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Sociology 93
While the idea of role set deals essentially with relations between individuals,
our second example refers to a higher level of complexity. The focus is on the
relation between large organizations such as public or private bureaucracies
and primary groups, especially the family. Bureaucracies are characterized by
impersonality, established lines of communication, effective use of experts, etc.
Primary groups are based on improvisations and warmth of face-to-face
contacts; they preserve the intimate mood of life which bureaucracies cannot
take into consideration. Recently, however, the antithetical character of these
two patterns has been challenged and interest turned to their complementary
roles.
The starting point is the idea that experts - the main assets of a bureaucracy -
become useless in what Litwak and Meyer call non-uniform events. These are
situations of three kinds: those which are so simple that anyone is expert enough
to perform them well, for instance, pulling a child out of the path of an auto-
mobile ; at the opposite extreme experts themselves have very limited knowledge,
for instance, in the moral education of children; the third class of non-uniform
events are those which happen so seldom or so unexpectedly that it seems impos-
sible to deal with them through a stable organization of experts - earthquakes,
for instance, or outbreaks of mass hysteria.
Primary groups, especially the family, are best equipped to deal with non-
uni€orm events. ‘There appear to be actual disadvantages for bureaucracies
when faced with non-uniform events. Larger numbers of persons and long
chains of communication become impediments in contrast to immediate, face-
to-face communication among the smaller number of the primary group.’z8
Real life consists of both non-uniform and regular events in complex com-
binations. A flexible interaction between primary groups and large-scale or-
ganizations is needed. The main problem is to establish forms of communica-
tions between the two patterns in order to facilitate their collaboration. In a
number of papers Litwak and his associates have listed such mechanisms of
coordination. Confining ourselves again to the field of education, the school has
a variety of ways to establish lines with the families which it serves: through
detached experts such as social workers, or through formal representatives,
such as truant officers ; through voluntary groups such as parent-teacher associa-
tions, or through mass media, such as pamphlets explaining the school’s goals;
through utilization of its own facilities for civic activities; or through having the
children act as message-bearers.
Each of these modes of contact has its characteristic advantages and disadvan-
tages. The institutional problems of the school in turn vary considerably in their
content - convincing the community that a higher school tax is needed, helping
parents to understand the learning problems of their children, obtaining coopera-
tion in a public health measure. The main objective of balance theory is to as-
certain the type of communications most appropriate for particular groups of
problems. In the writings of Litwak and his associates, this is accomplished
partly by reflection on generally known cases and partly by suggestions for
additional empirical research. While only educational institutions have been
considered here, Litwak posits a more general applicability: ‘The proposed