Organizational Behavior I as part of the XLRI VIL Syllabus The areas captured are relevant in today's context at the workplace. The concepts and applications delve on people, organization, structure and how behavior of employees and leaders in organizations bring efficiency and effectivity.

1. Foundations of Group Behavior
Shivkumar Menon

2. Learning Objectives
Define Group & distinguish different groups
Different Stages of Group Development
Group Properties: Roles, Norms, Status, Size, Cohesiveness,
Diversity
Group Decision making, Strengths and Weaknesses
Effectiveness of interacting, brainstorming, nominal &
electronic meeting groups

3. Define Group
“two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent who have come together to achieve
particular objectives”
Types of Groups
Formal Groups
Groups formed with designated work assignments
establishing tasks. Behavior of formal groups are directed by
organizational goals
Informal Groups Not formally structured and a natural formation out of need
for social contact
Social Identity Theory
It proposes that people have emotional reactions to the failure or success of their
groups because their self esteem gets tied into the groups’ performance. People
develop a lot of identities in the form of organization, family, friends and environment
and their self esteem gets linked to the social identity

4. Stages of Group Development
The Five Stage Model

5. Temporary Groups – Punctuated
Equilibrium Model
Temporary groups do not follow the same sequence and form their own sequences.
1st Meeting – Sets the group’s direction
2nd Meeting - inertia sets in the first phase of group activity
3rd Meeting – transition takes place when the group has taken up more than half
of their allotted time
4th Meeting – this transition initiates major changes
5th Meeting – a second phase of inertia sets in after the transition
6th meeting – frenzied activity to complete tasks

6. Group Properties: Roles, Norms,
Status, Size, Cohesiveness &
Diversity
Work groups have different properties and individual behavior within the group as well
as the performance of the group itself is shaped by these properties.
Roles – Our view of how we are supposed to act in a given situation is driven by role
perception, role expectations and role conflicts, where in role perception is an
individual’s perception of the behavior expected in his role, Role expectation is the
expectation of other employees from an individual in a given role and Role
Conflicts is the conflict which employees face when they play different roles in the
organization as well as outside the organization which have direct conflict
Norms – Groups have established norms of behavior. Most of these norms are
unwritten and not formal ones, but they are meticulously followed by members in
the group.
Conformity to group norms and pressures applied on group members to conform to
these norms.
Deviant workplace behavior is another common organizational norm which gets
violated often in organizations.

7. Group Properties: Roles, Norms,
Status, Size, Cohesiveness &
Diversity
Status – Higher status individuals are often given more freedom to deviate from
norms than other group members. Hence status tends to get derived from one of
the three sources: power a person wields over others, person’s ability to contribute
to a group’s goals, an individual’s personal characteristics
Size – size of the group also affects group behavior. Social loafing is the tendency
for individuals to expend less effort when working collectively than alone. Research
proves that the productivity of the group is not equal to the sum of the productivity
of the individuals in the group.
Cohesiveness – the degree to which members are attracted to each other and
motivated to stay in the group. High Cohesiveness and high performance norms
brings high productivity, but if cohesiveness is high & performance norms are low,
than productivity will also be low.
At the same time, if cohesiveness is low and performance norms are high,
productivity will be high even though it may not be to the scale of high cohesive
and high performance norm group.

8. Group Properties: Roles, Norms,
Status, Size, Cohesiveness &
Diversity
Diversity- research points at benefits as well as costs from group diversity. When
the group is very diverse, the surface level characteristics can take over and
influence group behavior and bring group conflict especially in the early stages of a
group’s tenure. Tenure diversity has no direct impact on performance if human
resource practices are in place.
But the difference is in the leaders who can get the group to focus on the task at
hand and encourage group learning.

9. Group Decision making
Strengths Weaknesses
More complete information &
knowledge
More inputs and heterogeneity in
the decision making process
Increased diversity of view
Bias is eliminated or reduced
Acceptance of a solution is by
consensus
More time consuming
Conformity pressures present
Minority representation and
opinions are very often not put
forth and if put forth are not
entertained
High status individuals or
assertive individuals will dominate
the decision making process

10. Byproducts of group
decision making
GGrroouupp TThhiinnkk
This relates to norms. It describes situations in which group pressures for conformity
deter the group from critically appraising unusual, minority or unpopular views. This
can dramatically hinder the performance of even strong groups
GGrroouupp SShhiifftt
This describes the manner in which group members tend to exaggerate the initial
positions they hold, when discussing a given set of alternatives and arriving at a
solution.
Conservatives tend to get more conservative and the aggressive types get more risky.

11. Understanding Work Teams

12. Learning Objectives
a. GROWING POPULARITY OF TEAMS IN ORGANIZATIONS
b. CONTRAST GROUPS AND TEAMS
c. COMPARE AND CONTRAST 4 TYPES OF TEAMS
d. CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE TEAMS
e. HOW ORGANIZATIONS CAN CREATE TEAM PLAYERS
f. WHEN TO USE INDIVIDUALS INSTEAD OF TEAMS

13. Differences between
Groups & Teams
Groups and teams are not the same
thing.
Difference between Groups & Teams
A group that interacts primarily to share information and make
decisions to help each member perform within his or her area
of responsibility.
No need/opportunity to engage in collective work that requires
joint effort & hence performance is a summation of each group
member’s individual contribution
Work Groups
Work Team
A work team generates positive synergy through coordinated
efforts. Individual efforts result in a level of performance
greater than the sum of those individual inputs.
Extensive use of teams creates the potential for an
organization to generate greater outputs with no increase in
inputs

14. Types of Teams
Teams can make products, negotiate deals, coordinate projects, offer advice and
make decisions
Problem Solving Teams: teams typically composing of 5 to12 hourly employees from
the same department who meet for a few hours each week to discuss ways of
improving quality, efficiency and the work environment.
Rarely have the authority to unilaterally implement any of the suggestions.
Self Managed Work Teams: teams that not only solve problems but implement
solutions and take responsibility for outcomes. Self Managed Teams are groups of
employees who perform highly related or interdependent jobs & take on many of the
responsibilities of their former supervisors.
They do not manage conflicts well. When disputes arise, members stop cooperating
& power struggles ensue, which leads to lower group performance

15. Types of Teams
Cross Functional Teams: made up of employees from about the same hierarchical
level but different work areas, who come together to accomplish a task.
Their early stages, of development are often long, as members learn to work with
diversity and complexity. It takes time to build trust and teamwork, especially
among people from different backgrounds with different experiences and
perspectives.
Virtual Teams: use computer technology to unite physically dispersed members and
achieve a common goal.
Despite their ubiquity virtual teams face special challenges. They may suffer because
there is less social rapport and direct interaction among members.

16. Characteristics of effective
teams
Team Effectiveness Model
Context
Adequate Resources
Leadership & Structure
Climate of trust
Performance evaluation
Reward Systems
Composition
Abilities of members
Personality
Allocating Roles
Diversity
Size of Teams
Member flexibility
Member Preferences
Process
Common Purpose
Specific Goals
Team Efficacy
Conflict Levels
Social Loafing
Team
Effectiveness

17. How organizations create
team players
How can organizations enhance team effectiveness – to turn individual contributors into team
members?
Selection : Hiring Team Players
Training : Creating Team Players
Rewarding : Providing Incentives to a good team player
Teamwork takes more time and often more resources than individual work. They have
increased communication demands, conflicts to manager and meetings to run.
Benefits of using teams have to exceed the costs and hence before we rush to implement
teams, careful assessment whether the work requires or will benefit from a collective effort is
imperative.
3 tests to be applied to evaluate and decide the efficacy of having a team in place of
individuals.
i.Complexity of work and the need for different perspectives
ii.Does the work create a common purpose or set of goals for the people in the group that is
more than the aggregate of the individual goals
iii.Are the members of the group are interdependent? Success of each one depends on the
success of others

18. Thank you