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Organizational Behavior, 8e Schermerhorn, Hunt, and Osborn Prepared by Michael K. McCuddy Valparaiso University John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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Chapter 9 The Nature of Groups  Study questions. 1. What is the nature of groups in organizations? 2. What are the stages of group development? 3. What are the foundations of group effectiveness? 4. What are group and intergroup dynamics? 5. How do groups make decisions? Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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What is the nature of groups in organizations?  A group is a collection of two or more

people who work with one another regularly to achieve common goals.  Groups: – Help organizations accomplish important

tasks. – Help to maintain a high-quality workforce by satisfying members’ needs. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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What is the nature of groups in organizations?  Effective groups achieve high levels of: – Task performance. • Members attain performance goals regarding quantity,

quality, and timeliness of work results.

– Members satisfaction. • Members believe that their participation an experiences are

positive and meet important personal needs.

– Team viability. • Members are sufficiently satisfied to continue working

together on an ongoing basis. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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What is the nature of groups in organizations?  Synergy. – Effective groups offer synergy. – With synergy, groups accomplish more than

the total of the members’ individual capabilities. – Synergy is necessary for organizations to compete effectively and achieve long-term high performance. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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What is the nature of groups in organizations?  Situations in which groups are superior to

individuals. – When there is no clear expert in a particular

problem or task. – When problem solving can be handled by a division of labor and the sharing of information. – When creativity and innovation are needed. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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What is the nature of groups in organizations?  Social loafing as a performance problem. – Social loafing is the tendency of people to

work less hard in a group than they would individually. – Reasons for social loafing. • Individual contributions are less noticeable in the group context. • Some individuals prefer to see others carry the workload. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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What is the nature of groups in organizations?  Social loafing as a performance problem — cont. – Ways of preventing social loafing. • Define member roles and tasks to maximize individual

interests. • Link individual rewards to performance contributions to the

group. • Raise accountability by identifying individuals’ performance

contributions to the group. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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What is the nature of groups in organizations?  Social facilitation as a performance

problem. – Social facilitation. • The tendency for a person’s behavior to be

influenced by the presence of others. • Positively affects performance when a person is proficient on the task. • Negatively affects task performance when the task is not well-learned. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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What is the nature of groups in organizations?  Formal groups. – Officially designated to serve a specific

organizational purpose. – May be permanent or temporary. • Permanent work groups are command groups in

the vertical organization structure. • Temporary work groups are task groups specifically created to solve a problem or perform a a defined task. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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What is the nature of groups in organizations?  Formal groups — cont. – Virtual groups. • Groups whose members convene and work

together electronically via networked computers. • Activities are facilitated by groupware. • Can accomplish the same things as members of

face-to-face groups. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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What is the nature of groups in organizations?  Informal groups. – Emerge without being officially designated by

the organization. – Types of informal groups. • Friendship groups. • Interest groups.

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What is the nature of groups in organizations?  Benefits of informal groups. – Can speed up work flow by supplementing

formal lines of authority. – Can satisfy needs that are thwarted or unmet

by the formal group. – Can provide members with social satisfaction,

security, and a sense of belonging. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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What are the stages of group development?  A group or team passes through five

lifecycle stages. – Forming. – Storming. – Norming. – Performing. – Adjourning. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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What are the stages of group development?  Forming stage. – Initial entry of members to a group. – Members concern’s include: • Getting to know each other. • Discovering what is considered acceptable

behavior. • Determining the group’s real task. • Defining group rules. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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What are the stages of group development?  Storming stage. – A period of high emotionality and tension among group members. – Members concern’s include: • • • • •

Formation of coalitions and cliques. Dealing with outside demands. Clarifying membership expectations. Dealing with obstacles to group goals. Understanding members’ interpersonal styles. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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What are the stages of group development?  Norming stage. – The point at which the group really begins to

come together as a coordinated unit. – Members concern’s include: • Holding the group together. • Dealing with divergent views and criticisms. • Dealing with a premature sense of accomplishment. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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What are the stages of group development?  Performing stage. – Marks the emergence of a mature, organized,

and well-functioning group. – Members deal with complex tasks and handle

internal disagreements in creative ways. – Primary challenge is to continue to improve

relationships and performance. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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What are the stages of group development?  Adjourning stage. – Particularly important for temporary groups. – A well-integrated group is: • Able to disband when its work is finished. • Willing to work together in the future.

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What are the foundations of group effectiveness?  From a systems perspective, group inputs are the

foundation for all subsequent group action.  Key group inputs are: – – – – – – –

Nature of the task. Goals. Rewards. Resources. Technology. Membership diversity. Group size. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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What are the foundations of group effectiveness?  Tasks. – Technical demands of a task. • Routineness, difficulty, and information requirements.

– Tasks that are complex in technical demands

require unique solutions and more information processing. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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What are the foundations of group effectiveness?  Tasks — cont. – Social demands of a task. • Relations, ego involvement, and controversies over ends and means.

– Tasks that are complex in social demands

involve difficulties in reaching agreement on goals or methods for accomplishing them. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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What are the foundations of group effectiveness?  Goals, rewards, and resources. – Long-term performance accomplishments rely

on: • Appropriate goals. • Well-designed reward systems. • Adequate resources.

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What are the foundations of group effectiveness?  Technology. – Provides the means to get work accomplished. – The right technology must be available for the

task at hand. – Work-flow technology can affect the way

group members interact. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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What are the foundations of group effectiveness?  Membership characteristics. – A group must have the right skills and competencies available for task performance and problem solving. • Homogeneous groups may not perform well if they

lack the requisite experiences, skills, and competencies. • Heterogeneous groups may perform well if they effectively utilize a variety of experiences, skills, and competencies. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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What are the foundations of group effectiveness?  Membership characteristics — cont. – Diversity-consensus dilemma. • Increasing diversity among group members makes

it harder for group members to work together, even though the diversity itself expands the skills and perspectives available for problem solving.

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What are the foundations of group effectiveness?  Membership characteristics — cont. – FIRO-B theory. • Identifies individual differences in how people

relate to one another in groups. • Based on needs to express and receive feelings of inclusion, control, and affection. • Groups whose members have compatible characteristics are likely to be more effective. • Groups whose members have incompatible characteristics are likely to be less effective. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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What are the foundations of group effectiveness?  Membership characteristics — cont. – Status. • A person’s relative rank, prestige, or standing in a

group.

– Status congruence. • Occurs when a person’s position within the group

is equivalent in status to positions held outside the group. • When status incongruence is present, problems will likely occur. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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What are the foundations of group effectiveness?  Group size. – As group size increases, performance and

member satisfaction increase up to a point. • Division of work promotes performance and

increased satisfaction. • Communication and coordination problems occur, in turn decreasing performance and satisfaction.

– Problem-solving groups should have 5 to 7

members. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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What are the foundations of group effectiveness?  Group size — cont. – Groups with an odd number of members may

be more effective for resolving disagreements and reaching a speedy decision. – Groups with an even number of members may be more effective when careful deliberation, consensus building, or complex problem solving is required. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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What are group and intergroup dynamics?  From a system perspective, the

throughputs for a group or team are group dynamics.  Group dynamics concern the forces

operating within groups that affect the way members relate to and work with one another. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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What are group and intergroup dynamics?  What goes on within groups. – Required behaviors. • Those formally defined and expected by the

organization.

– Emergent behaviors. • Those that group members display in addition to

what the organization asks of them.

– Emergent behaviors often supplement and

extend required behaviors.

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What are group and intergroup dynamics?  What goes on within groups. – Member relationships revolve around: • Activities — the things people do or the actions

they take. • Interactions — interpersonal communications and

contacts. • Sentiments — the feelings, attitudes, beliefs, or

values held by group members. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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What are group and intergroup dynamics?  What goes on between groups. – Intergroup dynamics. • The dynamics that take place between two or more

groups.

– Organizations and their members seek to avoid

the negative aspects and achieve the positive aspects of intergroup dynamics. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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What are group and intergroup dynamics?  What goes on between groups. – On the negative side, intergroup dynamics may divert

energies as members focus on animosities rather than performance. – On the positive side, competing groups may: • Work harder. • Become more focused on key tasks. • Develop more internal loyalty and satisfaction. • Achieve creativity in problem solving. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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How do groups make decisions?  How groups make decisions. – Decision by lack of response. – Decision by authority rule. – Decision by minority rule. – Decision by majority rule. – Decision by consensus. – Decision by unanimity. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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How do groups make decisions?  Potential advantages of group decision making. – More knowledge and expertise is applied to solve the

problem. – A greater number of alternatives are examined. – The final decision is better understood and accepted

by all group members. – More commitment among all group members to make

the final decision work. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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How do groups make decisions?  Potential disadvantages of group decision

making. – Individuals may feel compelled to conform to

the apparent wishes of the group. – The group’s decision may be dominated by one individual or a small coalition. – Group decisions usually take longer to make.

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How do groups make decisions?  Groupthink. – The tendency for members of highly cohesive groups

to lose their critical evaluation capabilities. – Groupthink can lead the group to make poor

decisions. – Group members and leaders should: • Be sensitive to the occurrence of groupthink. • Take actions to prevent the occurrence of groupthink. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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How do groups make decisions?  How to improve group decision making. – Brainstorming. – Nominal group technique. – Delphi technique. – Computer-mediated decision making.

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How do groups make decisions?  Brainstorming. – Group members actively generate as many ideas and alternatives as possible, and they do so relatively quickly and without inhibitions. – Brainstorming rules. • • • •

All criticism is ruled out. Free-wheeling is welcomed. Quantity is wanted. Piggy-backing is good. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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How do groups make decisions?  Nominal group technique. – A form of structured group decision making

that enables everyone to participate and have his/her ideas heard without hostile criticism or distortions. – A structured voting procedure is used to

prioritize responses to the nominal question. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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How do groups make decisions?  Delphi technique. – Used in situations where group members are unable to meet face to face. – The process. • A series of questions is distributed to a panel. • Panel members submit their responses to a decision

coordinator. • The decision coordinator summarizes the responses, and sends the summary along with a follow-up questionnaire to the panel. • Panel members send in their responses. • The process is repeated until a consensus is reached. Organizational Behavior: Chapter 9

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How do groups make decisions?  Computer-mediated decision making. – Electronic brainstorming through the use of

special software and personal computers.. – The nominal group and Delphi techniques

lend themselves to computer mediation.

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