Session 12 & 13
Session 12 & 13
IIM Udaipur
Groups Vs. Teams
Team Group
Size Limited Medium or Large
Selection Crucial Immaterial
Leadership Shared or Rotating Solo
Perception Mutual Understanding Focus on Leader
Style Coordination Convergence/Conformism
Spirit Dynamic Interaction Togetherness/
Persecution of opponents
Team
• A group of people linked in a common purpose.
Number of People 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Effort per Individual 100% 93% 85% 77% 70% 63% 56% 49%
Kravitz, D. A., & Martin, B. (1986). Ringelmann rediscovered: The original article. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50(5), 936-941.
Group
(Team)
Productivity
Productive and Effective team
• Ideally a productive and Effective team would have a mixture of people taking the
following team roles:
Ruble, T. L., & Cosier, R. A. (1982). A laboratory study of five conflict-handling modes.
Conflict management and industrial relations, 158-171.
People routinely use only one or two conflict styles. A preferred
style may be linked to your cultural upbringing, your family of
origin, or other life experiences. Self-awareness regarding your
preferences and habits will help you improve your conflict
responses and may open up your understanding of your
colleague’s conflict style preferences.
Avoiding
Those who avoid conflict may withdraw and
delay dealing with the problem, but this may
make the situation worse in the long run. The
avoiding style may not be appropriate if it is
your formal responsibility to resolve the issue; if
the issue itself needs prompt attention; or if the
issue has great importance to you. While the
avoiding style is often painted in a negative
light, one may intentionally choose this style if
the problem is insignificant or temporary; if the
“potential dysfunctional effect of confronting the
other party outweighs benefits of resolution”; or
if a “cooling off period is needed”.
Accomodating
• Training Groups
• Group training with a focus
on interpersonal sensitivity
• Started by Jacob L. Moreno
(1889 – 1974), a psycho-
sociologist and the founder of
psychodrama, and
sociometry.
• Pioneered by Kurt Lewin, one
of the first to study group
dynamics
B = ƒ(P,E)
Lewin’s Equation
The Importance of Groups
• … where an individual has a personality pattern which requires certain kinds of individuals through which his
emotions can find some sort of adequate outlet, and when placed in a social group where these possibilities are
reduced to a minimum the type of personality he presents, finding no possibilities of expression and growth, is
stunted in its development, retarded in its growth, rendered frequently regressive in the directions in which it
seeks satisfactions … it is theoretically possible to place such an individual in a human environment where he
would, as it were, blossom and grow and be not only a socially acceptable and useful, but a relatively happy
person.
• Dr. Moreno emphasizes the fact that he differs from the psychoanalytic approach in an other very significant way,
namely, that the analyst works backward to an explanation for the individual's conduct while he takes the
individual's conduct as the starting point and works forward.
“All May Survive”
• Another tragic insufficiency of man is his failure to produce a well integrated society. The difference
between the social structure in which he functions and the psychological structure which is an
expression of his organic choice and the tension arising between the two constantly threaten to
disrupt the social machinery so painfully built up by him.
• If this whole of mankind is a unity, then tendencies must emerge between the different parts of this
unity, drawing them at one time apart and drawing them at another time together.
• A new appreciation may then arise of the sense of the old myth which all great religions have
brought forth in remarkable unison, the myth of the father who has created the universe for all, who
has made its spaces so immense that all may be born and so that all may live.
Bruce Tuckman
• 1938 – 2016
1930 ~
Altman, I., & Taylor, D. A. (1973). Social penetration: The development of interpersonal relationships. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Bruce Tuckman
Tuckman, B. W. (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin, 63(6), 384-399.
Forming and Storming
• Forming: Interpersonal orientation accomplished primarily through testing.
Testing serves to identify the boundaries of both interpersonal and
task behaviours.
Establishment of dependency relationships with team members.
(Interpersonal orientation + Emotional testing + Dependence)
Tuckman, B. W., & Jensen, M. A. C. (1977). Stages of small-group development revisited. Group & Organization Management, 2(4), 419-427.
Group Decision
Making
• Certain Environments
• Risk Environments
Decision Making • Uncertain Environments
Techniques
for Group
Decision
Making
Brainstorming: A technique for generating as many ideas as possible on a given subject
while suspending evaluation until all the ideas have been suggested.
Individual vs. Group
Nominal Group Technique (NGT) A structured approach to group decision making that
focuses on generating alternatives and choosing one.
No Criticism Please
Devil’s Advocacy A technique for preventing groupthink in which a group or individual is
given the role of critic during decision making.
Only Criticism Please
Dialectical Inquiry A debate between two opposing sets of recommendations
Don’t make it a 0-sum game.
Selecting
Appropriate
Techniques
• Brainstorming
• More ideas
• Delphi
• Expertise
• Devil’s advocacy | Dialectical
enquiry (to tackle Group Think)
Make Teams/Groups
Accountable for their actions