Formal and Informal Interpersonal Relationships: Interaction of Networks in the Academic Environment

Abstract The academic literature presents concepts that are explored by their formal and informal aspects. In addition, it is emphasized that informal interpersonal relationships complement and contribute synergistically with the formal relationships that occur in the various human activities. Some authors have studied the similarity between the formal and informal parts, others have indicated that one could study the joint effects of interaction or the delineation of the boundaries of the informal part by the formal part or if both would have reciprocal influences. In this work we compare the formal and informal social networks of two distinct groups of university students and at different moments to verify the existence of the interaction between the formal and informal elements of these networks. An exploratory field study was carried out with the help of social networks analysis through the software Ucinet 6.0 and Netdraw. Several measures were collected based on the students' perception and the analysis of the data indicated results that were not consistent with the literature, indicating the non-occurrence of a relationship between the formal and informal aspects. Given the importance of this interaction, it is up to the teachers and the educational institution to provide the means for this to occur. The results indicate the need for more scientific studies on the subject.