Explores the uses of informal groups in cross-cultural counseling including the use of indigenous support systems and informal groups. Concludes that counselors will gain enhanced sensitivity in the process of observing and interacting with clients from a different culture. (Author/MCF)

Results of a survey of employees at a Midwestern newspaper company indicate that job characteristics mediate the relationships between the organization's structural context and the attitudes and behavior of individual employees. (Author/RW)

A hierarchical structure is a widespread organizational form in many areas. My aim in this paper is to provide a rationale for this fact based on two premises. First, a group organizes itself so as to achieve efficient coordination. Second, efficient coordination is achieved only if subgroups as well as individuals agree to cooperate. Even in…

Contemporary theories of organizations are assessed to determine whether their propositions and empirical findings can be directly applied to understand and explain voluntary associations. The inquiry is arranged under five types of characteristics: incentive systems and participant commitment, formal structures, leadership and authority,…

This paper reviews a variety of analytic procedures that can be applied to network data, discussing the assumptions and usefulness of each procedure when applied to the complexity of human communication. Special attention is paid to the network properties measured or implied by each procedure. Factor analysis and multidimensional scaling are among…

Suggests a taxonomy of the grass roots movement and gives a general descriptive over view of the 60 groups studied with respect to origin, constituency, size, funding, issues, and ideology. (Author/AM)

Interviews and observations at the Children's Center, a Bronx (New York) psychiatric hospital, yielded data about the effects on individual power of network relations at the individual and work-unit levels. Regression analysis indicates individuals' participation in work units that are integrated into organization-wide networks enhances individual…

When one engages in organizational diagnosis, it has been suggested that greater understanding of the organization can come through: (1) an identification of all the channels conveying material and information, and (2) a description of the means by which this communication influences the behavior of the organization. A networks/system approach is…

A comparison of two networks of citizens and parents leads to the conclusion that an effective citizen network in education should have a formal organization, structured leadership, specific goals, and a diverse and active membership. The rise of such groups is attributed to people's feelings that schools are failing to educate. These networks of…

This paper discusses how networks of elderly people change with stages of disability. Senior citizens in 80 nursing homes (40 in New York and 40 in Florida) were interviewed. The authors examine how spouses, relatives, neighbors, friends, and acquaintances help out when the elderly are robust, how these patterns of help change when the elderly…

This report on ghetto social structure, surveying a sample of 120 black women from Boston, is an examination of the extent to which black urbanites maintain personal ties within the ghetto area. Nine chapters listed as follows constitute the document: social organization in the black ghetto; Boston-the city and the sample, primary social ties,…