UNIT 2. INDIVIDUAL
BEHAVIOR AND GROUP
DYNAMICS
PartI.IndividualBehaviors
2.1.1 factorsinfluencing individualdifference
2.1.1 Personality concepts andtypes
2.1.3 determinatesof personality
2.1.4 models of men
2.1.5concepts of perception
2.1.6 Concepts of attitude
Part II. Group Dynamics
2.2.1 Group Dynamics, group structure
2.2.2 Group Cohesiveness & Performance
2.2.3 Understanding Work Teams
By: Getachew Gobena (Asst. Prof.)

PART I. Individual
behavior
 Behavior refers to the response made by the
individual. The response may be the result of
influence of external factors.
 The external factor is termed as stimulus
and the action taken by the individual is
known as response.
 Both heredity and environment determine
the behavior of an individual.
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Factors Influencing Individual
Difference
 Demographic Factors
 Ability and Skills
 Perception
 Attitude
 Personality
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 It is the ways in which people differ
from each other
 Individual difference may be grouped
into two categories: personality
differences and difference in ability
 Everybody wants to understand others
behavior. Understanding others
behavior help the persons to influence
them.
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What is Individual Difference?

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Individual Difference …
With Whom You Want to Work?
Low
Low
High
High
Others Acceptance of My
Personality (P)
Others
Acceptance
of
My
Capacity
(C)
C X P X
C X
C X P √
C √ P X P √
C √

Individual Difference …
• Before we understand others, we need to
understand ourselves – self-awareness.
Each individual has four sets of personality
characteristics.
• One set, which includes such characteristics as working
hard, the individual is well aware of and so are others.
• A second set is unknown is unknown to the individual but
obvious to others.
– For e.g. in a working situation a peer might observe that your
jumping in to get the group moving off dead center is
appropriate. At other times, you jump in when the group is not
really finished, and you seem to interrupt.
• A third set is known to the individual but not others. These
are situations that you have elected not to share, perhaps
because of a lack of trust.
• Finally, there is a fourth set, which is not known to the
individual or to others, such as why you are uncomfortable
at office parties.
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Self-awareness & Understanding Others
Other
Persons’
Perceptions
Things Others
Do not Know
About Me
Things Others
Know About
Me
Things I Know
About Myself
Things I Do not
Know About Myself
My Own Perceptions
The Open Self
Characteristics
Apparent to me
& to Others
The Blind Self
Characteristics
not Apparent to
me
Eg. Bad smell
The Concealed
Self
Characteristics
Known to me but
Kept Hidden from
Others
The Unknown
Self
The Blind Area

Personality Concepts
 Personality is the study of the characteristics traits of an
individual, relationships between these traits, and the
way in which a person adjust to other people &
situations.
 Personality is the sum total of ways in which an
individual reacts & interacts with others (Robbins).
 Personality is the pattern of relatively enduring ways that a
person feels, thinks, & behaves. It is a factor in accounting
why employees have favorable or unfavorable attitudes
towards their jobs & organizations (George & Jones).
 Personality has been shown to influence career choice, job
satisfaction, stress, leadership, & some aspects of job
performance
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Personality Concepts…
Based on the above definitions personality characteristics are:
 Personality refers both physical & psychological qualities.
 It is unique in the sense that no two individuals are same in
terms of their personality.
 Personality is the manner of adjustment of individual to the
organization, environment and the group.
 It is a qualitative aspect. Certain techniques exist to quantify
it indirectly.
 Personality is dynamic. It changes with the time & situation.
 Personality is a system. It has input, processing and output.
 Personality influences goal achievement & performance of
an individual.
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Determinants of Personality
Biological Factors
 Heredity- physical stature, facial attractiveness, gender, color of
skin, hair & eye balls, temperament, skills, abilities, etc.
 Brain
 Physical Feature – height, color, facial attraction, muscle
strength influences ones self-concept.
Family Factors
 Socialization
 Birth Order
Environmental Factors (Social & Cultural Factors)
Situational Factors
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Personality
Nature
Biological Heritage
Nurture
Life Experiences

The Interaction of Personality & Situational
Factors
Both personality & situational factors affect Organizational
behavior. It is the interaction of personality & situational factors
that determines how people think, feel, & behave in general &,
specifically, how they do so within an organization.
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Feelings
Thoughts
Attitudes
Behavior
Personality
Situational Factors
(Job requirements,
rules, etc.)

Major Organizationally Relevant Personality
Traits (Traits influencing OB)
 Locus of Control – is the degree to which people believe they are
masters of their own situation. Internal locus of control describes
people who believe that their ability & effort determines what
happens to them. External locus of control describes people who
believe that what happens to them is controlled by external forces
such as fate, luck, or chance.
 Machiavellianism (Mach) – is a degree to which an individual is
pragmatic, maintains emotional distance, and believes that ends
can justify means. High Machs manipulate or win more, but
persuades less.
 Self-Monitoring – is the extent to which people try to control the
way they present themselves to others (ability to adjust).
 Self-Esteem – is individuals’ degree of liking or disliking
themselves. High self-esteemed individuals take more risks in job
selection and choose unconventional jobs.
 Risk Taking Attitude decision making, achievement, motivation
 Authoritarianism negative belief (command) about work &
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Models of Men
 Rational Economic Man Model – Classical
theories (Taylor). Economic rewards regulate behavior.
 Organizational Man Model – (William Whyte) This
model suggests that individual behavior is oriented towards
loyalty, belongingness, conformity, & sacrifice of individual
interest in the realization of organizational goals.
 Social Man Model – (Mayo, Lewin, McGregor) It is an
outgrowth of human relations movement. It stresses that
social relationship, group norms, and social reward direct
individual actions.
 Self Actualizing Man Model – It suggested that men
engaged in innovations, creations, & dynamism.
 Complex Man Model – (recent origin) It assumes that
an individual behavior in his/her unpredictable)
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Personality Types
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (100 question personality
test)
 Extroverted vs Introverted. Extroverted individual are
outgoing, sociable, & assertive. Introverts are quiet & shy.
 Sensing vs Intuitive. Sensing types are practical & prefer
routine & order. They focus on details. Intuitive rely on
unconscious processes & look at the big picture.
 Thinking vs Feeling. Thinking types use reason & logic to
handle problems. Feeling types rely on their personal
values & emotions.
 Judging vs Perceiving. Judging types want control, & prefer
their world to be ordered & structured. Perceiving types are
flexible & spontaneous.
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Personality Types…
Extrovert-Introvert Personality Types (Carl Jung)
Type A & Type B Personality
 Type A: A person with desire to change,
extremely competitive, strong sense of urgency,
impatient & can be hostile.
 Type B: A person who tends to be easygoing &
relaxed.
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Ability
Emotion
Perception- managerial use of it
Attitude
Values
Reading assignment
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Part II. Group Dynamics
2.2.1 Group Dynamics
 Group dynamics is the study of groups, and also
a general term for group processes.
 Relevant to the fields of psychology, sociology, and
communication studies.
 A Group is association of two or more individuals who are
connected to each other by social relationships.
 Because they interact and influence each other,
groups develop a number of dynamic processes that
separate them from a random collection of individuals.
 These processes include norms, roles, relations,
development, need to belong, social influence, and
effects on behavior.
 The field of group dynamics is primarily concerned
with small group behavior (10-12).

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Definition
 Robbins (2003) also defines a group as two or
more individuals interacting and
interdependent who come together to achieve
particular objectives
 Schein (1988) defines the group in
psychological terms as any number of people
who:
1. Interact will one another
2. Are psychological aware of one another
and
3. Perceive themselves to be a group.

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Group Dynamics
Effective group dynamics requires
 Respect for one another
 Clearly articulated shared goals
 Frequent interaction
 Shared decision-making power (with or
without a formally designated leader)
 Equitably divided tasks
 Shared responsibility for mistakes and
successes
 Free expression of opinions, perspectives,

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Respect
 Without respect, you do not have a team, but
simply a collection of individuals working on
individual tasks.
 You express respect by
• Listening carefully to others
• Recognizing the strengths and limitations of
others
• Acknowledging accomplishments of others
• Honest communication

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Setting Group Goals
 Professional goals
Design on-time and within budget, effective
documentation, satisfied customers, etc.
 Personal goals
Develop leadership skills, improve public
speaking skills, learn new technical skills, etc.
 Social goals
Betterment of society, assistive devices for the
disabled, create employment, etc.

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Group Interaction
 Frequent (weekly) group
meetings to discuss various
technical and project-oriented
issues.
Often, well-functioning groups
will also meet socially.

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Importance of
Group
 Groups are an essential feature of the work pattern of
any organization.
 Members of a group must co-operate in order for
work to be carried out and managers themselves will
work within these groups.
 People in groups influence each other in many ways
and groups may develop their own hierarchies and
leaders.
 Group pressures can make a major influence over
the behavior of individual members and their work
performance.
 The activities of the group are associated with the
process of leadership.
 The style of leadership adopted by the manager has
an important influence on the behavior of members of

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Classification of Groups
 Groups can be either formal or informal.
 By formal, we mean defined by the
organization's structure, with designated work
assignments establishing tasks and work
groups.
 In formal groups, the behaviors that one should engage
in are stipulated by and directed toward organizational
goals.
 In contrast, informal groups are alliances that are neither
formally structured nor organizationally determined.
 These groups are natural formations in the work
environment, which appear in response to the need for
social contact.

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Why do people join groups?
 There is no single reason why individuals join
groups. Since most people belong to a number
of groups, it is obvious that different groups
provide different benefits to their members.
 The most popular reasons for joining a
groups are related to our needs for:
 Security,
 Status,
 Interaction,
 Power and
 Goal achievement.

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Stages of Group
Development
 Group development is a dynamic process. Most
groups are in a continual state of change.
 But just because groups probably never reach
complete stability doesn't mean that there isn't
some general pattern that describes how most
groups evolve.
 There is strong evidence that groups pass
through a standard sequence of five stages.
[Tuckman (1965)].
1. Forming
2. Storming
3. Norming
4. Performing
5. Adjourning …….FNSPA

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Group Structure
 A basic understanding of group structure can be
found in three concepts:-
roles,
norms, and
status.
 If you expect to be able to analyze groups, you
are going to have to feel comfortable with these
concepts and understand the theory that
underlies them.

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Roles
 All group members are actors, each playing a role. By
this term, we mean a set of expected behavior patterns
attributed to someone occupying a given position in a
social unit.
 The understanding of role behavior would be dramatically
simplified if each of us chose one role and "played it out"
regularly and consistently.
 Unfortunately, we are required to play a number of diverse
roles, both on and off our jobs.
 When an individual is confronted by divergent role
expectations, the result is role conflict.
 It exists when an individual finds that compliance with one
role requirement may make more difficult the compliance with
another.

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Norms
 Did you ever notice that employees don't
criticize their bosses in public?
 This is because of norms.
 That is, there are acceptable standards of
behavior within a group that are shared by
the group's members.
 Each group will establish its own set of norms.
 For instance, group norms might determine
appropriate dress, when it's acceptable to goof off,
with whom group members eat lunch, and friendship
on and off the job.

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Status
 Status-that is, a socially defined position or rank given to
groups or group members by others-permeates every
society.
 Despite many attempts, we have made little progress
toward a classless society.
 Even the smallest group will develop roles, rights, and
rituals to differentiate its members.
 Status is an 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.

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Factors Affecting
Cohesiveness
 In order to develop the effectiveness of work groups the
manager will be concerned:
 with those factors that contribute to group cohesiveness, or
 that may cause frustration or disruption to the operation of the
group.
 The manager needs to consider, therefore, both the
needs of individual members of staff, and the promotion
of a high level of group identity and cohesion.
 There are many factors which affects group cohesiveness and
performance, which can be summarized under four broad
headings:
1. Membership
2. Work Environment
3. Organizational factors

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2.2.3 Understanding Work
Teams
Why Have Teams Become So Popular?
 How do we explain the current popularity of teams? The
evidence suggests that teams typically outperform
individuals when the tasks being done require multiple
skills, judgment, and experience.
 As organizations have restructured themselves to compete
more effectively and efficiently, they have turned to teams
as a way to use employee talents better.
 Management has found that teams are more flexible and
responsive to changing events than are traditional
departments or other forms of permanent groupings.
 Teams have the capability to quickly assemble, deploy,
refocus, and disband.
 Teams are an effective means for management to

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Teams versus Groups: Are they
same?
 Groups and teams are not the
same thing.
 We define a group as two or more
individuals, interacting and interdependent,
who have come together to achieve
particular objectives.
 Work group is a group that interacts
primarily to share information and to make
decisions to help each member perform
within his or her area of responsibility.

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Types of Teams
 Teams can do a variety of things. They can
make products, provide services, negotiate
deals, coordinate projects, offer advice, and
make decisions.
 The four most common types of teams you're
likely to find in an organization are:
1. Problem-solving teams,
2. Self-managed work teams,
3. Cross-functional teams, and
4. Virtual teams.

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Advantages of Team Work
 More specialists/experts are integrated into large tasks within
the organization, thereby increasing success rates
 More organizational members become increasingly involved
in their total work environment.
 Increased productivity, improved customer service, more
flexible systems and highly motivated staff.
 Gives synergy and develops more creative solutions to
difficulty problems.
 Provides possibilities for empowerment that are not available
to individual employees.
 Builds commitment and support for new ideas among staff
and community members.
 Provides effective learning process for professionals.

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Factors that Contribute Towards an
Effective Team?
 The task itself should be motivating
 The team needs challenging goals which are
clearly defined
 Rewards are important
 The team should have the right mix of skills
 Agree on a code of conduct
 The team must develop effective problem
solving strategies
 Special teams have special issues

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The High-Performance Team
 Most researchers agree that there are a few distinct
qualities that set apart the high-performance teams.
 Although the wording may be different, the ideas
are the same:
 Participative Leadership
 Shared Responsibility
 Definition of Purpose
 High Communication
 Focused Future
 Focused Tasks
 Creative Talents
 Rapid Response

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Being a Valuable Team Member
Every Player Contributes to the Process:
 The Summarizer
 The Orienter
 The Fact Seeker
 The Initiator
 The Harmonizer
 The Analyzer
 The Gatekeeper
 The Encourager

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Turning Individuals into Team
Players
Shaping Team Players
 The following summarizes the primary options for managers
or team players who are trying to turn individuals into team
players.
1. Selection:
 Some people already possess the interpersonal skills to be
effective team players.
 When hiring team members, in addition to the technical skills
required to fill the job, care should be taken to ensure that
candidates can fulfill their team roles as well as technical
requirements.
2. Training: Skill gap training on job and off-job in continuous
manner
3. Rewards:
 The reward system needs to be reworked to encourage
cooperative efforts rather than competitive ones.
 Promotions, pay raises, and other forms of recognition