Groups

Define groups

Two or more people interacting interdependently to achieve a common goal. All groups must have vision, mission, goals, strategy, and implementation steps.

Differentiate between formal vs informal groups

Formal: established (intentionally designed) by organizations to facilitate the achievement of organizational goals

Informal: emerge naturally due to common interests

Why do we form groups

1. Groups can be important means into achieving a desired outcome

2. Groups can be a desirable outcome themselves

3. Similar people are often attracted to each other

Typical stages of group model

1. Groups develops through stages over time

2. Each stage presents members with a series of challenges they must master in order to achieve the next stage (prepotency, satisfaction progression)

3. Groups can vary in terms of how quickly they walk through the stages

Five stage model of groups

1. Forming: What are we doing here?

• Groups first come together and collect data and information about each other

2. Storming: Conflicts emerge, responsibilities and roles need to be sorted

3. Norming: Norms are agreed on and the group becomes more cohesive

4. Performing: Group devotes its energies toward task accomplishment

5. Adjourning: Group disperses after achieving goals (goodbye)

   
   

Practical learnings from the stage model

1. Good tool for monitoring and troubleshooting how groups are developing

2. Very helpful for new groups to understand process of developing together

3. Well-acquainted task forces and committees can short-circuit these stages when they have a problem to work out 

4. Storming and norming may not be necessary for some organizational settings that are highly structured

What is the punctuated equilibrium model

A model of group development that describes how groups with deadlines are affected by their first meetings and crucial midpoint transitions

In other words, describe how time affects group performance

Describe the punctuated equilibrium model

1. Phase 1: First meeting to midpoint of existence. Groupmates are gathering information, nice to each other, not a lot of progress is made

2. Midpoint transition: Need to move forward, state of urgency (different for every person)

3. Phase 2: Decisions and approaches are played out

Practical learnings from the punctuated equilibrium model

1. Prepare carefully for the first meeting

2. As long as people are working, do not look for radical progress during phase 1

3. Manage midpoint transition carefully

4. Be sure that adequate resources are available prior to phase 2

5. Resist deadline changes

What are the four most important components leading to effective group structure

1. Size

2. Diversity of group membership

3. Norms

4. Roles

What is the size of the group? What is group size dependent on?

Size refers to the amount of people on a team. The size of a group depends on the task.

Define additive, disjunctive, conjunctive task and how it relates to group size

• Additive task (positive — positive): group performance is dependent on the sum of the performance of individual group members, function of number of individual group members (ex. house renovation)

• Disjunctive task (positive — positive): group performance is dependent on the performance of the best group member (ex. research team) — bringing in many people to increase probability of having best member

• Conjunctive task (positive — negative): group performance is limited by the performance of the poorest group member (assembly line formation!)

Define actual performance

actual performance = potential performance — process losses (laziness, difference in value, stress management issues) —> as groups become larger, they suffer from process losses

Discuss diversity of group in effective group structure

Diverse groups might take longer to do their forming, storming, and norming

Diverse groups sometimes perform better when the task requires cognitive, creativity-demanding work and problem solving rather than routine work (diverse teams should not be put on routine tasks)

Deep diversity vs surface diversity

Deep diversity takes longer to communicate

Differentiate norms and rules

Norms: Informal, not stated, acceptable behaviour and standards

Rules: formal, usually stated that defines what is acceptable and expected

What are the four norms seen in organizations?

1. Dress norms: clothing, tattoos, piercing, haircut

2. Reward allocation norms:

• Equity norm: reward according to input/output

• Equality norm: reward everyone equally

• Reciprocity norm: reward based on what you do for them

• Social responsibility norm: reward those who truly needs it

3. Performance norms: definition of hardwork

4. Social interaction: how you behave in settings outside of work (how you behave at conferences, acceptable drinking behaviour, etc.)

Define roles

positions in a group that have a set of expected behaviours attached to them

Issues with roles

1. Role ambiguity: unclear expectations

2. Role conflict: incompatible role combinations

3. Status effect: status barrier that inhibits communication

Consequences to issues with roles

Job dissatisfaction, lower commitment, increased stress, increased turnover

Define group cohesiveness

The degree to which a group is especially attractive to its members

Factors that increase cohesiveness

• Threat and competition

• Success

• Member diversity

• Size

• Toughness of inititian

Consequences of cohesiveness

• More participation in group activities

• More conformity

• More success

  • Reciprocal relationship

  • Individual performance is similar

Define social loafing

Tendency to withhold physical and intellectual effort when performing group tasks

Members exert less effort when working in teams than working alone

Discuss ways to counteract social loafing

• Make individual performance more visible

• Make sure the work is interesting

• Increase feelings of indispensability

• Increase performance feedback

• Reward group performance

Define groupthink

The capacity for group pressure to damage the mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment of decision making group

Develops because of too much cohesiveness, concern for approval and isolation of the group