house where the hen crows like a rooster”. (quoted in Esman and Uphoff, 1984, p187), while
twenty one prominent members of the Farmer Federation of Thailand were murdered and the
organisation collapsed (Morell and Samudavanija, 1981). Some groups failed because they
challenged prevailing bureaucratic norms: “the bureaucracy has tried to muzzle, if not curtail
self-help organisations because the entire self-help process threatens the bureaucracy’s
managerial functions, its ideology and ultimately its means of survival” (Holmquist, 1979,
p137, referring to organisations in East Africa).
There is a presumption, therefore, that societal norms will be linked to group mode of
operation. Yet many groups are developed in order to challenge existing relationships. These
can survive, and with popular support and good organisation, they can flourish. When
extensive enough, they serve to change dominant societal modes. Many claims groups, in
particular, challenge prevailing norms: for example, trade unions which developed in the
hierarchical environment of the 19th century; popular organisations supporting land reform in
countries with highly unequal land distribution; many women’s groups. There tends to be
more consonance between societal and group norms among efficiency groups. Groups which
exploit existing relationships (e.g. hierarchies) are much more likely to succeed than those
which challenge them. Moreover, as noted above, claims groups which are organised in a way
that is contrary to prevalent norms often meet powerful opposition.
Although, the connections between the macro-environment and group behaviour are clearly
complex with many exceptions to simple generalisations, there does appear to be a quite
close connection, which makes the issue of changes in the macro-environment critical for
expectations about group behaviour.
III. THE CHANGING MACRO-ENVIRONMENT: A SUMMARY
The macro-environment encompasses the norms and the political economy prevalent in a
society, i.e. it includes the manifold influences of an institutional type - economic, political
and social - to which individuals and groups are subject. Since the world is a complex and
heterogeneous place, it is difficult to claim that any particular macro-environment is