Managing teams - leadership. Groups and their characteristiccs

1. Foundations of Group Behavior
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2. Chapter Objectives
• Upon completion of this chapter you will be able to:
• Define groups and differentiate between different types of
groups.
• Identify the five stages of group development.
• Show how role requirements change in different situations.
• Demonstrate how norms and status exert influence on an
individual’s behavior.
• Show how group size affects group performance.
• Contrast the benefits and disadvantages of cohesive groups.
• Contrast the strengths and weaknesses of group decision
making.
• Compare the effectiveness of interacting, brainstorming,
nominal, and electronic meeting groups.
• Evaluate evidence for cultural differences in group status and
social loafing, and the effects of diversity in groups.
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3. Defining and Classifying Groups
• Group:
• Two or more individuals interacting and interdependent, who have come
together to achieve particular objectives
• Formal Group:
• Defined by the organization’s structure with designated work assignments
establishing tasks
• Informal Group:
• Alliances that are neither formally structured nor organizationally determined
• Appear naturally in response to the need for social contact
• Deeply affect behavior and performance
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4. Subclassifications of Groups
Formal Groups
• Command Group
• A group composed of the
individuals who report directly to
a given manager
• Task Group
• Those working together to
complete a job or task in an
organization but not limited by
hierarchical boundaries
Informal Groups
• Interest Group
• Members work together to attain
a specific objective with which
each is concerned
• Friendship Group
• Those brought together because
they share one or more common
characteristics
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5. Swedish Transportation Company : Scania

6. Swedish Transportation Company : Scania
• The employees of the Swedish transportation company Scania shown here
exercising at a sports complex comprise an informal group. At different company
locations, Scania offers employees free access to sports facilities during working
hours. The company puts a high priority on employee health and offers
employees many opportunities to reinforce an active lifestyle. The informal
groups that participate in sports and exercise activities are neither formally
structured nor organizationally determined. However, informal groups like these
can fulfill employee desires for social interaction at work.

7. Bal Seal Engineering

8. Social identities help Bal Seal Engineering employees interact with co-workers. The
company’s Spanish-speaking employees gather at the home of a co-worker to
participate in an English-as- a second- language program. Bal Seal, which buys the
training materials for the program, reports that it has improved the company’s
communications, cooperation among fellow workers, and customer service. As
social identity theory proposes, program graduates identify with the high
performance of a winning team. As a result, graduates who ruled out the option of
going back to school are motivated to continue their education by enrolling in GED,
community college, and citizenship classes.

9. Why People Join Groups
• Security
• Status
• Self-esteem
• Affiliation
• Power
• Goal Achievement
• Similarity
• Distinctiveness
• Status
• Uncertainty reduction
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10. Five Stages of Group Development Model
1. Forming
• Members feel much uncertainty
2. Storming
• Lots of conflict between members of the group
3. Norming Stage
• Members have developed close relationships and cohesiveness
4. Performing Stage
• The group is finally fully functional
5. Adjourning Stage
• In temporary groups, characterized by concern with wrapping up activities rather
than performance
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12. Critique of the Five-Stage Model
• Assumption: the group becomes more effective as it progresses
through the first four stages
• Not always true – group behavior is more complex
• High levels of conflict may be conducive to high performance
• The process is not always linear
• Several stages may occur simultaneously
• Groups may regress
• Ignores the organizational context
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13. An Alternative Model for Group Formation
Temporary groups with deadlines don’t follow the five-stage model
•Punctuated-Equilibrium Model
• Temporary groups under deadlines go through transitions between
inertia and activity—at the halfway point, they experience an increase
in productivity.
• Sequence of Actions
1. Setting group direction
2. First phase of inertia
3. Halfway point transition
4. Major changes
5. Second phase of inertia
6. Accelerated activity
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15. Group Properties
Group Performance:
• Roles
• Norms
• Status
• Size
• Cohesiveness
• Diversity
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16. Group Property 1: Roles
• Role
• A set of expected behavior patterns attributed to someone occupying a given position in a
social unit
• Role Identity
• Certain attitudes and behaviors consistent with a role
• Role Perception
• An individual’s view of how he or she is supposed to act in a given situation – received by
external stimuli
• Role Expectations
• How others believe a person should act in a given situation
• Psychological Contract: an unwritten agreement that sets out mutual expectations of
management and employees
• Role Conflict
• A situation in which an individual is confronted by divergent role expectations
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17. Green Bay Packer : Donald Driver

18. Green Bay Packers football player Donald Driver plays a variety of roles. As a wide
receiver for the Packers, his principal role is to catch passes from the quarterback
and then run the ball downfield. Driver is also a husband, father, author of a
children’s books series, the host of a statewide TV show in Wisconsin called Inside
the Huddle, and a volunteer for Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and Goodwill
Industries. Along with his wife, he created the Donald Driver Foundation that offers
assistance to ill children with unmanageable hospital bills and provides housing for
the homeless. Each of these positions imposes different role requirements on
Driver. This photo shows him diving for a first down in his role as a wide receiver.

19. Group Property 2: Norms
• Norms
• Acceptable standards of behavior within a group that are shared by the
group’s members
• Classes of Norms
• Performance norms - level of acceptable work
• Appearance norms - what to wear
• Social arrangement norms - friendships and the like
• Allocation of resources norms - distribution and assignments of jobs and
material
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20. Group Norms and the Hawthorne Studies
A series of studies undertaken by Elton Mayo at Western Electric Company’s Hawthorne
Works in Chicago between 1924 and 1932
• Research Conclusions
• Worker behavior and sentiments were closely related.
• Group influences (norms) were significant in affecting individual behavior.
• Group standards (norms) were highly effective in establishing individual worker
output.
• Money was less a factor in determining worker output than were group standards,
sentiments, and security.
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21. Norms and Behavior
• Conformity
• Gaining acceptance by adjusting one’s behavior to align with the norms of the
group
• Reference Groups
• Important groups to which individuals belong or hope to belong and with
whose norms individuals are likely to conform
• Asch Studies
• Demonstrated the power of conformance
• Culture-based and declining in importance
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22. Defying Norms: Deviant Workplace Behavior
• Deviant Workplace Behavior
• Also called antisocial behavior or workplace incivility
• Voluntary behavior that violates significant organizational norms and, in
doing so, threatens the well-being of the organization
• Typology:
• Production – working speed
• Property – damage and stealing
• Political – favoritism and gossip
• Personal Aggression – sexual harassment
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23. Group Influence on Deviant Behavior
• Group norms can influence the presence of deviant behavior
• Simply belonging to a group increases the likelihood of deviance
• Being in a group allows individuals to hide – creates a false sense of
confidence that they won’t be caught
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24. Group Property 3: Status
A socially defined position or rank given to groups or group members
by others – it differentiates group members
• Important factor in understanding behavior
• Significant motivator
• Status Characteristics Theory
• Status derived from one of three sources:
• Power a person has over others
• Ability to contribute to group goals
• Personal characteristics
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25. Earning a brown apron as a winner in Starbucks’ Ambassador Cup competitions is a
symbol of high status. The company holds Ambassador Cup contests throughout
the world, with some contests regional and others countrywide, to determine
which employees are the best coffee experts, or “ambassadors.” The competitions
involve making coffee drinks, identifying coffees in blind taste tests, and testing
contestants’ knowledge about Starbucks and different aspects of the coffee
industry such as growing regions, roasting, purchasing, and fair trade practices.
Winning a brown apron signifies achieving the highest level of coffee knowledge.
This photo shows coffee ambassadors who won brown aprons during a competition
at Starbucks’ headquarters.

27. Status Effects
• On Norms and Conformity
• High-status members are less restrained by norms and pressure to conform
• Some level of deviance is allowed to high-status members so long as it
doesn’t affect group goal achievement
• On Group Interaction
• High-status members are more assertive
• Large status differences limit diversity of ideas and creativity
• On Equity
• If status is perceived to be inequitable, it will result in various forms of
corrective behavior
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28. Group Property 4: Size
• Group size affects behavior
• Size:
• Twelve or more members is a “large” group
• Seven or fewer is a “small” group
• Best use of a group:
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Attribute Small Large
Speed X
Individual Performance X
Problem Solving X
Diverse Input X
Fact-Finding Goals X
Overall Performance X

29. Issues with Group Size
• Social Loafing
• The tendency for individuals to expend less effort when working collectively than
when working individually
• Ringelmann’s Rope Pull: greater levels of productivity but with diminishing returns as
group size increases
• Caused by either equity concerns or a diffusion of responsibility (free riders)
• Managerial Implications
• Build in individual accountability
• Prevent social loafing by:
• Set group goals
• Increase intergroup competition
• Use peer evaluation
• Distribute group rewards based on individual effort
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30. Social loafing is the tendency for individuals to put forth less of an effort when
working in a group than when working alone. Studies indicate that the employees
shown here producing Spice handsets at a factory in China do not show any
propensity to engage in social loafing. In collectivist societies such as China and
Israel, employees actually prefer working in a group and are motivated by in-group
goals. But in individualistic societies such as the United States and Canada that are
dominated by self-interest, social loafing is more likely.

32. Group Property 5: Cohesiveness
Degree to which group members are attracted to each other and
are motivated to stay in the group
•Managerial Implication
• To increase cohesiveness:
• Make the group smaller.
• Encourage agreement with group goals.
• Increase time members spend together.
• Increase group status and admission difficulty.
• Stimulate competition with other groups.
• Give rewards to the group, not to individuals.
• Physically isolate the group.
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34. Group Property 6: Diversity
Degree to which group members are different than each others
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35. Group Decision Making vs. Individual Choice
• Group Strengths:
• Generate more complete information and knowledge
• Offer increased diversity of views and greater creativity
• Increased acceptance of decisions
• Generally more accurate (but not as accurate as the most accurate group
member)
• Group Weaknesses:
• Time-consuming activity
• Conformity pressures in the group
• Discussions can be dominated by a few members
• A situation of ambiguous responsibility
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36. Group Decision Making Phenomena
• Groupthink
• Situations where group pressures for conformity deter the group from
critically appraising unusual, minority, or unpopular views
• Hinders performance
• Groupshift
• When discussing a given set of alternatives and arriving at a solution, group
members tend to exaggerate the initial positions that they hold. This causes a
shift to more conservative or more risky behavior.
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37. Groupthink
• Symptoms:
• Group members rationalize any resistance to the assumptions
they have made.
• Members apply direct pressure on those who express doubts
about shared views or who question the alternative favored by
the majority.
• Members who have doubts or differing points of view keep silent
about misgivings.
• There appears to be an illusion of unanimity.
• Minimize Groupthink By:
• Reduce the size of the group to 10 or less
• Encourage group leaders to be impartial
• Appoint a “devil’s advocate”
• Use exercises on diversity
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38. Group Decision-making Techniques
Made in interacting groups where members meet face-
to-face and rely on verbal and nonverbal
communication
•Brainstorming
• An idea-generating process designed to overcome pressure
for conformity
•Nominal Group Technique (NGT)
• Works by restricting discussion during the decision-making
process
• Members are physically present but operate independently
•Electronic Meeting
• Uses computers to hold large meetings of up to 50 people
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39. Evaluating Group Effectiveness
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Effectiveness Criteria
Type of Group
Interacting
Brain-
storming
Nominal Electronic
Number and quality of ideas Low Moderate High High
Social Pressure High Low Moderate Low
Money Costs Low Low Low High
Speed Moderate Moderate Moderate Moderate
Task Orientation Low High High High
Potential for Interpersonal
Conflict
High Low Moderate Moderate
Commitment to Solution High N/A Moderate Moderate
Development of Group
Cohesiveness
High High Moderate Low

40. Global Implications
• Status and Culture
• The importance of status varies with culture
• Managers must understand who and what holds status when interacting with
people from another culture
• Social Loafing
• Most often in Western (individualistic) cultures
• Group Diversity
• Increased diversity leads to increased conflict
• May cause early withdrawal and lowered morale
• If the initial difficulties are overcome, diverse groups may perform better
• Surface diversity may increase openness
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41. Summary and Managerial Implications
• Performance
• Typically, clear role perception, appropriate norms, low status
differences, and smaller, more cohesive groups lead to higher
performance
• Satisfaction
• Increases with:
• High congruence between boss’s and employees’ perceptions about the job
• Not being forced to communicate with lower-status employees
• Smaller group size
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