All aspects of groups are listed along with definition, reasons for joining groups, types of groups and properties

1. Foundations of Group Behavior
Sundar B. N.
Assistant Professor
Coordinator of M.com

2. When we study management, we carryout planning for the organization. One of
the most important elements of planning is to set objectives depending upon the resources
available.
The organizational objectives are later categorized into departmental objectives and group
objectives. What we have done in the process is division of work. To accomplish the
organizational objective, each group has to accomplish its group objective so that a “whole”
can be achieved by co-ordinating various activities of groups. It is therefore division of
work and coordination, that provides synergy to the organization.
Let us take an example of automobile industry for which the yearly target is producing
10,000 cars. The engine department has to produce 10,000 engines, body manufacturing
department has to make 10,000 car bodies. chassis manufacting department have to make
equal number of chassis.
This work is also divided into monthly, weekly and daily basis and further broken down to
group levels. It is therefore important that at lower level, the accomplishment of group
objective will contribute towards achievement of organizational objectives. If there is lack of
coordination of various group activities, an end product can not be attained and the
organizational goals can not be effectively achieved.
Thus as Uma Sekaran has stated that “the synergy is a function of both division of labour
and coordination of activities in organizations since group provide synergy through
specialization and coordination, they are integral to the organizations functioning. There are
socio psychological factors which come into play when a particular work is undertaken by
the group. Personal objectives or interest have to be kept aside for the over all group

3. A work group is collection of two or more individuals, working for a common
goal and are interdependent. They interact significantly to achieve a group objective.
For a manager it is difficult to manage group because of varied nature, personality
traits, attitude of individuals and personal interest in the group job the group
members display. It is therefore important for managers to understand group
member behaviour and deal effectively with the group because of the synergy they
provide.
Group members should be able to achieve greater (volume and quality) than
the sum total of individual contribution. This is achieved by joint idea generation,
finding out various courses open, and selecting and implementing the best course
of action. Because of the joint efforts of the group, it possible to use skill,
knowledge and experience of group members to achieve quality decisions and
achieve group goals.
Fred Luthans states that if a group exists in an organization, its members :
• – Are motivated to join
• – perceive a group as unified unit of interacting people
• – contribute to various amounts to the group processes
• – reach agreement and disagreements through various forms of interaction.

4. Two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent,
who come together to achieve particular objectives is
called Group

5. Why Do People Join Groups?
There is no single reason why
individuals join groups. Because
people do belong to a number of
different groups, it appears
obvious that each group provides
different benefits to their
members.
Usually people join groups for:
• Security
• Status
• Self-esteem
• Affiliation
• Power
• Goal achievement

7. Formal Group
Formal group is designated work group defined
by the organizational structure. It is collection of
employees who work together to contribute
towards achievement of organizational objective.
For example aircrew. Formal groups are formed
based on the work and human resources required
by skill, knowledge and experience to achieve
organizational task.
Command Group: It is formed to carry out a
specific task. There is a leader in a group who is
also designated by the organization. He receives
orders from his superior and reports to him about
group activities and performance. A task group is
made up of individuals from across the functional
areas. They work together to complete a job/task.
Task group boundaries are not limited to its
hierarchical superior. Once the task is complete
the group members fall back to their respective
parent groups/units.
Task Groups: also organizationally determined,
these groups are comprised of people working
together to complete a job task.
This group's boundaries are not limited to its
immediate hierarchical superior; it can span
multiple functional and command relationship
lines.
All command groups are task groups, but the
reverse need not be true.

8. Informal Group
Informal groups are groups that are not formally organized in the work system to get
the job done but develop on their own randomly at workplaces because of common
and mutual liking of the group members.
For example members of production department, body manufacturing department, HR
department members and few individual from finance dept may form a friendship
group. This development takes place because of the interaction they have with each
other during the official work. Members from within one group or members from
different departments or even an organization can form an informal group.
The features of such groups are as under:
( a ) Informal groups are formed by various members themselves, it has no official
sanctity.
( b ) These groups are formed based on commonality of culture, religious function,
liking for each other and common interests.
( c ) Their contribution for success of formal group is immense if properly handled by
official authority.
( d ) These groups evolve their own structure, elect their own leaders and have
followers. They work based on group norms, social norms and code of conduct.
( e ) They represent the human side of an organization.
( f ) The group exist without any rigid rules. Their common interest is bond for
existence

9. Informal Group
Alliances that are neither formally
structured nor organizationally
determined.
Informal groups are natural formations
in the work environment that appear
in response to the need for social
contact.
Interest Group: people may affiliate to
attain in a specific objective of shared
interest
It is the formation of a united body to
further its own common interests.
Friendship Groups: groups that form
because the individual members have
one or more common characteristics.
These social alliances, which
frequently extend outside the work
situation, can be based on a similar
demographic or sports/hobby interest.

11. 1
1
Lemon drops oat cake
oat cake sugar plum
sweet gingerbread
chocolate cake
gingerbread.
Portfolio Three
COHESIVENESS
Lemon drops oat cake
oat cake sugar plum
sweet gingerbread
chocolate cake
gingerbread.
Portfolio One
SIZE
Lemon drops oat cake
oat cake sugar plum
sweet gingerbread
chocolate cake
gingerbread.
Portfolio Six
DIVERSITYSTATUS
ROLE
NORMS

12. GROUP PROPERTIES
In order to understand workgroups, it is important that we realize that
the behavior of the members is shaped by the properties of the
workgroups.
Those workgroup properties allow us to explain and predict a large
portion of individual behavior within the group as well as the
performance of the group itself.
Group Property 1: Roles/Tasks
The set of expected behavior patterns that are attributed to occupying a
given position in a social unit
Typically, people are required to play a number of diverse roles, both on
and off the job, which makes the understanding of role behavior
more difficult.

13. There are four ways to examine roles:
• Role Identity – role’s associated attitudes and behaviors . The attitudes and actual
behaviors consistent with a given role.
People can shift roles rapidly when they recognize the situation and its demands
clearly require major changes
• Role Perception – our view of how we’re supposed to act in a given situation. The
view of how a person is supposed to act in a given situation.
The interpretation of how an individual believes he or she is supposed to behave will
determine behavior. Perceptions can be gained through the media, direct
experience, or observation. When the role perceptions come together, they
often form a role identity.
• Role Expectations – how others believe you should act in a given situation. How
others believe a person should act in a given situation.
Behavior is largely determined by the role as defined in the context in which a person
is acting. Role identities often lead to role expectations.
• Role Conflict – conflict experienced when multiple roles are incompatible. When
multiple role expectations are incompatible, individuals experience conflict.
Role conflict exists when an individual finds that compliance with one role’s
requirements makes it more difficult to comply with another role's requirements.

14. Group Property 2: Norms
Acceptable standards of behavior within a group
that are shared by the group’s members
• Powerful means of
influencing behavior
• Performance Norms

15. Status
Status refers to the official position enjoyed by an individual in an organization. It is ‘importance’
and ‘deference’ that people give to others. People at higher level who have devoted
themselves and brought credit to the organization enjoy higher status. They therefore
exercise more control over their subordinates. Those who are more competent have more
say in group decision making as compared to low status individual. All the members in a
group do not enjoy equal status. Standing of a person in a group depends on various factors
as mentioned below:
• Personal attributes
• Charismatic disposition
• Demographic characteristics
• Educational level, experience, length of service in the organization
• Expertise
• Proven track record in accomplishing group task.
In certain cultures female children are accorded low status. It has also been observed that in
Indian culture, low status is accorded to the individuals coming from low caste system that is
socially and legally incorrect. Influence of social, cultural and family background play a
dominant role in according status to individual. Employee whose father is on the board of
directors enjoys a special (high) status irrespective of his personal achievements

16. Group Property 3: Status
A socially defined position or rank given to groups or group
members by others
• Determined by:
– The power a person wields over others
– A person’s ability to contribute to a group’s goals
– An individual’s personal characteristics
Impact of Status
High-status members:
– Often have more freedom to deviate from norms
– Are better able to resist conformity pressures
Interaction among members of groups is influenced by status
– High status people are more assertive
– Low status members may not participate
– Group creativity may suffer

17. Group Property 4: Size
• Smaller groups are faster at completing tasks –
members perform better
• Large groups are consistently better at problem
solving
• Social Loafing - tendency to expend less effort
working in a group than as an individual

18. Social Loafing
Causes:
• Equity theory – unequal
distribution of work
• Dispersion of responsibility
– clouds the relationship
between individual inputs
and group output
Prevention:
• Set group goals
• Increase inter-group
competition
• Engage in peer evaluation
• Distribute group rewards
based on members’
individual contributions

19. Group Property 5: Cohesiveness
The degree to which members of the group are
attracted to each other and motivated to stay in
the group. Cohesiveness is important because it is
been found to be related to the group's
productivity. Groups may become more cohesive
when they spend a lot of time together, the group
size is small, or the group has experienced
external threats.
Cohesiveness and Productivity.
• Performance-related norms established by the
group are the key moderating variable between
cohesiveness and productivity.
• If performance-related norms are high and the
group is cohesive, they will be more productive
than a less cohesive group.
• However, a cohesive group with low performance
norms will experience low productivity.

20. Encouraging Cohesiveness
1. Make the group smaller
2. Encourage agreement with group goals
3. Increase the time spent together
4. Increase the status and perceived difficulty of
group membership
5. Stimulate competition with other groups
6. Give rewards to the group rather than to
individual members
7. Physically isolate the group

22. Group Decision Making
Strengths
• Generate more complete
information and knowledge
• Increased diversity of views
• Increased acceptance of a
solution
Weaknesses
• Takes longer
• Conformity pressures
• Discussions can be
dominated by one or a few
members
• Ambiguous responsibility
for the final outcome

23. Effectiveness & Efficiency
Effectiveness: Doing the right things
Leadership: Doing the right things
Strategic Thinking: Doing the right things
– Accuracy – group is better than average individual but worse than most accurate group
member
– Speed – individuals are faster
– Creativity – groups are better
– Degree of Acceptance – groups are better
Efficiency: Doing things right
Management: Doing things right
Tactical Thinking: Doing things right
Groups are far less efficient than are individual decision-makers.
In deciding whether to use a group, consideration should be given to assessing whether increases in
effectiveness more than offset the reductions in efficiency.

24. Groupthink Symptoms
A deterioration of individual’s mental efficiency,
reality testing, and moral judgments as a result of
group pressures
Occurs when members:
– Rationalize away resistance to assumptions
– Pressure doubters to support the majority
– Doubters keep silent/minimize their misgivings
– Interprets silence as a “yes” vote

25. Minimizing Groupthink
• Limit group size (≤10)
• Encourage group leaders to
actively seek input from all
members and avoid
expressing their own
opinions
• Appoint a “devil’s
advocate”

26. Groupshift
• Group discussions lead
members to assume new,
more extreme, positions
• Groups often take
positions of greater risk
• May be due to diffused
responsibility

27. Group Decision-Making Techniques
Interacting groups meet face-to-face and rely on
verbal and non-verbal interactions to
communicate
Brainstorming
– Generates a list of creative alternatives
– Problem: production blocking
Nominal Group Technique (NGT)
– Restricts discussion during the decision-making
process to encourage independent thinking

28. Group Dynamics
Group dynamics is concerned
with interaction and forces
between group members in a
social situation. It deals with
the attitudes and behavioural
patterns of group. Concept of
group dynamics was first
evolved by Kurt Lewin in 1930s
who viewed the concept from
the perspective of internal
nature of group, why they
form, how they form, the
structure of group, how they
function and its effect on other
group members, other groups
and the organization. Following
concepts are relevant for the
study of group dynamic.

31. STAGES OF TEAM DEVELOPMENT
STAGE-I
*FORMING

33. STAGES OF TEAM DEVELOPMENT
STAGE-II
*STORMING

35. STAGES OF TEAM DEVELOPMENT
STAGE-III
*NORMING

37. STAGES OF TEAM DEVELOPMENT
STAGE-IV
*PERFORMING

39. STAGES OF TEAM DEVELOPMENT
STAGE-V
*ADJOURNING