Organizational Behavior

1. CHAPTER THREE
FOUNDATION OF
GROUP
BEHAVIOR

2. • 3.1 Defining Teams and/or Groups
• Group: is collection of two or more individuals,
working for a common goal and are interdependent.
• Team: Are “a small number of people with
complementary skills who are committed to a
common purpose, performance goals, and approach
for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.
• not all groups are teams, all teams can be
considered groups.

3. • Similarities and Differences between Work
Teams and Work Groups
• Similarities
Stages of group formation apply to the development of
teams.
Teams start out as groups.
Teams, like groups, have norms.
Members of teams, like those of groups, have roles.
Role ambiguity, role conflict and social loafing are
evident in both groups and teams.
Cohesiveness is important for both groups and teams.

4. • Difference
•A group becomes a team when the following criteria are met:
1.Leadership becomes a shared activity
2.Accountability shifts from strictly individual to both
individual and collective
3.the group develops its own purpose or mission
4.Problem solving becomes a way of life, not a part-time
activity
5.Effectiveness is measured by the group’s collective outcomes
and products.
The difference between groups and teams
Criteria Group Teams
Leadership formal established shared roles
Accountability Individual shared and individual
Performance sum of individual
outputs
collective and synergistic
Skill Diverse complementary

5. • 3.2. Classifying teams and/or groups
• 3.2. 1Types of Groups
• In general, groups within organizations fall in two major
categories:
 Formal groups
 informal groups
• 1. Formal Groups
• A designated work group defined by the organization’s
structure is formal group. Formal groups are groups brought
into existence by the structure of an organization.
• In formal groups, the behaviors that one should engage in are
stipulated by and directed toward organizational goals.
• Formal groups can be further classified as Command
Groups and Task Groups.

6. • Command group is a group which is determined by
the organizational chart depicting the approved
formal connections between individuals in an
organization.
Reports directly to a given manager such as a department or unit
• Task groups, those working together to complete a specific job or
task in an organization
Task groups are often not restricted to the organizational hierarchy
and can be cross functional in nature.

7. • 2. Informal Groups
• Informal group is a group that is neither formally structured
nor organizationally determined; appears in response to the
need for social contact.
• Two specific types of informal groups are interest and
friendship.
1. Interest Groups: consist of persons who share
common interests.
2. Friendship Groups: Those brought together because
they share one or more common characteristics.
• Reference groups are the groups, with which individuals
identify and compare themselves.

8. • 3.2. 2 Types of teams
• Teams are a special type of task group, consisting of two or
more individuals responsible for the achievement of a goal or
objective. All teams exist to solve problems. Teams can be
classified in a number of ways based on their duration and
objectives:
 problem-solving,
virtual,
cross-functional, and
self-directed work teams.
• 1. Problem-solving: teams are formed on a temporary basis to
address a specific problem that is confronting the organization.

9. • 2. Virtual Teams: Defined as “a team that relies on interactive
technology to work together when separated by physical
distance,” they can draw on a variety of interactive technology
that includes traditional e-mail, instant messaging,
teleconferencing, videoconferencing etc.
• 3. Cross-Functional Teams: teams that are composed of
individuals from different departments or work areas those
come together on a task or project basis.
• 4. Self-Managed Work Teams: Self-managed work teams
bring together separate tasks, once performed by individuals
led by a supervisor, giving team member’s responsibility for
task accomplishment.

10. • 3.3 Why do people form and join groups?
• Some reasons involve:
Needs, Attractions
Proximity, Power,
Attractions, Goals.
• 1. The Satisfaction of Needs
• Security: By joining a group, individuals can reduce the
insecurity of standing alone.
• Status: a person’s relative rank, prestige, or standing in a
group.
• Self-Esteem: Self-esteem is a belief about one’s own worth
based on an overall self-evaluation.
• Group membership may nurture self-esteem.
• Affiliation: is the desire to establish and maintain friendly and warm
relations with others.

11. • 2. Proximity and Attraction
• Interpersonal interaction can result in group formation.
Two important facets of interpersonal interaction are
Proximity- the physical distance between employees performing a job
Attraction- the degree to which people are drawn to each other
• 3. Power: What cannot be achieved individually often
becomes possible through group action. There is
power in numbers.
• 4. Goal Achievement: There are times when it takes
more than one person to accomplish a particular task
there is a need to pool talents, knowledge, or power in
order to get a job completed.

12. • 3.4 Group Development (GD Stages)
• The group development stages according to five-stage model
are
forming,
storming,
norming,
performing,
adjourning.
• 1,FORMING
• a primary concern is the initial entry of members to a group.
• It is characterized by much uncertainty about the group’s
purpose, structure, and leadership.
• This stage is complete when members have begun to think of
themselves as part of a group.

13. • 2.STORMING
• is a period of high emotionality and tension among the group
members.
• During this stage, hostility and infighting may occur, and the
group typically experiences many changes.
• It is characterized by intra-group conflict.
• It is marked by interpersonal conflict as members compete for
leadership and other roles.
• 3.NORMING
• sometimes called initial integration,
• is the point at which the group really begins to come together as
a coordinated unit.
• It is characterized by close relationship and cohesiveness. There
is now a strong sense of group identity and friendship.

14. • 4. PERFORMING
• sometimes called total integration,
• marks the emergence of a mature, organized, and
well-functioning group.
• The group structure at this point is fully
functional and accepted.
• 5. ADJOURNING:
• The group prepares for its disbandment.
• Members shift their attention from task attention
to socio-emotional focus as they realize that this
relationship is ending.

15. • Figure 3.1the five-stage model of group development

16. • 3. 5 Group properties and productivity
• There are several properties of groups that help shape group
behavior and explain and predict individual behavior.
• They are
• roles,
• norms,
• status,
• size, and
• cohesiveness.

17. 1. Roles
• By this term (role), we mean a set of expected behavior
patterns attributed to someone occupying a given position in a
social unit.
Role identity: certain attitudes and actual behaviors
consistent with a role, they create the role identity.
Role Perception: one’s view of how one is supposed to
act in a given situation.
Role Expectations: defined as how others believe you
should act in a given situation.
 Role Conflict: Role conflict is a situation in which an
individual is confronted by divergent role expectations.

18. • 3.Norms
• Norms are acceptable standards of behavior that are shared by
the group’s members. Norms tell members what they ought or
ought not to do under certain circumstances. The important
common classes of norms that appear in most workgroups are
mentioned as follows:
• Performance norms: Workgroups typically provide their
members with explicit cues on how hard they should work, how
to get the job done, their output level, appropriate
communication channels, and the like.
• Appearance norms: These factors include things like
appropriate dress, loyalty to the workgroup or organization,
when to look busy, and when it is acceptable to goof off.
• Social Arrangement Norms: This norm is basically centered
on how we should behave in social settings.

19. • 4. Group size:
• Workgroups can be found in sizes like large and small. The
impact of size on a group’s performance depends upon the
type of task in which the group is engaged.
• Larger groups are more effective in fact-finding and problem
solving activities.
• Smaller groups are more effective in action-taking tasks,
speed and individual performance.
• Large groups are good for gaining diverse input “but
'smaller groups are better at doing something productive
with that input.
• Social loafing occurs when individuals within a group hold
back what they contribute to the group’s effort and
performance.

20. • 5. Status
• Status can be defined as a social position or rank given to
groups or group members by others.
• Status may be formally imposed through organizational titles
or amenities.
• A person’s status reflects group members perceptions of what
‟
the person contributes to the group.
• 6. Composition
• Group demography is the degree to which members of a group
share common demographic attributes such as age, sex, race,
educational level or length of service in the organization, and
the impact of these attributes on turnover”.

21. • 7. Group cohesiveness
• It is the degree to which members are attracted to each
other and are motivated to stay in the group.
• Members of cohesive groups have a strong desire to stay
in the group. Attractiveness is a key ingredient in
cohesiveness.
• Determinants of cohesiveness
• Cohesiveness can be affected by such factors as
time spent together,
 the severity of initiation/ Difficulty of Entry,
group size,
external threats,
previous successes

22. • 3.6 Group Behavior
• Group Dynamics: . The interaction that exists
among group members and between groups
that involves both intra-group and inter-group
behavior.
• Intra-group: is the interaction that occurs
between group members.
• Inter-group: occurs between two or more
work groups, social groups work together in
an organization.

23. • 3.7 Implication for performance and
satisfaction
Performance
• Any predictions about a group’s performance
must begin by recognizing that workgroups are
part of a larger organization and those factors
such as the organization's strategy, authority
structure, selection procedures, and reward
system can provide a favorable or unfavorable
climate for the group to operate within.

24. Satisfaction
• As with the role perception-performance relationship,
high congruence between a boss and employee about the
perception of the employee's job shows a significant
association with high employee satisfaction.
3.8 Group Decision Making
• Group decision making- involves solving a problem by
a group of two or more individuals. Many of the
decisions in large complex organizations are made by
groups - through shared power, bargaining activities
and need for compromise present in most group
decisions that further complicate decision making
process.

25. •In general group decision making is suitable when:
 Many perspectives are needed
 Acceptance of the decision is critical
 The problem is complex or unstructured
 Individuals’ judgments are unreliable
 Individuals are unwilling to take necessary risks
 You want to develop team members’ team-related skills
 Group Strengths:
– Generate more complete information and knowledge
– Offer increased diversity of views
– Increased acceptance of decisions
– Generally more accurate
 Group Weaknesses:
– Time-consuming activity
– Conformity pressures in the group
– Discussions can be dominated by a few members
– A situation of ambiguous responsibility

26. 3.8.1Group Decision-Making Techniques
A group can make decisions by working together through the basic decision
making process. However, group decisions can be enriched when the group
uses techniques that stimulate creativity in group processes. The following are
among the most widely used techniques.
1) Brainstorming
Brainstorming is the process of suggesting many possible alternatives/ideas without
evaluation or criticism.
2) Nominal group technique
It is a structured approach to decision making that focuses on generating
alternatives and choosing one alternative by voting.
3) Delphi technique
It is a group decision making process that anonymously generates ideas or
judgments from physically dispersed experts through questionnaires and feedback.
4) Interacting group decision (consensus)
Consensus is the process of presenting opinions and gaining agreement to
support a decision. Group members openly discuss, argue about and agree on the
best alternative(s).

27. 3.8.2 Groupthink and Group shift
Two by-products of group decision making have received a
considerable amount of attention by researchers in OB. As we'll
show, these two phenomena have the potential to affect the
group's ability to appraise alternatives objectively and arrive at
quality decision solutions.
• Group-think is the tendency of cohesive group members to lose
their critical evaluative capabilities and it is a behavior that
support conformity and team harmony at the expense of other
team priorities.
• Group-shift: is a change in decision risk between the group's
decision and the individual decision that members within the
group would make; can be either to ward conservatism or greater
risk.