This document discusses key concepts related to group behavior and decision-making. It defines groups and discusses why people form groups, including for social identity and reducing uncertainty. It outlines stages of group development and characteristics that influence social identity, such as similarity, distinctiveness, status and uncertainty reduction. The document also discusses group properties like roles, norms, status, size, cohesiveness and diversity and how they impact group behavior and decision-making. It analyzes techniques for group decision-making like brainstorming and nominal group technique.

1. Foundation of
Group
Behaviour

2. Defining and classifying group
• Group – When two or more individuals interact and interdepend
among each other to achieve a particular objective
• Formal group – defined by the organization’s structure, with
designated tasks
Example: Members of an airline flight crew
• Informal group – natural formations in the work environment,
formed in response to the need for social contact
Example: Three employees from different departments who
regularly have lunch or coffee together

3. Why Do People Form Groups?
• Social identity theory – states that people have emotional reactions to the failure or success of
their group because their self-esteem is tied into the group’s performance
• Makes us understand who we are and where we fit in with other people
• Downside is Ingroup favouritism – meaning members see their ingroup as better than other
people, and people not in their group as all the same
• Eventually leading to stereotyping

4. Characteristics which makes social identity
important to a person:
• Similarity: Members of same values or characteristics and demographics have strong group
identification
• Distinctiveness: People notice identities that show how they are different from other groups
• Status: People use identities to define themselves and increase self-esteem, it makes sense that
they are most interested in linking themselves to high-status groups
Example : Graduates from prestigious universities
• Uncertainty reduction: Being (membership) in a group also helps some people understand who
they are and how they fit into the world

5. Stages of group development
• Five-stage group-development model
• Forming stage – uncertainty about the group’s purpose, structure, and leadership, members “test
the waters” means what type of behaviour are acceptable
• Storming stage – intragroup conflict crops( like who will control the group), members accept the
existence of the group but resist the constraints it imposes on individuality
• Norming stage – group structure solidifies and defines correct member behaviour
• Performing – fully functional and accepted
• Adjourning stage – wrapping up activities and preparing to disband (temporary activities)
• Storming and performing can occur simultaneously and groups can even regress to previous
stages

6. An Alternative Model for Temporary Groups with
Deadlines
• Punctuated-equilibrium model
Group’s first meeting sets the direction for the group
The group tends to stick to the same course of action even if they gain new insights until
transition
Transition phase occurs exactly when the group had used up half of its allotted time
Change of ideas, dropping of old patterns happens
Group’s last meeting is bursting of activity to complete its work
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7. Group properties: Role, Norms, Status,
Size cohesiveness and diversity
Group property 1: Role
 Role Perception – Our view of how we’re supposed to act in a given
situation is a role perception
 Role Expectations – The way others believe you should act in a given
context
Psychological contract – an unwritten mutual agreement that exists
between employees and employer (what management expects from
workers and vice versa)
 Role conflict – when the expectations of one role clashes with the
expectations of another
Example: Bill’s job requires him to relocate but his family is not interested.
Now there is a role conflict between Bill as an employee and Bill as a father

8. Zimbardo’s Prison Experiment
• Some students were assigned as prisoners and some were guards in
a fake set up
• Experts started observing their behavior
• Over the days what happened was prisoners became submissive and
guards became more authoritative
• This experiment shows how quickly individuals learn new roles
through their role perception, which was formed by mass media in
this case

9. Group Property 2: Norms
Acceptable standards of behavior shared by their members
What they ought and ought not to do under certain circumstances
Common norm is performance norm (what the level of output should be, how to get the job done)
Others are appearance norms, social arrangement norms,resource allocation norms

10. The Hawthorne Studies
• This study involved several set of experiments like illumination, assembly-test-room and bank
wiring observation room
• First study showed that employees’ productivity didn’t decrease with change in the level of light
except when reduced to that of moonlight
• Second study showed that experimental group out performed the main work group because they
were influenced by the status as “special” (that is to be able to participate in the experiment)
• Third study showed that even with the sophisticated wage incentive plan, individual’s
performance is influenced by the group because of the fear of group norms

11. Conformity
• Evidence shows that groups can place strong pressures on individual members to change their attitudes and
behaviors to conform to the group’s standard
• One of the experiment by Solomon Asch showed that people agrees to the group’s answer even though
they know it was wrong (conformity)
• This research was conducted more than 50 years ago but still some level of group pressure influences the
individual behavior
• People conform more to their reference group (i.e., group they belong or hope to belong)
Deviant Workplace Behaviour
• Also called antisocial behavior or workplace incivility
• Is a voluntary behavior that violates significant organizational norms and, by doing so, threatens the well-
being of the organization or its member
• Example: Leaving early, Showing favouritism, Sexual harassment, Sabotage etc

12. Group Property 3: Status
 Socially defined position or rank given to groups or group
members by others
 What Determines Status?
 The power of a person wields over others ( CEO of a
company )
 A person’s ability to contribute to a group’s goals ( MS Dhoni
cricket player)
 An individual’s personal characteristics (good looks,
intelligence, money, or a friendly personality)

13. Status and Norms
• High-status individuals are often given more freedom to deviate from norms
• As long as their activities aren’t severely damaging the group’s goal
• High-status people are better at resisting conformity pressures
Status and Group Interaction
• High-status people tend to be more assertive group members, they speak out, criticize more,
state more commands, and interrupt others more often
• Lower-status members tend to participate less actively in group discussion
Status Inequity
• If members perceive inequity in the group then it will pave way for disequilibrium
• Hierarchy in the group may also lead to resentment among those at the lower end of the status
continuum

14. Group Property 4: Size
 Smaller groups and larger groups each have their fair share of benefits and drawbacks
 Smaller groups are faster at completing tasks
 Larger groups are better at problem solving
Social loafing
 In large groups, some individuals put in less effort compared to when their are working alone
 This may not be true for some countries like China and Israel because they like working in groups

15. Group Property 5: Cohesiveness
 Cohesiveness means the degree to which members are attracted to each other and motivated to stay in the
group
 From the diagram we can say that the ideal type is high cohesiveness and high performance norms

16. Group Property 6: Diversity
 The degree to which members of the group are different from one
another
 Such as racial, gender, cultural diversity
 Some researches shows that diversity causes less satisfaction within their
groups, less cohesiveness and more conflicts
 Others researches shows that members are open minded, creative and
unique in solving problems

17. Group decision making
Strengths of Group Decision Making
• More information and knowledge
• More inputs as well as heterogeneity in the decision making process
• Increased diversity of views
• Finally leads to increased acceptance of a solution
Weaknesses of Group Decision Making
• Group decisions are time consuming
• Conformity pressures
• Discussion is dominated by one or a few members
• And also group decisions suffers from ambiguous responsibility

18. Effectiveness and Efficiency
• Groups are effective in accurate decision making and creativity
• But there lies a problem in efficiency which is “time consuming”
• While using groups, managers must assess whether increase in effectiveness are more than
enough to offset the reductions in efficiency

19. Groupthink and Group shift
Groupthink
• Group pressures for conformity and discourages the group from critically appraising unusual, minority, or
unpopular views
• This happens when the norm for consensus overrides the realistic appraisal of alternative courses
• This phenomenon can be overcome by monitoring the group size, leaders playing an impartial role and a
member must play the role of devil’s advocate to challenge the majority position and offer divergent
perspectives
Group shift or Group Polarization
• The group discussion tends to exaggerate the initial position of the group
• Conservatives become more cautious, and aggressive types take more risk
• Example: When the fans of a sports team celebrate the win of their team and their celebration turns to
destruction of property

20. Group Decision-Making Techniques
Brainstorming
• Members freewheel as many alternatives as they can in a given length of
time
• No criticism is allowed
• Efficiency of this technique is unclear because of “production blocking”
• It means that many are talking at once, which blocks the thought process
and eventually impedes the sharing of ideas
Nominal group technique
• Group members are all physically present, as in a traditional committee
meeting, but they operate independently
• Problem statement is given to the members, each member analyze and
come up with solution ideas individually
• Finally all members present their ideas and rank them based on the
feasibility
• Best part of this technique is that it permits a group to meet formally and
does not restrict independent thinking

21. Electronic meeting
• Issues are presented to members, and they can type in their responses into their computers (as anonymous
comments)
• This technique also allows people to be brutally honest without penalty
• Advantage of this technique are elimination of chitchat, discussions doesn't digress, and many participants
can “talk” at once without stepping on one another’s toes
• But early studies suggest that there are some mishaps like decreased group effectiveness, more time
consumption, and less member satisfaction compared with face-to-face groups
• But with the increased enthusiasm for computer-mediated communications, we could see that the
technology is here to stay

22. Thank you
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