I.

Defining and Classifying Groups A. Definitions 1. A group is defined as two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent, who have come together to achieve particular objectives. 2. Groups can be either formal or informal. a) Formal groupsthose defined by the organizations structure, with designated work assignments establishing tasks (1) The behaviors that one should engage in are stipulated by and directed toward organizational goals. (2) An airline flight crew b) Informal groupsalliances that are neither formally structured nor organizationally determined (1) Natural formations in the work environment in response to the need for social contact (2) e.g.Three employees from different departments who regularly eat lunch together 3. Its possible to subclassify groups as command, task, interest, or friendship groups. a) Command and task groups are dictated by the formal organization. b) Interest and friendship groups are informal alliances. 4. The organization chart determines a command group. a) Composed of direct reports to a given manager b) The director of postal audits and his five inspectors 5. Task groupsorganizationally determinedrepresent those working together to complete a job task. a) A task groups boundaries are not limited to its immediate hierarchical superior. b) It can cross command relationships. c) For instance, if a college student is accused of a campus crime, it may require communication and coordination among the dean of academic affairs, the dean of students, the registrar, the director of security, and the students advisor. d) All command groups are also task groups, but the reverse need not be true. 6. An interest group. People who affiliate to attain a specific objective with which each is concerned a) Employees who band together to have their vacation schedules altered 7. Friendship groups often develop because the individual members have one or more common characteristics. a) Social alliances, which frequently extend outside the work situation, can be based on similar age or ethnic heritage. 8. Informal groups satisfy their members social needs. a) These types of interactions among individuals, even though informal, deeply affect their behavior and performance.

II.

Stages of Group Development A. The Five-Stage Model 1. The five-stage group-development model 2. The first stageforming a) Characterized by a great deal of uncertainty about the groups purpose, structure, and leadership b) Members are trying to determine what types of behavior are acceptable. c) Stage is complete when members have begun to think of themselves as part of a group. 3. The storming stage a) One of intragroup conflict b) Members accept the existence of the group, but there is resistance to constraints on individuality. c) Conflict over who will control the group d) When complete, there will be a relatively clear hierarchy of leadership within the group. 4. The third stagenorming a) One in which close relationships develop and the group demonstrates cohesiveness b) There is now a strong sense of group identity and camaraderie. c) Stage is complete when the group structure solidifies and the group has assimilated a common set of expectations of what defines correct member behavior.
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5. The fourth stage is performing. a) The structure at this point is fully functional and accepted. b) Group energy has moved from getting to know and understand each other to performing. c) For permanent work groups, performing is the last stage in their development. 6. For temporary committees, teams, task forces, and similar groups that have a limited task to perform, there is an adjourning stage. a) In this stage, the group prepares for its disbandment. b) Attention is directed toward wrapping up activities. c) Responses of group members vary in this stage. (1) Some are upbeat, basking in the groups accomplishments. (2) Others may be depressed over the loss of camaraderie and friendships. 7. Many assume that a group becomes more effective as it progresses through the first four stages. a) While generally true, what makes a group effective is more complex. b) Under some conditions, high levels of conflict are conducive to high group performance. c) Groups do not always proceed clearly from one stage to the next. d) Sometimes several stages go on simultaneously, as when groups are storming and performing. e) Groups even occasionally regress to previous stages. B. Why Some Group Efforts Are More Successful than Others Are 1. The answer is complex. 2. It includes variables such as the ability of the groups members, the size of the group, the level of conflict, and the internal pressures on members to conform to the groups norms. III. Group Member Resources A. Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities 1. Part of a groups performance can be predicted by assessing the knowledge, skills, and abilities of its individual members. 2. A groups performance is not merely the summation of its individual members abilities, but these abilities set parameters for what members can do and how effectively they will perform in a group. 3. A review of the evidence has found that interpersonal skills consistently emerge as important for high work group performance. a) Conflict management and resolution, collaborative problem solving, and communication. B. Personality Characteristics 1. There has been a great deal of research on the relationship between personality traits and group attitudes and behavior. 2. The general conclusion a) Attributes that have a positive connotation in our culture tend to be positively related to group productivity, morale, and cohesiveness. b) These include; sociability, initiative, openness, and flexibility. c) Negatively evaluated characteristics such as authoritarianism, dominance, and unconventionality tend to be negatively related to the dependent variables. 3. No one personality characteristic is a good predictor of group behavior. IV. Group Structure A. Formal Leadership 1. Almost every work group has a formal leader. 2. Typically identified by title 3. This leader can play an important part in the groups success 4. All group members are actors, each playing a role. a) A set of expected behavior patterns attributed to someone occupying a given position in a social unit b) We are required to play a number of diverse roles, both on and off our jobs. 5. ExampleBill Patterson, a plant manager with Electrical Industries a) Member of middle management, electrical engineer, and the primary company spokesperson in the community
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6. 7.

8.

9.

10.

b) Off the job: husband, father, Catholic, Rotarian, tennis player, member of the Thunderbird Country Club, and president of his homeowners association. c) Many of these roles are compatible; some create conflicts. Different groups impose different role requirements on individuals. Role identity a) There are certain attitudes and actual behaviors consistent with a role, and they create the role identity. b) People have the ability to shift roles rapidly when they recognize that the situation and its demands clearly require major changes. Role perception a) Ones view of how one is supposed to act in a given situation is a role perception. b) We get these perceptions from stimuli all around usfriends, books, movies, television. c) The primary reason that apprenticeship programs exist is to allow beginners to watch an expert, so that they can learn to act as they are supposed to. Role expectations a) How others believe you should act in a given situation b) How you behave is determined to a large extent by the role defined in the context in which you are acting. c) When role expectations are concentrated into generalized categories, we have role stereotypes. d) The psychological contract is an unwritten agreement that exists between employees and their employer. (1) It sets out mutual expectationswhat management expects from workers, and vice versa. (2) It defines the behavioral expectations that go with every role. (3) If role expectations as implied are not met, expect negative repercussions from the offended party. Role conflict a) When an individual is confronted by divergent role expectations b) It exists when compliance with one role requirement may make more difficult the compliance with another. c) Bill Patterson example (1) Attempt to reconcile expectations of him as a husband and father and as an executive d) All of us have faced and will continue to face role conflicts. The critical issuehow conflicts imposed by divergent expectations impact on behavior (1) They increase internal tension and frustration. e) Behavioral responses (1) A formalized bureaucratic responserelying on the rules, regulations, and procedures (2) Other behavioral responses: withdrawal, stalling, negotiation, redefining facts or situation

11. All groups have normsacceptable standards of behavior that are shared by the groups members. a) Norms tell members what they ought and ought not to do under certain circumstances. 12. Common classes of norms. A work groups norms are unique. Yet there are still some common classes of norms. 13. Performance norms are probably the most common class of norms. a) 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 b) These norms are extremely powerful in affecting an individual employees performance. 14. Appearance norms include things like appropriate dress, loyalty to the work group or organization, when to look busy, and when its acceptable to goof off. 15. Social arrangement norms come from informal work groups and primarily regulate social interactions within the group. 16. Allocation of resources norms can originate in the group or in the organization. 17. The norms that the group will enforce tend to be those that are important to it. 18. What makes a norm important: a) If it facilitates the groups survival. b) If it increases the predictability of group members behaviors. c) If it reduces embarrassing interpersonal problems for group members.
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d) If it allows members to express the central values of the group and clarify what is distinctive about the groups identity. 19. Conformity a) There is considerable evidence that groups can place strong pressures on individual members to change their attitudes and behaviors to conform to the groups standard. b) Individuals conform to the important groups to which they belong or hope to belong. (1) The reference group is characterized as one where the person is aware of the others; the person defines himself or herself as a member, or would like to be a member; and the person feels that the group members are significant to him/her. c) All groups do not impose equal conformity pressures on their members. 20. The impact that group pressures for conformity was demonstrated by Solomon Asch. a) Groups of seven or eight people were asked to compare two cards held by the experimenter. b) One card had one line, the other had three lines of varying length. c) Under ordinary conditions, subjects made fewer than 1% errors. d) Will the pressures to conform result in an unsuspecting subject (USS) altering his/her answer to align with the others? e) The experiment began with several sets of matching exercises. All the subjects gave the right answers. f) On the third set, however, the first subject gave an obviously wrong answer, the next subject gave the same wrong answer, and so did the others until it got to the unknowing subject. g) The results obtained by Asch demonstrated that over many experiments and many trials, subjects conformed in about 37% of the trials; the subjects gave answers that they knew were wrong but that were consistent with the replies of other group members. 21. Has time altered the validity of these findings, and are they generalizable across cultures? a) There have been changes in the level of conformity over time. (1) Levels of conformity have steadily declined. b) Aschs findings are culture-bound. (1) Conformity to social norms is higher in collectivist cultures than in individualistic cultures. B. Status 1. College course on adolescence example 2. Status is a socially defined position or rank given to groups or group members by others. 3. We live in a class-structured society despite all attempts to make it more egalitarian. 4. Status and norms a) High-status members of groups often are given more freedom to deviate from norms than other group members. b) High-status people also are better able to resist conformity pressures. c) The previous findings explain why many star athletes, famous actors, top-performing salespeople, and outstanding academics seem oblivious to appearance or social norms. d) Groups generally agree within themselves on status criteria. e) Individuals can find themselves in a conflict situation when they move between groups whose status criteria are different or when they join groups whose members have heterogeneous backgrounds. C. What determines status D. The power a person has over others- the control of group resoures. E. Ones ability to contribute to group goalsF. An individuals personal characteristics Good look, intelligent, money, or friendly personality.

G. Size 1. The size of a group affects groups overall behavior. 2. But the effect depends on what dependent variables a) Smaller groups are faster at completing tasks than are larger ones. b) If the group is engaged in problem solving, large groups consistently do better. c) Large groupsa dozen or more membersare good for gaining diverse input. d) Smaller groups are better at doing something productive with that inputseven members.
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3. Social loafing is the tendency for individuals to expend less effort when working collectively than when working individually. a) A common stereotypeteam spirit spurs individual effort and enhances overall productivity. b) In the late 1920s, a German psychologist named Max Ringelmann compared the results of individual and group performance on a rope-pulling task. c) Ringelmanns results showed that groups of three people exerted a force only two-and-a-half times the average individual performance. Groups of eight collectively achieved less than four times the solo rate. d) Replications of Ringelmanns research generally support his findings. (1) Increases in group size are inversely related to individual performance. 4. Causes of social loafing a) A belief that others in the group are not carrying their fair share b) The dispersion of responsibility, the relationship between an individuals input and the groups output is clouded. c) There will be a reduction in efficiency where individuals think that their contribution cannot be measured. 5. Implications for OB a) Where managers utilize collective work situations to enhance morale and teamwork, they must also provide means by which individual efforts can be identified. b) It is not consistent with collective societies where individuals are motivated by in-group goals. (1) The Chinese and Israelis actually performed better in a group than when working alone. 6. Other conclusions about groups a) Groups with an odd number of members tend to be preferable. b) Groups made up of five or seven members do a pretty good job of exercising the best elements of both small and large groups. H. Composition 1. Most group activities require a variety of skills and knowledge. 2. Research studies generally substantiate that heterogeneous groupsthose composed of dissimilar individualsare more likely to have diverse abilities and information and should be more effective, especially on cognitive, creativity-demanding tasks. a) The group may be more conflict laden and less expedient. b) Essentially, diversity promotes conflict, which stimulates creativity, which leads to improved decision making. 3. Diversity created by racial or national differences interferes with group processes, at least in the short term. a) Cultural diversity seems to be an asset on tasks that call for a variety of viewpoints. b) Such groups have more difficulty in learning to work with each other and solving problems. c) These difficulties seem to dissipate with time as it takes time for diverse groups to learn how to work through disagreements and different approaches to solving problems. 4. Studies have sought to test this thesis, and the evidence is quite encouraging. a) Work groups, where a large portion of members entered at the same time, have lowered turnover. b) Where there are large gaps between cohorts, turnover is higher. c) Discontinuities or bulges in the groups date-of-entry distribution are likely to result in a higher turnover rate within that group. 5. The implication is that the composition of a group may be an important predictor of turnover. I. Cohesiveness 1. Groups differ in their cohesiveness, the degree to which members are attracted to each other and are motivated to stay in the group. 2. Cohesiveness is important because it has been found to be related to the groups productivity. 3. The relationship of cohesiveness and productivity depends on the performance-related norms established by the group. a) If performance-related norms are high, a cohesive group will be more productive. b) But if cohesiveness is high and performance norms are low, productivity will be low. 4. How to encourage group cohesiveness. a) Make the group smaller.
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b) c) d) e) f) g) V.

Encourage agreement with group goals. Increase the time members spend together. Increase the status of the group and the perceived difficulty of attaining membership in the group. Stimulate competition with other groups. Give rewards to the group rather than to individual members. Physically isolate the group.

Group Processes A. Processes 1. For information exchanges, group decision processes, leader behavior, power dynamics, conflict interactions, and the like 2. These are important to understanding because groups can create outputs greater than the sum of their inputs. 3. Synergy is a term used in biology that refers to an action of two or more substances that results in an effect that is different from the individual summation of the substances. 4. Social loafing represents negative synergy. a) The whole is less than the sum of its parts. 5. Research teams draw on the diverse skills of various individuals to produce more meaningful research as a group than could be generated by all of the researchers working independently. a) They produce positive synergy. 6. Social facilitation effect refers to this tendency for performance to improve or decline in response to the presence of others. a) While this effect is not entirely a group phenomenon, the group situation is more likely to provide the conditions for social facilitation to occur. b) The research on social facilitation tells us that the performance of simple, routine tasks tends to be speeded up and made more accurate by the presence of others. c) Where the work is more complex, requiring closer attention, the presence of others is likely to have a negative effect on performance. d) The implications relate to learning and training. (1) People seem to perform better on a task in the presence of others if that task is very well learned, but poorer if it is not well learned. Group Decision Making 1. Strengths of group decision-making a) Groups generate more complete information and knowledge. b) They offer increased diversity of views. c) This opens up the opportunity for more approaches and alternatives to be considered. d) The evidence indicates that a group will almost always outperform even the best individual. e) Groups lead to increased acceptance of a solution. 2. Weaknesses of group decision-making a) Theyre time consuming. b) There are conformity pressures in groups. c) Group discussion can be dominated by one or a few members. d) Group decisions suffer from ambiguous responsibility. 3. Effectiveness and efficiency a) Whether groups are more effective than individuals depends on the criteria you use. b) In terms of accuracy, group decisions will tend to be more accurate. c) On the average, groups make better-quality decisions than individuals, d) If decision effectiveness is defined in terms of speed, individuals are superior. e) If creativity is important, groups tend to be more effective than individuals. f) If effectiveness means the degree of acceptance the final solution achieves, groups are better. 4. In terms of efficiency, groups almost always stack up as a poor second to the individual decision maker. a) The exceptions tend to be those instances where, to achieve comparable quantities of diverse input, the single decision maker must spend a great deal of time reviewing files and talking to people.
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VI.

5. Summary a) Groups offer an excellent vehicle for performing many of the steps in the decision-making process. b) They are a source of both breadth and depth of input for information gathering. c) When the final solution is agreed upon, there are more people in a group decision to support and implement it. d) Group decisions consume time, create internal conflicts, and generate pressures toward conformity. B. Groupthink and Groupshift 1. Two by-products of group decision-making 2. Groupthink is related to norms. a) It describes situations in which group pressures for conformity deter the group from critically appraising unusual, minority, or unpopular views. b) Groupthink is a disease that attacks many groups and can dramatically hinder performance. 3. Groupshift a) It indicates that, in discussing a given set of alternatives and arriving at a solution, group members tend to exaggerate the initial positions that they hold. In some situations, caution dominates, and there is a conservative shift. b) The evidence indicates that groups tend toward a risky shift. Lets look at each of these phenomena in more detail. 4. Groupthink a) The phenomenon that occurs when group members become so enamored of seeking concurrence that the norm for consensus overrides the realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action and the full expression of deviant, minority, or unpopular views. b) It is a deterioration in an individuals mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment as a result of group pressures. c) Group members rationalize any resistance to the assumptions they have made. d) Members apply direct pressures on those who momentarily express doubts. e) Those members who hold differing points of view seek to avoid deviating from group consensus by keeping silent. f) There appears to be an illusion of unanimity. g) Groupthink appears to be closely aligned with the conclusions Asch drew from his experiments. h) Groupthink does not attack all groups. (1) It occurs most often where there is a clear group identity, where members hold a positive image of their group which they want to protect, and where the group perceives a collective threat to this positive image. i) How to minimize groupthink. (1) Encourage group leaders to play an impartial role. (2) Appoint one group member to play the role of devils advocate. (3) Utilize exercises that stimulate active discussion of diverse alternatives without threatening the group and intensifying identity protection. 5. Groupshift a) In some cases, the group decisions are more conservative than the individual decisions. b) More often, the shift is toward greater risk. c) What appears to happen in groups is that the discussion leads to a significant shift in the positions of members toward a more extreme position in the direction in which they were already leaning before the discussion. (1) Conservatives become more cautious, and the more aggressive take on more risk. d) The groupshift can be viewed as actually a special case of groupthink. (1) The decision of the group reflects the dominant decision-making norm that develops during the groups discussion. e) The greater occurrence of the shift toward risk has generated several explanations. (1) Discussion creates familiarization among the members.
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(a) As they become more comfortable with each other, they also become more bold and daring. (2) Most first-world societies value risk; we admire individuals who are willing to take risks; group discussion motivates members to show that they are at least as willing as their peers to take risks. (3) The most plausible explanation of the shift toward risk, however, seem is to be that the group diffuses responsibility. (4) Group decisions free any single member from accountability for the groups final choice. f) Implications of groupshift (1) Recognize that group decisions exaggerate the initial position of the individual members. (2) The shift has been shown more often to be toward greater risk. VII. Group Decision-Making Techniques A. Most Group Decision Making Takes Place in Interacting Groups 1. In these groups, members meet face to face and rely on both verbal and nonverbal interaction to communicate with each other. 2. Interacting groups often censor themselves and pressure individual members toward conformity of opinion. 3. Brainstorming, the nominal group technique, and electronic meetings have been proposed as ways to reduce many of the problems inherent in the traditional interacting group. 4. Brainstorming a) It is meant to overcome pressures for conformity in the interacting group that retard the development of creative alternatives. b) In a typical brainstorming session, a half dozen to a dozen people sit around a table. c) The group leader states the problem clearly. d) Members then free-wheel as many alternatives as they can in a given length of time. e) No criticism is allowed, and all the alternatives are recorded for later discussion and analysis. f) One idea stimulates others, and group members are encouraged to think the unusual. 5. The nominal group technique a) Restricts discussion or interpersonal communication during the decision-making process b) Group members are all physically present, but members operate independently. c) Specifically, a problem is presented, and then the following steps take place: (1) Members meet as a group but, before any discussion takes place, each member independently writes down his or her ideas on the problem. (2) After this silent period, each member presents one idea to the group. Each member takes his or her turn. (3) The group now discusses the ideas for clarity and evaluates them. (4) Each group member silently and independently rank-orders the ideas. (5) The idea with the highest aggregate ranking determines the final decision. d) The chief advantage of the nominal group technique is that it permits the group to meet formally but does not restrict independent thinking, as does the interacting group.

SUMMARY AND IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGERS

Weve covered a lot of territory in this chapter. Since we essentially organized our discussion around the group behavior model in Exhibit 8-5, lets use this model to summarize our findings regarding performance and satisfaction. Performance Any predictions about a groups performance must begin by recognizing that work groups are part of a larger organization and that factors such as the organizations strategy, authority structure, selection procedures, and reward system can provide a favorable or unfavorable climate for the group to operate within. For example, if an organization is characterized by distrust between management and workers, it is more likely that work groups in that organization will develop norms to restrict effort and output than will work groups in an organization where trust is high. So managers shouldnt look at any group in isolation. Rather, they should begin by assessing the degree of support external conditions provide the group. It is obviously a lot easier for any work group to be productive when the overall organization of which it is a part is growing and it has both top managements
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support and abundant resources. Similarly, a group is more likely to be productive when its members have the requisite skills to do the groups tasks and the personality characteristics that facilitate working well together. A number of structural factors show a relationship to performance. Among the more prominent are role perception, norms, status inequities, the size of the group, its demographic makeup, the groups task, and cohesiveness. There is a positive relationship between role perception and an employees performance evaluation. The degree of congruence that exists between an employee and his or her boss in the perception of the employees job influences the degree to which that employee will be judged as an effective performer by the boss. To the extent that the employees role perception fulfills the bosss role expectations, the employee will receive a higher performance evaluation. Norms control group member behavior by establishing standards of right and wrong. If managers know the norms of a given group, they can help to explain the behaviors of its members. Where norms support high output, managers can expect individual performance to be markedly higher than where group norms aim to restrict output. Similarly, acceptable standards of absenteeism will be dictated by the group norms. Status inequities create frustration and can adversely influence productivity and the willingness to remain with an organization. Among those individuals who are equity sensitive, incongruence is likely to lead to reduced motivation and an increased search for ways to bring about fairness (i.e., taking another job). The impact of size on a groups performance depends upon the type of task in which the group is engaged. Larger groups are more effective at fact-finding activities. Smaller groups are more effective at action-taking tasks. Our knowledge of social loafing suggests that if management uses larger groups, efforts should be made to provide measures of individual performance within the group. We found the groups demographic composition to be a key determinant of individual turnover. Specifically, the evidence indicates that group members who share a common age or date of entry into the work group are less prone to resign. We also found that cohesiveness can play an important function in influencing a groups level of productivity. Whether or not it does depends on the groups performance-related norms. The primary contingency variable moderating the relationship between group processes and performance is the groups task. The more complex and interdependent the tasks, the more that inefficient processes will lead to reduced group performance. Satisfaction As with the role perception-performance relationship, high congruence between a boss and employee, as to the perception of the employees job, shows a significant association with high employee satisfaction. Similarly, role conflict is associated with job-induced tension and job dissatisfaction. Most people prefer to communicate with others at their own status level or a higher one rather than with those below them. As a result, we should expect satisfaction to be greater among employees whose job minimizes interaction with individuals who are lower in status than themselves. The group size-satisfaction relationship is what one would intuitively expect: Larger groups are associated with lower satisfaction. As size increases, opportunities for participation and social interaction decrease, as does the ability of members to identify with the groups accomplishments. At the same time, having more members also prompts dissension, conflict, and the formation of subgroups which all act to make the group a less pleasant entity of which to be a part.

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW

1. Compare and contrast command, task, interest, and friendship groups. Answer A group is defined as two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent, who have come together to achieve particular objectives. Groups can be either formal or informal. Its possible to subclassify groups as command, task, interest, or friendship groups. A command group is determined by the organization chart. Composed of direct reports to a given manager. The director of postal audits and his five inspectors. Task groupsorganizationally determined, represent those working together to complete a job task. A task groups boundaries are not limited to its immediate hierarchical superior. It can cross command relationships. For instance, if a college student is accused of a campus crime, it may require
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communication and coordination among the dean of academic affairs, the dean of students, the registrar, the director of security, and the students advisor. All command groups are also task groups, but the reverse need not be true. An interest group. People who affiliate to attain a specific objective with which each is concerned. Employees who band together to have their vacation schedules altered. Friendship groups often develop because the individual members have one or more common characteristics. Social alliances, which frequently extend outside the work situation, can be based on similar age or ethnic heritage. 2. What might motivate you to join a group? Answer Informal groups satisfy their members social needs. There is no single reason why individuals join groups. Exhibit 8-1 summarizes the most popular reasons people have for joining groups. 3. Describe the five-stage group-development model. Answer Exhibit 8-2, shows the five-stage group-development model The first stageforming Characterized by a great deal of uncertainty about the groups purpose, structure, and leadership Members are trying to determine what types of behavior are acceptable. Stage is complete when members have begun to think of themselves as part of a group. The storming stage One of intragroup conflict Members accept the existence of the group, but there is resistance to constraints on individuality. Conflict over who will control the group When complete, there will be a relatively clear hierarchy of leadership within the group. The third stagenorming One in which close relationships develop and the group demonstrates cohesiveness There is now a strong sense of group identity and camaraderie. Stage is complete when the group structure solidifies and the group has assimilated a common set of expectations of what defines correct member behavior. The fourth stage is performing. The structure at this point is fully functional and accepted. Group energy has moved from getting to know and understand each other to performing. 4. What is the relationship between a work group and the organization of which it is a part? Answer An organizations overall strategy, typically put into place by top management, outlines the organizations goals and the means for attaining these goals. The strategy will influence the power of various work groups which will determine the resources that the organizations top management is willing to allocate to it for performing its tasks. Organizations have authority structures that define who reports to whom, who makes decisions, and what decisions individuals or groups are empowered to make. Organizations create rules, procedures, policies, job descriptions, and other forms of formal regulations to standardize employee behavior. The presence or absence of resources such as money, time, raw materials, and equipmentwhich are allocated to the group by the organizationhave a large bearing on the groups behavior. The criteria that an organization uses in its selection process will determine the kinds of people that will be in its work groups. The performance evaluation and reward system. Group members behavior will be influenced by how the organization evaluates performance and what behaviors are rewarded. Every organization has an unwritten culture that defines standards of acceptable and unacceptable behavior for employees. Members of work groups have to accept the standards implied in the organizations dominant culture if they are to remain in good standing. The physical work setting creates both barriers and opportunities for work group interaction. The participants had learned stereotyped conceptions of guard and prisoner roles from the mass media and their own personal experiences in power and powerless relationships at home. This allowed them easily and rapidly to assume roles that were very different from their inherent personalities.
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5. Explain the implications from the Asch experiments. Answer The results obtained by Asch demonstrated that over many experiments and many trials, subjects conformed in about 37 percent of the trials; the subjects gave answers that they knew were wrong but that were consistent with the replies of other group members. There have been changes in the level of conformity over time. Levels of conformity have steadily declined. Aschs findings are culture-bound. Conformity to social norms is higher in collectivist cultures than in individualistic cultures. 6. How are status and norms related? Answer All groups have normsacceptable standards of behavior that are shared by the groups members. Norms tell members what they ought and ought not to do under certain circumstances. Norms are important because they: facilitate the groups survival. increase the predictability of group members behaviors. reduce embarrassing interpersonal problems for group members. allow members to express the central values of the group and clarify what is distinctive about the groups identity. There is considerable evidence that groups can place strong pressures on individual members to change their attitudes and behaviors to conform to the groups standard. Status is a socially defined position or rank given to groups or group members by others. We live in a classstructured society despite all attempts to make it more egalitarian. High-status members of groups often are given more freedom to deviate from norms than other group members. High-status people also are better able to resist conformity pressures. The previous findings explain why many star athletes, famous actors, topperforming salespeople, and outstanding academics seem oblivious to appearance or social norms. 7. How can a groups demography help you to predict turnover? Answer An offshoot of the composition issue is the degree to which members of a group share a common demographic attribute and the impact of this attribute on turnover. The individuals attribute in relationship to the attributes of others with whom he/she works. Groups and organizations are composed of cohorts, which we define as individuals who hold a common attribute. Group demography should help us to predict turnover. Turnover will be greater among those with dissimilar experiences because communication is more difficult. Conflict and power struggles are more likely, and more severe when they occur. This makes group membership less attractive, so employees are more likely to quit. The implication is that the composition of a group may be an important predictor of turnover. 8. What is groupthink? What is its effect on decision-making quality? Answer Groupthink describes situations in which group pressures for conformity deter the group from critically appraising unusual, minority, or unpopular views. The phenomenon that occurs when group members become so enamored of seeking concurrence that the norm for consensus overrides the realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action and the full expression of deviant, minority, or unpopular views. It is a deterioration in an individuals mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment as a result of group pressures. Group members rationalize any resistance to the assumptions they have made. Members apply direct pressures on those who momentarily express doubts. Those members who hold differing points of view seek to avoid deviating from group consensus by keeping silent. There appears to be an illusion of unanimity.

QUESTIONS FOR CRITICAL THINKING

1. Identify five roles you play. What behaviors do they require? Are any of these roles in conflict? If so, in what way? How do you resolve these conflicts? Answer Students answers will vary. Some suggested roles; student, sibling, child, adult, group leader, member of a social group, etc. Behaviors and conflicts will vary with role. 2. High cohesiveness in a group leads to higher group productivity. Do you agree or disagree? Explain.
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Answer Groups differ in their cohesivenessthe 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 groups 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 be more productive. But if cohesiveness is high and performance norms are low, productivity will be low. See Exhibit 8-7. Students responses will vary based on their perception and integration of the above facts. 3. What effect, if any, do you expect that workforce diversity has on performance and satisfaction? Answer Research studies generally substantiate that heterogeneous groupsthose composed of dissimilar individualsare more likely to have diverse abilities and information and should be more effective, especially on cognitive, creativity-demanding tasks. The group may be more conflict laden and less expedient. Essentially, diversity promotes conflict, which stimulates creativity, which leads to improved decision making. Diversity created by racial or national differences interfere with group processes, at least in the short term. Cultural diversity seems to be an asset on tasks that call for a variety of viewpoints. Such groups have more difficulty in learning to work with each other and solving problems. These difficulties seem to dissipate with time as it takes time for diverse groups to learn how to work through disagreements and different approaches to solving problems. 4. If group decisions consistently achieve better quality outcomes than those achieved by individuals, how did the phrase a camel is a horse designed by a committee become so popular and ingrained in the culture? Answer Students responses will vary. Generally, two main factors may have contributed to this mythology. The first, individuals may blame the group for poor decisions, when in fact the decision was the result of a dominant member of the group. Second, there have been some colossal public screw-ups attributable to group decisions and the groupthink phenomenon.

POINT-COUNTERPOINT All Jobs Should Be Designed around Groups

Point SUMMARY Groups, not individuals, are the ideal building blocks for an organization. There are at least six reasons for designing all jobs around groups. 1. First, small groups are good for people. 2. Second, groups are good problem-finding tools. 3. Third, groups make better decisions than individuals do. 4. Fourth, groups are very effective tools for implementation. 5. Fifth, groups can control and discipline individual members. 6. Sixth, groups are a means by which large organizations can fend off many of the negative effects of increased size. What would an organization look like that was truly designed around group functions? Theyd hire groups. Similarly, theyd train groups rather than individuals, pay groups rather than individuals, promote groups rather than individuals, fire groups rather than individuals, and so on.

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