„‚ CONDITIONS THAT HINDER EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

family, the community, race and minority-group relations, social stratification, industrial
and organizational sociology, collective behavior, and demography. In addition,
sociology is sometimes used to analyze education, art, music, and knowledge (Merton et
al., 1959).
Social Organization
One of the major abstractions drawn from social interaction is the concept of social
organization (which appears above the double-circled central concept of social
interaction in Figure 1, signifying the importance of social organization in the behavioral
sciences). The arrowed concepts branching to the left indicate the essential domain of
sociology as an academic discipline. The arrowed concepts branching to the right
display the essential domains and core concepts of social psychology and social
anthropology (including ethnology and ethnography).
Social Psychology
Although it is true that social psychology includes more than what is displayed on the
schematic, still sociologically oriented social psychology, rather than psychologically
oriented or psychoanalytically oriented social psychology, has played the greater role in
OD. Also, considering that concepts such as the Johari Window (Hanson, 1973) and
tools such as the FIRO-B (Pfeiffer, Heslin, & Jones, 1976) are exceptionally widespread
in OD programs, the delineation of social psychology in Figure 1 should be more
acceptable to the professional social psychologist who sees his or her field in the
broadest and deepest terms (Lindzey, 1954). The T-group, in the forefront of OD efforts
a decade ago, was a socialization experience focused on the social self and the
development of an open, authentic, and confronting type of social personality. Mead’s
concepts of the “I,” “me,” and “generalized other” are implicit in the various quadrants
of the Johari Window (Mead, 1934). Books on self-disclosure, such as Jourard (1971);
on transactional analysis, such as Berne (1964), Harris (1973), and Jongeward et al.
(1973); and on self-actualization, such as Shostrom (1967), are in accord with the
sociologically oriented social psychology relevant to OD.
Social Anthropology
A second abstraction from the concept of social organization is found in social
anthropology, with the key concept of culture subdivided into the traditional categories
of material and nonmaterial. Many group facilitators would argue that the goal of OD
efforts is to change nonmaterial work cultures into some other configuration, a
transformation that often involves action-research interventions to change norms. In
reality, culture may be defined as learned ways of doing things and thinking about
things. It is an abstraction drawn from the observation of people’s behavior, that is,
doing things in patterned ways. Observations are most accurate when they are of
concrete behavior patterns performed by live people rather than of artifacts and records
372 ❘❚
The Pfeiffer Library Volume 6, 2nd Edition. Copyright ©1998 Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer