Groups and Organizations

A social group is a collection of people who interact with one another and have a certain feeling of unity. The different types of groups are in-groups, out-groups, primary groups, and secondary groups. Organizations are groups whose activities are rationally designed to achieve specific goals. Different countries differ in the way they socialize and group themselves. For example, Japan and the United States have very opposite ways of socializing their children, and there group life is very different.

Group life in Japan is different than group life in the United States for many different reasons. Japanese organizations take on primary group characteristics. Children learn the importance of belonging to a kumi (grade level) or a Han (social group or a classroom) while in school. Once students graduate from high school and enter the workforce they continue to work in close knit groups. In the United States we learn the importance of working together while in school but once we enter the workforce a lot of out groups are secondary, meaning we strictly associate with them in the office and most of the time they are not our closest friends. On the other hand, most of the time in Japan you're working buddies is part of your primary group. Japanese adults form intimate bonds with the people in their work groups, meaning the people they work with are the people they are most close to and are not just strictly coworkers.

Individuality is over emphasized in American culture. In Asian countries, they consist of more collectivist societies, which means they are more concerned with the society as a whole and put their personal needs after those of the group. Japanese children are taught the importance of group loyalty all throughout their school days. The classroom is an important part of socialization for children in Japan. They learn at an early age the importance of belonging to a group. The teachers let the students know that the entire class is responsible for one student's misconduct. Students become aware of their actions and are willing to behave accordingly so not all the students are punished for their misbehaving. During lunch the students rearrange their desks into small groups and they talk casually while eating. By allowing the children that time at lunch to talk with their classmates they are able to form more intimate bonds with the other children. They have more invested in there Han than just