ABDM4044 PEOPLE and ORGANIZATION Tutorial 6&7 answer 06 July 2010

Question 1
According to Kreitner and Kinicki 2010, motivations include such thing as responsibility, achievement;
growth opportunities and recognition is the key to job satisfaction and motivation. Motivators can
cause a person to move from state of no satisfaction to satisfaction.

For example, the absence of achievement can create no satisfaction, but the presence of
achievement can crate satisfaction.

Hygiene factors include company policy, supervision, interpersonal relations, working conditions and
salary. According to theory, the absence of hygiene factors can create job dissatisfaction, but their
presence does not motivate or create satisfaction.

For example, Fish get really unhappy if he can’t receive his salary on time each month, because he
can’t pay his bills. But if he receive his salary on time, he is hardly notice it (neither happy nor
unhappy).

Question 2
According to Kreitner and Kinicki 2010, the need got achievement is one of the McClelland’s needs
theories. It is defined as desire to accomplish something difficult. Achievement-motivated people
share common characteristics which relate to the job performance.

People who have high need of achievement need prefer to work on tasks of high difficulty. So, when
manager provide challenging task assignment or goals to them, they will try to achieve to hit the
target.

When people gave high need of achievement were move attracted to companies that had a pay-for-
performance environment than those low achievement motivation, because people with high
achievement will have better performance which they achieve the task by their own effort, rather
than other factors.

People with high achievement desire more feedback on their successes and failures than do low
achieve. If there are feedback provided after the job done, the high need achiever will try to improve
them to work in the better way.

Although high achievers always achieve high goal, but sometime they are pushy and self-cantered,
they refuse to listen others advice when pursuing their own goals.

Question 3
According to Kreitner and Kinicki 2010, job enrichment is an attempt to motivate employee through
building achievement, recognition, responsibility and advancement into the work. People will get
bored from repeat working the same task or job. They will not satisfy without a challenging job. They
will get demotivated and thus, they will look for good and better job. Therefore job enrichment is
needed to improve work process, by vertically growth a person job and add power to the workers.

The social and physical context of work will affect job enrichment. Social context are the people
around the work place, such as supervisor, and co-workers, they give support, advice and coaching in
job enrichment. Physical context is referee to machine, working area, equipment or tools, it is to
ensure the quality of the job enrichment.
ABDM4044 PEOPLE and ORGANIZATION Tutorial 6&7 answer 06 July 2010

Question 4
According to Kreitner and Kinicki 2010, in participative management, employees are given a voice in
how they do their job and how the company is managed. Employees play a direct role in setting
goals, making decisions, solving problems, and making changes in the organization, they become
empowered to take greater responsibility for their own performance.

Participative management can be used in large or small firms, for example managers in General
Electric who once needed higher level approval for any expenditure over $5,000, have the autonomy
to make their own expense decision up to as much as $50,000.

Not surprisingly, participative management make employees feel more committed to organization,
the employees feel themself important to the organization, and hence it leads motivation to the
employees and improves the overall performance.

Question 5
According to Kreitner and Kinicki 2010, there is a small but significant relationship between
cohesiveness and performance. The effect is stronger for smaller groups. Commitment to task among
group members strengthens the cohesiveness performance linkage. Success can build group
cohesiveness. Cohesiveness is not a cure-all for group problems, too much cohesiveness can lead to
groupthink.

Laboratory simulation studies suggest decisions-making group should be limited to five or fewer
members. Larger groups are appropriate when creativity, participation, and socialization are the
main objective.

When have larges group size will lead to too much of cohesiveness cause groupthink. While for small
group size, performance standards and goals are clear & accepted.

The problems of a large group in terms of social loafing and lack of cohesion are motivational loss
due to the sharing of rewards. Besides that, coordination loss as more people perform the task.

However, manager can curb this threat to group effectiveness by making sure the task is challenging
and perceived as important. Additionally, stepladder groups’ produces significantly better decisions
in the same amount of time.

Secondly, manager can outline the goals clearly, make sure everyone understand and look toward
the goal, and also giving reward not only for team, but also reward individually to those who perform
well.

Question 6
Cohesiveness is the degree to which members are attracted to each other and are motivated to stay
in the group. Cohesiveness is important because it has been found to be related to the group’s
productivity.

The relationship of cohesiveness and productivity depends on the performance related norms
established by the group. If performance related norms are high, a cohesive group will have more
productive than a less cohesive group. But if cohesiveness is high and performance norms are low,
productivity will be low. If cohesiveness is low and performance norms is high, productivity increases,
ABDM4044 PEOPLE and ORGANIZATION Tutorial 6&7 answer 06 July 2010

bur less than in the high cohesiveness/ high norms situation. When cohesiveness and performance
related norms are both low, productivity will tend to fall into the low-to-moderate range.

Cohesiveness
High Low

High
Performance norms High Moderate
Productivity Productivity

Moderate
Low
To Low
Productivity
Productivity
Low

Question 7
According to Kreitner and Kinicki 2010, the 5 stage of Tuckman’s theory of group development
process are forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning.

Stage 1
Forming is the initial stage of group development when the members first come in contact with each
other. This stage known as an “ice-breaking” stage where all the group members unsure about whom
everyone is, what their roles are, and get to know one another. Therefore, they need a leader to
guide them.

Stage 2
Storming occur when every members have difficult ideas compete for consideration. Team members
open up to each other and confront each other’s ideas and perspectives. So, this is the time of testing
the authority and power of the leader. Leader must have the ability to guide and solve the problem
of members facing.

Stage 3
Norming- the questions about authority and power are resolved through unemotional, mattes of fact
group discussions. And also a feeling of team spirit is experienced because members believe they
have found their proper roles. Now, the team manages to have one goal and come to a mutual plan
for the team. All the team members take the responsibility and have the ambition to work for the
success of the goals of the team.

Stage 4
Performing- the group members capacity, age, and depth of personal relations expand to true
interdependence in this stage. They can also work independently now. Therefore, the activity in this
stage is focus on solving task problems. The overall goal is productivity through problem solving and
work.

Stage5
ABDM4044 PEOPLE and ORGANIZATION Tutorial 6&7 answer 06 July 2010

Adjourning- the work is done when reach this stage. It involves the termination of task behaviours
and disengagement from relationships. The return to independence can be eased by rituals
celebrating “the end” and “new beginnings”. Leaders need to emphasize valuable lessons learned in
group dynamics to prepare everyone for future group and team efforts.

Question 8
According to Robins, there are 4 common classes of norms that appear in most work groups, which
are performance norms, appearance norms, social arrangement norms, and allocation of resources
norms.

The most common class of norms is performance norms. Work groups typically provide their
members with explicit cues on how hard they should work, how to get the job done, their level of
output, appropriate levels of tardiness and the like.

The second category of norms is appearance norms. This includes things like appropriate dress,
loyalty to the work group or organization, when to look busy, and when it’s acceptable to goof off.

Another category concerns social arrangement norms. These norms come from informal work
groups and primarily regulate social interactions within the group. With whom group members eat
lunch, friendships on and off the job, social games, and the like are influences by these norms.

A final class relates to allocation of resources norms. These norms can originate in the group or in
the organization and cover things like pay, assignment of difficult jobs, and allocation of new tools
and equipment.

Question 9
According to Krietner and Kinicki, a group size can make or break a group. An analysis found positives
effects such as team building activities diminish as a group’s size increases. This could be due to the
increase of less personal communication among members as group becomes too big to handle. On
the other hand, big groups are found to be more suitable for brainstorming as it encourages
participation, socialization among members and engage them in communication policies.

A small group of 3-5 people are found to be able to produce high quality decisions.

Besides that, a study has found that as a groups size increases, its group leaders tend to become
more directive and group satisfaction tends to decrease slightly.

A small group fosters a closes bond among its members and allow more time and space for each
members to present his/her view, hence this increasing satisfaction.

Odd numbers (3, 5, and 7) are advised in forming groups as well to avoid waiting deadlocks.
Furthermore, the larger a group the higher chances for social loafing to occur. If left unattended, it
could lead to dissatisfaction among members that would eventually affect the groups behaviour.

Size behaviour Cohesiveness

Productivity
Small Big Asch effect
(2-13) (13-23) Group think

Cohesiveness established norms

ABDM4044 PEOPLE and ORGANIZATION Tutorial 6&7 answer 06 July 2010

Question 10
Asch effect is the distortion of individual judgement by s unanimous but incorrect opposition. The
group norms press all the members toward conformity, that is they desire to be one of the group and
avoid being visible different.

Groupthink describes the situations in which group pressures for conformity; deter the group from
critically appraising unusual, minority, or unpopular views. Group think is a disease that attacks many
group and can dramatically hinder their performance.

Social loafing is the tendency for individuals to expend less effort when working collectively than
when working individually.

Care study
Question 1
Role is a set of expected behaviour patterns attributed to someone occupying a given position in a
social unit. From the case, in order to carry out their work well, the role of oil rigs workers is that they
are supposed to show masculine strength, daring, and technical prowess.

Norms is an acceptable standard of behaviour within a group that are shared by the group’s
members. In the case, oil rigs workers practice macho cultures, which men admit when they’ve made
mistakes, appreciate one another publicly, and routinely ask for and offer help.

Question 2
A mixed gender work groups have advantage such as, members are open minded, and this improve
communication between genders. Secondly, different gender will have different thinking, and
different perception, hence there will be more alternative way to solve the problem in a mixed
gender group. Finally, a mixed gender group can lead to a balance in an organization.

But, mixed gender work group will have conflict between gender when working together, and a
mixed gender group prone to sexual harassment, which can be bad for the company’s image and
culture.

Mixed gender work group should be a good way to prevent sexual harassment, because, when both
gender working together, we get cautious, and learn how to behave in front of different gender.

Question 3
Groupthink describes the situations in which group pressures for conformity; deter the group from
critically appraising unusual, minority, or unpopular views. Group think is a disease that attacks many
group and can dramatically hinder their performance. This will happen when a group have a good
norms, and cohesiveness.

Group think can happen in the case, because the “new” norms and roles had been implemented for
15 years. 15 years is a long time, so group cohesiveness and strong norms may have appeared in the
oil rig which can lead to group think where everyone can end up thinking the same way.