Chapter Three

Foundation of
Group Behaviour
One of the truly remarkable things

about work groups is that they can

make 2+2=5.

Of course, they also have the

capability of making 2+2=3.

— S.P.R.
 Defining and Classifying Groups

• 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.
– Informal groups: alliances that are neither formally
structured nor organizationally determined.
 Four Types of Groups

Formal Group Informal Group

Command – determined by the  Interest – affiliate to attain a
organization chart specific objective of shared
Task – working together to interest
complete a job task  Friendship – members have
• It can cross command one or more common
relationships characteristics
 Examples: Types of Groups

• Group of 15 management department instructors and 1

coordinator.

• Hawassa University CBE discipline committee members.

• 35 employees of BGI Ethiopia organized for asking improved

working condition and increased pay.

• 200 employees from government offices who watch football

games and support Arsenal Football club.

 Why Do People Join Groups?
• Security:
– individuals can reduce the insecurity of “standing alone.”
– People feel stronger, have fewer self-doubts, and are more
resistant to threats when they are part of a group.
• Status:
– Inclusion in a group that is viewed as important by others
provides recognition and status for its members.
• Self-Esteem:
– Groups can provide people with feelings of self-worth.
– membership can also give increased feelings of worth to the
group members themselves.
 Cont…
• Affiliation:
– Groups can fulfill social needs.
– People enjoy the regular interaction that comes with group
membership.
• Power:
– What cannot be achieved individually often becomes possible
through group action.
– There is power in numbers.
• Goal Achievement:
– when it takes more than one person to accomplish a particular
task — there is a need to pool talents, knowledge, or power in
order to complete a job.
– management will rely on the use of a formal group.
 t l • G
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Five Stages of Group Development

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 Stop!
• Which stage of group development needs high
degree of guidance from the manager? Why?
 Stages of Group Development

Prestage I Stage I Forming Stage II Storming

Stage III Stage IV Stage V

Norming Performing Adjourning
 Key Points & Critique of Five-Stage Model
• Group Effectiveness:
– Generally groups are more effective as they progress
• Group Conflict:
– Some groups need conflict, most productive in Stage II than in
Stages III or IV
• Blurred Stages:
– Stages not always sequential
– Multiple stages may be taken simultaneously
– Groups may regress into early stages at some point in the process.
 Understanding work-related behavior:
– it ignores organizational context
 Work Group Behavior

• Work Group
– A group that interacts primarily to share information and to
make decisions to help each group member perform within his
or her area of responsibility.
• Work group behavior is affected by:
– External conditions
– Group member resources
– Group structure
– Group processes
– Group task
 These factors can help:

 To explain and predict behavior within the group and the

performance of the group itself.
Work Group Behavior Model
 1. External Conditions imposed on the Group
• Overall Organizational Strategy
– will influence the power of
various work groups
– determine the resources that the
organization’s top management is
willing to allocate to it for
performing its tasks
• Authority Structures
– determines where a given work
group is placed in the
organization’s hierarchy, the
formal leader of the group, and
formal relationships between
groups.
• Human Resource Selection
Process
– its selection process will
determine the kinds of people
that will be in its work
groups.
• Evaluation and Reward
System
– group members’ behavior
will be influenced by how the
organization evaluates
performance and what
behaviors are rewarded.
 Cont…
• Formal Regulations
• Organizational Culture
– Help to make the behavior of
– Unwritten culture that
work group members to be
defines standards of
consistent and predictable.
• Organizational Resources acceptable and
unacceptable behavior for
– The presence or absence of
employees.
resources which are allocated
to the group by the • Physical Work Setting
organization have a large – Create both barriers and
bearing on the group’s opportunities for work
behavior. group interaction
 2. Group Member Resources

• Ability and Personality characteristics are basic group member

resources.
• Abilities

– Group’s performance can be predicted by assessing the task-

relevant and intellectual abilities of its individual members.
 Personality Characteristics
 Include traits such as sociability, self-reliance, and independence.
 Affect group performance by strongly influencing how the
individual will interact with other group members.
 3. Group Structure

• Consists of the following:

– Role
– Norm
– Status
– Size
– Composition and
– Cohesiveness
 Group Structure One: Role
• Role: the set of expected behavior patterns that are attributed to
occupying a given position in a social unit.

– Role identity - ability to shift roles rapidly when they recognize

that the situation and its demands clearly require major changes

– Role perception – our view of how we’re supposed to act in a

given situation
– Role expectations – how others believe you should act in a given
situation
– Role conflict – conflict experienced when multiple roles are
incompatible
 Group Structure Two: Norm
• Norm
– Acceptable standards of behavior within a group that are
shared by the group’s members
– What makes a norm important?
• it facilitates the group’s survival
• it increases the predictability of group members’
behaviors
• it reduces embarrassing interpersonal problems for group
members
• encourage expression of the group’s values and distinctive
identity help to solidify and maintain the group.
 Group Structure Three: Status

• Status- A socially defined position or rank given to groups or group

members by others

• Determined by;
– The power a person wields over others
– A person’s ability to contribute to a group’s goals
– An individual’s personal characteristics
 Important factor in understanding human behavior because;
– it is a significant motivator and has major behavioral
consequences when individuals perceive a disparity between what
they believe their status to be and what others perceive it to be.
 Status and Norms

• High-status members;
– Often have more freedom to deviate from norms
– Are better able to resist conformity pressures

• Interaction among members of groups is influenced by

status;
– High status people are more assertive
– Low status members may not participate
– Group creativity may suffer
 Group Structure Four: Size

• Size is important factor in group behavior as well and affects the

group’s overall behavior.
– Smaller groups are faster at completing tasks – members
perform better
– Large groups are consistently better at problem solving
• Some detrimental behaviors that can occur around group size
– Social loafing
 Social Loafing
 Social loafing: the tendency for individuals to expend less effort
when working collectively than alone.
Cause Prevention
 Equity theory – unequal  Set group goals
distribution of work  Increase inter-group
 Dispersion of responsibility – competition
clouds the relationship  Engage in peer evaluation
between individual inputs and  Select members who have
group output. high motivation and like to
work in groups
 Distribute group rewards
based on members’ individual
contributions
 Group Structure Five: Composition

• Composition: the degree to which members of the group are

similar to, or different from, one another
– Cultural
– Demographic
Racial
Gender

• Composition increases group conflict, but may improve group

performance in the long term.
 Group Structure Six: Cohesiveness

• Cohesiveness: The degree to which members of the group are

attracted to each other and motivated to stay in the group.
• Some work groups are cohesive because the members have spent
a great deal of time together, the group’s small size or purpose
facilitates high interaction, or external threats have brought
members close together.
– Performance-related norms are the moderating variable for
productivity and cohesiveness
– High cohesiveness with high norms gives higher productivity.
Relationship Between Group Cohesiveness, Norms and Productivity
 Encouraging Cohesiveness

1. Make the group smaller

2. Encourage agreement with group goals

3. Increase the time spent together

4. Increase the perceived status the group

5. Stimulate competition with other groups

6. Give rewards to the group rather than to individual members

7. Physically isolate the group

 4. Group Process
• Work Group Process refers the communication patterns used
by members for information exchanges, group decision
processes, leader behavior, power dynamics, conflict
interactions, and the like.
• Concepts of “Synergy & Social Facilitation Effect” can be used
to better understanding group process;
– Synergy refers to an action of two or more substances that
result in an effect that is different from the individual
summation of the substances.
• Positive synergy-process gains exceed their process losses
• Negative synergy-Social loafing
Effects of Group Process
 5. Group Task

• Tasks can be generalized as either simple or complex.

– Complex tasks - are ones that tend to be novel or non routine.
– Simple tasks - are routine and standardized.
• So the group size-performance relationship is moderated by the
group’s task requirements.
• Complexity and interdependence of tasks influence the group’s
effectiveness.
 3.5 Group Decision Making

Strength Weakness
Generate more complete Takes longer
information and knowledge Conformity pressures
Increased diversity of views Discussions can be dominated
Increased acceptance of a by one or a few members
solution Ambiguous responsibility for
the final outcome
 Decision Making Effectiveness and Efficiency

• Effectiveness:
– Accuracy – group is better than average individual but worse
than most accurate group member
– Speed – individuals are faster
– Creativity – groups are better
– Degree of Acceptance – groups are better

• Efficiency:
– Groups are generally less efficient
 Groupthink and Groupshift

• Are the two by-products of group decision making

• Received a considerable amount of attention by
researchers in OB.
• Have the potential to affect the group’s ability to;
– consider alternatives objectively and

– arrive at quality decision solutions.

 Groupthink Symptoms

 Groupthink: A deterioration of individual’s mental

efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgments as a result of
group pressures.
 Occurs when members:
 Rationalize away resistance to assumptions
 Pressure doubters to support the majority
 Doubters keep silent/minimize their misgivings
 Interprets silence as a “yes” vote
 Ways to Minimize Groupthink

• Limit group size (≤10)

• Encourage group leaders to actively seek input from all members
and avoid expressing their own opinions
• Appoint a “devil’s advocate”- someone who is always trying to
look at things from a different perspective
 Groupshift

• Groupshift - indicates that in discussing a given set of

alternatives and arriving at a solution, group members tend to
exaggerate the initial positions that they hold.
• In some situations;
– carefulness dominates, and there is a conservative shift
– More often evidence indicates that groups tend toward a risky
shift
 3.6 Summary and Implications for Managers

• Positive relationship between role perception and performance

evaluation
• Norms control performance by establishing right and wrong
• Status inequities adversely impact productivity and performance
• Group size impacts effectiveness
• Cohesiveness can influence productivity
• Employee satisfaction is correlated with how well the employee’s
perception of the job matches the boss’s perception of the job
• Employee satisfaction is higher when the job minimizes interaction
with employees at lower levels
• Larger groups are associated with lower satisfaction