Incest 0000i-xiv FM 1 - William L. White

6
Social Closure
Social closure is the stage in an organization’s life in which members are
meeting most, if not all, of their social needs within the boundary of the
organizational family. Professional closure and social closure often
emerge sequentially in an organization. In fact, by breaking down the
boundary between one’s personal life and work life, professional closure
often sets the stage for social closure. In this chapter, we will describe
the process of social closure and the impact it has on the health of organizational
members and the organization as a whole. We will see how social
closure encourages employees to develop a work-dominated social
network, elicits an intense focusing on the personal and interpersonal
problems of employees, and disrupts team functioning by injecting into
the workplace problems between organizational members that typically
arise only in outside-of-work social relationships.
6.1 Healthy Social Contact
The workplace has been, and probably always will be, an arena in which
human beings meet social as well as professional needs. The quantity
and quality of interpersonal relationships in the workplace are important
indicators of organizational health and can provide workers with
powerful incentives for continued identification with the organization.
Most organizations strive to create a climate in which social relationships
in the organization are both personally fulfilling and supportive of
the system’s overall mission. It is important that organizations provide
rituals that allow us to socially recognize the entrance and exit of members
from the group, celebrate our affection for one another, and recognize
individual and collective achievement.
Given the above, it should be clear that I have no intention of suggesting
that employee socializing outside the work setting is either
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