Midterm 2 OB Chapter 7

What are groups?

What are groups?

Groups have:

• 2+ people

• working on a common goal

• interdependence and interaction

What are the two different types of groups?

Informal Groups - Groups created naturally due to common interest and goals

Formal Groups - Groups made by the organization

What is the 5 step group development process?

1. Forming → introductions

2. Storming → conflict emerges, sorting out roles

3. Norming → regulations set

4. Performing → goal worked towards

5. Adjourning → groups disperse, expressing emotional support for one another

What is group development model created by deadlines?

Punctuated Equilibrium Model

1. Phase I → little progress but contains all the forming, storming and norming qualities

2. Midpoint transition → INFLUENCES PERFORMANCE, halfway before deadline, the approach switches and there is a need to move forward

3. Phase II → midpoint behaviour gets played out so goal can be met, may be a new cycle of storming/norming after the transition

If midpoint transition is unsuccessful then low performance.

What are the 4 different types of tasks in groups?

• Additive → whole sum of performance matters, e.x. building a house

• Disjunctive → best contributor matters, e.x. a mathlete team, or a relay team

• Conjunctive → worst contributor matters because all group members must contribute to end product, e.x. an assembly line

• Compensatory → performance is limited by the average performance of every member, e.x. gymnastics or a group presentation

What are the 2 Different types of groups?

Homogeneous groups: better for simple, sequential, quickly done tasks needing cooperation

Heterogeneous groups: better for complex, collective, creative task that are not fast

What are the 4 different components Group Process Gains?

Norms, roles, status, and cohesiveness

What are Norms?

Collective expectations that influence ones behaviour in a group

e.x. dress norms, reward allocation norms (equity, equality, reciprocity, and social responsibility), performance

What are Roles?

”Packages” of norms - both assigned and emergent roles.

What is role ambiguity and what are the 3 causes of it?

• Organizations → cause roles to seem ambiguous due to the function in organization

• Role senders → ineffective communication to focal person and unclear expectations

• Focal people → may not properly understand, ambiguity decreases over time

What are 4 types of role conflict?

• Intrasender → incompatible role expectations to occupant from sender

  • e.x. manager says take it easy but gives more work

• Intersender → 2 different expectations from role senders

• Interrole → multiple roles held by a single person are incompatible

• Person-role → incompatible personality or skills

What is status and what are the two types of it?

Represents group’s evaluation of members, people respect status, paradoxical effect on communication

Formal (status symbols which can be motivating/reinforce hierarchy)

Informal (performance based - can be linked to gender or race) status systems

What is Group Cohesiveness and what is it affected by?

Desire to remain in a group as a result of it’s attractiveness

Affected by:

• threat and competition (balanced and not extreme),

• success,

• diversity,

• size (bigger is less cohesive),

• toughness of initiation (more attractive)

What does High/low group Cohesiveness lead to?

• High cohesiveness → each person has similar productivity which will only be productive if organizational norm is accepted, best with high task interdependence

• Can cause more participation, more conformity, more success (reciprocal relationship) - they are good at accomplishing their own goals but they might not align to organizational goals

• Less → more variation in productivity

What are 4 Group Process loses?

• Social loafing

• Cognitive process loss

• Coordination Process loss

• Group conformity pressures

What is Social Loading and its 2 forms?

Withholding physical/intellectual effort when performing a task - motivational problem.

• Form 1: Free rider effect → lowering effort to get a free ride

• Form 2: Sucker effect → lower effort because others are free riding

How do you reduce social loafing?

• hi-lighting individual performance

• interesting work

• indispensability

• feedback and group performance reward

What is Cognitive process loss and what are 2 reasons it happens?

Cognitive process loss - loss of information sharing: influenced by task characteristics, group structure, status of members and norms.

• Production blocking → not getting a chance to speak, waiting on others and having to perform other tasks which reduce creativity

• Evaluation apprehension → fear of judgement from others

What are 2 types of group conformity pressures?

• Groupthink → flawed group process because of strong conformity pressure resulting in poor decisions

• Group polarization → group discussion polarizes or exaggerates initial position of group

What are effective teams and what 6 characteristics do they have?

They are: creating acceptable outputs, members’ needs are satisfied, members continue to work together

• Psychological safety → every member feels safe to take social risks

• Team reflexivity → teams should discuss team processes and goals and establish clear communication

• Shared mental models → teams members share similar information about how they should interact and what their task it

• Capacity to improvise,

• collective efficacy (shared belief of success),

• team resilience

What are self-managed teams?

Groups that that complete tasks under reduced supervision

What are the 4 things to consider when designing a self-managed team?

o   Stability – membership is stable to ensure trust and cohesiveness

o   Size – to sustain demand, teams should be as small but allow for flexibility

o   Expertise – member should have high level of expertise to reduce supervision

o   Diversity – members should be similar enough to cohesively work but diverse to possess varying perspectives

what are the 3 ways to support self managed teams?

o   Training – technical, social, language, and business training

o   Rewards – team rewards rather than individual to counteract social loafing

o   Management – ensuring managers don’t feel threatening by their reduction of power

What are Cross-Function teams and why are they effective?

Groups that consist of individuals from varying functional specialties to better invent, design, and/or deliver goods/services

• Effectiveness? Diverse composition, superordinate goals, physical proximity, autonomy, rules/procedure, leadership

  • Superordinate Goals? Attractive outcomes that are reached via collaboration

What are Virtual teams and what are their advantages?

Groups that utilize technology to communicate and collaborate throughout the duration of group development

• Advantages? Around the clock hours, reduced travel cost, greater potential for talent