Group Behaviour

Dr. Bhumija Chouhan

• In fact, the human group is a pervasive phenomenon, a
formidable force for modern organisation.
• Groups are found in all types of organisations and are
essential mechanisms of socialization as well as a
primary source of social order.
• According to Likert an organisation will attain success
only when its personnel functions as effective work
groups with high performance goals rather not as
individuals.
• Groups exist in every organisation and they affect the
behaviour of their members. They not only affect the
behaviour of their members rather they have impact on
other groups and the organisation as a whole.
• According to David Horton Smith “A group is the largest
set of two or more individuals who are jointly
characterized by a network of relevant communications,
a shared sense of collective identity.”
• In simple words we can say that a group is a collection of
two or more people who have a common goal or interest
and interact with each other to accomplish their objective
and work in coordination with others perceiving
themselves as a part of the group
• The term group dynamics contain two terms: Group and
Dynamics. Group is basically a collectivity of two or more
persons on the other hand dynamics means force.
• Thus the social process by which people interact face-to-
face in small groups is called group dynamics.
• In order to be called a group, an aggregation of persons
must satisfy the following conditions:
(i) People must interact with each other
(ii) People must be psychologically aware of one another
(iii) People must perceive themselves to be a group
• According to Stephen P. Robbins the term group is
defined as “two ormore individuals, interacting and
interdependent who have come together to achieve
particular objective.”
• G.C. Homans defines group “as any number of people
who share goals, often communicate with each other
over a period of time and a few enough so that each
individual may communicate with all the others, person
to person.”
 Characteristics of Group

1. Social Interaction
2. Stability
3. Size
4. Collective Identity
5. Shared Goal Interest
 Type of Groups

1. Formal Groups:
• Formal organisation refers to the structure of well-
defined jobs, each
• bearing a definite authority, responsibility and
accountability.
• According to classical theorists, the formal
organisations are built on four pillars (i) Division of
labour, (ii) Scalar and functional processes, (iii)
Structure and (iv) Span of control.
• In formal groups coordination among members and
their control are well specified through processes,
procedures, rules etc.
• Few examples of formal groups are workgroup, task
force, committee
• and quality team etc.
• These groups are characterised by clear-cut authority
responsibility relationships.
• The pattern and flow of communication is also well
defined. Rules are laid down to regulate the behaviour of
group members
2. Informal Groups:
• They are formed by the individuals of the group rather
than by
• management.
• They are natural grouping of people in a work situation in
response to the need for social contact.
• They are based on common interest, language, taste,
caste, religion, background etc.
• They are neither formally structured nor organizationally
determined.
• When two or more individuals join together as a group in
order to satisfy their social needs but not due to official
job structure and organisation requirement are called as
informal groups.
• Informal groups arise spontaneously in the organisation
because of social interaction between the people.
• These groups are more flexible than the formal groups
because there is no fixed pattern of communication
between the members.
• Informal groups represent the human side of
organisation by concentrating on personal as compared
to contacts between the members technical side
represented by formal groups
 Type of Groups

• Groups come in a variety of forms depending on the

classification based on purpose, extent of structuring,
process of formation and size of the group membership
each type has different features and different effect on its
participants. Different types of group are as follows:
 Command Group
 Task Group
 Interest Group
 Friendship Group
 Reasons for Formation of
Groups
• Companionship
• Source of Information
• Sense of Security
• Self Esteem and Status
• Sense of Identification
• Perpetuation of Cultural Values
• Job Satisfaction and Goal Achievement
• Generation of New Ideas
 Stages of Group Formation

• Forming
• Storming
• Norming
• Performing
• Adjourning
 Group Decision-Making

• Group decision-making is an activity that is based on the

old adage that “two heads are better than one”.
• It permits the coming together of people with
heterogeneous characteristics who can understand the
problems in a better way and hence develop creative
alternatives leading to effective group performances.
• Groups generate more complete information and
knowledge by aggregating the resources of several
individuals, groups bring more input into decision
process.
• Group decision making also offer
increased diversity of views; opens
opportunity for more alternatives.
• Groups generate higher quality decisions
and leads to increased acceptance of a
solution:
Merits of Group Decision Making

• Greater Knowledge and Information

• Satisfaction and Commitments
• More Approaches to Problem
• Personnel Development
• Increased Acceptance
• Risk Taking
• Better Comprehension of the Decision
 Demerits of Group Decision
Making
• Time Consuming
• Individual Domination
• Problem of Responsibility
• Conflicting Alternative Solutions
 Techniques of Group Decision-
Making
• Brain Storming
• The Nominal Group Technique
• Delphi Technique
 Group Effectiveness
• Group Effectiveness skills contribute to higher
productivity and product quality as people work together
to reach common goals.
• Team effectiveness (also referred to as group
effectiveness) is the capacity a team has to accomplish
the goals or objectives administered by an authorized
personnel or the organization
• A team is a collection of individuals who are
interdependent in their tasks, share responsibility for
outcomes, and view themselves as a unit embedded in
an institutional or organizational system which operates
within the established boundaries of that system
• The evaluation of how effective a team is, is achieved
with the aid of a variety of components derived from
research and theories that help in creating a description
of the multifaceted nature of team effectiveness.
• According to Hackman (1987),team effectiveness can be
defined in terms of three criteria:
 Output - The final outputs produced by the team must
meet or exceed the standards set by key constituents
within the organization
 Social Processes - The internal social processes
operating as the team interacts should enhance, or at
least maintain, the group’s ability to work together in the
future
 Learning - The experience of working in the team
environment should act to satisfy rather than aggravate
the personal needs of team members
 Self-Managed Teams

• Self-managed work teams (also referred to as

autonomous work groups) allow their members to make
a greater contribution at work and constitute a significant
competitive advantage for the organization.
• These work teams determine how they will accomplish
the objectives they are mandated to achieve and decide
what route they will take to complete the current
assignment.
• Self-managed work teams are granted the responsibility
of planning, scheduling, organizing, directing, controlling
and evaluating their own work process.
• They also select their own members and evaluate the
members' performance.
• Self-managed work teams have been favored for their
effectiveness over traditionally managed teams due their
ability to enhance productivity, costs, customer service,
quality, and safety
• A self-managed team can also be defined as a group of
employees who are responsible for managing and
performing technical tasks that result in a product or
service delivered to an internal or external environment.
• These teams are set up to plan, organize, influence and
control its own work situation with minimum intervention
and direction from the top management
• These teams are an important way of structuring,
managing and rewarding work.
• Self managed work teams are groups of employees who
perform highly related or interdependent jobs and take
on many of the responsibilities of their former
supervisors
• Few of the key Characteristics points of self managed
teams.
1. They are customer driven teams.
2. They have multi-skilled workforce.
3. The job description is very less in self managed team.
4. The major focus is on the complete business rather than
being restricted to a single department.
5. The purpose of such teams is to emphasize on overall
achievement and not a specific problem.
6. There is room for continuous improvement in such
teams.
7. They are self-controlled teams, so the level of grievance
is less.
8. The members of such team are highly committed and
have their values and principles intact.
• These teams are highly integrated and creative as the
members involved are skilled individuals who are cross
trained and have the responsibility and authority to
perform some specified activity:
• The activities which may be delegated to the self-
managed teams include setting of work schedules,
establishing work pace, determining the level of increase
in the salary and perquisites, designing performance
appraisal system etc.