Dr. Ravinarayana K.S.

GROUP FORMATION- ITS NATURE & STAGES

WHAT IS THE GROUPS?
 A group is a collection of two or more people
who work with one another regularly to achieve
common goals.
– Help organizations accomplish important tasks.

– Help to maintain a high-quality workforce by

satisfying members’ needs
NATURE OF GROUPS IN ORGANIZATIONS

1) Effective groups achieve high levels of:

– Task performance. • Members attain performance
goals regarding quantity, quality, and timeliness
of work results. – Members satisfaction. •
Members believe that their participation an
experiences are positive and meet important
personal needs. – Team viability. • Members are
sufficiently satisfied to continue working
together on an ongoing basis.
2) SYNERGY.
 – Effective groups offer synergy. – With synergy,
groups accomplish more than the total of the
members’ individual capabilities. – Synergy is
necessary for organizations to compete
effectively and achieve long-term high
performance
3) SOCIAL LOAFING AS A PERFORMANCE PROBLEM.

 – Social loafing is the tendency of people to work

less hard in a group than they would individually.
–
 Reasons for social loafing. • Individual
contributions are less noticeable in the group
context. • Some individuals prefer to see others
carry the workload.
– WAYS OF PREVENTING SOCIAL LOAFING.
 • Define member roles and tasks to maximize
individual interests.
 • Link individual rewards to performance
contributions to the group.
 • Raise accountability by identifying individuals’
performance contributions to the group.
4) SOCIAL FACILITATION AS A PERFORMANCE PROBLEM.

 – Social facilitation. • The tendency for a

person’s behavior to be influenced by the
presence of others.
 • Positively affects performance when a person is
proficient on the task.
 • Negatively affects task performance when the
task is not well-learned.
 A group or team passes through five lifecycle
stages. – Forming. – Storming. – Norming. –
Performing. – Adjourning.
FORMING STAGE.
 – Initial entry of members to a group. – Members
concern’s include: • Getting to know each other. •
Discovering what is considered acceptable
behavior. • Determining the group’s real task. •
Defining group rules.
STORMING STAGE.
 – A period of high emotionality and tension
among group members.
 – Members concern’s include: • Formation of
cliques and small sub groups.
 • Dealing with outside demands.
 • Understanding members’ interpersonal styles.
 • The disagreements are also expressed.
NORMING STAGE.
 – The point at which the group really begins to
come together as a coordinated unit. – Members
concern’s include: • Holding the group together.
 • The disagreement among the group members
are solved.
 • The group will set norm, understand the goal of
group in order to achieve group effectiveness.
PERFORMING STAGE.
 – Members are highly committed to the
achievement of group goals. – High coordination
among the group members to perform activities
in the group. – Primary challenge is to continue
to improve relationships and performance.
ADJOURNING STAGE.
 – Particularly important for temporary groups. –
A well-integrated group is: • Able to disband
when its work is finished. • Willing to work
together in the future.