Social organization

{{short description|Pattern of relationships between and among individuals and social groups}} {{Distinguish|Social club|Organization}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2022}} {{Sociology}}

thumb In sociology, a '''social organization''' is a pattern of relationships between and among individuals and groups.<ref name="DreachslinGilbert2012">{{cite book |author1= Janice L. Dreachslin |author2= M. Jean Gilbert |author3= Beverly Malone |title= Diversity and Cultural Competence in Health Care: A Systems Approach |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=v0lBvKfVZFoC&pg=PA244 |access-date= 30 December 2012 |date= 5 November 2012 |publisher= John Wiley & Sons |isbn= 978-1-118-28428-5 |pages= 244– |archive-date= 6 April 2024 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240406032701/https://books.google.com/books?id=v0lBvKfVZFoC&pg=PA244 |url-status= live }}</ref><ref name="NPFAAN2010">{{cite book|author1=Janice Humphreys|author2=Jacquelyn C. Campbell|title=Family Violence and Nursing Practice, Second Edition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OKC4S5BZaP0C&pg=PA21|access-date=30 December 2012|date=28 July 2010|publisher=Springer Publishing Company|isbn=978-0-8261-1828-8|pages=21–|archive-date=6 April 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240406032702/https://books.google.com/books?id=OKC4S5BZaP0C&pg=PA21#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> Characteristics of social organization can include qualities such as sexual composition, spatiotemporal cohesion, leadership, structure, division of labor, communication systems, and so on.<ref name="Wheelan2005">{{cite book|author=Susan A. Wheelan|title=The Handbook of Group Research and Practice|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0M4o0VyDPwkC&pg=PA122|access-date=30 December 2012|date=1 June 2005|publisher=SAGE|isbn=978-0-7619-2958-1|pages=122–|archive-date=6 April 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240406032711/https://books.google.com/books?id=0M4o0VyDPwkC&pg=PA122#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="ChapaisBerman2004">{{cite book|author1=Bernard Chapais|author2=Carol M. Berman|title=Kinship and Behavior in Primates|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w4jHg1SkcaIC&pg=PA478|access-date=30 December 2012|date=4 March 2004|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-514889-3|pages=478–|archive-date=6 April 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240406032702/https://books.google.com/books?id=w4jHg1SkcaIC&pg=PA478#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>

Because of these characteristics of social organization, people can monitor their everyday work and involvement in other activities that are controlled forms of human interaction. These interactions include: affiliation, collective resources, substitutability of individuals and recorded control. These interactions come together to constitute common features in basic social units such as family, enterprises, clubs, states, etc. These are social organizations.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Social Organizations: Interaction Inside, Outside, and Between Organizations|last=Ahrne|first=Goran|publisher=London, GB: SAGE Publications Ltd|year=1994}}</ref>

Common examples of modern social organizations are government agencies,<ref>Sage Journals [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0170840617708007 Agency and Institutions in Organization Studies] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210705224731/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0170840617708007 |date=5 July 2021 }}</ref><ref>Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/social-institutions/ Social Institutions] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220501124534/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/social-institutions/ |date=1 May 2022 }}</ref> NGOs, and corporations.<ref>HeinOnline [https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/clla75&div=81&id=&page= The Evolution of the Corporation as a Social Institution] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220426055319/https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/clla75&div=81&id=&page= |date=26 April 2022 }}</ref><ref>Oxford Academic [https://academic.oup.com/ser/article-abstract/10/1/3/1625439?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false Corporate Social Responsibility and institutional theory: new perspectives on private governance] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220426060821/https://academic.oup.com/ser/article-abstract/10/1/3/1625439?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false |date=26 April 2022 }}</ref>

==Elements== Social organizations are present in everyday life. Many people belong to various social structures, both institutional and informal. These include clubs, professional organizations, and religious institutions.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Lim|first1=Chaeyoon|last2=Putnam|first2=Garry D Moyo|title=Religion, Social Networks, and Life Satisfaction|journal=American Sociological Review|date=December 2010|volume=75|issue=6|pages=914–933|doi=10.1177/0003122410386686|s2cid=14709450}}</ref> Physical proximity with other members can strengthen a sense of community and shared identity within a social organization.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Boessen|first1=Adam|last2=Hipp|first2=John R|last3=Smith|first3=Emily J|last4=Butts|first4=Carter T|last5=Nagle|first5=Nicholas N|last6=Almquist|first6=Zack|title=Networks, Space, and Residents' Perception of Cohesion|journal=American Journal of Community Psychology|date=June 2014|volume=53|issue=3–4|pages=747–461|publisher=Black Science Ltd.|language=en|issn=0091-0562|doi=10.1007/s10464-014-9639-1|pmid=24496720|s2cid=23670679|url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4gj0h012|doi-access=free|access-date=13 December 2019|archive-date=15 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200215210954/https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4gj0h012|url-status=live}}</ref> While organizations link people with shared interests or goals, membership can also produce boundaries between members and non-members. Social organizations typically have some hierarchical structure.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Moody|first1=James|last2=White|first2=Douglas R|title=Structural Cohesion and Embeddedness: A Hierarchical Concept of Social Groups|journal=American Sociological Review|date=February 2003|volume=68|issue=1|pages=103–127|publisher=American Sociological Association|language=en|issn=0003-1224|doi=10.2307/3088904|jstor=3088904|bibcode=2003ASRev..68..103M |url=http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/18s1w75d|access-date=25 June 2019|archive-date=15 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200315193638/https://escholarship.org/uc/item/18s1w75d|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref> The form that hierarchy takes influences how a group is structured and how stable it tends to be over time.

Four other interactions can also bear on whether a group stays together. A group must have a strong affiliation within itself. To be affiliated with an organization means having a recognized connection and acceptance within that group, along with an obligation to return to it. The organization draws power through the collective resources of its affiliates. Those affiliates often have something invested in those resources, which motivates continued participation. At the same time, the organization must account for the substitutability of individuals: it needs affiliates and their resources to survive, but it also needs to be able to replace departing members. Given all these dynamics, internal coordination can be difficult. Recorded control — writing things down — makes processes clearer and keeps the organization coherent.<ref name=":0" />

==Within society== Social organizations within society change over time.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Sutton|first1=John R|title=Research in the Sociology of Organizations, vol. 19: Social Structure and Organizations Revisited|journal=Administrative Science Quarterly|date=December 2003|volume=48|issue=4|pages=715–717|publisher=Sage Publications, Inc.|language=en|issn=0001-8392|doi=10.2307/3556649|jstor=3556649|s2cid=220635905}}</ref> Smaller-scale social organizations include groups that form from common interests and conversations.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}

These small organizations — bands, clubs, sports teams — have the same structural characteristics as large-scale organizations, even if their membership is far smaller. They still interact and function in similar ways.

A school sports team is a clear example. Members share a common goal and work together toward it. Different roles or positions divide the labor. The structure, while informal, is real: there are coaches, captains, and players, each with distinct responsibilities.

Large-scale organizations typically involve some degree of bureaucracy: a set of rules, specializations, and a hierarchical system, which allows them to pursue efficiency at scale. These organizations tend to rely on impersonal authority, where the position of power is structurally defined and kept separate from personal relationships, so that operations run predictably regardless of who holds a given role.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Social Organization and Behavior|last1=Simpson|first1=Richard L|last2=Simpson|first2=Ida Harper|publisher=Wiley|year=1964|location=New York|pages=300}}</ref>

A hospital is one well-known example of a large social organization. Within it sit smaller ones — the nursing staff, the surgery team — that work more closely together on specific tasks. As a whole, the hospital has relationships across its entire staff and with patients, division of labor, structure, cohesion, and communication systems. Without any one of these, operations would be harder to sustain.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}

Whether bureaucracy and hierarchical management are effective also depends on the structure of work within the organization. Organizations where departments operate independently of one another — called ''parallel'' organizations — do not necessarily benefit from top-down hierarchical control, because the diversity of functions makes centralized coordination difficult. ''Interdependent'' organizations, where departments rely on each other to complete tasks, tend to be better suited to hierarchical management because the work requires coordination across the whole.<ref name=":1" />

== Collectivism and individualism == {{redirect|Collectivism}} {{See also|Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory}} Societies can be organized through individualistic or collectivist means. Each orientation has documented associations with different patterns in economic behavior, legal and political institutions, and social relations. The organization of a society is shaped by its cultural, historical, social, political, and economic context, which in turn governs how members interact.

Collectivist or individualist orientations can exist within a single broader society.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Chen |first=Chao |date=2023 |title=Individualism-Collectivism: A Review of Conceptualization and Measurement |url=https://oxfordre.com/business/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190224851.001.0001/acrefore-9780190224851-e-350 |journal=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Business and Management |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190224851.013.350 |isbn=978-0-19-022485-1 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Studies have examined differences in collectivism between regions of the US<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Havaldar |first1=Shreya |last2=Giorgi |first2=Salvatore |last3=Rai |first3=Sunny |last4=Talhelm |first4=Thomas |last5=Guntuku |first5=Sharath Chandra |last6=Ungar |first6=Lyle |date=June 2024 |editor-last=Duh |editor-first=Kevin |chapter=Building Knowledge-Guided Lexica to Model Cultural Variation |editor2-last=Gomez |editor2-first=Helena |editor3-last=Bethard |editor3-first=Steven |title=Proceedings of the 2024 Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies (Volume 1: Long Papers) |chapter-url=https://aclanthology.org/2024.naacl-long.12/ |location=Mexico City, Mexico |publisher=Association for Computational Linguistics |pages=211–226 |doi=10.18653/v1/2024.naacl-long.12}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Vandello |first1=Joseph A. |last2=Cohen |first2=Dov |date=August 1999 |title=Patterns of individualism and collectivism across the United States. |url=https://doi.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0022-3514.77.2.279 |journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology |language=en |volume=77 |issue=2 |pages=279–292 |doi=10.1037/0022-3514.77.2.279 |issn=1939-1315|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and between regions of China.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Talhelm |first1=T. |last2=Zhang |first2=X. |last3=Oishi |first3=S. |last4=Shimin |first4=C. |last5=Duan |first5=D. |last6=Lan |first6=X. |last7=Kitayama |first7=S. |date=2014-05-09 |title=Large-Scale Psychological Differences Within China Explained by Rice Versus Wheat Agriculture |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1246850 |journal=Science |language=en |volume=344 |issue=6184 |pages=603–608 |doi=10.1126/science.1246850 |pmid=24812395 |bibcode=2014Sci...344..603T |issn=0036-8075|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Wei |first1=Liuqing |last2=Talhelm |first2=Thomas |last3=Zhu |first3=Jiong |last4=English |first4=Alexander Scott |last5=Huang |first5=An |date=2026-02-17 |title=A Collectivism Index for Investigating Cultural Variation in China across Regions and Time |journal=Scientific Data |volume=13 |issue=1 |article-number=469 |language=en |doi=10.1038/s41597-026-06661-1 |issn=2052-4463|doi-access=free |pmid=41702929 |pmc=13021932 }}</ref> Researchers have also examined historical factors linked to these differences, such as histories of rice and wheat farming in different regions of China<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Talhelm |first1=Thomas |last2=Dong |first2=Xiawei |date=2024-02-27 |title=People quasi-randomly assigned to farm rice are more collectivistic than people assigned to farm wheat |journal=Nature Communications |language=en |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=1782 |doi=10.1038/s41467-024-44770-w |pmid=38413584 |pmc=10899190 |bibcode=2024NatCo..15.1782T |issn=2041-1723}}</ref> and patterns of frontier settlement in the western United States.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Kitayama |first1=Shinobu |last2=Conway |first2=Lucian Gideon |last3=Pietromonaco |first3=Paula R. |last4=Park |first4=Hyekyung |last5=Plaut |first5=Victoria C. |date=2010 |title=Ethos of independence across regions in the United States: The production-adoption model of cultural change. |url=https://doi.apa.org/doi/10.1037/a0020277 |journal=American Psychologist |language=en |volume=65 |issue=6 |pages=559–574 |doi=10.1037/a0020277 |pmid=20822197 |issn=1935-990X|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

=== Collectivism === In collectivism, the core unit is the collective group.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last=Oyserman |first=Lee |date=2008 |title=Does Culture Influence What and How We Think? Effects of Priming Individualism and Collectivism |url=https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/89921/oyserman_lee_2008_psychbulletin.pdf;sequence=1 |journal=Psychological Bulletin |volume=134 |issue=2 |pages=311–342 |doi=10.1037/0033-2909.134.2.311 |pmid=18298274 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Individuals are seen as fundamentally connected through relationships and group membership.<ref name=":5" /> In this context, groups are defined as networks of interpersonal relationships.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Brewer |first=Marylynn |date=2007 |title=Where (who) are collectives in collectivism? Toward conceptual clarification of individualism and collectivism. |url=https://scholar.google.ca/scholar?start=10&q=collectivism+culture+review&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5#d=gs_qabs&t=1755473419799&u=%23p%3DPmLl8LSV3JMJ |journal=Psychological Review |volume=114 |issue=1 |pages=133–151 |doi=10.1037/0033-295X.114.1.133 |pmid=17227184 }}</ref> The collectivist orientation places emphasis on collective identity and collective agency, and values tend to prioritize the group over the individual.<ref name=":4" />

However, one common misunderstanding of collectivism is that collectivism entails trust, warmth, and a rejection of competition. Studies have found that people in collectivistic cultures endorse competition more than people in individualistic cultures.<ref>{{Citation |last=Wu |first=Kaidi |title=Hide a Dagger Behind a Smile: A Review of How Collectivistic Cultures Compete More Than Individualistic Cultures |date=2023-04-20 |work=The Oxford Handbook of the Psychology of Competition |pages=611–642 |editor-last=Garcia |editor-first=Stephen M. |url=https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/37081/chapter/402464070 |access-date=2026-04-29 |edition=1 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190060800.013.26 |isbn=978-0-19-006080-0 |last2=Talhelm |first2=Thomas |editor2-last=Tor |editor2-first=Avishalom |editor3-last=Elliot |editor3-first=Andrew J.|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Różycka-Tran |first=Joanna |last2=Boski |first2=Paweł |last3=Wojciszke |first3=Bogdan |date=May 2015 |title=Belief in a Zero-Sum Game as a Social Axiom: A 37-Nation Study |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022022115572226 |journal=Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology |language=en |volume=46 |issue=4 |pages=525–548 |doi=10.1177/0022022115572226 |issn=0022-0221|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Other research has found that people in collectivistic cultures are more mistrusting of people in their social circles (sometimes called "frienemies").<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Liu |first=Shi S. |last2=Morris |first2=Michael W. |last3=Talhelm |first3=Thomas |last4=Yang |first4=Qian |date=2019-07-16 |title=Ingroup vigilance in collectivistic cultures |url=https://pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1817588116 |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |language=en |volume=116 |issue=29 |pages=14538–14546 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1817588116 |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=6642384 |pmid=31249140}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Adams |first=Glenn |date=2005 |title=The Cultural Grounding of Personal Relationship: Enemyship in North American and West African Worlds. |url=https://doi.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0022-3514.88.6.948 |journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology |language=en |volume=88 |issue=6 |pages=948–968 |doi=10.1037/0022-3514.88.6.948 |issn=1939-1315|url-access=subscription }}</ref> This can happen because collectivism involves strong ties between people, often with less freedom to choose relationships and leave conflictual relationships.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Thomson |first=Robert |last2=Yuki |first2=Masaki |last3=Talhelm |first3=Thomas |last4=Schug |first4=Joanna |last5=Kito |first5=Mie |last6=Ayanian |first6=Arin H. |last7=Becker |first7=Julia C. |last8=Becker |first8=Maja |last9=Chiu |first9=Chi-yue |last10=Choi |first10=Hoon-Seok |last11=Ferreira |first11=Carolina M. |last12=Fülöp |first12=Marta |last13=Gul |first13=Pelin |last14=Houghton-Illera |first14=Ana Maria |last15=Joasoo |first15=Mihkel |date=2018-07-17 |title=Relational mobility predicts social behaviors in 39 countries and is tied to historical farming and threat |url=https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1713191115 |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=115 |issue=29 |pages=7521–7526 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1713191115|hdl=10171/69436 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

Some researchers measure collectivism through behaviors such as living arrangements, rates of multi-generational households, and divorce rates.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Wei |first1=Liuqing |last2=Talhelm |first2=Thomas |last3=Zhu |first3=Jiong |last4=English |first4=Alexander Scott |last5=Huang |first5=An |date=2026-02-17 |title=A Collectivism Index for Investigating Cultural Variation in China across Regions and Time |journal=Scientific Data |volume=13 |issue=1 |article-number=469 |language=en |doi=10.1038/s41597-026-06661-1 |issn=2052-4463|doi-access=free |pmid=41702929 |pmc=13021932 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Yamawaki |first=Niwako |date=November 2012 |title=Within-Culture Variations of Collectivism in Japan |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022022111428171 |journal=Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology |language=en |volume=43 |issue=8 |pages=1191–1204 |doi=10.1177/0022022111428171 |issn=0022-0221|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Talhelm |first1=T. |last2=Zhang |first2=X. |last3=Oishi |first3=S. |last4=Shimin |first4=C. |last5=Duan |first5=D. |last6=Lan |first6=X. |last7=Kitayama |first7=S. |date=2014-05-09 |title=Large-Scale Psychological Differences Within China Explained by Rice Versus Wheat Agriculture |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1246850 |journal=Science |volume=344 |issue=6184 |pages=603–608 |doi=10.1126/science.1246850|pmid=24812395 |bibcode=2014Sci...344..603T |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Psychologically, collectivism is associated with what researchers call "holistic thought," which attends to relationships between objects, context, and a broader range of information simultaneously.<ref name=":5" /> And studies have found that getting people to think about social relationships in laboratory experiments makes people think more holistically.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Oyserman |first=Daphna |last2=Lee |first2=Spike W. S. |date=2008 |title=Does culture influence what and how we think? Effects of priming individualism and collectivism. |url=https://doi.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0033-2909.134.2.311 |journal=Psychological Bulletin |language=en |volume=134 |issue=2 |pages=311–342 |doi=10.1037/0033-2909.134.2.311 |issn=1939-1455|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Collectivist social organization may be horizontal or vertical.<ref name=":5" /> Horizontal models stress relationships within communities rather than a social hierarchy between them.{{Citation needed|date=August 2025}}

This kind of system has been associated with cultures with strong religious, ethnic, or familial group ties.{{citation needed|date=November 2023}}

=== Individualism === An individualist orientation places emphasis on the individual through self-identity, individual agency, and values that tend to prioritize the individual over the collective.<ref name=":4" /> Psychologically, individualist orientations are associated with a tendency to distinguish, separate, and contrast information rather than integrate or assimilate it.<ref name=":5" /> Individualist social organization has been linked to different institutional forms, including arrangements that prioritize personal autonomy, contract-based cooperation, and formal legal structures for coordinating behavior between people who do not share strong group ties.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Greif |first1=Avner |title=Cultural Beliefs and the Organization of Society: A Historical and Theoretical Reflection on Collectivist and Individualist Societies |journal=Journal of Political Economy |date=February 1994 |volume=102 |issue=5 |pages=912–950 |doi=10.1086/261959 |s2cid=153431326 }}</ref> However, individualism has also been associated with rising loneliness & isolation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Barreto |first1=Manuela |last2=Victor |first2=Christina |last3=Hammond |first3=Claudia |last4=Eccles |first4=Alice |last5=Richins |first5=Matt T. |last6=Qualter |first6=Pamela |date=2021-02-01 |title=Loneliness around the world: Age, gender, and cultural differences in loneliness |journal=Personality and Individual Differences |volume=169 |article-number=110066 |doi=10.1016/j.paid.2020.110066 |issn=0191-8869 |pmc=7768187 |pmid=33536694 |quote=Findings showed that loneliness increased with individualism, decreased with age, and was greater in men than in women. We also found that age, gender, and culture interacted to predict loneliness, although those interactions did not qualify the main effects, and simply accentuated them. We found the most vulnerable to loneliness were younger men living in individualistic cultures.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ogihara |first1=Yuji |last2=Uchida |first2=Yukiko |date=2014 |title=Does individualism bring happiness? Negative effects of individualism on interpersonal relationships and happiness |journal=Frontiers in Psychology |volume=5 |pages=135 |doi=10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00135 |doi-access=free |issn=1664-1078 |pmc=3942875 |pmid=24634663}}</ref>

=== Regional Associations === Most research on individualism has been conducted in the United States, Germany, and the Netherlands.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Greif |first1=Avner |title=Cultural Beliefs and the Organization of Society: A Historical and Theoretical Reflection on Collectivist and Individualist Societies |journal=Journal of Political Economy |date=February 1994 |volume=102 |issue=5 |pages=912–950 |doi=10.1086/261959 |s2cid=153431326 }}</ref>{{Dubious|date=February 2024}} Most research on collectivism has come from East Asia.<ref name=":5" />

European data has drawn predominantly from Germany and the Netherlands.<ref name=":5" /> Scandinavian countries (which have a more egalitarian culture), southern Europe, and Eastern Europe are underrepresented in this data.<ref name=":5" /> Africa, West Asia, and Latin American countries are also absent from much of the research.<ref name=":5" /> The literature does not substantially cover countries with Islamic culture or countries experiencing within-group conflict.<ref name=":5" />

==Online== Social organizations can exist in digital spaces, and online communities show patterns of interaction similar to those in in-person social groups.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Zhang|first1=Wei|last2=Watts|first2=Stephanie|title=Online communities as communities of practice: A case study|journal=Journal of Knowledge Management|volume=12|issue=4|pages=55–71|issn=1367-3270|doi=10.1108/13673270810884255|year=2008}}</ref> The technology allows people to engage with social organizations without being in the same physical location.

Although the characteristics of online organizations differ in some ways from those of in-person groups, the structural parallels are clear. Various forms of online communication allow people to talk, share interests, and maintain membership in a group without physical presence. These online groups still function as social organizations because of the relationships within them and the shared interest in sustaining the community.

==See also== * {{Annotated link|Allocentrism}} * {{Annotated link|Communitarianism}} * {{Annotated link|Cooperation}} * {{Annotated link|Corporation}} * {{Annotated link|Government agency}} * {{Annotated link|Institution}} ** {{Annotated link|Total institution}} * {{Annotated link|Organization}} * {{Annotated link|Postliberalism}} * {{Annotated link|Social group}} * {{Annotated link|Social network}} * {{Annotated link|Social structure}}

==References== {{Wikiquote}} {{reflist}}

== Further reading ==

{{refbegin}} * {{Cite book |last1=Scott |first1=John |chapter=collectivism |title=A Dictionary of Sociology |date=2015 |language=en |isbn=978-0-19-968358-1 |publisher=Oxford University Press |chapter-url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199683581.001.0001/acref-9780199683581-e-321 |access-date=12 June 2022 |archive-date=12 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220612042413/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199683581.001.0001/acref-9780199683581-e-321 |url-status=live }} * {{Cite book |last1=Pieper |first1=Josef |title=Rules of the Game in Social Relationships |date=2017 |language=en |isbn=978-1587317408 |publisher=St. Augustine's Press |place=South Bend, IN }} {{refend}}

{{Political philosophy}}

Category:Sociological terminology Category:Social psychology Category:Culture