Organizational Behavior:

Group Dynamics and

Teamwork
 Sociological Criteria of a group

 Two or more freely interacting people (Interdependent -interact

and influence each other);
 Mutually accountable for achieving common goals;
 Common Identity;
 Collective Norms. .
Security Status

What
Makes
Self-
Esteem People Affiliation

Join
Groups?
Goal
Power
Achievement
 Groups versus Teams
 All teams are groups
 Teams have task interdependence whereas some groups do
not (e.g., group of employees enjoying lunch together)
 Teams have a positive synergy
.
 Skills in teams are complementary
Functions of Formal Groups
Organizational Functions Individual Functions
1. Accomplish complex, interdependent 1. Satisfy the individual’s need for
tasks that are beyond the capabilities affiliation.
of individuals. 2. Develop, enhance, and confirm the
2. Generate new or creative ideas and individual’s self-esteem and sense of
solutions. identity.
3. Coordinate interdepartmental efforts. 3. Give individuals an opportunity to
4. Provide a problem-solving mechanism test and share their perceptions of
for complex problems requiring social reality.
varied information and assessments. 4. Reduce the individual’s anxieties and
5. Implement complex decisions. feelings of insecurity and powerless-
6. Socialize and train newcomers. ness.
5. Provide a problem-solving mechanism
for personal and interpersonal problems.
 Tuckman’s Five-Stage Theory
of Group Development

Performing
Adjourning
Norming

Storming Return to
Independence
Forming
Dependence/
interdependence

Independence
 Tuckman’s Five-Stage Theory
of Group Development (continued)

Forming Storming Norming Performing

“What do the “How can I best

Individual “How do I fit “What’s my
others expect perform my
Issues in?” role here?”
me to do?” role?”

“Why are we
“Can we agree
fighting over
Group “Why are we on roles and “Can we do the
who’s in
Issues here?” work as a job properly?”
charge and who
team?”
does what?”
NOT QUITE A SOCIAL GROUP
 Category
 People with common status (girls, doctors, nurses)
 Aggregate
 People in the same place (people at the mall)
 Crowd
 Temporary cluster of people (spectators at a game, passengers
waiting to board an airplane)

PRIMARY GROUPS
Traits
 Small
 Personal orientation
 Enduring (long lasting)
 Frequent interaction
 Face-to-face
 Intimate
 sense of belonging
 emotional orientation: bond based on emotions
 loyalty
 Primary relationships
 First group experienced in life
 Irreplaceable
 Security
 Assistance of all kinds
 Emotional to financial
Examples: the family.
SECONDARY

GROUPS
Traits
 Large membership: larger than primary groups
 Goal or activity orientation
 impersonal and formal
 Infrequent interaction
 Secondary relationships
 Weak emotional ties between persons
 Short term
 Importance
 Networking
 Career goals
Examples: co-workers, political organizations
 In-Groups and Out-Groups
 In-group
 “group with which people identify and have a sense of
belonging”
 pronoun “WE”
 Out-group
 “group that people do not identify with
 pronoun “THEY”

 Loyalty to INGROUP
 Opposition to OUTGROUPS
 Reference Groups
• reference groups: Important groups to which
individuals belong or hope to belong and with
whose norms individuals are likely to conform.
• In-groups can be secondary or primary groups, but
in either case, they are always reference groups,
real or imaginary .

 a standard to evaluate ourselves

normative function
comparative function
 Group Dynamics
 Leadership
 Property 1: Roles
 Property 2: Norms:
 Property 3:Status
 Size
 Composition
 Property 5: Cohesiveness
1. Socio-emotional
2. Instrumental
Different Role Requirements
Role: A set of expected behavior patterns
attributed to someone occupying a given
position in a social unit.
 Role Identity
 Role Perception: Our view of how we’re
supposed to act in a given situation
 Role Expectations: the way others believe you
should act in a given context.
 Role Conflict: When compliance with one role
requirement may make it difficult to comply
with another, the result is role conflict.
 Role Overload
 Role Ambiguity
Task
Roles
Roles Description

Initiator Suggests new goals or ideas

Information seeker/giver Clarifies key issues
Opinion seeker/giver Clarifies pertinent issues
Elaborator Promote greater understanding
Coordinator Pulls together key ideas and
suggestions
Orienter Keeps group headed toward its stated
goal(s)
Evaluator Tests group’s accomplishments
Energizer Prods group to move along or to
accomplish more
Procedural Technician Performs routine duties
Recorder Performs a “group memory” function
Maintenance
Roles
Roles
Description

Encourager Fosters group solidarity

Harmonizer Mediates conflict through
reconciliation or humor
Compromiser Helps resolve conflict by
meeting others”half way”
Gate Keeper Encourages all group members to
participate

Standard setter Evaluates the quality of group

processes
Commentator Records comments on group
processes/dynamics
Follower Serves as a passive audience
Property 2: Norms
 Norms are Acceptable standards of behavior within a group that are shared
by the group’s members.
 The norms the group established included a number of “don’ts.”
Problems:
 conformity :The adjustment of one’s behavior to align with the norms of
the group.
 deviant workplace behavior : Voluntary behavior that violates significant
organizational norms and, in so doing, threatens the well-being of the
organization or its members. Also called antisocial behavior or workplace
incivility.
 Groupthink : A phenomenon in which the norm for consensus overrides
the realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action.
 Groupshift / Polarization : A change between a group’s decision and an
individual decision that a member within the group would make; the shift
can be toward either conservatism or greater risk but it generally is toward a
more extreme version of the group’s original position.
GROUP CONFORMITY STUDIES
conformity : The adjustment of one’s behavior to align with the norms
of the group.

PRESSURES TO CONFORM TO GROUP DESIRES

 Asch’s research
 Willingness to COMPROMISE our own judgments
 Line experiment
 Milgram’s research
 Role authority plays
 Following orders
 Janis’ research
 Negative side of ‘groupthink’
 Lack of objectivity
ASCH’S LINE EXPERIMENT
Symptoms of Groupthink
groupthink A phenomenon in which the norm for
consensus overrides the realistic appraisal of
alternative courses of action.

 Invulnerability
 Inherent morality
 Rationalization
 Stereotyped views of opposition
 Self-censorship
 Illusion of unanimity
 Peer pressure
 Mindguards
 How to Prevent Groupthink

Every group member a critical evaluator

Avoid rubber-stamp decisions
Different groups explore same problems
Rely on subgroup debates and outside experts
Assign role of devil’s advocate
Rethink a consensus
Property 3: Status
 Status: A socially defined position or rank given to groups or group
members by others.
 What Determines Status? According to status characteristics
theory, status tends to derive from one of three sources:
 1. The power a person wields over others. Because they likely
control the group’s resources, people who control the outcomes tend
to be perceived as high status.
 2. A person’s ability to contribute to a group’s goals. People whose
contributions are critical to the group’s success tend to have high
status.
 3. An individual’s personal characteristics. Someone whose personal
characteristics are positively valued by the group (good looks,
intelligence, money, or a friendly personality) typically has higher
status than someone with fewer valued attributes.
 Status and Norms
 Status and Group Interaction
Property 4: Size
 Does the size of a group affect the group’s overall
behavior?
 Yes, but the effect depends on what dependent variables
we look at.
 Smaller groups are faster at completing tasks than larger ones,
 and individuals perform better in smaller groups
 One of the most important findings about the size of a
group concerns social loafing, the tendency for
individuals to expend less effort when working
collectively than alone.
Conditions for Social Loafing
 Low task interdependence
 Individual output not visible
 Routine, uninteresting tasks
 Low task significance
 Low collectivist values
Property 5: Cohesiveness
 cohesiveness—the degree to which members are attracted to
each other and motivated to stay in the group.
 Cohesiveness affects group productivity.
 What can you do to encourage group cohesiveness?
 (1) Make the group smaller,
 (2) encourage agreement with group goals,
 (3) increase the time members spend together,
 (4) increase the group’s status and the perceived difficulty of
attaining membership,
 (5) stimulate competition with other groups,
 (6) give rewards to the group rather than to individual members, and
 (7) physically isolate the group.
 Cohesiveness-Productivity Relationship
Cohesiveness
High Low
Alignment of group and
organizational goals

Strong Increase Moderate Increase

High
In Productivity In Productivity

Decrease in No Significant Effect

Low
Productivity On Productivity
Causes of Team Cohesiveness

Member
Similarity

External Member
Challenges Interaction
Team
Cohesiveness
Team Team
Success Size

Somewhat
Difficult Entry
Team Cohesiveness Outcomes
Members of cohesive teams:
 Want to remain members

 Willing to share information

 Strong interpersonal bonds
 Want to support each other
 Resolve conflict effectively
 More satisfied and experience less stress
.
Effective Teamwork Through Cohesiveness
Cohesiveness: “A sense of we-ness helps team stick together.”

How to Enhance Cohesiveness

 Socio-Emotional Cohesiveness
1. Keep the team relatively small.
2. Increase the status and prestige of belonging.
3. Encourage interaction and cooperation.
4. Emphasize member,s common characteristics and interests.
5. Point out environmental threats to rally the team.
 Instrumental Cohesiveness
1. Regularly update and clarify the team,s goals.
2. Give every team member a vital “piece of the action”.
3. Channel each team member,s special talents to the common goals.
4. Recognize and equitably reinforce every member,s contributions.
5. Frequently remind team members they need each other to get the job done.
Property 6: Diversity
 diversity in the group’s member- ship, the degree to which
members of the group are similar to, or different from, one
another.
 Surface-level diversity—in observable characteristics such
as national origin, race, and gender—alerts people to
possible deep-level diversity—in underlying attitudes,
values, and opinions.
 The impact of diversity on groups is mixed. It is difficult
to be in a diverse group in the short term. However, if
members can weather their differences, over time
diversity may help them be more open-minded and
creative and to do better.
Individual versus Group
Decision Making
Individuals Groups

 Speed  Knowledge & Diversity

 Clear Accountability  High Quality Decisions
 Consistent Values  Increased Acceptance
Group Decision Making Techniques
 interacting groups Typical groups in which members interact
with
 Brainstorming An idea-generation process that specifically
encourages any and all alternatives while withholding any
criticism of those alternatives. each other face to face.
 nominal group technique A group decision-making method in
which individual members meet face to face to pool their
judgments in a systematic but independent fashion.
 electronic meeting A meeting in which members interact on
computers, allowing for anonymity of comments and
aggregation of votes.
Types of Teams

General Typology of Teams Common Forms of Teams

• Advice • Problem solving

• Production • Self-managed

• Project • Cross-functional

• Action • Virtual
 Virtual Teams

 Cross-functional teams that operate across space, time and

organizational boundaries using information technology
 Increasingly possible because of:
 Technology
 Knowledge-based work

 Increasingly necessary because of:

 Globalization
 Knowledge management
 Need for team work
Survey Evidence: What Self-
Managing Teams Manage
Percentage of Companies Saying Their Self-Managing
Teams Perform These Traditional Management Functions
by Themselves.

Schedule work assignments 67%

Work with outside customers 67
Conduct training 59
Set production goals/quotas 56
Work with suppliers/vendors 44
Purchase equipment/services 43
Develop budgets 39
Do performance appraisals 36
Hire co-workers 33
Fire co-workers 14

Source: Adapted from “1996 industry Report: What Self-Managing Teams Manage,” Training, October 1996, p. 69
Team Effectiveness Model

Organizational and Team

Team Design
Team Environment Effectiveness

• Reward systems •Task characteristics

•Team size • Achieve
• Communication
organizational
systems •Team composition goals
• Physical space
• Satisfy member
• Organizational needs
Team Processes
environment
• Maintain team
• Organizational •Team development survival
structure •Team norms
• Organizational •Team roles
leadership •Team cohesiveness
 Homogeneous vs. Heterogeneous Teams

Homogeneous Teams Heterogeneous teams

 More conflict
 Higher satisfaction
 Slower team
 Less conflict development -- takes
longer to agree on norms
 Faster team and goals
development
 Better knowledge and
 More efficient resources for complex
coordination tasks
 Tend to be more creative
 Performs better on
simple tasks
 Higher potential for
support outside the team
Stages of Team Development

Performing

Norming

Storming

Existing teams
Forming might regress Adjourning
back to an
earlier stage of
development
 Team Norms
 Norm: “An attitude, opinion, feeling, or action -- shared by two or more people --
that guides their behavior.”
 Informal rules and expectations team establishes to regulate member behaviors
Norms develop through:
1. Explicit statements
2. Critical events in team’s history
3. Primacy
4. Beliefs/values members bring to the team and team experiences

Why Norms Are Enforced

 Help the group or organization survive
 Clarify or simplify behavioral expectations
 Help individuals avoid embarrassing situations
 Clarify the group’s or organization’s central values and/or unique identity
Shaping Team Players

Rewards

Training

Selection
 Effective Teamwork Through Trust
Trust: “Reciprocal faith in others’ intentions and behavior.”
How to Build Trust
 Communication (keep everyone informed; give feedback; tell
the truth).
 Support (be available and approachable).
 Respect (delegate; be an active listener).
 Fairness (give credit where due; objectively evaluate
performance).
 Predictability (be consistent; keep your promises).
 Competence (demonstrate good business sense and
professionalism).

Effective Teamwork Through Cooperation

• Cooperation
• Competition
High-performance Teams

Participative
Shared Leadership Aligned on
Responsibility Purpose

Future Attributes of High

Focused high-performance Communication
Teams

Rapid Focused on
Response Creative Task
Talents