system of rewards and sanctions. The specificity is that formal organizations are created according to a preconceived plan. The structure and type of formal organization is built consciously by management through design, while the structure and type of informal organization arises through social interaction.

Describing the development of informal organizations, Leonard Sales and George Strauss say:

"Employees form friendly groups based on their contacts and common interests, and these groups arise from the very life of the given organization. However, once these groups are formed, they begin to live own life, almost completely divorced from the labor process on the basis of which they arose. This is a dynamic, self-regulating process. Employees united within a formal organization interact with each other. Increasing interaction contributes to the emergence of friendly relations between them in relation to other members of the group. In its turn. These feelings form the basis for a growing number of different activities, many of which are not included in job descriptions: eating lunch together, doing work for a friend, etc. Then the group begins to be something more than a simple collection of people. It creates traditional ways of performing certain actions - a set of stable characteristics that are difficult to change. The group becomes an organization."

Characteristics of informal organizations

Below we will look brief descriptions the main characteristics of informal organizations that are directly related to their management, because have a strong influence on the effectiveness of the formal organization in which these informal groups are embedded.

The life of informal organizations is greatly influenced by the so-called. principles of group dynamics. The concept of group dynamics usually includes 5 main elements:

Group goals;

Group norms;

Group structure and the problem of leadership;

Level of group cohesion;

Phases of group development.

When considering informal groups, or rather those of their characteristics that have a direct impact on the effectiveness of management of the organization as a whole, through the prism of the laws of group dynamics, it is necessary to focus on the following:

Social control . As researchers note, informal organizations tend to exercise “social control” over their members. The first step towards this is the establishment and strengthening of norms - group standards of acceptable and unacceptable command. To be accepted by the group and maintain his position in it, a person must comply with these norms. To reinforce these norms, the group may impose fairly harsh sanctions, and those who violate them may face exclusion.

Social control exercised by an informal organization can influence and guide the achievement of the goals of a formal organization.

Discussing group norms, William Scott notes: “These norms may not fully correspond to the value system of the formal organization, so that a person may find himself in a situation where mutually exclusive demands are made on him.”

Resistance to change . People can also use informal organization to discuss proposed or actual changes that may occur in their department or the structure of the organization as a whole. In informal organizations there is a tendency to resist change. Resistance will arise whenever group members perceive change as a threat to the continued existence of their group as such, their shared experience, the satisfaction of social needs, common interests, or positive emotions. This is due to the law of group conservation.

Informal leaders . Just like formal organizations, informal ones have their own leaders. The only significant difference between them is that the leader of a formal organization has support in the form of official powers delegated to him and usually acts in the specific functional area assigned to him.

The support of an informal leader is his recognition by the group. In his actions, he relies on people and their relationships. The sphere of influence of an informal leader can extend far beyond the administrative boundaries of a formal organization.

Significant factors that determine the opportunity to become a leader of an informal organization include: age, position, professional competence, location of the workplace, freedom of movement work area and responsiveness. The exact characteristics are determined by the value system adopted in the group. And it is the values of the group, combined with how adequate the informal leader is to them, that largely determine the direction and pace of the group dynamics of the informal organization.

In this context, the informal leader has two primary functions: to help the group achieve its goals and to support and strengthen its existence. Sometimes these functions are performed consciously or unconsciously by different people.

Group development phase largely influences organizational effectiveness in combination with how the structures of informal and informal organizations relate to each other. If they coincide and the group’s development is in the working spirit phase, efficiency increases noticeably: there is no need for coordination and motivational losses. If the group is in a state of chaos (or storm), the effectiveness of its work as a group can be forgotten for some time.

Informal group management

Informal organizations dynamically interact with formal ones. One of the first to pay attention to this factor, as well as the formation of informal organizations, was George Homans, a theorist in the field of group studies.

In Homans's model, activities refer to the tasks performed by people. In the process of performing these tasks, people interact, which, in turn, contributes to the emergence of emotions towards each other and management. These emotions influence how people will carry out their activities and interact in the future.

The model demonstrates not only how informal organizations emerge from the management process, but also shows the need to manage an informal organization. Because group emotions influence both tasks and interactions, they can also influence the effectiveness of a formal organization. Therefore, even if a formal organization is not created at the will of management and is not under its full control, it always needs to be effectively managed so that it can achieve its goals within the required time frame within certain resource costs.

Common Factors Affecting Team Performance

It is believed that the effectiveness of a group is influenced not only by the demands of the task, but also by parameters related to the characteristics of the group itself.

groups. IN various studies The influence of the following factors is noted:

Size. Some studies suggest that groups with between 5 and 11 members tend to make more accurate decisions than those larger than that.

In groups of 2 or 3 people, members may be concerned that their personal responsibility for decisions is too obvious. On the other hand, as the size of a group increases, communication among its members becomes more complex and it becomes more difficult to reach agreement on issues related to the group's activities and tasks. Increasing group size also increases the tendency for groups to split informally into subgroups, which can lead to conflicting goals. Therefore, for groups that must make decisions, the optimal size is from 5 to 7-8 participants.

Compound. The composition here refers to the quality of the group - the degree of similarity of the participants - their points of view, the approaches they take when solving problems. An important reason for bringing an issue to a group decision is to use different positions to find the optimal solution. Therefore, it is not surprising that based on research it is recommended that the group should consist of dissimilar individuals, because. this promises greater effectiveness than if group members had similar points of view.

Group norms. The norms adopted by the group have a strong influence on the behavior of the individual and on the direction in which the group will work: to achieve the goals of the organization or to oppose them. Norms are intended to show group members what kind of behavior and work is expected of them. Norms have such a strong influence because only if their actions are consistent with these norms can an individual count on belonging to a group, its recognition and support.

The leader (the core of the group) has a significant influence on changing norms. Instruments of influence can be both the word and personal example - patterns of behavior characteristic of him in various situations, which are reproduced or influence the behavior of other group members.

Cohesion. Group cohesion is a measure of the attraction of group members to each other and to the group. A highly cohesive group is a group whose members feel a strong attraction to each other and consider themselves similar. Because a cohesive group works well as a team, high levels of cohesion can improve the effectiveness of the entire organization if the goals of both are aligned. Highly cohesive groups tend to have fewer communication problems, and those that do occur are less severe than others. But if the goals of the group and the entire organization are not aligned, then a high degree of cohesion will negatively affect productivity throughout the organization.

The level of cohesion largely influences what type of organizational culture develops in an enterprise - adaptive or non-adaptive. Thus, culture can also be influenced by changing the level of group cohesion.

A potential negative consequence of high cohesion is group like-mindedness.

Group like-mindedness- this is the tendency of an individual to suppress his actual views on some phenomenon in order not to disturb the harmony of the group.

Members of such a group believe that disagreement undermines their sense of belonging and therefore disagreement should be avoided. In order to preserve what is understood as agreement and harmony among group members, a group member decides that it is better not to express his opinion. The tendency to stick to the general line in discussion is self-reinforcing. Because no one expresses opinions different from others or offers different, contrary information or point of view. Everyone assumes that everyone else thinks the same. As a result, the problem is solved less effectively because all the necessary information and alternative solutions are not discussed and evaluated.

Conflict . It was mentioned earlier that differences of opinion usually lead to more effective group performance. However, it also increases the likelihood of conflict. While active exchange of ideas is beneficial, it can also lead to intragroup bickering and other forms of open conflict. The most harmful are interpersonal and destructive conflicts.

Group member status.

Status is a very relative parameter. In addition to status in the organizational hierarchy, this or that person also has other statuses - age, expert, “experience” of work within the company, image, etc.

The status of a particular individual in an organization or group can be adjusted by a number of factors. These factors can lead to increases and decreases in status depending on the values and norms of the group. Group members whose status is high enough always have more influence on the group's decisions than group members with low status. However, this does not always lead to increased efficiency.

A critical factor determining the effectiveness of a group is also behavior of each of its members . For a group to function effectively, its members must behave in ways that promote group goals and social interaction.

In general, we can talk about two types of roles in a group - target and supporting.

Target Roles distributed in such a way as to be able to select group tasks and carry them out. Supportive roles involve behavior that contributes to the maintenance and activation of the life and activities of the group.

Examples of target roles in groups include:

1. Initiation of activity.

2. Search for information.

3. Gathering opinions.

4. Providing information.

5. Expressing opinions.

6. Elaboration.

7. Coordination.

8. Generalization.

Supporting roles may include:

1. Encouragement.

2. Ensure participation.

3. Establishing criteria.

4. Execution.

5. Expressing the feelings of the group.

A high level of group effectiveness may indicate its development into a coherent team. However, the difference between teams and groups is also that teams often coincide with formal organizations, and are created and developed, as a rule, according to a clearly defined plan, in combination with the goals of the organization as a whole.

Informal groups, as we noted, are formed rather spontaneously and may not only not coincide, but also contradict both the structure of the organization and intra-organizational relations, the goals of the formal organization.

Conclusion

Group management is very important in modern management. Since organizations of all sizes are made up of groups, managers need to have a good understanding of the emergence and development of formal and informal groups. A modern manager must understand the importance of the existence of informal groups. He should strive to ensure close interaction between formal and informal organizations, since informal organizations dynamically interact with formal organizations, influence the quality of work and the attitude of people towards work and towards their superiors.

Problems associated with informal organizations include decreased efficiency, the spread of false rumors, and a tendency to resist change. Potential benefits include: Greater commitment to the organization, high team spirit, and higher job performance are observed when group norms exceed formal norms. To cope with potential problems and capture the potential benefits of informal organization, management must recognize and work with informal organization, listen to the opinions of informal leaders and group members, consider the effectiveness of informal organizations' decisions, allow informal groups to participate in decision making, and suppress rumors by promptly providing official information.

Having a good understanding of group dynamics, management will be able to effectively manage formal groups, conduct effective meetings, and wisely use structures such as committees in the activities of their enterprise.

List of used literature

M. Meskon, M. Albert, F. Khedouri “Fundamentals of Management”, Delo Publishing House, 1992

Zaitseva O. A., Radugin A. A., Radugin K. A., Rogacheva N. I.. Fundamentals of management: Textbook. allowance M.: Center, 1998

Any organization can be described using a number of parameters: special purpose, legal and regulatory framework, resources, processes and structure, division of labor and distribution of roles, external environment etc. In accordance with this, the entire variety of organizations is divided into classes and types.

Based on the formalization criterion, the following are distinguished:

? formal organizations with clearly defined goals, formalized rules, structure and relationships;
? informal organizations operating without clearly defined goals, rules and structures.

To the group formal organizations includes all business organizations, government and international institutions and organs. They are registered with government agencies in accordance with the procedure established by law and may have the status of a legal or non-legal entity. Their primary function is to perform specific tasks and achieve the goals of the organization. Relations between people are regulated by various kinds of normative documents: laws, regulations, orders, instructions, etc.

TO informal organizations include the institutions of family, friendship, informal interpersonal relationships. They are not registered with a government agency, they are created on the basis of common interests in the field of culture, everyday life, sports, etc. They have a leader and do not conduct financial and economic activities aimed at obtaining material profit. Informal groups that unite people from different departments, workshops, and groups are often formed within formal organizations. This is a natural process that occurs when a company’s regular development of communications lags behind the development of technology and personnel professionalism. Relations between members of such a group are formed on the basis of personal sympathies. Group members are bound by a commonality of views, inclinations and interests.

Informal groups exist in every company. They invariably “grow” out of friendships and relationships that are not defined by an organizational chart. It is important for an organization that informal groups do not dominate. Informal organizations can be both similar and different from formal organizations. Therefore, we can highlight the following features that characterize informal organizations.

1. Social control which informal organizations exercise for their members. We are talking about establishing and strengthening norms - group standards of acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Naturally, those who violate these norms will face alienation. In this regard, the manager should be aware that social control exercised by an informal organization can have positive influence to achieve the goals of the formal organization.
2. Tendency to resist change. This is partly due to the fact that change may pose a threat to the continued existence of the informal organization.
3. Informal leaders. The difference between informal leaders and formal ones is that the latter has support in the form of official powers delegated to him and acts in the specific functional area assigned to him. The support of an informal leader is his recognition by the group. The sphere of influence of an informal leader may extend beyond the administrative boundaries of the formal organization. An informal leader performs two primary functions: helps the group achieve its goals, supports and strengthens its existence.

Ways of influence of an informal group on the activities of an organization.

1. Informal communication(the so-called “secret” telegraph). No news is transmitted as quickly as through informal channels. This is one of the ways in which an informal group exercises its power (informal communication).
2. The ability to act or not act. There are many examples in management practice where organizations were brought to their knees by unauthorized management.
3. Unauthorized establishment of production standards - one of the ways through which informal groups have an impact Negative influence on people. However, some organizations can be saved because informal groups can work harder than the norm. The point is that an informal group can work to advance or retard the development of an organization. The manager's task is to minimize the influence of these groups and channel their power in the right direction.

There are several reasons that encourage people to enter into informal relationships.

1. A sense of belonging. Satisfying the need for a sense of belonging to a group, recognition, respect and love, self-affirmation is one of our most powerful emotional needs.
2. Mutual assistance. Naturally, you can turn to your formal boss for help. However, some believe that their boss may think badly of them (the principle “don’t create problems for your boss” comes into play here), others are afraid of criticism, etc. In these and other cases, people often prefer to resort to the help of their colleagues.
3. Protection. People have always known that strength lies in unity. Due to this important reason joining an informal organization is a conscious need for protection.
4. Communication. People want to know what is happening around them. Since in many formal organizations the system of internal contacts is rather weak, and sometimes management deliberately hides certain information from their subordinates, access to informal information (rumors) is possible only in an informal group.
5. Sympathy. People often join informal groups simply to be closer to someone they like.

Thus, an informal organization of people can work for or against the manager. How to make her work for the manager? The following sequence of actions should be followed:

1) the manager must accept the fact that the informal organization exists;
2) one should try to understand how the informal organization can be valuable in helping the manager achieve his goals;
3) identify informal leaders and manage them;
4) try to combine the goals of the informal and formal organization;
5) the manager must understand and agree that no matter what he does, informal organizations continue to exist.

Influence informal relations can be controlled, but to achieve this, the manager must have a clear understanding of how and why the informal organization functions. When a manager has a basic motivation for the functioning of an informal group, then he has the opportunity to develop an appropriate behavioral strategy.

The existence of informal groups in an organization is quite normal. Such groups most often strengthen the workforce, and the formal head of the organization should support them.

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