ABSTRACT
Sociologists use the term "group" in a number of ways. Sometimes it is used to refer to a status group, a category of people who share some common, socially important status, such as race, ancestry, sex, or social class. When sociologists use the term "social group", however, they usually mean something a bit more specific. A particular kind of group that is of great importance in modern society is the formal organization, which is defined as a relatively large-scale group having a name, some official purpose or goals, and a structure of statuses and roles and a set of rules designed to promote these goals. The complexity of relationships in a triad is far beyond that of a dyad. This complexity continues to increase as small groups become larger, until eventually a size is reached where, rather than one small group, there is a large group with several smaller subgroups within it.
