Defining and classifying groups

• Group: two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent, who have come together to achieve particular objectives.

• Formal group: designated work group defined by an organization’s structure.

• Informal group: group that is neither formally structured nor organizationally determined, such a group appears in response to the need for social contact.

• Why do people form groups?

  • Social identity theory: perspective that considers when and why individuals consider themselves members of groups.

  • In-group favoritism: perspective in which we see members of our in-group as better than other people and not people in our group as all the same.

Stages of group development

• Five-stage group-development model: five distinct stages groups go through; forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning.

  • Forming stage: first stage in group development characterized by much uncertainty.

  • Storming stage: second stage in group development characterized by intra-group conflict.

  • Norming stage: third stage in group development characterized by close relationships and cohesiveness.

  • Performing stage: fourth stage in group development, during which the group is fully functional.

  • Adjourning stage: final stage in group development for temporary groups, characterized by concern with wrapping up activities rather than task performance.

• Alternative model for temporary groups with deadlines

  • Punctuated-equilibrium model: set of phases that temporary groups go through that involves transitions between inertia and activity.

Group properties: roles, norms, status, size, cohesiveness and diversity

• Group property 1: roles

  • Role: set of expected behavior patterns attributed to someone occupying a given position in a social unit.

  • Role perception: individual’s view of how he/she is supposed to act in a given situation.

  • Role expectations: how other believe a person should act in a given situation.

  • Psychological contract: unwritten agreement that sets out what management expects from an employee and vice versa.

  • Role conflict: situation in which an individual is confronted by divergent role expectations.

• Group property 2: norms

  • Norms: acceptable standards of behavior within a group that are shared by the groups members.

  • Performance norms: level of output, time constraints.

  • Appearance norms: dress code.

  • Social arrangement norms: ability to form friendships within the workplace.

  • Resource allocation norms: assignment of challenging jobs.

  • The Hawthorne Studies concluded that the performance of individuals within the workplace is strongly influenced by work norms.

  • Conformity: phenomenon of adjusting the behavior of an individual to align with the norms of the group.

  • Reference groups: significant groups to which individuals belong or wish to belong and with whose work norms individuals are willing to conform.

  • Deviant workplace behavior: voluntary behavior that violates significantly organizational norms.

• Group property 3: status

  • Status characteristics theory: theory which states that differences in status characteristics create status hierarchies within groups.

• Group property 4: size

  • Social loafing: tendency of individuals to extend less effort when they work collectively, then when they work individually.

• Group property 5: cohesiveness

  • Cohesiveness: degree to which group members are attracted to each other and are motivated to stay in the group.

• Group property 6: diversity

  • Diversity: extent to which members of a group are similar to, or different from another.

Group decision-making

• Groupthink: phenomenon in which norm for consensus overrides the realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action.

• Group-shift: phenomenon of changing the level of risk of a decision towards greater risk/conservatism.

• Group decision making techniques

  • Interacting groups: typical groups in which members interact with each other face-to-face.

  • Brainstorming: idea-generation process that specifically encourages any and all alternatives while withholding any criticism of those alternatives.

  • Nominal group technique: group decision-making method in which individual members meet face-to-face to pool their judgements in a systematic but independent fashion.