ups. They found in a typical meeting it began with a request for and the providing ofinformation that would solve the problem of a common orientation to the task. The group wouldthen try to solve the problem of evaluation and make decisions about the task at hand. Anattempt at consensus through social control was next. If the cycle was successful then it wouldend with activity expressing solidarity and tension reduction, which such things like humor, torepair any damage done to social integration and to bring the group back to the equilibrium thatexisted before hand. Parsons decided that Bale’s categories for analyzing small group interactionand the activities all small groups engage in could be expanded beyond small groups to include allsystems of action, if reconceptualized. This led Parsons to the four-function paradigm in which heidentifies the major problems action oriented systems must solve if the are to maintain equilibrium,develop, and survive. Parsons argues that all action systems face four major problems, or havefour needs: adaption, goal attainment, integration, and latent pattern maintenance-tensionmanagement. Parsons usually pictures society or the system in question as a large square that hedivides into four equal parts and label with the letters AGIL.By A, adaption, Parsons is referring to the need of a system to secure sufficient resourcesform the environment and distribute them throughout. This is commonly accomplished throughsocial institutions which are interrelated systems of social norms and roles that satisfy those needs. If a social system is to survive it needs certain structures or institutions to perform the function ofadaption to the environment. Our economic institution meets this need. The G stands for goal attainment. It is the system’s need to mobilize its resources andenergies to establish priorities among and attain system goals. In democratic societies this systemproblem would...
