Читать книгу Essentials of Sociology - George Ritzer - Страница 156

Georg Simmel saw society as being defined by interaction. Moreover, he differentiated between the forms interaction takes and the types of people who engage in interaction. For example, one “form” of interaction is the relationship between a superordinate and a subordinate (Simmel [1908] 1971). This type of relationship is found in many settings, for example, between teacher and student in the classroom, between judge and defendant in the courtroom, and between guard and prisoner in the jail. We tend to think of this relationship as eliminating the subordinate’s independence. However, a relationship between the two cannot exist unless the subordinate has at least some freedom to be an active party to the interaction. The relationship between employee and supervisor is a good example. If the employee cannot react to the supervisor’s direction, there is no interaction—only one-way communication from the supervisor to the employee. Furthermore, experimental research has demonstrated that the greater the equality in an employee–manager relationship, the greater the amount of two-way communication. In such a situation, the subordinate feels less resentment, anger, and worry when conflict arises with the manager (Johnson, Ford, and Kaufman 2000).