Groups: Two or more people working together to achieve common

goals.

An effective group is one that achieves:

high levels of task performance
member satisfaction; and
team viability

Performance Goals: Quantity, quality and timeliness of results

Member Satisfaction: Members feel their participation and experiences

are positive and meet important personal needs

Team Viability: Members are sufficiently satisfied to continue working

together on an ongoing basis
 Group and Inter-group Dynamics

Group Dynamics: The forces operating in groups that affect the way
members work together – how they work together as well as how
they relate to one another while working.
Inter-group Dynamics: relationship between groups cooperating and
competing with one another.
Positive Outcome of Inter-group Dynamics:
 Motivated to work harder
 More focused on key tasks
 Develop more internal loyalty
 Achieve higher level of creativity in problem solving

Negative Outcome:
 Energy focused on animosities toward the other group than on
performance of important tasks.
 Homogenous & Heterogeneous Groups

Advantages and Disadvantages of

Homogenous & Heterogeneous Groups

Homogenous Groups:
 Easy to work together
 Performance limitations of skills, experiences and
perspectives
Heterogeneous Groups:
 Greater pool of talent, and viewpoints
 But diversity may result in interpersonal conflicts, at
least in the short run.
Role Taking:
•Expects to be assigned responsibilities
•Performing the responsibilities that are
required as part of an assigned role
Role Making:
•Taking the initiative to create a role by
assuming responsibilities
Informal rules of conduct.
Individuals conform to norms for 3 reasons:
1.Compliance – to get rewards or avoid punishment
2.Identification - Associating with supports of a norm
3.Internalisation - Believing that the norm is right
When norms are appropriate, conformity is good
Response to Deviance:
1.Explain why norm is important and reprimand or
punish deviants
2.Expel the deviant
3.Change the norm to be more in line with deviant’s
behaviour
Deviance is sometimes functional as it allows re-
examining of norms for its appropriateness and
changing norms, where necessary
L
e
v
E High Performance
L
of
G
o
a
l
A
c
c
o
m
P
L
I
S
H
M Low conformity/low High Confirmity/
E Deviance Medium confirmity/ Low Deviance
N Low Performance Medium deviance Low Performance
t

CONFORMANCE
 FORMING
Getting to know each other

ADJOURNING STORMING
Disbanding & Celebrating Dealing with tensions &
accomplishment defining group tasks

PERFORMING NORMING
Maturation in relationship Building relationships and
& Task Performance Working together
Tendency of one’s behaviour to be influenced by the presence of others
in a group or social setting.

 Positive when one is proficient

 Negative when not proficient
When people perform at a lower level when working in
groups than when working alone.

Also known as Ringelmann Effect

More likely to occur in large groups where individual output

is difficult to identify or is less noticeable.
Less likely to occur when task is interesting – intrinsic
motivation.
Less common when group objective is important.
Dealing with Social Loafing:
•Have smaller groups
•Define member roles and tasks and assign
specific tasks
•Measure individual performance
•Select motivated people
•Select people who have a collectivist value
orientation
Advantages & Disadvantages of Group Decision Making

Advantages:
Information: More knowledge and expertise is available and applied.
Alternatives: A greater number of alternatives are examined avoiding “Tunnel Vision”.
Understanding & Acceptance: The final decision is better understood & accepted by all group members.
Commitment: More commitment among group members to make the final decision work.

Disadvantages:
Social pressure to conform: Individual members may feel compelled to accept the decision of the group
Minority Domination: The group decision may be forced by one individual or a small coalition.
Time Demands: Needs more time than individual decision making as more people involved in discussion
 GROUPTHINK

Tendency of cohesive group members to lose their

critical evaluative capabilities.

– Overemphasis on agreement and under-emphasis

on critical discussion to hold the group together
and avoid unpleasant disagreements.
 GROUP DECISION TECHNIQUES
Brainstorming: Members generate as many ideas and
alternatives as possible.
Rules of Brainstorming:
 No criticism is allowed till the idea generation process is
completed
 “Freewheeling” is welcomed: Emphasis on creativity and
imagination
 The emphasis is on more number of ideas
 “Piggy-backing” :
Everyone is encouraged to suggest how others’ ideas can be
turned into new ideas or how two or more ideas can be
joined into still another new idea.
 GROUP DECISION TECHNIQUES

Nominal Group Technique: Structured rules for generating

and prioritizing ideas.
When opinions differ greatly or group is too large that open
discussion may not possible.

Delphi Technique: When members are unable to meet face to

face. Questionnaires sent to members, summarised by
decision coordinator and again sent to the members
alongwith a follow-up questionnaire. Process repeated till a
consensus is reached.
 Three Distinguishing Features
of Effective Groups

1. High Interdependence
2. Members have differentiated skills
and abilities
3. Members are responsible for performing
different functions
 Five Cs for Group Effectiveness

Commitment
Cohesiveness
Cooperation
Coordination
Communication
 Different Behaviors in Groups

 I am OK. You are not OK.

(Tendency to Dominate – Asserting authority, trying to manipulate)

 I am not OK. You are OK.

{Allegiance (as a sign of loyalty)
Compliance (yielding to pressure)}

 I am not OK. You are not OK.

(Avoidance Behaviour – Not being involved, being withdrawn)

 I am OK. You are OK. (Win-Win approach)

{(Acceptance (convinced about the group decision based on common
understanding)}
 Requirements for Effective Teamwork

 Clarity of objective/purpose among team members

 Commitment towards a common purpose
 Well defined roles for individual members
 Individual and Group Accountability
 Members complement each other
 High degree of Openness and Trust among
members
 Healthy spirit of Confrontation
 Should be action-oriented within a time-frame
 Dysfunctional Behaviour
 Being aggressive
 Blocker – Disagreeing and opposing
beyond reason
 Dominator – Asserting authority, trying to
manipulate
 Avoidance Behaviour - Not being involved
 Pursuing own agenda
 Resorting to arguing rather than discussing
 Advantages of Group Working
 Team working avoids tunnel vision/tramline
thinking.
 Individual assumptions are questioned by others.
 Discussion stimulates the creation of new ideas
 Allows brainstorming to overcome conformity
 Each person in a group can contribute his expertise
towards a common objective.
 Can help in avoiding rationalisation of resistance
by not giving in to Group Think