MGT TUTORIAL 6 ANSWERS

1. Informal groups are set up by the employees to deal with member’s interests or needs,
e.g. a staff club at work. They may operate quite separately from the organization and
its goals .e.g. the university sports club bring together staff and students who enjoy
particular sports. The university itself may have limited if any dealing with these
sports club. Task groups supports command/ functional groups by assisting or
carrying out functions that the command/functional groups may do. They may be
temporary, .e.g. a project team bought together to make an event happen, or they may
be permanent, e.g. set up to provide ongoing counselling support to staff members in
need.
2. Informal groups are formed because they satisfy human needs for companionship, for
identification, for a sense of belonging. Informal work groups arise when relationship
develop between employees-relationship above and beyond those required by the
company to get the job done. The informal organization is the interlocking social
structure that governs how people work together in practice. It is the aggregate of
norms, personal and professional connection through which works gets done and
relationship are built among people who share a common organizational affiliation or
cluster of affiliation. It consists of a dynamic set of personal relationship, social
networks communities of common interests, and emotional sources of motivation.
The informal organization evolves, and the complex social dynamics of its members
also.
3. How we behave within a groups is set up by the groups itself through group’s norms.
These groups ‘rules’ are used by groups to regulate the behavior of all groups’
members. These rules or norms can be set down in explicit written statements. They
may be demonstrated by key group’s members the first time the group meets. They
may also arise out of critical, previous events or may have been brought into the
groups as a results of how group’s members have behaved previously in other groups.
When you first join a company there are likely to be explicit rules that dictate what
your obligation are towards the organization groups. How people respond to you,
behave on an ongoing basis. Our behavior in groups is influence by explicit norms
and implicit norms.
4. The effect of size on a group's performance depends on what dependent variables
we look at. Smaller groups are faster at completing tasks than larger ones, and
individuals perform better in smaller groups. However, in problem solving, large
groups consistently get better marks than their smaller counterparts. Group size is
an important factor that affects functions performed in a group. Smaller groups
complete tasks faster than larger ones. They are also more productive than large
groups. Large groups, on the other hand, generate more facts, collect diverse and
open viewpoints, and generate more solutions to problems. Social loafing creates a
negative impact on the performance of the group and thus slowing down the
productivity of the whole organization. Leads to Poor Team Spirit: If few members
become lazy and reluctant, making the least contribution in the group, the whole
 team feels demotivated and demoralized. Individualism is the moral stance, political
philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that emphasizes the moral worth of the
individual. Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and so value
independence and self-reliance and advocate that interests of the individual should
achieve precedence over the state or a social group, while opposing external
interference upon one's own interests by society or institutions such as the
government. Individualism is often defined in contrast to totalitarianism, collectivism
and more corporate social forms. Individualism makes the individual its focus and so
starts "with the fundamental premise that the human individual is of primary
importance in the struggle for liberation." Classical Liberalism, existentialism, and
anarchism are examples of movements that take the human individual as a central
unit of analysis. Individualism thus involves "the right of the individual to freedom
and self-realization". Collectivism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology,
or social outlook that emphasizes the significance of groups—their identities, goals,
rights, and outcomes. It is also about analyzing problems in the interest of a group.
Collectivism is a basic cultural element that exists as the reverse of individualism (in
the same way high context culture exists as the reverse of low context culture), and in
some cases stresses the priority of group goals over individual goals and the
importance of cohesion within social groups (such as an in-group, in whichever
specific context it is defined). Collectivists usually focus on community, society, or
nation. It is used and has been used as an element in many different and diverse types
of government and political, economic and educational philosophies throughout
history and all human societies in practice contain elements of both individualism and
collectivism. This study examines how individualism and collectivism impact the
need for consultation versus harmony respectively and whether they underlie direct
and indirect communication during face-threatening situations. A MANCOVA design
was employed testing individualism/collectivism, while controlling for social
desirability, on consultation expectations and harmonious face work strategies from
self-report questionnaires (n = 654) collected in the Chile, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan,
Sweden, and the United States. Linear regression results show a direct link between
individualism and consultation needs and collectivism and harmony needs indicating
that when individualists’ face is threatened, they need to be consulted directly about
the situation at hand, while face-threatened collectivists need to be treated with
harmonious (indirect) communication to manage their face.
5. A task force is a small group, usually four to twelve people, that brings together a
specific set of skills to accomplish a short-term task. It may be called a "project
team" or a "working group." But by whatever name, a task force exists for a specific,
time-limited purpose, usually lasting a few months to a year. Whereas Task team (aka
action group) is a group of people joined temporarily or permanently to accomplish
some task or to be engaged into some project (collective action). Of course, task
teams need to be structured and managed appropriately, so there should be certain
task team and individual roles which define responsibilities and duties of each team
member, along with seniority chain that is driven by the task team leader. The
 Innovation Task Force was established by Fr. Linanne to develop initiatives and
practices that—through disruptive innovation—generate new opportunities that will
lead to the strengthening of Loyola University Maryland, aligned with the
new Strategic Plan. Initiatives will promote innovation and follow entrepreneurial
characteristics to boldly seek solutions to the myriad of challenges facing Loyola and
higher education more broadly and with the aim of identifying factors that play an
important role in the innovation process. According to theoretical models and the
results of empirical studies, these factors are as follows: task characteristics, external
demands, team composition, various team states and processes (task orientation,
shared goals and vision, cooperative relationships, reflexivity, participation, support
for innovation, and conflict management), and leadership. We also stress the need for
more research on the consequences of team innovation.
6. A self-managed team is a group of employees that's responsible and accountable for
all or most aspects of producing a product or delivering a service. Traditional
organizational structures assign tasks to employees depending on their specialist skills
or the functional department within which they work. A self-managed team carries
out supporting tasks, such as planning and scheduling the workflow and managing
annual leave and absence, in addition to technical tasks. Management and technical
responsibilities are typically rotated among the team members. Self-managed teams
have greater ownership of the tasks they perform and the end product or service they
deliver. Self-managed teams tend to be less costly and more productive than
employees working within a traditional hierarchical structure because the team
performs both technical and management tasks. Team members may also fill in for
each other to cover holidays and absences. Decisions made by self-managed teams
are more effective because they're made by the people who know most about the job.
Although a cohesive self-managed team may create a sense of trust and respect
between team members, overly cohesive teams can lead to "groupthink": Team
members are more likely to conform to team norms than raise issues that may upset
other team members. This may lead to reduced effort or stifled innovation. Teams
may struggle to make the transition from supervisor-led management to self-
management, either due to lack of interpersonal skills or poor implementation of the
self-managed team concept within the organization.