LESSON 9: GROUPS AND

TEAMS IN
ORGANIZATIONS

MA’AM JANINE CAMACHO

• THE NATURE OF GROUPS
• To understand the operation of groups in
organizations, it is necessary to define exactly what a
group is and the types of formal and informal groups
that exist.
• What Is a Group?

• Imagine waiting in a line at the bank one day along with five other
people. Now compare this collection of individuals to your company's
board of directors. Although in our everyday language we may refer
to the people waiting in line as a group, they certainly are not a group
in the same sense as the members of the board. Obviously, a group is
more than simply a collection of people. But, what exactly is it that
makes a group a group?
• Social scientists have formally defined a group as
a collection of two or more interacting
individuals with a stable pattern of
relationships between them who share
common goals and who perceive themselves as
being a group. Let's consider the various
elements of this definition separately.
• First, groups are composed of two or more people in social
interaction. In other words, the members of a group must
have some influence on each other. Whether the interaction
between the parties is immediate and occurs face-to-face,
such as in committee meetings, or is delayed, such as might
occur when a written draft of a document is circulated for
comments, the parties must have some impact on each
other to be considered a group.
• Second, groups must possess a stable structure.
Although groups can change, and often do, there must
be some stable relationships that keep group
members together and functioning as a unit. A
collection of individuals that constantly changes (e.g.,
those waiting on the bank line with you) would not be
considered a group.
• A third characteristic of groups is that members
share common interests or goals. For example,
members of a company's safety committee all
share a common goal in keeping the workplace
free of danger. 
• Fourth, and finally, to be a group, the individuals involved must perceive
themselves as a group. Groups are composed of people who recognize each
other as a member of their group and they can distinguish these individuals
from nonmembers. Whether it's the members of a corporate board of
directors or a company softball team, people know who is in their group and
who is not. In contrast, the people waiting with you in line at the bank
probably don't think of each other as being members of a group. Although
they stand close together and may have passing con-versations, they have
little in common (except, perhaps, a shared interest in reaching the front of
the line) and fail to identify themselves with the others in the line.
• As these four characteristics suggest, groups are
very special collections of individuals. Despite
these specific requirements, there are a wide
variety of different types of groups that may be
identified within organizations.
Formal and Informal Groups

• Formal Groups. Groups created by the organization and that are

intentionally designed to direct members toward some important
organizational goal are known as formal groups. One type of formal
group is referred to as a command group— a group determined by the
connections between individuals who are a formal part of the
organization. For example, a command group may be formed by the
vice president of marketing, who gathers together her regional
marketing directors from around the country to hear their ideas about
a new national advertising campaign. Command groups are determined
by the organization's rules regarding who reports to whom, and they
usually consist of a supervisor and his or her subordinates.
• A formal organizational group also may be formed
around some specific task. Such a group is referred to
as a task group. Unlike command groups, task groups
may be composed of individuals with some special
interest or expertise in a specific area regardless of
their positions in the organizational hierarchy.
• For example, a company may have a committee on equal employment
opportunities whose members monitor the fair hiring practices of the
organization. It may be com-posed of personnel specialists, corporate
vice presidents, and workers from the shop floor. Whether they are
permanent committees, known as standing committees, or temporary
ones formed for special purposes (such as a committee formed to
recommend solutions to a parking problem), known as ad hoc
committees or task forces, task groups are commonly found in
organizations.
• Informal Groups.
• Not all groups are as formal as those we have
identified; many are informal in nature. Informal
groups develop naturally among an organization's
personnel without any direction from the
management of the organization within which they
operate. One key factor in the formation of informal
groups is a common interest shared by its members.
• For example, a group of employees who band
together to seek union representation, or who march
together to protest their company's pollution of the
environment, may be called an interest group. The
common goal sought by members of an interest group
may unite workers at many different organizational
levels. The key factor is that membership in an
interest group is voluntary – it is not dictated by the
organization, but encouraged by an expression of
common interests.
• TYPES OF GROUPS
• Within organizations there are likely to be both formal
groups (such as command groups and task groups)
and informal groups (such as interest groups and
friendship groups).
• Of course, sometimes the interests that bind individuals together are
far more diffuse. Groups may develop out of a common interest in
participating in sports, or going to the movies, or just getting together
to talk. These kinds of informal groups are known as friendship
groups. Friendship groups extend beyond the workplace because
they provide opportunities for satisfying the social needs of workers
that are so important to their well being.
• GROUP DEVELOPMENT OVER TIME: THE FIVE-STAGE MODEL

• All groups change over time as group members come and go; group
tasks and goals change; and group members gain experience in
interacting with each other. One well-known model of group
development is Bruce Tuckman’s five-stage model. The model’s
stages are:
• GROUP DYNAMICS: PEOPLE WORKING WITH OTHERS

• To understand the dynamics of groups it is essential to consider the

way groups influence individuals and the way individuals influence
groups. We will examine precisely how this occurs in this section of
the chapter.
• Group Norms: Unspoken Rules of Group Behavior

• From your own experiences in groups you probably already know one
important way in which groups influence people—that is, by imposing
ways of thinking an d acting that are considered acceptable. If anyone
has ever told you, "that's not the way we do things around here,"
then you probably already know how potent these effects can be.
What you might not know, however, is that such informal forces
constitute a key aspect of group dynamics known as norms.
Specifically, a norm is a generally agreed-upon set of roles that guides
the behavior of group members.
• Norms differ from organizational policies in that they are informal
and unwritten. In fact, norms may be so subtle that group members
may not even be aware that they are operating. Yet, their effects can
be quite profound. For example, group norms may regulate such key
behaviors as honesty (e.g., whether or not to steal from the
company), manners of dress (e.g., a coat and tie is required), and the
punctuality of meetings and appointments (e.g., whether or not they
generally begin on time). In so doing, norms help regulate groups, and
keep them functioning in an orderly fashion.
• How Do Norms Develop? Why do norms come
about? Several key factors appear to be involved.
• First, norms develop due to precedents set over time. Whatever
behaviors emerge at a first group meeting usually will set the
standard for how that group is to operate. Initial group patterns of
behavior frequently become normative, such as where people sit, and
how formal or informal the meeting will be. Such routines help
establish a predictable, orderly interaction pattern.
• Second, norms develop because of carryovers from other situations.
Group members usually draw from their previous experiences to
guide their behaviors in new situations. The norms governing
professional behavior apply here. For example, the norm for a
physician to behave ethically and to exercise a pleasant bedside
manner is generalizable from one hospital to another. Such carryover
norms, ones that generalize between different contexts, can assist in
making in-teraction easier in new social situations.
• Third, sometimes norms also develop in response to an explicit
statement by a superior or co-worker. As described in Chapter 5,
newcomers to groups quickly "learn the ropes" when people describe
what is expected of them. Such an explanation is an explicit statement
of the group's or organization's norms insofar as it describes what one
should do or avoid doing to be accepted by the group.
• Fourth and finally, group norms may develop out of critical events in
the group's history. If an employee releases an important
organizational secret to a competitor, causing a loss to the company, a
norm to maintain secrecy may develop out of this incident. To the
extent that norms guide people away from similar mistakes, they may
be a helpful way of ensuring that the group or organization learns
from its past experiences.
• Social Facilitation: Performing in the Presence of Others

• Imagine that you have been taking piano lessons for 10 years, and you
are now about to go on stage for your first major solo concert
performance. You have been practicing diligently for several months,
getting ready for the big night. But now, you are no longer alone in
your own living room, but on stage in front of hundreds of people.
Your name is announced, and silence breaks the applause as you take
a seat in front of the concert grand. How will you perform now that
you are be-fore an audience? Will you freeze, forgetting the pieces
you practiced so intensely on your own? Or will the audience spur you
on to your best performance yet? In other words, what impact will
the presence of the audience have on your behavior?
• THE DRIVE THEORY OF SOCIAL FACILITATION

• According to the drive theory of social facilitation, the presence of

others is arousing, which in turn enhances the tendency to perform
dominant responses. If these dominant responses are well learned,
performance will be improved. If, however, the dominant response is
novel, performance will most likely be impaired.
• A considerable amount of research has shown support for this theory,
finding that people perform better on tasks in the presence of others
if that task is very well learned, but poorer if it is not well learned.
However, it is still unclear exactly why this effect occurs. One
possibility is that social facilitation results from evaluation
apprehension—the fear of being evaluated or judged by another
person. Indeed, people may be aroused by performing a task in the
presence of others because of their concern over what those others
might think of them. For example, lower level employees may suffer
evaluation apprehension when they are worried about what their
supervisors think of their work.
• Social Loafing: "Free Riding" When Working with Others

• Have you ever worked with several others helping a friend move into
a new apartment, each carrying and transporting part of the load
from the old place to the new one? Or, how about sitting around a
table with others stuffing political campaign letters into envelopes
and addressing them to potential donors? Although these tasks may
seem quite different, they actually share an important characteristic:
Performing each requires the efforts of only a single individual, but
several people's work can be pooled to yield greater outcomes.
Because each person's contributions are summed together with
another's, such tasks have been referred to as additive tasks.
• If you've ever performed additive tasks – such as the ones described
here – there's a good chance that you found yourself working not
quite as hard as you would have if you did them alone. Does this
sound familiar to you'? Indeed, a considerable amount of research
has found that when several people combine their efforts on additive
tasks, each individual contributes less than he or she would when
performing the same task alone.
• THE SOCIAL LOAFING EFFECT

• When individuals work together on additive tasks, the greater the size
of the group, the less the ef-fort each individual exerts. This
phenomenon is known as social loafing.
• Tips for Eliminating Social Loafing. Obviously, the tendency for
people to reduce their effort when working with others could be a
serious problem in organizations. Fortunately, research has shown
that there are several ways in which social loafing can be overcome.
One possible antidote to social loafing is to make each performer
identifiable. Social loafing may occur when people feel they can get
away with "taking it easy"—namely, under conditions in which each
individual's contributions cannot be determined.
• Another way to overcome social loafing is to make work tasks more
important and interesting. Research has revealed that people are
unlikely to go along for a free ride when the task they are performing
is believed to be vital to the organization. For example, it has been
found that the less meaningful salespeople believed their jobs were,
the more they engaged in social loafing— especially when they
thought their supervisors knew little about how well they were
working. To help in this regard, corporate officials should deliberately
attempt to make jobs more intrinsically interesting to employees. To
the extent that jobs are interesting, people may be less likely to loaf.
 
• It also has been suggested that managers should reward individuals
for contributing to their group's performance— that is, encourage
their interest in their group's performance. Doing this (e.g., giving all
salespeople in a territory a bonus if they jointly exceed their sales
goal) may help employees focus more on collective concerns and less
on individualistic concerns, increasing their obligations to their fellow
group members. This is important, of course, in that the success of an
organization is more likely to be influenced by the collective efforts of
groups than by the individual contributions of any one member.
End of Lesson