chapter 7 / slide 1 copyright © 2008 pearson education canada part 3 groups and teamwor copyright...

Chapter 7 / Slide 1Copyright © 2008 Pearson Education Canada

Part 3

• Groups and Teamwor

Copyright © 2008 Pearson Education Canada

Social Behaviour and Organizational Processes


Learning Objectives

1. Define groups and distinguish between formal and informal groups.

2. Discuss group development.

3. Explain how group size and member diversity influence what occurs in groups.

Chapter

7



Learning Objectives (continued)4. Review how norms, roles, and status

affect social interaction.

5. Discuss the causes and consequences of group cohesiveness.

6. Explain the dynamics of social loafing.

Chapter

7



Learning Objectives (continued)7. Discuss how to design and support self-

managed teams.

8. Explain the logic behind cross-functional teams and describe how they can operate effectively.

9. Understand virtual teams and what makes them effective.

Chapter

7



What Is a Group?

• A group consists of two or more people interacting interdependently to achieve a common goal.

• Interaction is the most basic aspect of a group.

• Interdependence means that group members rely on each other to accomplish goals.

Copyright © 2008 Pearson Education Canada Chapter 7 / Slide 5


What Is a Group? (continued)

• Why is group membership important?

– Groups exert influence on us.

– Groups provide a context in which we are able to exert influence on others.

Copyright © 2008 Pearson Education Canada Chapter 7 / Slide 5


Formal Work Groups

• Formal work groups are groups that are established by organizations to facilitate the achievement of organizational goals.

• The most common formal group consists of a manager and the employees who report to the manager.

• Other types of formal work groups:

– Task forces

– Committees


Informal Groups

• Informal groups are groups that emerge naturally in response to the common interests of organizational members.

• They are seldom sanctioned by the organization.

• Informal groups can either help or hurt an organization, depending on their norms for behaviour.


Group Development

• Groups are complex social devices.

• They require a fair amount of negotiation and trial-and-error before individual members begin to function as a true group.

• How do groups develop?


Typical Stages of Group Development

• Groups develop through a series of stages over time.

• Each stage presents the members with a series of challenges they must master in order to achieve the next stage.

• Not all groups go through these stages.

• The process applies mainly to new groups that have never met before.


Stages of Group Development


Forming

• Group members try to orient themselves by “testing the waters.”

• The situation is often ambiguous, and members are aware of their dependency on each other.


Storming

• Conflict often emerges at this stage.

• Confrontation and criticism occur as members determine whether they will go along with the way the group is developing.

• Sorting out roles and responsibilities is often at issue.


Norming

• Members resolve the issues that provoked the storming and they develop social consensus.

• Compromise is often necessary.

• Norms are agreed on and the group becomes more cohesive.

• Information and opinions flow freely.


Performing

• The group devotes its energies toward task accomplishment.

• Achievement, creativity, and mutual assistance are prominent themes at this stage.


Adjourning

• Rites and rituals that affirm the group’s previous successful development are common.

• Members often exhibit emotional support for each other.


Punctuated Equilibrium Model

• A model of group development that describes how groups with deadlines are affected by their first meetings and crucial midpoint transitions.

• Stretches of group stability punctuated by a critical first meeting, a midpoint change in group activity, and a rush to task completion.


Phase 1

• Begins with the first meeting and continues until the midpoint in the group’s existence.

• The first meeting is critical in setting the agenda for what will happen in the remainder of the phase.

• The group makes little visible progress toward the goal.


Midpoint Transition

• Occurs at almost exactly the halfway point in time toward the group’s deadline.

• The transition marks a change in the group’s approach.

• How the group manages it is critical for the group to show progress.

• This transition crystallizes the group’s activities for Phase 2.


Phase 2

• Decisions and approaches adopted at the midpoint get played out in Phase 2.

• It concludes with a final meeting that reveals a burst of activity and a concern for how outsiders will evaluate the product.


The Punctuated Equilibrium Model of Group Development for Two Groups


Punctuated Equilibrium Model (continued)

• Advice for managing teams:

– Prepare carefully for the first meeting.

– As long as people are working, do not look for radical progress during Phase 1.

– Manage the midpoint transition carefully.

– Be sure that adequate resources are available to actually execute the Phase 2 plan.

– Resist deadline changes.


Group Structure and Its Consequences

• Group structure refers to the characteristics of the stable social organization of a group, the way a group is “put together.”

• The most basic structural characteristics along which groups vary are size and member diversity.

• Other structural characteristics are group norms, roles, status, and cohesiveness.


Group Size

• The smallest possible group consists of two people, such as a manager and a particular employee.

• In practice, most work groups, including task forces and committees, usually have between 3 and 20 members.


Group Size and Satisfaction

• Members of larger groups consistently report less satisfaction with group membership than those in smaller groups.

• Chance to work on and develop friendships decrease as size increases.

• Larger groups might prompt conflict and dissension.


Group Size and Satisfaction (continued)

• Larger groups might prompt conflict and dissension.

• Many people are inhibited about participating in larger groups.

• In large groups, individual members identify less easily with the success and accomplishments of the group.


Group Size and Performance

• Do large groups perform tasks better than small groups?

• The relationship between group size and performance depends on the task the group needs to accomplish and on how we define good performance.

• Types of tasks:

– Additive tasks

– Disjunctive tasks

– Conjunctive tasks


Additive Tasks

• Tasks in which group performance is dependent on the sum of the performance of individual group members.

• For additive tasks, the potential performance of the group increases with group size.


Disjunctive Tasks

• Tasks in which group performance is dependent on the performance of the best group member.

• The potential performance of groups doing disjunctive tasks increases with group size.


Process Losses

• Group performance difficulties stemming from the problems of motivating and coordinating larger groups.

• Problems of communication and decision making increase with size.

Actual performance =

Potential performance – Process losses


Group Size, Productivity, and Process Losses


Process Losses (continued)

• Potential performance and process losses increase with group size for additive and disjunctive tasks.

• Actual performance increases with size up to a point and then falls off.

• The average performance of group members decreases as size gets bigger.


Process Losses (continued)

• Up to a point, larger groups might perform better as groups, but their individual members tend to be less efficient.


Conjunctive Tasks

• Tasks in which group performance is limited by the performance of the poorest group member.

• Both the potential and actual performance of conjunctive tasks would decrease as group size increases.


Diversity of Group Membership

• Diverse groups have a more difficult time communicating effectively and becoming cohesive.

• Diverse groups might take longer to do their forming, storming, and norming.

• Once they do develop, more and less diverse groups are equally cohesive and productive.


Diversity of Group Membership (continued)

• Diverse groups sometimes perform better when the task requires cognitive, creativity-demanding tasks, and problem-solving.

• In general, any negative effects of “surface diversity” in age, gender, or race seem to wear off over time.

• “Deep diversity” in attitudes toward work or how to accomplish a goal can badly damage cohesiveness.


Group Norms

• Collective expectations that members of social units have regarding the behaviour of each other.

• They are codes of conduct that specify the standards against which we evaluate the appropriateness of behaviour.

• Most normative influence is unconscious.


Norm Development

• Why do norms develop?

• Norms provide regularity and predictability of behaviours.

• Norms develop about behaviours that are at least marginally important to their supporters.

• Shared attitudes form the basis for norms.


Norm Development (continued)

• Why do individuals comply with norms?

– The norm corresponds to privately held attitudes.

– They often save time and prevent social confusion.

– Groups have a range of rewards and punishments available to induce conformity to norms.


Some Typical Norms

• Some types of norms that exist in most organizations and affect the behaviour of members include:

– Dress norms

– Reward allocation norms

– Performance norms


Roles

• Positions in a group that have a set of expected behaviours attached to them.

• Roles represent norms that apply to particular group members.

• There are two basic kinds of roles in organizations:

– Assigned roles

– Emergent roles


Role Ambiguity

• Lack of clarity of job goals or methods.

• There are a variety of elements that can lead to role ambiguity:

– Organizational factors

– The role sender

– The focal person


A Model of the Role Assumption Process


Role Ambiguity (continued)

• The most frequent outcomes of role ambiguity are job stress, dissatisfaction, reduced organizational commitment, lower performance, and intentions to quit.

• Managers can reduce role ambiguity by providing clear performance expectations and performance feedback.


Role Conflict

• A condition of being faced with incompatible role expectations.

• There are four types of role conflict:

– Intrasender role conflict

– Intersender role conflict

– Interrole conflict

– Person-role conflict


Intrasender Role Conflict

• A single role sender provides incompatible role expectations to a role occupant.

• This type of role conflict is especially likely to also provoke role ambiguity.


Intersender Role Conflict

• Two or more role senders provide a role occupant with incompatible expectations.

• Employees who straddle the boundary between the organization and its clients or customers are especially likely to encounter this form of conflict.

• It can also stem from within the organization.


Interrole Conflict

• Several roles held by a role occupant involve incompatible expectations.

• Competing demands for one’s time are a frequent symptom of interrole conflict.


Person-Role Conflict

• Role demands call for behaviour that is incompatible with the personality or skills of a role occupant.

• Many examples of whistle-blowing are signals of person-role conflict.

• The organization has demanded some role behaviour that the occupant considers unethical.


Role Conflict (continued)

• The most consistent consequences of role conflict are job dissatisfaction, stress reactions, lowered organizational commitment, and turnover intentions.


Role Conflict (continued)

• Managers can help prevent employee role conflict by:

– Avoiding self-contradictory messages

– Conferring with other role senders

– Being sensitive to multiple role demands

– Fitting the right person to the right role


Status

• The rank, social position, or prestige accorded to group members.

• It represents the group’s evaluation of a member.

• All organizations have both formal and informal status systems.


Formal Status Systems

• Represents management’s attempt to publicly identify those people who have higher status than others.

• Status symbols are tangible indicators of status (e.g., titles, pay packages, work schedules).

• Formal organization status is based on seniority in one’s group and one’s assigned role in the organization – one’s job.


Formal Status Systems (continued)

• Why do organizations go to all the trouble to differentiate status?

– Powerful magnets to induce members to aspire to higher organizational positions.

– Reinforces the authority hierarchy in work groups and in the organization as a whole.


Informal Status Systems

• Such systems are not well advertised, and they might lack the conspicuous symbols and systematic support that people usually accord the formal system.

• Informal status is linked to job performance as well as factors such as gender or race.


Consequences of Status Differences

• Most people like to communicate with others at their own status or higher, rather than with people who are below them.

• Communication moves up the status hierarchy.

• If status differences are large, people can be inhibited from communicating upward.

• Higher-status members do more talking and have more influence.


Reducing Status Barriers

• Because they inhibit the free flow of communication, many organizations downplay status differences by doing away with status symbols.

• The goal is to foster a culture of teamwork and cooperation across the ranks.


Group Cohesiveness

• The degree to which a group is especially attractive to its members.

• Members want to stay in the group and they describe the group in favourable terms.

• Cohesiveness is a relative, rather than absolute, property of groups.


Factors Influencing Cohesiveness

• What makes some groups more cohesive than others?

• Threat and Competition

– External threat to the survival of a group increases cohesiveness.

– Improves communication and coordination.


Factors Influencing Cohesiveness (continued)

• Success

– Groups become more cohesive when they successfully accomplish an important goal.

• Member Diversity

– Groups that are more diverse can have a harder time becoming cohesive.

– If there is agreement about how to accomplish a task, its success will often outweigh surface dissimilarity.


Competition, Success, and Cohesiveness



• Size

– Larger groups have a more difficult time becoming and staying cohesive.

– Large groups have a more difficult time agreeing on goals and more problems communicating and coordinating efforts.



• Toughness of Initiation

– Groups that are tough to get into tend to be more attractive than those that are easy to join.


Consequences of Cohesiveness

• Is more or less group cohesiveness desirable?

• What are the consequences?

• More Participation in Group Activities

– There is more participation in cohesive groups in terms of lower voluntary turnover and absenteeism, and greater communication.


Consequences of Cohesiveness (continued)• More Conformity

– Highly cohesive groups are able to induce greater conformity to group norms.

– Can apply pressure to deviants to get them to comply with group norms.

• More Success

– Cohesiveness contributes to group success.

– Cohesive groups are good at achieving their goals.

– Group cohesiveness is related to performance.


Consequences of Cohesiveness (continued)

• In highly cohesive groups, the productivity of individual group members is similar to other members; in less cohesive groups, there is more variation in productivity.

• Highly cohesive groups tend to be more or less productive than less cohesive groups.

• Cohesiveness is more likely to pay off when the task requires more interdependence.


Hypothetical Productivity Curves For Groups Varying in Cohesiveness


What Is a Team?

• The term “team” is generally used to describe “groups” in organizational settings.

• Teams have become a major building block of organizations and are now quite common in North America.

• Improvements in efficiency and quality have resulted from team-based work arrangements.


Designing Effective Work Teams

• According to J. Richard Hackman, a work group is effective when:

– Its physical or intellectual output is acceptable to management and to other parts of the organization that use this output.

– Group members’ needs are satisfied rather than frustrated by the group.

– The group experience enables members to continue to work together.


Designing Effective Work Teams (continued)

• Group effectiveness occurs when:

– High effort is directed toward the group’s task.

– When knowledge and skill are directed toward the task.

– When the group adopts sensible strategies for accomplishing its goals.

• One way to design groups to be more effective is to make them self-managed work teams.


Self-Managed Work Teams

• Work groups that have the opportunity to do challenging work under reduced supervision.

• The groups regulate much of their own members’ behaviour.

• Critical success factors of self-managed teams include:

– The nature of the task.

– The composition of the group.

– Various support mechanisms.


Tasks for Self-Managed Teams

• Tasks assigned for self-managed work teams should be complex and challenging.

• They should require high interdependence among team members.

• The tasks should have the qualities of enriched jobs.


Composition of Self-Managed Teams

• Stability

– Group membership should be fairly stable.

• Size

– Self-managed teams should be as small as feasible.

• Expertise

– Group members should have a high level of expertise about the task at hand as well as social skills.


Composition of Self-Managed Teams (continued)

• Diversity

– Group members should be similar enough to work well together and diverse enough to bring a variety of perspectives and skills to the task at hand.

– One way of maintaining appropriate group composition is to let the group choose its own members.


Supporting Self-Managed Teams

• Support factors can assist self-managed teams in becoming and staying effective.

• Training

– Members of self-managed teams require extensive training in areas such as technical training, social skills, language skills, and business training.


Supporting Self-Managed Teams (continued)

• Rewards

– Rewards should be tied to team accomplishment rather than to individual accomplishment.

– Provide individual performance feedback.

• Management

– Management should mediate relations between teams, deal with union concerns, and coach teams to be independent.


Factors Influencing Work Group Effectiveness


Research on Self-Managed Work Teams

• Task characteristics related to most measures of group effectiveness.

• Teams perceived as too large for their tasks rated as less effective than teams perceived as an appropriate size or too small.

• Managerial support related to many measures of effectiveness and has been found to be one of the best predictors of group performance.


Research on Self-Managed Work Teams (continued)

• Group processes are the best predictors of group effectiveness.

• Research has shown improvements in team productivity, quality, customer satisfaction, and safety following the implementation of self-managed work teams.


Cross-Functional Teams

• Work groups that bring people with different functional specialties together to better invent, design, or deliver a product or service.

• Members have to be experts in their own area but able to cooperate with others.


Cross-Functional Teams (continued)

• The general goals of using cross-functional teams include some combination of innovation, speed, and quality that come from early coordination among the various specialties.

• Cross-functional teams are best known for their successes in product development.


Principles for Effectiveness

• A number of factors contribute to the effectiveness of cross-functional teams.

• Composition

– All relevant specialties must be included.

• Superordinate goals

– Attractive outcomes that can only be achieved by collaboration must override functional objectives.


Principles for Effectiveness (continued)

• Physical proximity

– Team members have to be relocated close to each other to facilitate informal contact.

• Autonomy

– Cross-functional teams need some autonomy from the larger organization.

– Functional specialists need some authority to commit their function to project decisions.


Principles for Effectiveness (continued)

• Rules and procedures

– Some basic decision procedures must be laid down to prevent anarchy.

• Leadership

– Cross-functional team leaders need especially strong people skills in addition to task expertise.


Virtual Teams

• Work groups that use technology to communicate and collaborate across time, space, and organizational boundaries.

• Along with the reliance on computer and electronic technology, the primary feature of virtual teams is the lack of face-to-face contact between team members.

• Virtual teams are often cross-functional in nature.


Advantages of Virtual Teams

• Around-the-clock work

– Globally, using a virtual team can create a 24-hour team that never sleeps.

• Reduced travel time and cost

– Virtual teaming reduces travel time and costs associated with face-to-face meetings.


Advantages of Virtual Teams (continued)

• Larger talent pool

– Virtual teams allow companies to expand their potential labour markets and go after the best people, even if these people have no interest in relocating.

– They can also give employees added flexibility and better work-life balance.


Challenges of Virtual Teams

• Miscommunication

– The loss of face-to-face communication presents certain risks for virtual teams that can result in miscommunication.

• Trust

– Trust is difficult to develop between virtual team members.

• Isolation

– A lack of casual interactions among team members can lead to feelings of isolation and detachment.


Challenges of Virtual Teams (continued)

• High costs

– The costs of cutting-edge technology, initial set-up, and maintenance can be substantial.

• Management issues

– For managers, virtual teams can create new challenges in terms of dealing with employees who are no longer in view.

• Many of these challenges can be managed and in some cases, turned into opportunities with training and team-building exercises.


Lessons Concerning Virtual Teams

• Recruitment

– Choose team members carefully in terms of attitude and personality, and find people with good interpersonal skills, not just technical expertise.

• Training

– Invest in training for both technical and interpersonal skills.

• Personalization

– Encourage team members to get to know each other and reduce feelings of isolation.


Lessons Concerning Virtual Teams (continued)

• Goals and ground rules

– Virtual team leaders should define goals clearly, set rules for communication standards and responses, and provide feedback.

• The key is recognizing the ways in which virtual teams are different than those based in a single office environment, and not to focus solely on technology.


A Word of Caution: Teams as a Panacea

• Switching from a traditional structure to a team-based configuration is not a cure-all for an organization’s problems.

• Many organizations have rushed to deploy teams with little planning.

• Good planning and continuing support are necessary for the effective use of teams.

chapter 7 / slide 1 copyright © 2008 pearson education canada part 3 groups and teamwor copyright...

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