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Group Dynamics

Damodar SuarDepartment of Humanities & Social Sciences

Indian Institute of TechnologyKharagpur 721 302 (WB)

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Group Dynamics A group is defined as two or more individuals,

interacting and interdependent,who have come together to achieve particular objectives.

A group consists of :• who have a common purpose or objective• interact with each other to accomplish their

objective• roles are interdependent• obey a set of rules Why do people join groups ?In general, people join groups for the following reasons1. Security2. Status3. Self esteem4. Affiliation5. Power6. Goal achievement

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Group formation :Basic to group formation is some contact and some form of interaction between people. This interaction is facilitated by the following conditions.•Proximity•Similarity•Common motives and goalStages of group formationGroup generally pass through standardized sequence in their evolution. We call this sequence the five -stage model of group development .•Forming stage The first stage in group development, characterized by much Uncertainty.

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2. Storming stage

The second stage in group development ,characterized by intra- group conflict.

3.Norming stage

The third stage in group development , characterized by close relationship and cohesiveness.

4.Performing stage

The fourth stage in group development , when the group is fully functional.

5.Adjourning stage

The final stage in group development for temporary groups characterized by concern with wrapping up activities rather than task performance.

Types of group : People may belong to different groups.

•Primary and secondary groups

•Formal and informal groups

•In-groups and out-groups

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External conditions imposed on the group

These external conditions include the organization’s overall

Strategy, it’s authority structures, formal regulations, resources

employee selection process, performance evaluation and reward systems, culture and physical work setting.

An organization’s overall strategy, typically puts into place by top management, outlines the organization’s goals and the means for attaining these goals.

Organizations have authority structures that define who reports to whom, who makes decisions, and what decisions individuals or groups are empowered to make.

Organizations create rules, procedures, policies, job descriptions and other forms of formal regulations to standardize employee Behaviour.

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Some organizations are large and profitable, with an abundance of resources . The presence or absence of resources such as money, time, raw materials and equipment which are allocated to the group by organization have a large bearing on the group’s behaviour.

Another organization wide variations that affects all employees is the performance evaluation and reward system.

Every organization has an unwritten culture that defines standards of acceptable and unacceptable behaviour for employees. After few months most employees understand their organizations culture.

Finally the physical work setting is imposed on the group by External parties has an important bearing on work group behaviour.

Group member resourcesA group’s potential level of performance is, to a large extent,dependent on the resources that its members individually bring to the group.

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Knowledge, skills, and abilitiesPart of group’s performance can be predicted by assessing the knowledge, skills and abilities of its individual members. Interpersonal skills consistently emerge as important for high performance by work groups.Personal characteristics: There has been a great deal of research on the relationship between personality traits and group attitudes and behaviour.The general conclusion is that attributes that tend to have a positive connotation in our culture tend to be positively related to group productivity, morale and cohesiveness.Group structure: Group has a structure that shapes the behaviour of members & makes it possible to explain and predict a large portion of individual behaviour within the group as well as performance of the group itself. What are some of these structural variables?They include formal leadership, roles, norms,status,group size,composition of the group and the degree of group cohesiveness.

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Formal leadershipAlmost every work group has a formal leader. This leader can play an important part in the group success.

Rolesa set of expected behaviour patterns attributed to someone occupying a given position in a social unit.

Role identityCertain attitudes and behaviours consistent with a role.

Role perceptionAn individual’s view of how he or she is supposed to act in a given

situation.

Roles expectationsHow others believe a person should act in a given situation.

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Psychological contract : An unwritten agreement that sets out what management expects from the employee and vice versa.Role conflict: A situation in which an individual is confronted by divergent role expectations.Norms Acceptable standards of behaviour within a group that are shared by the group’s members.Reference groups: Important groups to which individuals belong or hope to belong &with whose norms individuals are likely to conform.Conformity: Adjusting one’s behaviour to align with the norms of the group.Deviant workplace behaviour : Antisocial actions by organizational members that intentionally Violate established norms and that result in negative consequences for the organization, its members or both.

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status :A socially defined position or rank given to a groups or group members by others .

Social loafing :The tendency for individuals to expend less effort when working collectively than when working individually.

Group demography

The degree to which members of a group share a common

demographic attribute, such as sex ,race, educational level or

length of service in the organization,& the impact of this attribute on turnover .

Cohorts :Individuals who , as part of a group ,hold a common attribute.

Cohesiveness:Degree to which group members are attracted to each other & are motivated to stay in the group.

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Group processes

The next component of our group behaviour model considers the

processes that go on within a work group the communication

patterns used by members for information exchanges, group

decision processes,leader behaviour,power dynamics, conflict

interactions & the like.

How group processes can have an impact on group’s actual

effectiveness .

Synergy

It’s a term used in biology that refers to an action of two or more

substances that results in an effect that is different from the

individual summation of the substances. We can use the concept

to better understand group processes.

Social facilitation effect: The tendency for performance to improve or decline in response to the presence of others.

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Effects of Group Processes

Potential Group

EffectivenessProcess

gainsProcesslosses

Actual Group

Effectiveness

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Group decision making

It is a process of choosing a single ,best alternative out of a series of alternatives ,that all of us do in our every day life.Group decision making polls the information and reasons of all group members to find out the best solution (out of many) in a given situation.

Strengths:

Groups generate more complete information and knowledge

•They offer increased diversity of views

•Groups lead to increased acceptance of a solution

Weakness:

it’s a time consuming process

•There are conformity pressures in groups

•Group discussion can be dominated by one or few members.

•Group decisions suffer from ambiguous responsibility.

Groupthink: Phenomenon in which the norm for consensus overrides the realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action.

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Group shift

A change in decision risk between the group’s decision and the individual decision that members within the group would make can be either toward conservatism or greater risk.

Group decision-making techniques

The most common form of group decision making takes place in interacting groups. In these groups, members meet face-to- face and rely on both verbal and non-verbal interaction to communicate with each other. Brainstorming, the nominal group technique , and electronic meetings have been proposed as way to reduce many of the problems inherent in the traditional interacting group.

Brainstorming

It is meant to overcome pressures for conformity in the interacting group that retard the development of creative alternatives. An idea-generation process that specifically encourages any and all alternatives,while withholding any criticism of those alternatives.

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The following two techniques go further by offering methods of

actually arriving at a preferred solution.

The nominal group technique

It restricts discussion or interpersonal communication during the decision-making process hence , the term nominal. A group decision making method in which individual members meet face-to -face to pool their judgments in a systematic but independent fashion. Group members are all physically present ,as in a traditionally committee meeting but members operate independently. Specifically a problem is presented & then the following steps are take place.

1. Members meet as a group but before any discussion takes

place each member independently writes down his or her ideas

on the problem

2. After this silent period ,each members presents one idea to

the group.

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3.Group now discusses the ideas for clarity and evaluates them.4.Each group member silently and independently rank orders the ideas.The idea with the highest aggregate ranking determines the final decision .

Electronic meetingA meeting in which members interact on computers , allowing for anonymity of comments and aggregations of votes.Each of these four group decision techniques has its own set of strengths and weakness.The choice of one technique over another will depend on what criteria you want to emphasize and the cost – benefit trade off.