Instrumental and Expressive Elites in a Religious Organization. The United Synagogue in London / Elites expressives et instrumentales dans une organisation religieuse : la Synagogue Unie à Londres - article ; n°1 ; vol.43, pg 141-155

Stephen Sharot.

Description

Archives des sciences sociales des religions - Année 1977 - Volume 43 - Numéro 1 - Pages 141-155
15 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Archives-des-sciences-sociales-des-religions
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1977
• Nombre de lectures: 21
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Stephen Sharot
Instrumental and Expressive Elites in a Religious Organization.
The United Synagogue in London / Elites expressives et
instrumentales dans une organisation religieuse : la Synagogue
Unie à Londres
In: Archives des sciences sociales des religions. N. 43/1, 1977. pp. 141-155.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Sharot Stephen. Instrumental and Expressive Elites in a Religious Organization. The United Synagogue in London / Elites
expressives et instrumentales dans une organisation religieuse : la Synagogue Unie à Londres. In: Archives des sciences
sociales des religions. N. 43/1, 1977. pp. 141-155.
doi : 10.3406/assr.1977.2116
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/assr_0335-5985_1977_num_43_1_2116Arch Sc soc des Rel. 1977 43/1 janv.mars) 141-155
Stephen SHAROT
INSTRUMENTAL AND EXPRESSIVE ELITES
IN RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION
The united Synagogue London
Dans sa typologie des organisations Amitai Etzioni classe
les organisations religieuses sous le type normatif où amalgame
entre élites expressives er instrumentales serait la règle
En fait la typologie des religieuses est diversifiée
et la différenciation entre ces deux types élites demeure perti
nente celle-ci se renforce ailleurs une distinction supplé
mentaire entre professionnels et laïcs
La Synagogue Unie de Londres organisation religieuse dont
la composante instrumentale est relativement importante
fait une distinction très nette entre élite instrumentale-laïque
et expressive-rabbinique Ce que on peut observer renforce
hypothèse que plus les élites expressives et instrumentales sont
différenciées plus les risques de conflit propos des sphères
autorité sont grands
INSTRUMENTAL AND EXPRESSIVE ELITES
Reformulations and elaborations of the church-sect typology are
endless and it has been argued that the excessive concern with the typology
may have blocked development within the sociology of religion Some
recent analyses have moved away from the typology and have used concepts
and theories taken from the more general field of the sociology of orga
nizations One area of continued neglect however is the study of
would like to thank Dr Bry an Wilson All Collage Oxford and
Dr Peter Medding Melbourne University for their comments on draft of this paper
For review and synthesis James BECKFORD Religious Organization
Current Sociology 21 1973
141 ARCHIVES DE SCIENCES SOCIALES DES RELIGIONS
relationships between elites within religious organizations The
intention of this paper is firstly to provide typologie of elite structures
which will be of use in an analysis of comparative authority and
patterns of conflict within religious organizations and secondly to
illustrate an unusual type of elite structure by an analysis of Jewish
religious organization the United Synagogue in London
Elite may be categorized according to the issues or tasks over
which they exercise power broad distinction which has been usefully
applied in the comparative study of organizations is that between instru
mental tasks the acquisition and allocation of material resources and
expressive tasks the formulation interpretation and expression of central
symbols and values Amitai Etzioni has made use of this distinction
in formulating types of elite structures in relation to his organizational
typology of coercive utilitarian and normative organizations He wrote
that the greatest separation of instrumental and expressive leadership was
found in organizations where the type of power to control
inmates is based on the application or threat of physical sanctions and
where the orientation of lower participants towards the organization is
one of alienation In utilitarian organizations where power is remune
rative based on control of material resources and rewards and where
the involvement of lower participants is calculative there tends to be
great variation in elite structures but general workers will accept at
most instrumental direction from the organization and will tend to develop
their own expressive elites The almost complete amalgamation of
expressive and instrumental elites is found in normative organizations
where power is normative based on the allocation and manipulation of
symbolic rewards and where the membership is positively and morally
involved The complete separation of control of instrumental and
expressive activities is impossible in normative organizations since instru
mental matters such as financing will affect expressive ones and vice versa
In religious organizations where the pattern is highly pro
nounced expressive and instrumental elites are most likely to be amalga
mated but where there is some distinction there is tendency to insist
on the superiority of the expressive over the instrumental leaders 5)
For some pertinent comments on this neglect see Alan BRYMAN Sociology of
Religion and Sociology of Elites Elite and Sous-Elite in the Church of England
Archives de Sciences Sociales de Religions 38 1974 109-21
We follow here Anthony Giddens definition of elite those who lead in any
social category of social activity An elite group is made up of those persons who
are at the head of specifiable social organization which has an internal authority
structure Elites in the British Class Structure in STANWORTH and GIDDENS eds)
Elites and Power in British Society Cambridge University Press 1974.
My definitions follow with some modification those of Etzioni see below) which
in turn are derived from the distinctions made by Bales and associates in their studies
of small groups and the dichotomising of Parsons four main functional problems of
social systems instrumental-adaptive and integrative-expressive Talcott PARSONS
Robert BALES and Edward SHILS Working Papers in the Theory of Action Free
Press of Glencoe 1953 pp 64 144-5 180-90
Amitai ETZIONI comparative Analysis of Complex Organizations Free Press
of Glencoe 1961 Revised enlarged edition 1975 Page references will be to the revised
edition Amitai Dual Leadership in complex organizations American Socio
logical Review 30 1965 688-98
142 UNITED SYNAGOGUE THE
portrayal religious organizations as relatively conflict-free
in which the moral involvement of the lower participants confers unequi
vocal legitimacy to the elite has been criticized It may be possible
to justify the omission of any discussion on the use of coercion in religious
organizations since focus is on organizations in modern demo
cratic societies 7) but there is little appreciation of the importance of
utilitarian considerations in the operations internal divisions and rela
tionships within religious organizations Of course typology may
be defended as one of ideal types and he acknowledged that empirical
organizations are likely to combine the characteristics of these types in
varying degrees but he wrote that non-normative patterns are relatively
minor in religious organizations and he gives the impression that norma
tive consensus is unproblematic for religious organizations 8)
One problem with analysis arises from his functionalist
endeavour to show that the effective elite hierarchy is one in which the
structure of the elites and hierarchy of goals or goals and means are
congruent With regard to the culture goals of normative organi
zations it is functional that expressive elites dominate since expressive
elites initiate and direct goal activities... 10 By functional Etzioni
means greater effectiveness in the achievement of the goals
and he notes that this requires fulfilling several or all of the
needs adaptation integration latency as well as goal attainment 11
Since for Etzioni is the central explanatory intervening
variable 12 between types of compliance and other variables such as
elite structures the problem of measurement of effectiveness would appear
to be central 13)
Kenneth THOMPSON The Religious Organization in MCKINLAY ed.)
Processing People Case Studies in Organizational Behaviour Holy Rinehart Winston
1973 See also C.C HARRIS Reform in Normative Organization The Sociological
Review 17 1969 167-85 DHOOGHE Problems with Regard to Different
Types of Membership in the Church Social Compass 15 1968 93-9
ETZIONI Comparative Analysis 41
In the revised version of his book Etzioni notes recent study of the Roman
Catholic Church by J.R Sprehe who characterises the Church as dual structure
normative-utilitarian) which in addition to theology and saving souls is also concerned
with the administration of vast ecclesiastical structure and auxiliary organizations
ibid. pp 222-6 Although on smaller scale large proportion of other religious
organizations may be characterized as dual structures
Ibid. 157
10 170
11 Ibid. pp 133-47 Etzioni emphasises that his analysis is not based on goal
model approach and he has elsewhere written critique of this approach ETZIONI
Two Approaches to Organizational Analysis Critique and Suggestion Administrative
Science Quarterly 1960 257-78 On the problems of the goal model approach for
religious organizations see BECKFORD op cit. pp 23-33
12 ErzioNi Comparative Analysis 112
13 In the revised edition