GROUP DYNAMICS

1.What are Groups. How are they classified in an org.

DEFINATION

“two or more people who share a common definition and evaluation of themselves and behave in accordance with such a definition”

a collection of people who interact with one another, accept rights and obligations as members and who share a common identity.

Groups can be mainly classified as follows:

(A )Formal Groups:

These groups are defined by the organisation’s structure and with designated work assignments. The behaviour that one engages in is stipulated by and directed towards the organisational goals.

Formal Groups can further be classified as:

1. Command Group: It is determined by the organisational chart. It is a collection of subordinates who report to the same supervisor. Most of the organisational work is channelled through work groups and hence they play a very important role. The supervisors or leaders of these groups determine the effectiveness of such groups.

2. Task Force: It is a collection of people who come together to achieve a specific goal and once that is achieved the group disbands. Sometimes when task forces are addressing a permanent problem, they never disband but their membership continuously changes to get fresh insights. Such permanent task forces are known as standing committees or task groups.

3. Team: It is a formal group with a high level of interaction between the members who work intensely to achieve their goals. They draw on the capabilities of the group members to achieve goals which otherwise could not have been achieved individually.

Due to the high level of interaction teams are tricky to manage. Also, many a times teams spend a lot of time coming to an agreement and hence they may not always be effective.

4. Self managed team: A team with no manager or leader is called a self managed team. It is the responsibility of the team members to undertake leadership tasks such as determining how the group should go about achieving its goals, distributing work to individual members, disciplining members who are not performing at the adequate level, co ordinating efforts across group members and hiring and firing.

(B) Informal Groups: Informal groups emerge naturally in an organisation and are not formally structured. They help fulfil the employees’ needs for social contact. For e.g.: employees who gel along with each other and like each other’s company may start eating their food together and form a lunch group.

Informal groups are further classified as:

1. Friendship Group: It is a collection of organisational members who enjoy each other’s company and socialise with each other both on and off the job. They meet the need for social interaction and can be an important mean of social support.

2. Interest Group: Members of an organisation form an interest group when they have a common goal regarding their organisational membership and they want to achieve it by uniting their efforts. They get an outlet to voice their concerns and bring about much needed organisational change.

For e.g.: when employees come together to ask for a company sponsored day care centre, they form an interest group.

2. Explain The Group Development Models

Groups generally pass through a standardized sequence in their evolution. We call this sequence the five stage model of group development.

(I) FIVE STAGES OF GROUP DEVELOPMENT

Bruce W Tuckman described the five distinct stages that a group can as it comes together and starts to operate.  This process can be subconscious, although an understanding of the stages can help group reach effectiveness more quickly and less painfully.

Stage 1: Forming

Individual behaviour is driven by a desire to be accepted by the others, and avoid controversy or conflict.  Serious issues and feelings are avoided, and people focus on being busy with routines, such as team organisation, which does what, when to meet, etc.  But individuals are also gathering information and impressions - about each other, and about the scope of the task and how to approach it.  This is a comfortable stage to be in, but the avoidance of conflict and threat means that not much actually gets done.

Stage 2: Storming

Individuals in the group can only remain nice to each other for so long, as important issues start to be addressed.  Some people's patience will break early, and minor confrontations will arise that are quickly dealt with or glossed over.  These may relate to the work of the group itself, or to roles and responsibilities within the group. Some will

observe that it's good to be getting into the real issues, whilst others will wish to remain in the comfort and security of stage 1.  Depending on the culture of the organisation and individuals, the conflict will be more or less suppressed, but it'll be there, under the surface. To deal with the conflict, individuals may feel they are winning or losing battles, and will look for structural clarity and rules to prevent the conflict persisting.

Stage 3: Norming

As Stage 2 evolves, the "rules of engagement" for the group become established, and the scope of the group’s tasks or responsibilities is clear and agreed.  Having had their arguments, they now understand each other better, and can appreciate each other's skills and experience.  Individuals listen to each other, appreciate and support each other, and are prepared to change pre-conceived views: they feel they're part of a cohesive, effective group.  However, individuals have had to work hard to attain this stage, and may resist any pressure to change - especially from the outside - for fear that the group will break up, or revert to a storm.

Stage 4: Performing

Not all groups reach this stage, characterised by a state of interdependence and flexibility. Everyone knows each other well enough to be able to work together, and trusts each other enough to allow independent activity.  Roles and responsibilities change according to need in an almost seamless way.  Group identity, loyalty and morale are all high, and everyone is equally task-orientated and people-orientated.  This high degree of comfort means that all the energy of the group can be directed towards the task(s) in hand.

Ten years after first describing the four stages, Bruce Tuckman revisited his original work and described another, final, stage:

Stage 5: Adjourning

This is about completion and disengagement, both from the tasks and the group members.  Individuals will be proud of having achieved much and glad to have been part of such an enjoyable group.  They need to recognise what they've done, and consciously move on.  Some authors describe stage 5 as "Deforming and Mourning", recognising the sense of loss felt by group members.

Tuckman's original work simply described the way he had observed groups evolve, whether they were conscious of it or not.  But for us the real value is in recognising where a group is in the process, and helping it to move to the Perform stage.  In the real world, groups are often forming and changing, and each time that happens, they can move to a different Tuckman Stage.  A group might be happily Norming or Performing, but a new member might force them back into Storming. Seasoned leaders will be ready for this, and will help the group get back to Performing as quickly as possible.

Many work groups live in the comfort of Norming, and are fearful of moving back into Storming, or forward into Performing. This will govern their behaviour towards each other, and especially their reaction to change.

(II) An Alternative Model: For Temporary Groups with Deadlines

Recent studies, however, indicate that temporary groups with task-specific deadlines follow a very different pattern.

Temporary groups with deadlines don’t seem to follow the previous model. Studies indicate that they have their own unique sequencing of actions (or inactions):

1) Their first meeting sets the group’s direction.

2) This first phase of group activity is one of inertia.

3) A transition takes place at the end of this first phase, which occurs exactly when the group has used up half its allotted time.

4) A transition initiates major changes.

5) A second phase of inertia follows the transition

6) And, the group’s last meeting is characterized by markedly accelerated activity. This pattern is called the punctuated-equilibrium model.

3.What are the variables in a Group

(1) Norms: Norms are defined as a set of expectations about appropriate individual and group behaviour commonly agreed on by members (Feldman – 1984). They are established over time for behaviours that have significant impact on a group, like facilitating its survival, increasing predictability of member behaviours, ensuring member satisfaction, expressing values important to the group’s identity and preventing embarrassing inter personal problems.

Performance Norms : These norms are extremely powerful in affecting an individual employee’s performance – they are capable of significantly modifying a performance prediction that was based solely on the employee’s ability and level of personal motivation.

Appearance factors. This includes things like appropriate dress, loyalty to the work group or organization, when to look busy and when it’s acceptable to goof off. Norms frequently developed to dictate the kind of clothing that should be worn to work. Presenting the appearance of the loyalty is important in many work groups and organizations.

Allocation of resources. These norms can originate in the group or in the organization and cover and over things like pay assignment of difficult jobs, and allocation of new tools and equipments.

(2) Conformity: It is adjusting one’s behaviour aligning with the norms of the group. As a member of a group, we desire acceptance by the group. Because of our desire for acceptance, we are susceptible to conforming to the group’s norms. There is considerable evidence that groups can place strong pressures on individual members to change their attitude and behaviour to conform to group’s standards.

(3) Status: It is a socially defined position or rank given to groups or group members by others. Status is an important factor understanding human behaviour because it is a significant motivator and has major behavioural consequences when individuals perceive

a disparity between what they believe their status to be and what others perceive it to be.

Formal and Informal Status: Status may be formally imposed by a group – that is, organizationally imposed through titles or amendments. More often we deal with status in an informal sense. Status may be informally acquired by such characteristics as education, age, sex, skill and experience. Anything can have status value if others in the group evaluate it as status – conferring.

(4)Size: The size of group affects the group’s overall behaviour. For instance, smaller groups are faster at completing task than the larger ones. However, if the group is engaged in problem solving, large groups consistently get better marks than their smaller counterparts. Large groups with a dozen or more members are good for gaining diverse input. So, if the goal of the group is fact finding, larger groups should be more effective. On the other hand, smaller better at doing that something productive with that input. Groups with approximately seven members therefore, tend to be more effect in taking action.

Social loafing: social loafing is the tendency of group members to do less than they are capable of individually, resulting in an inverse relationship between group-size and individual performance. It indirectly challenges the logic that the productivity of the group as a whole should at least equal the sum of the productivity of each individual in that group.

Composition: most group activities require a variety of skills and knowledge. Given this requirement, it would be reasonable t conclude that heterogeneous groups-those composed of dissimilar individual-would be more likely to have abilities and information and should be more effective. When a group is heterogeneous in terms of personalities, opinion, abilities, skills and perspectives, there is an increased probability the group will possess the needed characteristics to complete its task effectively.

(5) Cohesiveness

Cohesiveness promotes sharing of similar ideas and mutual acceptance of ideas. The more cohesive a group the more effective it will be in meeting member needs and the more conformity can demand from its members.

Group cohesiveness and productivity: In the relationship between cohesiveness and productivity, it is found that highly cohesive groups are more effective in meeting their objectives when compared to groups low in cohesion. For this, it is important for the group’s goals to be compatible with organizational goals if the relationship between the two is to continue.

4. What are different Group Decision Styles

(I) THE COMMAND STYLE OF GROUP DECISION MAKING What It Is

 The “command” style of group decision making refers to a situation where the leader makes a decision for a group with little or no input from the members of that group.  The group members may provide specific information on request, but are not asked to contribute towards finding a solution.  The leader makes the decision then typically “sells” the merits of the decision to the rest of the group.

 Advantages and Disadvantages

 The advantage with the “command” style is that the decision is made quickly (which can be an important consideration).

 The disadvantage of the “command” style is that, although group members may have been consulted, some or all of them may still disagree with the decision that has been made, and therefore may have little or no commitment to that decision.

 When It Is Used

 Use the “command” style of group decision making when any of the following applies:

  the group perceives you to be the “expert,” the group likes all of the possible decisions that could be made, the group asks you to decide,  it is not important that the group be committed to the decision that is made, There is not enough time to use a consultative or consensus style of decision

making (e.g., in a “crisis” situation).

(II) THE CONSULTATIVE STYLE OF GROUP DECISION MAKING 

What It Is

The “consultative” style of group decision making refers to a situation where the leader seeks input and advice from the group before making a decision for a group, but then makes the final decision himself or herself.

 Advantages and Disadvantages

 The advantage of the “consultative” style is that the decision is more likely to meet the needs of the group than with the command style.

 The disadvantage of the “consultative” style is that, although the group members have been consulted, some or all of them may still disagree with the decision that has been made. When It Is Used

 Use the “consultative” style of decision making when any of the following applies:

  the group does not have the information, education, skills, or experience to make

a high quality decision,

the group does not share the same goals or objectives that you hope to achieve by solving the problem.

(III)THE CONSENSUS STYLE OF GROUP DECISION MAKING 

What It Is

The “consensus” style of group decision making refers to a situation where the leader seeks input and advice from a group, and works through the decision making process with the group, until every member of the group can “live with” the final decision that is made.

 Advantages and Disadvantages

 The advantage of the “consensus” style of decision making is that it leads to a high degree of “buy-in” and commitment to the decision by all members of the group.  All of the members of the group are actively involved in the decision making process and all of their interests are addressed.

 The principal disadvantage of the “consensus” style of decision making is the time required to make a decision and the associated costs of people’s time.

 When It Is Used

 Use the “consensus” style of decision making when any of the following applies:

  the group shares the same goals or objectives that you hope to achieve by solving

the problem, 

the group members have the education, skills, and experience to make a high quality decision,

it is important that the group have a high degree of commitment to the decision reached, 

there is time available to use this style (i.e., it is not a “crisis” situation).

5.Differnce between Groups & Teams. What are diff type Of Teams

Characteristics Difference between Team and Group:

Characteristics of a Team Characteristics of a Group

Shared Leadership roles Strong, clearly focused leader solo leader

Team discusses, decides, and does real work together

The Leader discusses, decides and delegates

Specific Team purpose that the team delivers itself

The group’s purpose is the same as the organizational mission

Individual and mutual team accountability Individual Accountability

Collective work products Individual work products

Measures performance directly by assessing collective work products

Measures effectiveness indirectly eg financial performance of the business

Encourages open-ended discussion and active problem-solving meetings

Runs efficient meetings with information sharing main activity

TYPES OF TEAMS

(I) Problem Solving Teams

Group of 5-12 who meet to improve current work processes and methods.

Discuss ways of improving

• Quantity

• Quality

• Efficiency

• Productivity

• Work Environment

Tools Used are Brain Storming and Creative Thinking 

(II) Self Managed Work Teams

Group of 10-15 people who take on responsibility of their supervisor

Assigning task, Scheduling work and collective control over pace of work.

Empowerment

Working with customers and suppliers

(III) Cross Functional Teams

Employees from same hierarchy level but diff departments.

Come together to accomplish a particular task.

Resolve inter departmental issues to work in Collaboration.

Example

CFM – Customer Focus Meet

CRM – Customer Relation Management Team

(IV) Virtual Teams

Teams that use Technology to tie together physically dispersed members in order to achieve a common goal.

Mode Of Comm – Chat, emails, video conf calls, conf calls, cells, landlines

Advantage - Team members come up with more Creative Ideas and Share Best Practices

Disadvantage –

Miscommunication, misunderstandings leading to Conflict and Stress.

Reluctance to Share information