Roles

Roles are "standardized patterns of behavior required of all persons playing a part in a given functional relationship, regardless of personal wishes or interpersonal obligations irrelevant to the functional relationship" (Katz and Kahn, p. 43).

Norms

"Norms are the general expectations of a demand character for all role incumbents of a system or subsystem" (Katz and Kahn p. 43)

Values
'Are more generalized ideological justifications for roles and norms, and express the aspirations that allegedly inform the required activities" (Katz and Kahn p. 43).

Roles, norms and values are in order of increasing abstractness and applicability. They help tie collective action together. But the relative weight is different in different systems.

Durkheim (1947) noted that in primitive societies values were more important, since there was little role differentiation. As society has become more complex with more subsystems, societal integration is based more on normative practices and role interdependence (Katz and Kahn, p. 44). The norms and values are created through the activities of the organization and are thus somewhat different in each organization.