Practice question · Match the pairs
Match each concept to its definition.
- Dyad
- Triad
- Groupthink
- Iron law of oligarchy
- Cohesion silencing dissent until unanimity errs
- Organizations drifting toward rule by the few
- Two people: intense, and dead the moment one leaves
- Three people: coalitions and mediators become possible
Hints
- Size changes the character of a group qualitatively.
- Two, three, and very many each behave differently.
Show the answer
- Dyad → Two people: intense, and dead the moment one leaves
- Triad → Three people: coalitions and mediators become possible
- Groupthink → Cohesion silencing dissent until unanimity errs
- Iron law of oligarchy → Organizations drifting toward rule by the few
Why
Size effects at both ends of the scale: the fragility of two, the politics of three, and the eventual capture of ten thousand.
Practise Groups and Organizations
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More questions on Groups and Organizations
- A dyad is generally more stable than a triad, because two people have fewer relationships to manage.
- The rival firm’s team is a reference group, not an out-group. Why is that distinction worth keeping?
- Weberian feature or bureaucratic pathology? Sort each observation.
- An executive committee of long-time colleagues approves a doomed acquisition unanimously; afterwards, several…
- A cohesive board unanimously approves a bad acquisition, and afterwards several members admit they had…
- Which are characteristics of Weber’s ideal-type bureaucracy?
- Order the stages by which a cohesive committee slides into groupthink.
- Complete Cooley’s distinction.