Foundation of Group behavior 1 Defining and classifying

Foundation of Group behavior

1 - Defining and classifying groups Group: Two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent, who have come together to achieve particular objective. Types of Groups: • Formal Group: A designated work group defined by a organization’s structure. • The six members of an airline flight crew are a formal group.

Defining and classifying groups • Informal groups: A group that is neither formally structured nor organizationally determined; such groups appear in response to the need for social contact. (Group in Mosque, Gym, Park etc) • Command group: A group composed of the individuals who report directly to a given manager. • Task group: people working together to complete a job

Defining and classifying groups • Friendship Group: people brought together because they share one or more common characteristics.

2 -Stages of Group Development:

4 -Group Properties: There are five main properties of a group. 1. Roles 2. Norms 3. Status 4. Size 5. Cohesiveness

Group Properties: • Roles: a set of expected behavior patterns attributed to someone occupying a given position in a social unit. – Role perception: (an individual’s view of how he/she is supposed to act in a given situation) – Role expectations: ( how others believe a person should act) – Role conflicts: (a situation in which two contradictory role expectations are attached with individual)

Group Properties: • Norms: (Asool) acceptable standards of behavior with in a group that are shared by the group members. (Appreciation, Performance norms, dress code, language etc) – Conformity: As a member of a group you desire acceptance by the group thus you are liable to conforming to the group’s norms. • Reference Groups: Important groups to which individuals belong or hope to belong and with whose norms individuals are likely to conform

• Performance norms: how hard to work • Appearance norms : dress codes, unspoken rules • Social arrangement norms: with whom to eat lunch, friendship on and off the job. • Resource allocation norms: assignment of difficult jobs, distribution of resources like pay or equipment

Group Properties: • Status: A socially defined position or rank given to group members by others. What determines status? – The power a person wields(influence) over others. (Person who controls the resources and outcome of the group) – A person’s ability to contribute to a group’s goals. (Top player in the team) • An individual’s personal characteristics: (good looks, intelligence, money, or a friendly personality)

Group Properties: • Size: the no of members a group has. impact of size on working: – Smaller groups are faster at completing work than larger groups. – Individuals perform better in smaller groups. – Some times it depends on the nature of the work. Social Loafing: the tendency of an individual to spend less efforts when working collectively then working individually.

Group Properties: Page 291 • Cohesiveness: the degree to which group members are attracted to each other and are motivated to stay in the group.

5 - Group Decision Making: Group Vs Individual decision making: • Strength of group decision making: – groups generate more complete information and knowledge – it offers diversity in views. – Acceptance of solution • Weaknesses of group decision making: – Groups take more time to reach a decision – There are conformity pressure – Group decision can be dominant by one or few.

Group Decision Making: • Group Think: a phenomenon in which the norm for consensus overrides the realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action. ( To keep positive image) Symptoms of groupthink: • Follow basic assumption although contradiction is there • Pressure from members • Misgivings • Silent…yes

• Group Shift: When people are in groups, they make decisions about risk differently from when they are alone. In the group, they are likely to make riskier decisions, as the shared risk makes the individual risk less.

Group Decision Making: • Group decision making techniques: – Interacting Groups: typical groups in which members interact with each other face to face and rely on verbal and nonverbal interactions. – Brainstorming: an idea-generation process that specifically encourages any and all alternatives while withholding any criticism of those alternatives –Drawback (production blocking) – Nominal group techniques: a group decision making method in which individual members meet face to pool their judgment's in a systematic but independent fashion.

Group Decision Making: – Members meet as a group, but before any discussion takes place, each independently writes down ideas on the problem. – After this silent period, each member presents one idea to the group, no discussion takes place until all ideas have been presented and recorded. – The group discusses the ideas for clarity and evaluate them. – Each group member silently and independently rank-orders the ideas. The ideas with the highest aggregate determines the final decision. • Electronic meeting: a meeting in which members interact on computers allowing for anonymity of comments and aggregation of votes. – Up to 50 people sit around a horse shoe- shaped table, having a series of networked laptops. – Issues are presented to them and every one can present his view point and vote for the best decision without any hesitation as he will remain anonymous.