adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a formal/informal agreement
a relaxed/friendly/informal atmosphere
▪ Helen's flat has a very relaxed atmosphere.
an informal chat
▪ Come and see me any time if you want an informal chat about jobs.
an informal/formal interview
▪ Applicants will normally have an informal interview with the manager.
▪ One out of every six candidates reached the formal interview.
formal/informal register
▪ letters written in a formal register
formal/informal
▪ The letter sounded very formal.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
more
▪ They kept the old biblical landmarks alive, but in a more informal and vernacular language.
▪ Central government can sometimes initiate these rather more informal approaches towards economic and physical renewal.
▪ In lieu of massive press conferences, he preferred more informal sessions with the media.
▪ Dressed once more, in lighter, more informal clothes, he went to the telephone table in the lobby.
▪ Other links between business and local government were more informal.
▪ Of course, in reality there is a continuum between these and more informal types of conflict.
▪ But the term was also available for broader or more informal tendencies.
relatively
▪ Privacy, relatively low costs, expert adjudicators, quick and relatively informal proceedings all make this form of determination quite attractive.
very
▪ The meetings are very informal and friendly with lots of ideas and challenges.
▪ It was a very informal dinner.
▪ This would run counter to the very informal information exchange that gives it meaning in this internal context.
▪ He may have been conducting a formal press conference in very informal dress at a most abnormal time.
▪ Tavernas are very informal, simple quality, great fun, and often in the most beautiful settings.
■ NOUN
agreement
▪ These aspects, if articulated at all, must therefore be governed by informal agreements.
▪ In fact, the group had reached informal agreement on a range of output that was acceptable.
▪ The definition is very wide and includes both formal and informal agreements or understandings.
approach
▪ Central government can sometimes initiate these rather more informal approaches towards economic and physical renewal.
▪ In instrumental terms there is much to be said for the informal approach.
▪ These perspectives fall under two main headings - the formal and the informal approaches to organisations.
▪ Many formal and informal approaches have been instituted to prevent ideas from faltering.
▪ Conclusion Taken together the formal and the informal approaches almost complete our picture of how to understand organisations.
arrangement
▪ It is unclear if there are any informal arrangements though the expansion of the Dealerco network would suggest that there are.
▪ The investigation examines both formal and informal arrangements to identify the type and strength of linkages.
▪ This informal arrangement may also help you to relax - interviewers get nervous too!
atmosphere
▪ A particularly friendly, informal atmosphere prevails here and has kept this small hotel popular with Citalia guests over many years.
▪ The journalists can ask their questions direct and can also air any grievances or problems in an informal atmosphere.
▪ In short, a pleasant, informal atmosphere.
▪ It's such a relaxing time of year, and everyone - cook included - welcomes the informal atmosphere.
▪ Passengers like the informal atmosphere, the excellent visibility and the rapid loading and unloading through the aircraft's five doors.
basis
▪ The briefings will take place on an informal basis, however, and will not be specific to individual firms.
▪ Due to lack of time, contact with Churches has only been on an informal basis.
care
▪ One of the tasks of the project is to develop informal care networks, community, local neighbourhood networks for these people.
▪ It circles around the idea of the mobilisation of informal care.
▪ It looked at formal and informal care for elderly people on their own.
▪ Nevertheless, informal care by families faces considerable pressure at present and this is likely to intensify during the 1990s.
▪ In Britain in 1986 an estimated 1.3 million carers kept dependants out of institutions, providing some £7.3 billion worth of informal care.
▪ The implications for those who wish to mobilise modern-style informal care are obvious.
▪ There are debates about the future supply of informal care by families in future decades.
▪ Divorce, decreases in family size and the increased labour market participation of women raise questions about future supplies of informal care.
carer
▪ Improve contacts with informal carers to access services they need.
▪ Throughout the process any informal carers should be consulted and should be offered their own assessments when appropriate.
▪ The most likely potential informal carers are other members of the elderly person's household.
▪ Women informal carers are also likely to be carrying heavier responsibilities than male carers.
▪ The value of the work undertaken by informal carers is difficult to estimate with precision.
▪ As with other social groups informal carers are not a homogeneous group.
▪ This situation is exacerbated by the inadequacy of current social security provision, for both disabled people and informal carers.
▪ We have also omitted the time of unpaid informal carers and their lost employment opportunities.
chat
▪ They came, not during committee meetings in Whitehall, but after informal chats at ministers' houses during the Easter holiday.
▪ Allow a minute or two of informal chat to relax both of you.
▪ However he has at least promised the bleary-eyed hacks that they can attend an informal chat over breakfast.
▪ Some channels are obviously dedicated to specific topics, for example, but most are merely informal chat limes.
▪ It might be an informal chat with some one or it might be a formal meeting with a group of people.
▪ Although we provided theoretical and practical training in peace-building, the women gained a lot from their informal chats.
▪ I saw a psychiatrist often during my stay, up to once a day, although the sessions seemed more like informal chats.
contact
▪ Through informal contacts in 1971 and 1972 and formally in 1972 agreement was reached in principle to amalgamate.
▪ Contacts between the area staff and the students were not limited to formal classroom work and occasional formally ordained informal contact.
▪ Ceremony was effectively combined with informal contact.
▪ At some stage, informal contacts can be very effective.
▪ The data should preferably be devised by the subordinates 6 Frequent informal contact.
▪ The other side of press management, depending on informal contacts, is less easy to assess.
▪ And their informal contact with the king on such occasions was basic to the whole process of government.
▪ One company, however, had several informal contacts in universities and these contacts would pass on relevant papers and reports.
conversation
▪ Over 100 interviews were carried out, lasting some 170 hours in all, as well as several shorter, informal conversations.
▪ I got to eavesdrop on their informal conversations and often attend their presentations or meetings or whatever.
▪ They even used phrases originally employed by the students themselves in informal conversation.
discussion
▪ In addition to the informal discussions, corporate planning departments require knowledge of the business environments for their formal roles in the planning process.
▪ But the abortion issue continued to dominate informal discussions.
▪ Meanwhile the king held informal discussions with the multitude.
▪ But the growing pains of the organization rippled through the conference and informal discussions.
▪ Though he lectured, tutored, and held informal discussions, Smith also found time to serve as dean of faculty.
▪ During the next year, scientists will evaluate the proposal and begin informal discussions with possible international partners.
▪ The two apparently had had informal discussions about a deal, but none recently.
economy
▪ This relates to the discussion earlier on the formal and informal economy.
▪ Underwire EconomiesThe dark side: the informal economy booms.
▪ The growth and health of the black and informal economies is one clear evidence of the disincentive effects of taxation.
▪ This older informal economy now co-exists with the more vibrant drug economy.
group
▪ Often an informal group will eat lunch near a machine or other work station, even though a canteen is available.
▪ An informal group of exchange scientists at the North Carolina research center had already attached their annotations.
▪ Students are encouraged to meet locally in informal groups.
▪ One tactic she has used is to decide matters outside the formal Cabinet, either in committees or in informal groups.
▪ Management will be entrepreneurial in a relatively small informal group.
▪ She is saving for another trip, probably in an informal group of friends.
▪ Nevertheless, in organizations it is useful to note that there are both formal and informal groups.
▪ Within the company, even within his or her department, there will be informal groups and informal vying for status.
interview
▪ As might be expected, there was some dissension during a series of random, informal interviews.
▪ How, then, can the informal interview be used in sociology in an acceptable way?
▪ Two particular functions seem to suit the informal interview.
▪ If a candidate is a newcomer, this might be done by holding an informal interview.
▪ If you can do this after an informal interview or visit then so much the better.
▪ The principle methods of investigation will be questionnaires and informal interviews.
▪ The informal interview, then, is open to question in a number of ways.
meeting
▪ The worship group had continued to hold informal meetings and a weekly newssheet and coffee had been introduced.
▪ The Permanent Council will explore the possibility of holding informal meetings on the issues mentioned in the two preceding paragraphs.
▪ The informal meeting, in Hertfordshire, has now become crucial as the prospect of a trade war heightens.
▪ It was recognised that in the meantime there would be a number of informal meetings regarding the Partner-in-Residence.
▪ At the informal meeting I had with and we discussed a procedure for dealing with litter.
network
▪ Power relationships and relationships within informal networks are vitally important in all child care work.
▪ To get anything significant done within a large organization, every entrepreneur needs an informal network of allies.
▪ By this method, we tapped into informal networks of innovators within the organization.
▪ Downsizing often cut out coordinators, the people most important to these informal networks, leaving them in serious danger of collapse.
▪ Both formal and informal networks tended to divide into sub-networks and problems arose when these were not brought closely together.
▪ This type of communication travels on the informal network.
▪ Many of these needs such as those for friendship, affection and esteem can only be met through informal networks.
▪ An informal network develops but this is different from the fixed network system described earlier.
organisation
▪ An informal organisation, in contrast, is loosely structured, flexible and spontaneous.
▪ With every formal organisation there exists, to a greater or lesser extent, a complex informal organisation.
▪ These include the formal organisation, the informal organisation and the nature of the environment.
▪ Those of the informal organisation are generally oral and usually very fast in their operation.
relationship
▪ Where this kind of space exists, informal relationships need not always subvert formal goals.
▪ It fit his personal preference to use humor at work and to have warm, informal relationships with his people.
▪ Alongside the formal structures, a network of informal relationships has grown up at all levels of the organization.
▪ Most of what I did, the real work, was building alliances, coalitions, informal relationships to get things done.
▪ While formal management and committee structures require study, informal relationships are also crucially important.
rule
▪ Group norms and values will act as constraints and even informal rules can be as rigid as formal rules.
▪ To enforce this group consensus about how much should be produced, there were informal rules.
▪ Any organisation will have a mixture of formal and informal rules and will allow discretion.
▪ The group could be very forceful in enforcing its informal rules.
▪ The abiding informal rules are the meeting of obligations for the rest of the gang.
sector
▪ Final commodities and services would increasingly be produced in the home in the informal sector of the economy.
▪ The Right had recognized the informal sector.
▪ Some of these problems will now be examined, beginning with those facing the informal sector.
▪ The informal sector More often than not community care means care by families - especially nuclear families.
▪ However, Griffiths also envisages greater support and encouragement of the voluntary and informal sectors.
▪ In this way these schemes form a bridge between the formal and informal sectors.
▪ The informal sector has on occasion generated small businesses and creative enterprises.
▪ The term informal sector has become widely used.
settlement
▪ Thereafter a comparison is drawn between informal settlements and the Elandskloof case.
▪ In general, groups and sub-groups continually form, reform and dissolve within informal settlements.
style
▪ Diners' delight A clean-cut, lightweight informal style makes this natural rattan furniture an excellent choice for your dining area.
▪ In particular, it appears that deletion of the verb to be is a property of all dialects in informal style.
▪ It is crucial to distinguish between formal and informal styles of language before one can compare dialects in an accurate way.
▪ The informal style sentences in the chart are variations of the formal style sentences at the top.
▪ Slang is part of casual, informal styles of language use.
support
▪ Three women are now ready for an informal support group to share their experiences of the child protection system.
▪ For many, establishing a network of informal support can help.
▪ Friends are another source of informal support.
▪ To help him in his work the Secretary had formal and informal support.
▪ Lynne Moody, nursing sister in Bassetlaw's day hospital for elderly people, runs an informal support group for carers.
▪ It may also be that informal support networks are valuable in managing chronic strain.
▪ He challenges the orthodox view that elderly people turn to formal agencies for help only when informal support is absent or inadequate.
survey
▪ An informal survey of current major league rosters reveals nearly 50 athletes who once viewed themselves somewhat different defensively.
▪ In an informal survey of 167 Muscovites more than 70 percent had watched some of the Olympic telecasts.
▪ The Citrus Ridge Association recently conducted an informal survey in 110 subdivisions around the region.
way
▪ These are intended to be a cheap, quick and informal way for customers to resolve disputes.
▪ There are informal ways of expressing the topic, even in conversational discourse.
▪ Moreover, behaviour can be sanctioned in informal ways.
▪ I have decided to continue submitting my reports to you in the informal way I settled upon initially ... Friday morning.
▪ All of us have an informal way of speaking when we are with friends and in social settings.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ I was offered the job after an informal interview in the staff canteen.
▪ The report was based on informal discussions with women MPs and their families.
▪ The two companies have an informal arrangement to share each other's sports and leisure facilities.