Unit: 1 Group Behaviour

 Group and Teams: Types of Groups

 Stages of Group Development: The Five-Stage Model
 Group Behaviour-The Dynamics of Formal & Informal Groups
 Group decision-making
 Teams in the Modern Workplace
 Teams vs Groups
 Types of Teams, Quality Circles

A group is defined as two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent, who have
come together to achieve particular objectives.

Groups can be either formal or informal.

Formal groups—those defined by the organization’s structure, with designated work

assignments establishing tasks. The behaviors that one should engage in are stipulated by and
directed toward organizational goals.

An airline flight crew is an example of a formal group.

Informal groups—alliances that are neither formally structured nor organizationally

determined. Natural formations in the work environment in response to the need for social
contact.

Three employees from different departments who regularly eat lunch together is an informal
group.

Classification of groups as command, task, interest, or friendship groups

Command groups are dictated by the formal organization.

a. The organization chart determines a command group.

b. Composed of direct reports to a given manager

Task groups—organizationally determined—represent those working together to complete a

job task.

a. A task group’s boundaries are not limited to its immediate hierarchical superior. It can
cross command relationships.

b. All command groups are also task groups, but the reverse need not be true.
An interest group - People who affiliate to attain a specific objective with which each is
concerned.

a. Employees who band together to have their vacation schedules altered

Friendship groups often develop because the individual members have one or more
common characteristics.

Social alliances, which frequently extend outside the work situation, can be based on similar
age or ethnic heritage.

Informal groups satisfy their members’ social needs.

a. These types of interactions among individuals, even though informal, deeply affect their
behaviour and performance.

b. There is no single reason why individuals join groups.

The most popular reasons people have for joining groups:

1. Security--reduce the insecurity of "standing alone"; feel stronger, fewer self-doubts, and
more resistant to threats.

2. Status--inclusion in a group viewed by outsiders as important; provides recognition and

status

3. Self-esteem--provides feelings of self-worth to group members, in addition to conveying

status to outsiders

4. Affiliation--fulfils social needs, enjoys regular interaction; can be primary source for
fulfilling need for affiliation

5. Power--what cannot be achieved individually often becomes possible; power in numbers

6. Goal achievement--some tasks require more than one person; need to pool talents,
knowledge or power to complete the job. in such instances, management may rely on the use
of a formal group
Stages of Group Development

Forming:
1 Uncertainty about purpose, structure, and leadership

Storming:
2 Intragroup conflict as members resist constraints

Norming:
3 Group is cohesive with strong group identity

Performing:
4 Group fully functional and working toward goals

Adjourning:
5 For temporary groups: breaking up

The Five-Stage Model

1. Forming:

 Characterized by a great deal of uncertainty about the group’s purpose, structure, and
leadership.
 Members are trying to determine what types of behaviour are acceptable.
 Stage is complete when members have begun to think of themselves as part of a
group.

2. Storming:

 One of intragroup conflict. Members accept the existence of the group, but there is
resistance to constraints on individuality.
 Conflict over who will control the group.
 When complete, there will be a relatively clear hierarchy of leadership within the
group.

3. Norming:
• One in which close relationships develop and the group demonstrates cohesiveness.

• There is now a strong sense of group identity and camaraderie.

• Stage is complete when the group structure solidifies and the group has assimilated a
common set of expectations of what defines correct member behaviour.

4. Performing:

• The structure at this point is fully functional and accepted.

• Group energy has moved from getting to know and understand each other to
performing.

• For permanent work groups, performing is the last stage in their development.

5. Adjourning:

 For temporary committees, teams, task forces, and similar groups that have a limited
task to perform, there is an adjourning stage.
 In this stage, the group prepares for its disbandment. Attention is directed toward
wrapping up activities.

 Responses of group members vary in this stage. Some are upbeat, basking in the
group’s accomplishments. Others may be depressed over the loss of camaraderie and
friendships.

Key Points & Critique of Five-Stage Model

Many assume that a group becomes more effective as it progresses through the first four
stages. While generally true, what makes a group effective is more complex. Under some
conditions, high levels of conflict are conducive to high group performance.

 Groups do not always proceed clearly from one stage to the next. Sometimes several
stages go on simultaneously, as when groups are storming and performing. Groups
even occasionally regress to previous stages.
 Another problem is that it ignores organizational context. For instance, a study of a
cockpit crew in an airliner found that, within ten minutes, three strangers assigned to
fly together for the first time had become a high-performing group.
 The strong organizational context provides the rules, task definitions, information,
and resources needed for the group to perform.

Group Properties

• Roles
• Norms
 • Status
• Size
• Cohesiveness

1. Roles

 All group members are actors, each playing a role.

 “A set of expected behaviour patterns attributed to someone occupying a given
position in a social unit.”
 We are required to play a number of diverse roles, both on and off our jobs. Many of
these roles are compatible; some create conflicts.
 Different groups impose different role requirements on individuals.

Role identity

 There are certain attitudes and actual behaviours consistent with a role, and they
create the role identity.
 People have the ability to shift roles rapidly when they recognize that the situation and
its demands clearly require major changes.

Role perception

One’s view of how one is supposed to act in a given situation is a role perception.

 We get these perceptions from stimuli all around us—friends, books, movies,
television.
 The primary reason that apprenticeship programs exist is to allow beginners to watch
an “expert,” so that they can learn to act as they are supposed to.

Role expectations

 How others believe you should act in a given situation

 How you behave is determined to a large extent by the role defined in the context in
which you are acting.
 When role expectations are concentrated into generalized categories, we have role
stereotypes.
 The psychological contract is an unwritten agreement that exists between employees
and their employer.

a. It sets out mutual expectations—what management expects from workers, and vice versa.

b. It defines the behavioural expectations that go with every role.

c. If role expectations as implied are not met, expect negative repercussions from the
offended party.

Role conflict
  “When an individual is confronted by divergent role expectations”
 It exists when compliance with one role requirement may make more difficult the
compliance with another.
 All of us have faced and will continue to face role conflicts. The critical issue is how
conflicts imposed by divergent expectations impact on behaviour.
 They increase internal tension and frustration.

2. Norms

All groups have norms—“acceptable standards of behaviour that are shared by the group’s
members.” Norms tell members what they ought and ought not to do under certain
circumstances.

 A work group’s norms are unique, yet there are still some common classes of norms.
 Performance norms are probably the most common class of norms.
 Appearance norms include things like appropriate dress, loyalty to the work group or
organization, when to look busy, and when it is acceptable to goof off.
 Social arrangement norms come from informal work groups and primarily regulate
social interactions within the group.
 Allocation of resources norms can originate in the group or in the organization.

4. Conformity

There is considerable evidence that groups can place strong pressures on individual members
to change their attitudes and behaviours to conform to the group’s standard.

Individuals conform to the important groups to which they belong or hope to belong.
However, all groups do not impose equal conformity pressures on their members. Important
groups are referred to as reference groups.

The reference group is characterized as one where the person is aware of the others; the
person defines himself or herself as a member, or would like to be a member; and the person
feels that the group members are significant to him/her.

Deviant Workplace Behavior

Voluntary behaviour that violates significant organizational norms and, in doing so, threatens
the well-being of the organization or its members

It is likely to flourish when:

 Supported by group norms

  People are in groups

3. Status

Status is a socially defined position or rank given to groups or group members by others. We
live in a class-structured society despite all attempts to make it more egalitarian.

Status characteristics theory – differences in status characteristics create status hierarchies

within groups.

Status derived from one of three sources: the power a person wields over others; a person’s
ability to contribute to group’s goals; individual’s personal characteristics.

Status and norms:

 High-status members of groups often are given more freedom to deviate from norms
than other group members.
 High-status people also are better able to resist conformity pressures.
 The previous findings explain why many star athletes, famous actors, top-performing
salespeople, and outstanding academics seem oblivious to appearance or social norms.

Status and Group Interaction

 Interaction is influenced by status

 High-status people tend to be assertive
 Status difference inhibit diversity of ideas & creativity
 Lower-status members tend to be less active

5. Status Inequity:

 When inequity is perceived, it creates disequilibrium that results in corrective

behaviour.
 The trappings of formal positions are also important elements in maintaining equity.
Employees expect what an individual has and receives to be congruent with his/her
status. For example: pay, office space, etc.
 Groups generally agree within themselves on status criteria.
 Individuals can find themselves in a conflict situation when they move between
groups whose status criteria are different or when they join groups whose members
have heterogeneous backgrounds

4. Size

The size of a group affects the group’s overall behaviour, but the effect depends on the
dependent variables.

Social loafing is the tendency for individuals to expend less effort when working collectively
than when working individually.

Causes of social loafing:

  A belief that others in the group are not carrying their fair share
 The dispersion of responsibility and the relationship between an individual’s input
and the group’s output is clouded.
 There will be a reduction in efficiency where individuals think that their contribution
cannot be measured.

Implications for OB:

Where managers utilize collective work situations to enhance morale and teamwork, they
must also provide means by which individual efforts can be identified.

It is not consistent with collective societies where individuals are motivated by in-group
goals. The Chinese and Israelis actually performed better in a group than when working
alone.

5. Cohesiveness

Groups differ in their cohesiveness, “the degree to which members are attracted to each other
and are motivated to stay in the group.”

Cohesiveness is important because it has been found to be related to the group’s productivity.

The relationship of cohesiveness and productivity depends on the performance-related norms

established by the group:

• If performance-related norms are high, a cohesive group will be more productive.

• If cohesiveness is high and performance norms are low, productivity will be low.

Group Decision Making

A. Group vs. the Individual

Strengths of group decision-making:

• Groups generate more complete information and knowledge.

• They offer increased diversity of views.

• This opens up the opportunity for more approaches and alternatives to be considered.

• The evidence indicates that a group will almost always outperform even the best
individual.

• Groups lead to increased acceptance of a solution.

Weaknesses of group decision-making:

• They are time consuming.

• There is a conformity pressure in groups.

• Group discussion can be dominated by one or a few members.

• Group decisions suffer from ambiguous responsibility.

Groupthink and Groupshift

Groupthink and groupshift are two by-products of group decision-making. Briefly, the
differences between the two are:

Groupthink is related to norms:

It describes situations in which group pressures for conformity deter the group from critically
appraising unusual, minority, or unpopular views.

Groupthink is a disease that attacks many groups and can dramatically hinder performance.

Groupshift

It indicates that, in discussing a given set of alternatives and arriving at a solution, group
members tend to exaggerate the initial positions that they held. In some situations, caution
dominates, and there is a conservative shift.

How to minimize groupthink:

 Encourage group leaders to play an impartial role.

 Appoint one group member to play the role of devil’s advocate.
 Utilize exercises that stimulate active discussion of diverse alternatives without
threatening the group and intensifying identity protection.

Implications of Groupshift:

• Recognize that group decisions exaggerate the initial position of the individual
members.
• The shift has been shown more often to be toward greater risk.

Group Decision-Making Techniques

1. Brainstorming:

It is meant to overcome pressures for conformity in the interacting group that retard the
development of creative alternatives.

In a typical brainstorming session, a half dozen to a dozen people sit around a table.

The process:
a. The group leader states the problem clearly.

b. Members then “free-wheel” as many alternatives as they can in a given length of time.

c. No criticism is allowed, and all the alternatives are recorded for later discussion and
analysis.

d. One idea stimulates others, and group members are encouraged to “think the unusual.”

2. The nominal group technique:

 Restricts discussion or interpersonal communication during the decision-making

process
 Group members are all physically present, but members operate independently.

Specifically, a problem is presented, and then the following steps take place:

a. Members meet as a group but, before any discussion takes place, each member
independently writes down his or her ideas on the problem.

b. After this silent period, each member presents one idea to the group. Each member takes
his or her turn.

c. The group now discusses the ideas for clarity and evaluates them.

d. Each group member silently and independently rank-orders the ideas.

e. The idea with the highest aggregate ranking determines the final decision.

3. Electronic meeting

The computer-assisted group or electronic meeting blends the nominal group technique with
sophisticated computer technology.

 Up to 50 people sit around a horseshoe-shaped table, empty except for a series of

computer terminals.
 Issues are presented to participants, and they type their responses onto their computer
screen.
 Individual comments, as well as aggregate votes, are displayed on a projection screen.
 The major advantages of electronic meetings are anonymity, honesty, and speed.

Teams in the workplace

Teams are growing in popularity because they typically outperform individuals, particularly
when the tasks being performed require multiple skills, judgment, and experience. Teams are
more flexible and responsive to changing events, as they have the capability to quickly
assemble, deploy, refocus, and disband. They are an effective means for management to
democratize their organizations and increase employee motivation.

Difference between Group and Team

It is important to note that groups and teams are not the same. A group is two or more
individuals, interacting and interdependent, who have come together to achieve particular
objectives. A work group is a group that interacts primarily to share information and to make
decisions to help each member perform within his or her area of responsibility. In contrast, a
work team generates positive synergy through coordinated effort. Members’ individual
efforts result in a level of performance that is greater than the sum of those individual inputs.

Types of Teams

Types of teams include:

Problem-solving teams (where members share ideas or offer suggestions on how work
processes and methods can be improved)

Self-managed teams (groups of employees who perform highly related or interdependent jobs
and take on many of the responsibilities of their former supervisors)

Cross-functional teams (teams made up of employees from about the same hierarchical level,
but from different work areas, who come together to accomplish a task)

Virtual teams (teams that use computer technology to tie together physically dispersed
members in order to achieve a common goal).

Quality Circle

A group of employees who perform similar duties and meet at periodic intervals, often with
management, to discuss work-related issues and to offer suggestions and ideas for
improvements, as in production methods or quality control, called quality circle.

Therefore quality circle is nothing but a small group of employees who come together to
discuss with the management issues related to either quality control or improvement in
production methods form a Quality Control Circle (QCC). These employees usually work in
the same areas, and voluntarily meet on a regular basis to identify, analyse and solve their
problems.

Key Characteristics of quality circle:

• A circle, usually consisting of 6-8 members, from the same section.

• Membership of a Quality Circle is voluntary.

• Circle members should meet regularly, ideally once a week, in particular place also in
particular time.

• Circle members select a name for their circle in the first meeting and elect a leader to
conduct the meetings.

• Members are specially trained in problem solving and analysis techniques in order to play
their role effectively.

• Circle works on a systematic basis to identify and solve work – related problems for
improving quality and productivity not just discussing them.

• The management must ensure that solutions are implemented quickly once they have been
accepted

• The management must give appropriate and proper recognition to solution