Size of groups, organizations, and communities

Size (the number of people involved) is an important characteristic of the groups, organizations, and communities in which social behavior occurs.

When only a few persons are interacting, adding just one more individual may make a big difference in how they relate. As an organization or community grows in size it is apt to experience tipping points where the way in which it operates needs to change. The complexity of large groupings is partly because they are made up of interrelated subgroups.

Herbert Thelen proposed a principle that for members of groups to have maximum motivation to perform, the number of members in each should be the smallest "in which it is possible to have represented at a functional level all the social and achievement skills required for the particular required activity."

Groups of two persons (called by many names: dyads, pairs, couples, etc.) are important either while standing alone or as building blocks of larger groupings. An infant requires a caregiver in order to survive, so life begins in a pair relationship that is apt to influence later ones.

Pair relations can be trivial and fleeting (like that of a clerk and customer at a checkout stand) or multi-purpose and enduring (like a lifelong marriage). Unlike a larger group, though, which can replace lost members and last indefinitely, a dyad exists only as long as both member participate.

Pairing off is very common for several reasons. It is simpler to relate to one other person than to several at once. We are comfortable in dealing with someone who is similar to ourselves, and any two persons can usually find common traits or experiences to serve as "hook up points" between them. On the other hand, we are also fascinated by people who are different from us. Novelty, of course, wears off.

Differences can be the basis for long-term alliances when they are complementary. He can fix the lawn mower and she is a good cook; Gilbert writes the book and Sullivan composes the music. Topping all is that "game that two are playing," sexual mating, with its many and powerful effects on human affairs.

Groups with three members (triads, trios, troikas, etc.) are hard to maintain. After all, it is easier to deal with one other person than with two. Besides, two of the people in a triad are apt to find it easier to relate to each other than to the other partner. That can motivate the neglected party to drop out of the group.

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Wikipedia