Social Roles and the Impact of Institutions - Essay Example

? Social Roles and the Impact of s: A Photo Essay Social Roles and the Impact of s: A Photo Essay Overview This paper discussesthe concept of social roles and how they are shaped by social institutions. Three images depicting various stages of the personal life of the author are analysed in the light of theories and research on social roles and institutions. Some of the aspects discussed include the socialising role of institutions, the relationship between theatrical performance and social performance and the impact of changing goals and expectations on social role behaviour. The findings are applied to the working of organisations and their peculiar management challenges. Key Idea and Theory The key idea or theory discussed in this paper relates to social roles and how they are created through institutions. The function played by social roles in the creation of individual and collective identities is also an important aspect of this paper. As Lopata (1995, p. 1) explains, social roles are determined by the status of an individual in society. The social role is enacted by the individual in order to gain access to the rights conferred on the particular status as well as to discharge the duties and responsibilities of the particular status. Social roles are determined to a large extent by the institutions to which an individual becomes a member (Turner & Rosenberg, 2004). The family or the school is an institution where the same individual may perform different roles. An individual may assume the role of a son or a daughter in the family institution but assume a different role of a student at school. Social roles define the actions and behaviours that individuals can perform without drawing criticism or condemnation from other individuals in the society. At the same time, social roles also prohibit the individual from demonstrating certain actions that are not seen to be equivalent to their social status. For instance, inter-caste marriage is viewed with disapproval in some parts of India because individuals belonging to different castes are afforded different statuses and part of their social role is to maintain the purity of their caste. Social institutions regulate individuals’ actions and socialise them to perform their social roles efficiently. These institutions identify gender roles, e.g. boys are to help the father in the trade while girls are to help the mother in the household chores. Institutions also shape the individual and collective identity of individuals over time as the individuals become committed to the institutions and look up to them for role clarity and definition. Analysis of Aspects of Life Photo 1: At the park This photograph was taken in the year 2000 and shows me playing on a playground gym with some other children who are older to me. This photo is important to me because it depicts one of my most enjoyable periods of life as well as some of the incidents that produce anxiety. The picture demonstrates the norms of the playground and the lessons it can teach young children about their appropriate behaviour and actions towards each other. As it can be seen in the photograph, all the children are taking turns at the gym without getting into any fights. For instance, I am following the boy in front of me while another boy behind me is waiting for his turn. Another boy looks on from the side of the gym without getting engaged in the play. This turn-taking is inculcated in the children and can help them to become responsible and mature citizens of society. In this way, the playground or family park serves as an institution with its own norms that guide a young child about how to act as a good player and respect other children around them. It also teaches them how to share limited resources and treat other people equally and fairly. As the playground is not a formal institution in the way a school or hospital is, the norms are generally unwritten and are expressed by the parents as they admonish their children to let others also play with the rides and to wait for their turn at the rides. In addition, the children also possess an innate sense of fairness and honesty which can be demonstrated through interaction with other children in the park. The playground can be a place of socialisation for the child as is happening in photo 1. According to Peterson (2004, p. 159), the playground acts as a natural laboratory for the children as they discover and experiment with new ways of expressing themselves. The playground or family park as in this case can be a source of interest and fascination for the child to experiment with new social roles. However, Peterson (2004, p. 159) argues that it is necessary to take a conscious effort to create opportunities for such positive experimentation where children can blend academic challenges with instinctive games. Peterson (2004, p. 159) also argues that provided with the right kind of environment, children can demonstrate considerable flexibility in moving from a negative social role to another more positive one. For instance, he explains that children who demonstrate bullying behaviour can be guided to behave as leaders of the group if they are given the adequate responsibilities. In photo 1, there is some distress visible on my face as I find it difficult to reach out to the successive ropes to carry myself across. However, by reflecting the behaviour of other bigger boys who carried themselves across easily, I was motivated not to give up. In this way, the presence of other children at the gym and by observing them perform their role or task efficiently, I was motivated to move ahead despite my certain difficulties in order to feel adequate and equal to the other boys. In this way, the playground acts as a venue of socialisation and inculcation of social roles and values. It also acts as a source of role models which instigates natural feelings of competition and adequacy to motivate individuals to perform their social roles and demonstrate the prescribed values. Over time, I was not as distressed about playing at the playground as I had internalised the innate competition with other boys. My socialisation with similar experiences at the playground had taught me to extract thrill and excitement rather than anxiety at the prospect of playing with other boys who may be bigger than me. In the words of Berger & Luckmann (1966, p. 53), I had become ‘habitualised’ to the playground experience and had internalized the social role as a player along with other boys. The benefit of this habitualisation of social roles was that I did not feel anxious about having bigger boys cut my turn and get ahead of me. It was expected that the child standing first in line would have an earlier turn at the rides or swings before the child who came after him. As a result, I was able to enjoy myself more freely on the swings because I did not have to spend a lot of attention on whether I would get my turn and whether I would play as well as the other children. Hence, the photo 1 illustrates the acquisition of social roles and their internalisation through interaction with other children at the park. Photo 2: At school The photo 2 above was taken in the year 2003, about three years after my experience at the playground. In this photo, I can be seen standing next to my grandmother who is a school teacher. I am wearing a blue suit in the picture and observing my grandmother help the students in the classroom prepare for a Christmas school function. Although I have no part in the play, I was intrigued about it and was also very close to my grandmother emotionally. This photo illustrates several important ideas about institutions, social roles and identity in the socialisation of an individual. As I have stated earlier, this photo shows the preparation for a play for the school’s annual Christmas function. This is an important exercise in role play for the children and it teaches them about the importance of fulfilling the requirements of particular roles in a particular context. As it can be seen in the picture, the children are dressed up in various costumes that reflect their ascribed roles according to the script. My grandmother is helping them follow the script in terms of their actions on the stage and the dialogues they are expected to speak. All of these activities can be viewed as a form of socialisation for the students to carry out a successful performance in the evening. The photo shows that the students have to spend considerable time in learning their lines, preparing their costumes and rehearsing their movements on the stage. This reflects the preparation that individuals have to undergo to perform their multiple roles of student, employee, parent and friend in society. They have to follow a particular script that is dictated by the physical or temporal context. For instance, an individual is expected to compliment a host on the cleanliness of their house and the taste of the food when they are a guest. However, when they visit the same friend to commiserate over the loss of a family member, they usually speak about the character and friendliness of the deceased instead of the house and the food. The students participating in the play demonstrated individual identities as well as collective identities as a performing team. Their collective identity was shaped by their identification with the group as well as by categorisation amongst themselves and other student groups performing that night. This is an important idea presented by Jenkins on the construction of social identity (Jenkins, 2008, p. 111). The work of Goffman (1959) treats the analogy of social life and the theatre in sufficient detail and draws a number of important comparisons between the two. For instance, Goffman (1959) goes into sufficient depth about the function of the stage and the backstage in terms of rehearsal and actual performance of social roles. Performance anxiety is a common feature of performing a social role in an actual setting and performing a theatrical role on the stage. In both cases, the individual is being observed and evaluated on his performance. Thus, an individual would want to be perceived as an intelligent student or loyal friend in the way that an actor playing Joseph in a Christmas play would want to be appreciated for playing his part well. As the actor on the stage adjusts performance to the setting, the social actor according to Goffman (1959) also needs to adjust to the changing settings of the social environment. Interacting with other individuals or social actors takes place in a similar fashion as interaction with co-actors on the stage. In performing a stage play, the actors as well as the audience have to suspend disbelief and participate in the creative definition of the situation. This artificiality is also found in social interactions where the social actors are engaged in the creation of a particular social environment through their actions and speech. In this way, actors on the stage as well as co-actors in a social environment help each other perform their social roles by supportive behaviours and perpetuation of the artificially defined social situation. This photo also illustrates the role of the school as an institution and the development of social roles of teacher and student through interaction. It reflects the division of labour and role specialization that has been discussed by Berger & Luckmann (1966, p. 87). The school institution assigns the social role of teacher to my grandmother according to which she has to help other students prepare for their role. Berger & Luckmann’s concept of division of labour can also be interpreted at another level in Photo 2. The students are preparing for their specific roles in the play. Berger & Luckmann (1966) explain that as specialization in institutions grows, the roles become more esoteric and specialist. A similar development can be observed in the play where each student performs a specific role about which the other students know very little. They only remember their own lines and stage cues. This setting can also be explained by Seidler (2010, p. 10) where he argues for the Freudian relationship between nature and culture in shaping identity. In this case, the classroom and Christmas play shape the identity of the students which is different from the identity determined by nature. Photo 3: Me and my ex-girlfriend In photo 3, I can be seen striking a pose with my ex-girlfriend. This is an important photo for me because I spent a lot of good moments with my ex-girlfriend as we were growing up. We were in the same school and shared many interests. However, over time we grew apart as our personalities became more different and we became more mature. This photo reflects how our identity and relationships can change depending on the changing context and settings. As explained by Beck (1992), social life is a process of individualization where an individual progresses from inheriting ascribed roles and behaviours into striving to acquire the role and status. In that regard, during my relationship with my girlfriend both of us had to work to make the relationship survive. We could not take it for granted and had to follow the expected behaviours of caring for one another and treating one another with respect. During my experience with my ex-girlfriend, I also discovered that I was never content with my role performance as a boyfriend and I had to work hard to meet me ex-girlfriend’s expectations. As stated by Bauman (2001), identity is socially constructed and is shaped by fears and anxieties felt by the individual. In that sense, I was trying to complete my identity by following the internal cues from my anxieties about failing in the relationship. The courtship between my ex-girlfriend and I can be described in terms of a theatrical performance where each of us was performing a social role dictated by the societal sanction. As Overington & Mangham (1982) would describe it in the form of social actors who were performing roles in order to maintain the social order. In our case, my girlfriend and I were trying to perform the behaviours of a boyfriend and girlfriend to sustain the order and stability of the relationship. The ideas proposed by Henriques et al. (1984) about the social and individual not being unitary terms can be invoked to comment on the relationship shown in photo 3. It is not only what the individual knows about the social environment that affects the social life, but other influences that he or she may be unaware of play a role in the social life. Therefore, I had to evaluate the affects of other social institutions such as school, family and other relationships while working on my relationship with my ex-girlfriend. Connection to Management and Organisation An organisation is an institution with its peculiar set if formal and informal norms of work and behaviour. These affect the individual as he or she spends the major part of the day in the workplace environment. Furthermore, an understanding of how social norms and institutional factors shape an individual’s identity and affect his or her behaviour can contribute towards more efficient management of employees in the organisation. Manning (2008) analyzes the research conducted by Goffman on organisations and comes to the conclusion that information generated and stored by the bureaucratic systems of an organisation can offer the best insight into how organisations function as institutions to shape and regulate individuals’ roles. Organizing and managing people in an organisational context are about directing their behaviour towards attaining organisational objectives. Many organisations align individual objectives with organisation ends to elicit greater commitment and identification among the employees. The commentary on photo 1 includes a discussion on the socialising role of an institution as it shapes norms and behaviours of individuals. This explanation can be applied to organisations where new employees undergo a process of socialisation after being assigned their roles and job descriptions. They observe other employees and absorb the norms of communication, the pecking order and the informal culture of the organisation. Through such involvement, the employees become familiar with the culture and become socialised to perform their roles. The division of labour discussed by Berger & Luckmann (1966) and included in the commentary on photo 2 can also be applied to organisational management. As the roles of teacher, student, and the individual roles in a stage play are specialized and performed by actors who have prepared for them, roles in an organisation are also performed by people who have the required educational or technical background, experience and training. This kind of specialization encourages employees to perform their role with efficiency and contribute towards achievement of organisational goals. The concept of social roles and performance can also be invoked to explain organisational management. A manager performs a distinct role when evaluating the performance of a subordinate. He may be distant and objective. However, when the same manager participates with the colleague during a brainstorming session, he becomes less judgmental and encourages the employee to contribute equally. Furthermore, the manager also assumes the role of a subordinate before his superior. Frequently, he may also be required to perform the role of the organisation’s spokesperson before the media and general public. The training and experience provided by the organisation socialises the manager to perform these multiple roles effectively. The evolving nature of social roles and behaviour through interaction between the internal anxieties of the individual and the norms of the institution can be applied to organisations. As explained by N'Diaye (2007), the goals of an organisation may change or become displaced over time in response to environmental changes. At the same time, the goals of the governing body may not be shared by all members of the organisation. This shows that the performance or behaviour of all employees may not be predicted with certainty at all times. References Bauman, Z., 2001. The Individualized Society. Cambridge: Polity Press. Beck, U., 1992. Risk Society. London: Sage. Berger, P. L. and Luckmann, T., 1966. The Social Construction of Reality. New York: Anchor Books. Goffman, E., 1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Anchor Books. Henriques, et al. 1984. From the Individual to the Social: A Bridge Too Far. In Changing the Subject: Psychology, Social Regulation and Subjectivity. London: Metheun. Jenkins, R., 2008. Social Identity. 3rd ed. Abingdon: Routledge. Lopata, H. Z., 1995. Role Theory. In: J. R. Blau and N. Goodman, eds. 1995. Social Roles & Social Institutions. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. Manning, P. K., 2008. Goffman on Organisations. Organisation Studies, 29(5), pp. 677-99. Overington, M. A., and Mangham, I. L., 1982. The Theatrical Perspective in Organisational Analysis. Symbolic Interaction, 5(2), pp. 173-85. Peterson, E., 2004. Grounding the Players. In: R. L. Clements and L. Fiorentino, eds. 2004. The Child’s Right to Play: A Global Approach. Westport: Praeger Publishers. Seidler, V. J., 2010. Embodying Identities. Bristol: The Policy Press. N'Diaye, Y. N. 2007. That which cannot be shaken shall remain: An assessment of environmental response and strategic and issue orientations among civil rights organisations (1980-2005). Morgantown, W. Va: West Virginia University Libraries. Turner, R. H., & Rosenberg, M. 2004. Social psychology: Sociological perspectives. New Brunswick, U.S.A: Transaction Publishers. Read More