Size of Groups, Organizations, and communities

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. 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 the 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."