4. You have just 2 minutes!
• Get ready for a trip on a life boat to a far off
island…?
• You are allowed to take with you, only one
item, other than what you are wearing.
• Write the name of the item in a slip of paper.
5. You have 4 minutes!
• Make groups of 5 each
for life on the island
• Now share your ideas
with your team. Make
adjustments as required.
6.
7. What is a ‘Group’?
• 2 or more individuals interacting, who have
come together to achieve a particular goal
• Have a stable pattern of relationship
8. Criteria for a group include:
• Formal social structure
• Face-to-face interaction
• 2 or more persons
• Common fate
• Common goals
• Interdependence
• Self-definition as group members
• Recognition by others
Societies are large groups consisting of a myriad of sub-groups.
9. The members….
• Are motivated to join the group
• Perceive the group as a unified unit for
interaction
• Contribute in various degrees
• Have agreements and disagreements, but
finally come to a consensus
10. ‘Group’ Vs ‘ Random collection
of individuals’
Group Random collection of
individuals
Mutual interaction and influence is specific - Interaction and influence may be
there, but non specific
Develop several dynamic processes - norms,
roles, relations, development, need to
belong, social influence, and effects on
behavior
Random interactions
Family, fellow workers, crowd… Crowd at any place
11. WHY USE GROUPS?
• Simulates the “real world” - use of teams
• Learn better when actively involved
• Peer instruction, teaching each other
• Learn more fully and with less effort
• Learn in context
• Modification of –
- Personality
- Power
- Behaviour
19. Why do people join groups?
• Goal achievement
• Attraction – To persons, to group
activities & to group goals
• Group membership per se
• Need for – Power, affiliation, self esteem,
status, security
22. Group Dynamics
• The study of groups
• A general term for group processes.
• Explains the internal nature of a group –
How it is formed
Structure & process
It’s function
Effect on individual members
Effect on the organization
• Relevant to the fields of psychology, sociology and
communication studies
• Primarily concerned with small group behavior.
23. Domains of Group Dynamics
• Communication processes
and interaction patterns
• Interpersonal attraction
and cohesion
• Social integration
and influence
• Power and control
• Culture
• Goal achievement
• Power
• Affiliation
• Self esteem
• Status
• Security
24. Criteria for Group Development
(Mills 1967)
Needs of the individual
Pattern maintenance and extension
Social forces
Adaptation
Goal attainment
Integration
Group
26. Stage I – Forming
(Dependence)
• Confusion – Not certain about purpose, task, leadership
• Orientation, dependence, inclusion
• Interaction is cautious, language ambiguous and there is a
great deal of agreement
• Minimal work is accomplished
• Breaking of ice (small talk, socializing)
• Takes one day to several weeks
27. Stage II – Storming
(Counter dependence)
• Conflict , confrontations, disagreements, evaluation,
control
• Assertion of individuality - A chaotic vying for leadership
• Language - Clear, unambiguous, direct
• Minimal work is accomplished
• 2 issues:
– how close we should be (affection)
– does the leader know what he/ she is doing (control)
• Risk for communication failures
Now there, you two! You
can’t both be Australia,.
One of you has to be
England.
28. Stage III- Norming
(Interdependence)
• Settling down, cooperation, collaboration
• Agreement on how the group operates
• Maintaining harmony, focused work emergence
• Marked by several layers of balance:
– Individualism vs group ness
– Group goals vs individual goals
– Closeness vs distance
– Role of leader vs members
• Cohesion begins to emerge
29. Norms
= Acceptable standards of behaviour shared by
group members
• All groups have norms
• They define what ought/ ought not to be done
by the members
• May be laid down formally or informally
• They act as behaviour influencing parameters
without outside control
• Differ from group to group
30. Why have norms?
• Facilitate survival of the group
• Simplify role expectations
• Protect self-images
• Enhance the group's unique identity
• Avoid rejection from the group
• Increases predictability of group members behaviour
• Reduces embarrassing IPR problems of group members
• Allows the group members to express the central values and
apply
31. How are Norms formed ?
• Norms develop in many ways -
- Explicit statement by managers
- Critical events in group’s history
- Primacy – The first behaviour pattern that
emerges becomes the norm
- Carry over behaviour what one followed
32. Forms of Norms
• Performance – parameters as to how hard a
person has to work, what production level to
achieve
• Appearance – Dress, code of conduct…
• Arrangement – Social interaction
• Allocation of resources – Pay, bonus,
equipment ..
33. Stage IV – Performing
(Independence)
• Group fully functional, devoted to task at hand
• Works to meet its objectives
• Period of consensus and maximum
productivity
• Spirit is high
• Negative comments are
not expressed
35. 1. Composition of group
• Acts as a predictor of turnover
• Heterogeneous group - gender, personality,
opinion, skill, perspective
– More conflict laden More deliberate
- Cultural diversity Difficulty in
processes
• Groups that have cohorts (persons with
common attributes) - perform better
36. 2. GROUP SIZE
# in
group
Relationships Interactions
possible
2 1 2
3 3 9
4 6 28
5 10 75
6 15 186
7 21 441
8 28 1056
Dyad:
a to b
b to a
Triad:
a to b
a to c
b to a
b to c
c to a
c to b
a to b&c
b to a&c
c to a&b
• Dyad - close but unstable because one person leaving ends the
group. Hence move from dyads to triads
• Third person : - Mediator, Vyer for attention, Divide and conquer
37. Does the size of the group affect the
group’s overall behaviour?
Yes
• Simmel (1950): size changes two aspects of groups:
– Intimacy (diluted)
– Coordination of behaviors (harder)
• Smaller group – Good for completion of a particular
(productive) task
• Larger group – Good for problem solving
38. As size increases…?
Advantage –
• Range of abilities & knowledge increases (added resources for
problem solving)
Disadvantage -
• Satisfaction of each member decreases
• Time to decide increases
• Cohesion decreases
• Disagreement increases
• Factions and antagonism increase
• Member participation decreases
- Bales & Strodbeck (1951)
42. Reactions within a Group
I’m OK – You’re OK
I’m OK – You’re not OK
I’m not OK – You’re OK
I’m not OK – You’re not OK
43. 4. Group cohesion
Affected by the ability of the group to –
• Work as a unit, share tasks, recognize members’
contributions,
Vs
Conflict, role ambiguity, lack of motivation
• Attract high performers, opportunists, achievers
• Affected by - Group size, cliques, acts of protest,
self interest behaviour
44. Stage V - Adjourning
• Dissolving, termination
• The process of "unforming" the group, that is, letting
go off the group structure and moving on.
• Tail end behavior
- Happy
- Sad
- Depressed
- Angry
- Dissatisfied
