SESSION 6

SESSION 6

CHP 9 & 10

In contrast, an informal group is neither formally structured nor organizationally determined and often meets to fulfill social needs or to bind employees with common interests. 3 employees from different departments who regularly have lunch or coffee together are an informal group. These types of interactions among individuals, though informal, deeply affect their behavior and performance.

CHP 9: Foundations of Group Behavior

In organizational behavior a group consists of two or more individuals interacting and independent who have come together to achieve certain objectives.A formal group is defined by the organization structure with designed work assignments and established tasks. In formal groups, the behaviors members should engage in are stipulated by and directed toward organizational goals. 6 members of an airline flight crew are a formal group, for example.

For example the Wendy's franchise Social Media Group harnesses these emotions with Twitter Wars with fast food rivals. Twitter fans and employees of Wendy's alike feel especially proud and identify with the Wendy's team and burns/sub-tweets any competitor. One of our colleagues knew someone who identified so much with Wendy's that she had a poster of Wendy's in her room and would get very easily angry when anyone tried to say that other fast food restaurants were better than Wendy's.

Social Identity Theory

Our tendency to personally invest in the accomplishments of a group can be explained by social identity theory. Social identity theory proposes that people have emotional reactions to the failure or success of their group because their self-esteem gets tied to whatever happens to the group.

Whenever there is an ingroup, there is by necessity an out-group which is sometimes everyone else but it is usually an identified group known by the in-groups members.For example, if my in-group, as a fast food employee, is Wendy's my outgroup might be McDonald's, Burger King or Taco bell. We tend to see members of the out-group as being all the same or ignore characteristics that make them different from one another. 2nd example, voters and politicians alike are falling into dangerous traps of believing that people who belong to different out-group parties are all the same and that they just don't understand us contributing to the polarization of people and Democratic societies around the world.

Favoritism can influence discrimination & prejudice in the workplace. For example, when a person from our in-group does something unethical we are more likely to respond by repairing the relationship then by punishing them even if it is for a heinous crime. By playing favorites with your own in-group (people of the same race, ethnicity, gender identity, etc) employees & managers alike may be complicit in discrimination.

in-group vs out-group

An in-group consists of the members of a group we belong to. We tend to play favorites or see our in-group as better than other people.

How Role Requirments Change in Different Situations

All members play a role, a function assumed by someone occupying a given position in a group. We all take on several diverse roles both on and off our jobs whether that be being a wife, a mother, a professor, waitress etc. different groups impose different role requirements on individuals. Many of these roles are compatible but some create conflicts. For example, if you were offered a job in Phoenix but your family wanted to stay in Orlando, can the demands of the parent- professional role be reconciled? Furthermore, how do we come to understand others' role requirements? We draw upon our role perceptions to frame our ideas of appropriate behaviors and learn the expectations of our groups. We also seek to understand the parameters of our roles to minimize role conflict.

Role expectations are the way others believe you should act in a given context.

When compliance with one role requirement makes it difficult to comply with another, the result is called role conflict.

Similarly we can experience a interrole conflict which is when the expectations of the different groups we belong to are in direct opposition.

In the workplace, we often look at role expectations through the perspective of the psychological contract, which is an unwritten agreement between employees & employers that establishes mutual expectations.

Our view of how we are supposed to act in a given situation is called role perception.

For example, one American mother described how she was scrambling after her son was born to accomplish two tasks: knitting her life back together from her C-section and assembling patchwork of enough disability leave, vacation, sick days and unpaid off time to rest briefly & also care for her infant son before returning to work. Roles can often conflict within jobs such as when nurses unexpectedly find themselves in a disaster such as a hurricane or mass shooting where they are required to calmly provide aid for someone through their professional role regulating emotions they are experiencing that stem from their attachment to that person in their relational role.

interrole conflict example:

The emotions of group members, especially those who work together daily, can amplify the power of norms. Co-workers, for example, may react negatively to you coming in sick for work & may be angry & civil towards you. Norms can even dictate which emotions individuals & their groups experience; in other words people may grow to interpret their shared experiences in the same way.

Different groups, communities and societies have different Norms but they all have them. Norms are established through the social perception of group members such as when a group leader says “this is what we should do” and rewards the practices when they happen and the rest of the group puts their suggestion into practice.Norms are not just leaders established opinion-driven policies for them to be adopted and not abandoned after several days they need to be accepted by all/everyone.

Norms Exert Influence on Individuals Behavior

All groups have established Norms, which are acceptable standards of behavior shared by members that express "what they ought to do and not to do: under certain circumstances.

As a member of a group, you desire acceptance and stability. Thus you may conform to group norms when you perceive the others are doing so or if you experience conflict or frustration. Considerable evidence suggests that groups can play strong pressures on members to change in order to match the group standard. The Adjustment of one's behavior to align with the norms of the group is known as conformity. I’d like to note that conformity effects are not always bad, such as when generosity in donating and can even feel more empathy as a result, or when you are in school and team up to help defend someone who is getting bullied.

Solomon Asch Conformity Experiment

As we have mentioned, Norms in the workplace significantly influence employee behavior. This may seem intuitive but full appreciation of the influence of norms on worker behaviors did not occur until the Hawthorne studies conducted between 1924 and 1932 at the Western electric company Hawthorne Works in chicago. Here are two videos explaining the Hawthorne studies.

The Hawthorne Studies

If that first video was confusing in any way, this video can clear up your questions with a quick & clear summary of The Hawthorne Studies! Overall, the most important finding was that employees did not individually maximize their output. rather their role performance became controlled by a group norm. Members were afraid that if they significantly increase their output then the unit incentive rate might be cut, the expected daily output might be increased, layoffs might occur or slow workers might be reprimanded.

The Hawthorne Studies - Explained

Mistreatment of this type is important to organizational retention efforts as nearly half of employees who have suffered this instability say it has led them to think about changing jobs; 12% actually quit because of it. Finally, as organizations have tried to do more with less and are pushing their employees to work extra hours they may indirectly be facilitating deviant behavior.

Negative Norm Outcomes

When those attributes are negative, work behavior (CWB) or deviant behaviors, may be observed more frequently. As some researchers suggest “bad apples come from Bad barrels”. Second, employees can be mistreated by their supervisors, their coworkers and even their customers which can cause them to engage in unethical behaviors as a result.

Negative Norms operate to facilitate poor group outcomes and deviant behavior. As some examples, group member & supervisor absences set the tone for the office. If the team members do not show up & if the boss does not show up most employees will probably not show up. One study of firefighters & nurses found that even though family-friendly benefits were intended to be used and are effective in reducing work-family conflict, the firefighters were less likely to use these benefits if they perceived that others in their work group also did not use them.

Status & Size Affect Group Perfromance

Status - a socially defined position or rank given to groups or group members by others- permeates every society. according to status characteristics theory, status derives from 1 of 3 sources: 1. the power person wields over others: because they likely control the group's resources people who control group outcomes tend to be perceived as high status 2. a person's ability to contribute to a group's goals: people whose contributions are critical to the group success tend to have high status 3. individuals personal characteristics: someone whose personal characteristics are positively valued by the group example good looks intelligence money or a friendly personality typically has higher status than someone with fewer valued attributes

Group Size & Dynamic

Does the size of a group affect the group's overall behavior? YES. But- the effect depends on the outcomes we are interested in.Groups with a dozen or more members are good for getting diverse input. If the goal is fact-finding or idea generating then larger groups should be more effective. Smaller groups of about 7 members are better at doing something productive.

Status & Group Interaction

People tend to become more assertive when they seek to attain higher status in a group. they speak out more often, criticize more, State more commands and interrupt others more often. Lower status members participate less actively in group discussions.

Status & Norms

High status people are also better able to resist Conformity pressures than their lower status peers. An individual who is highly valued by a group does not need or care about the group’s social rewards is particularly able to disregard conformity norms.

Cohesiveness

Groups differ in their cohesiveness, which is the shared bond driving group members to work together and stay in the group. Cohesiveness affects group productivity and vice versa. If norms for quality output & cooperation with outsiders are high, a cohesive group will be more productive than the less cohesive group. BUT if cohesiveness is high & performance Norms are low productivity will be low. What can you do to encourage group cohesiveness? 1. Make the groups smaller 2. Encourage agreement with group goals 3. Increase the time members spend together 4. Increase the group status and the perceived difficulty of attaining membership 5. Stimulate competition with other groups 6. Give rewards to the group rather than to individual members 7. Physically isolate the group

Service level diversity appears to increase group conflict especially in the early stages of a group's tenure which often lowers group morale & raises Dropout rates. One study compared groups that were culturally diverse & homogeneous composed of people from the same country. On a virtual Wilderness survival test the groups performed equally well but the members from the diverse groups were less satisfied with their groups being less cohesive & having more conflict.

VS

Types of Group Diversity:

The final group property we consider is diversity in the group's membership or the degree to which members of the group are like or different from one another On the other hand functional diversity or differences in skills abilities or other characteristics needed for the job may improve team performance & innovation but these effects are contingent on several factors. EX. functional diversity can influence team creativity by facilitating knowledge sharing. leadership plays a substantial role in maximizing the benefits of functional diversity great leaders bring disparate skills together to do great work.

Diversity

STRENGTHS

- Group decisions are time-consuming because groups typically take more time to reach a solution especially for virtual groups. - There are Conformity pressures. the desire by group members to be accepted and considered an asset to the group can squash any over disagreement and cause group members to settle for less. - Group discussions can be dominated by one or a few members. Group decisions suffer from ambiguous responsibility. In an individual decision it is clear who is accountable for the outcome. In a group decision the responsibility of any single member is diluted.

VS

WEAKNESSES

- Groups generate more complete information and knowledge. - They offer increased diversity of views. It opens up the opportunity to consider more approaches and alternatives. - Groups lead to increased acceptance of solution. during decision-making members are more likely to be accepting when descending opinions are framed as debates rather than disagreements. group members who participate in deciding are more likely to enthusiastically support and encourage others to accept it later.

Group Decision Making

Group Decision Making Techniques

Each of the group decision techniques has its own strengths and weaknesses. The choice depends on the criteria you want to emphasize in the cost benefit trade off.

Can overcome the pressures for a Conformity that dampen creativity by encouraging any and all Alternatives while withholding criticism. Brainstorming is an idea generation process that specifically encourages any & all alternatives while withholding any criticism for those alternatives.

A group decision making method in which individual members meet face-to-face to pull their judgment in a systematic but independent fashion.

Brainstorming

Nominal Group Technique

The most common form of group decision making. Typical groups in which members interact with each other relying on both verbal and nonverbal communication.

Interacting groups

Teams can sometimes achieve success in ways 1 person could never accomplish.

Understanding Work Teams

CHP 10

Groups and teams are not the same thing!

A work team on the other hand generates positive Synergy through coordination. Whereas we can think of a work team as a subset of a work group the team is constructed to be purposeful in its member interaction. By just calling a group a “team" does not automatically improve its performance. Effective teams have certain common characteristics. If management hopes to gain increases in organizational performance by teams these teams should possess the following characteristics:

VS

Teams

A Group is defined as two or more individuals interacting and interdependent who come together to achieve certain objectives. A work group is a group that interacts primarily to share information and make decisions to help all members perform within their respective areas of responsibility. The work group is a collection of individuals doing their work with some interaction and or dependency.

Groups

Comparing Work Groups & Work Teams

EX. NASA's plans to send a team of astronauts to Mars. In order to make this mission a success, countless teams of researchers, scientists, professors, engineers, operating employees, ground crews & psychologists are needed. The research & operations teams for example are technically independent their activities are interdependent & the success of one depends on the success of the others. Why? Because they all share the higher goal of sending the astronauts to mars.

Virtual Teams VT use technology to unite physically dispersed members to achieve a common goal. Members collaborate online using communication links such as wide area networks, corporate social media, video conferencing & email Virtual teams should be managed differently than face-to-face teams partially because virtual teams may not interact in the same ways.

Self-Managed Work Teams groups of employees typically 10 to 15 in number who perform highly related or interdependent jobs these teams take on some supervisory responsibilities.

Multi-Team Systems is a collection of 2 or more interdependent teams that share a superordinate goal. A "team of teams" so to speak.

Cross-Functional Teams are teams made up of employees from the same hierarchical level but from different work arenas who come together to accomplish a task

TYPES of TEAMS

Problem-Solving Teams groups of 5 to 12 employees from the same department who meet for a few hours each week to discuss ways of improving quality efficiency & the work environment.

We can organize the key components of effective teams in 3 general categories: - 1st are resources and other contextual influences that make teams effective. - The 2nd relates to the team's composition - 3rd, process & state variables are events within the team that influence effectiveness.

Creating Effective Teams

Teams are often created deliberately but sometimes evolve organically. For example, tech startup teams are often started naturally by friends. Nearly 40% of Founders were friends before going into business. Interestingly, being friends increases the likelihood of failure & for each additional friend on the founding team research suggests the likelihood of the founders leaving the startup increases by nearly 30%.

Teams function well if they properly allocate rules and ensure the workload is shared by all team members.

Team Context

Leadership & Structure

A scarcity of resources directly reduces the ability of a team to perform its job effectively & achieve its goals. Important resources include timely information proper equipment adequate Staffing encouragement and administrative assistance.

Adequate Resources

Teams could have their own cultures and climates that influence their effectiveness. Studies suggest that shared sense of vision, a sense of being able to share and collaborate in a non-threatening environment, a concern for performance quality and encouragement of creative and innovative innovative solutions and regular frequent interaction are the most important factors for team climate.

Culture or Climate

Allocation of Roles: Teams have different needs & members should be selected to ensure all the various rules are filled.

Size of Teams:Many experts believe that keeping a team small is key to improving group effectiveness. Experts suggest using the smallest number of people who can do the task.

Member Preferences:This suggests that when selecting team members, managers should consider inidividual preferences along with abilities, personalities & skills

Diversity of Members: How does team diversity affect team performance? the degree to which members of a work unit share a common demographic attribute such as age, sex, race, educational level or strength of service in the organization is subject of demography.

Personality of Members:The chapter on personality & values demonstarted that personality significantly influences individual behavior. Some dimensions identified in the Big Five personality model are particularly relevant to team effectiveness. Conscientiousness is especially important to teams. Conscientious people are good at backing up other team members and sensing when their support is truly needed.

The team composition category includes variables that relate to how teams should be stopped, the abilities & personalities of team members, allocation of roles diversity cultural differences size of the team & member preferences for teamwork.

Team Composition

REMEMBER! An effective team does not develop overnight- it takes time.

TRAINING

HIRING

A training specialist conducts exercises that enable teams to perform more effectively by learning relevant team skills & practices. A large body of research suggests that team training is effective at improving team member attitudes, team processes & cognitive aspects like developing shared mental models and that these findings generalize to particularly important industries. Workshops help employees improve their problem solving communication negotiation conflict management and coaching skills.

Turning Individuals into Team Players

Creating teams often means resisting the urge to hire the best talent no matter what. EX. The New York Knicks professional basketball team pays Carmelo Anthony well because he scores a lot of points for his team but statistics show he takes more shots than other highly paid players in the league which means fewer shots for his teammates. Managers should be sure to hire applicants who have the highest potential to perform well in a team and strategically place them in teams where they are most likely to work well with other team members.

But what about the other trades? Teams that are more agreeable tend to perform better. The level of a team members agreeableness matters too. Teams do worse and are less cohesive when they have disagreeable members and a wide span in individual levels of agreeableness can lower productivity. Open team members are willing to share more ideas with one another which makes teams with open people more creative and Innovative. Beyond the Big Five, recent research has suggested that team proactive personality is important for team motivation. That's the personality traits of individuals are as important to teams as the overall personality characteristics of the team.

When teams have excess members, cohesion and mutual accountability decline, social loafing increases and people communicate less. Members of large teams have trouble coordinating with one another especially under time pressure. When a natural working unit is larger and you want a team effort, consider breaking the group into subteams. The most effective teams have about 5 to 9 members.

A study of 778 major league baseball teams over a 21-year period highlighted the importance of assigning rules appropriately. As you might expect teams with more skilled members perform better. The skills of those in core roles, those who handled more of the workflow of the team and were central to all work processes, were especially vital in this case the picture and catcher.We can identify 9 potential team member roles. Successful work teams have selected people to play all these roles based on their skills and performances. To increase the likelihood team members will work all together, managers need to understand the individual strengths each person can bring to the team, select members with their strengths in mind and allocate work assignments to fit with members' preferred styles.

Demography research suggests that turnover will be greater among those with dissimilar experiences as communication may be more difficult and conflict more likely. However, the conclusion from reviews of hundreds of studies suggest that demographic diversity has a negative but very small effect on team performance and creativity.