Module 5 #Group behavior

Organizational Behavior

Module 5: Group behavior

Vinay Kumar, Ph.D

Vidisha Garg, MBA

ICBM-SBE, 2014

Activity

• Objective

– To let you go through a short but intense experience of working with a group in

conditions that you have perhaps not faced earlier

• Notes

– You will be divided into groups, randomly

– Each group shall have six students (two from each section, wherever possible)

– The group constitution is non-negotiable

– This is a group-based field task

– Participation in this activity is mandatory

– You will make a presentation of your work and experience

• In the class at the end of this module (approximately, third session from now)

– You shall also document your experience in your course assignment record book

– Remember: This activity is graded.

Vinay Kumar; Vidisha Garg 2

Activity

• Task

– Choose any two categories here

• Advocates

• Priests

• High school teachers

• Salesman in organized retail outlets

• Domestic engineers

• Bank tellers

• Independently practicing doctors

• Apartment-associations’ presidents

– Your task involves finding at least three different people in each of the two chosen categories,

and talking to them about their work and general life

• Requirements

– You are required to video tape your conversations and compile them into one video file

• with bits from different conversations which you thought really gave you fresh and useful insights


Activity

• Instructions

– Remember that this is an academic activity, not interrogational or investigative

– Approach the people in your chosen profession in a civil manner

– Be courteous and polite

– Tell them about your activity and seek their permission to interview them

– If they are not willing to cooperate, it could be because they are busy; so, you have to just move on to

find someone else who can cooperate

– Try to spend as much time as you can with those who are willing to speak with you

– Your interview should be centered around understanding their work and general life; but that does not

mean you can ask them delicate questions and breach their privacy

– Try to have every group member asking his/her questions

– In any case, groups have to find their interviewees within two kilometers of the college

– In any case, groups are not allowed to use vehicles to move around

– In any case, all members in a group shall always be together

– In any case, all interviews should be done as a group


Activity

• Answers to questions you may want to ask

– Will the college give permission to leave the premises for this task?

• No. This is what we expect you to plan and do in the after college hours.

– How do we manage working together as a group? There are both hostellers and day-scholars in group.

• That is part of the challenge in activity. You have to device your own strategy to handle it. We believe that the

demands of this activity are close to corporate reality.

– How many days do we have?

• Your presentations will happen on the afternoon of this Saturday. Your video should be ready by then.

– We do not know how to make a video?

• Don’t worry too much, because grading is not only on your technical expertise in making videos. You could

submit raw videos compiled using movie maker too.

– We don’t have a video camera?

• Simple Use a cell phone. The activity is outside the campus.

– How do I know who is in my group?

• Easy. Look at the notice board.


When would you consider yourself a member of a group?

• Social identity theory says

– Reduce uncertainty about individual’s identity

• People who are similar flock together, and identify themselves based on similarities

• Within groups, however, individuals seek distinctiveness to define how they may be

different from others

– Self-esteem of individuals is tied to group performance

• Individuals, therefore, want to be associated with high performing groups

• Hence, there is a tendency to quit low performing groups

• Note: If you think about your contribution to success or failure of the group,

judiciously, this situation might change—setting a platform for your leadership

– Groups reinforce their identity

• The shared worldview forms the core content of discussion in group


Group life cycle

• Forming - Highly uncertain situation; Each individual testing

another in the group to find out what to expect

• Storming - Intra-group conflict; Individuals tend to resist the

imposition of group structure on their preferences

• Norming - Solidification stage; Group solidifies by developing

a mutual understanding and common expectations

(Recall Module 2, Strategies to handle discrimination)

• Performing - Real action; This is when the group is fully

functional and is producing its best outcomes

• Adjourning - Disbanding; This is when individuals are readying for

separation, and begin searching for new groups


Source: Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2013). Organizational Behavior,15th Edition. Pearson: New Jersey.

Exceptions in group life cycle

• Permanent groups (think of families)

– Disbanding never happens (at least in principle, though not by law)

– Performing, then, becomes the last stage; and the links between

performing, norming, and storming shall be visited several times

• Temporary groups (think of project-based groups, such as EDP)

– There isn’t sufficient time to storm (e.g.: fight over who is the boss)

– Therefore, the cycle is fused from forming through to performing

– The performance of a group here is thus dependent on

• clarity in job expectations, and

• each individual’s capacity to be non-intrusive in doing their bit of the job

• and in cases of creative work that needs cooperation/coordination

– each individual is expected to demonstrated high degree of professionalism


Managers’ concern with group life cycle

• How quickly can we bring the group to ‘performing stage’?

– This time depends on several factors such as

• Diversity in the background of individuals making up the group

• Individuals’ tolerance for each other’s differences

• Focus on task at hand, rather than whose views drive the task

• Alignment of personal goals with group goals

• How long can we sustain the group in ‘performing stage’?

– This time depends on several factors such as

• Congruence between individual’s identity and group identity

• Alignment of individual’s values with others in the group

• Performance of this group relative to other groups

• Handling external but induced differences into the group (refer to cohesiveness)


Alternative model for temporary groups

• Punctuated-equilibrium model

– Begin - Set group direction

• First phase of activity - Inertia, 1

• Around half-time - Transition

• Post-transition - Major changes

• Second phase of activity - Inertia, 2

– End - Accelerated activity



Observe: Performance never reaches full potential in this model.

Group properties

• Roles

• Norms

• Status

• Size

• Cohesiveness

• Diversity

• Role

– Set of expected behavior patterns

attributed to someone occupying a given

position in a social unit

• Role perception

– Individual’s view of how he/she is

supposed to act in a given situation

• Role expectation

– The way others believe you should be

acting in a given situation

• Role conflict

– Differences between role perception and

role expectation

• Psychological contract

– Unwritten agreement


Recall: Zimbardo’s prison experiment!

Group properties

• Roles

• Norms

• Status

• Size

• Cohesiveness

• Diversity

• Norms

– Acceptable standards of behavior shared

by members that express what they

ought and ought not to do under certain

circumstances

– Examples:

• Performance norms

• Appearance norms

• Social arrangement norms

• Resource allocation norms

• Conformity

– Adjustments of one’s behavior to align

with the norms of the group

• Deviant behavior

– Voluntary behavior that violates the

norms of the group, and in doing so

threatens the identity and well-being of

the group


Recall: Mayo’s Hawthorne Studies!

Group properties

• Roles

• Norms

• Status

• Size

• Cohesiveness

• Diversity

• Status

– Socially defined position or rank given to the

group by others, or given by group to

individuals within

• Status characteristics theory

– Status is one reason for formation of

hierarchies, and they are based on:

• Power a person wields over others

• Person’s ability to contribute to group’s goals

• Individual’s characteristics (e.g.: charisma)

• Tolerance to deviation varies with status

of an individual within the group

• Causes troubles in group interaction

– Either the groups fail to use the full potential

of high-status individuals

– Or the high-status individuals fail to recognize

useful contributions from others


Group properties

• Roles

• Norms

• Status

• Size

• Cohesiveness

• Diversity

• Smaller groups tend to produce results

faster, whereas larger groups produce

better results, slower

• Type of task is central in determining size

• Social loafing

– The tendency for individuals to expend less

effort when working collectively than alone

• Ways to reduce social loafing

– Set group goals

– Increase inter-group competition

– Engage in peer evaluation

– Select people from collectivist cultures

– Have group rewards, and to some extent

base these rewards within group on

individual contributions


Group properties

• Roles

• Norms

• Status

• Size

• Cohesiveness

• Diversity

• Cohesiveness

– the degree to which members are attracted to

each other and motivated to stay in the group

– Affects productivity

• Strongly cohesive groups may overlook

performance failures

• Weakly cohesive groups may look deep

into individual differences

• Ways to manage cohesion

– Make groups smaller (sometimes larger/different

just to break strong but undesirable cohesion)

– Encourage agreement with group goals

– Increase time members spend together

– Increase group’s status and perceived difficulty

of getting membership

– Stimulate competition with other groups

– Give group rewards

– Physically isolate the group



Group properties

• Roles

• Norms

• Status

• Size

• Cohesiveness

• Diversity


Decision-making in groups

Merits

• Range of information

• Diversity of views

• Increased acceptance of solution

• More accurate

• Effective in creative decisions

• Reduced bias

Demerits

• Domination by some individuals

• Pressures to confirm

• Dilution of responsibility

• Time consuming

• Less efficient in routine decisions

• Tendency to be political

(More in Unit 5)


Group think

• Phenomenon in which the norm for consensus overrides the

realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action

• Stems from pressures to confirm

• Commonly found in high-performing groups, in their decline

• Symptoms

– New information does not make a difference, indicating that there

is resistance to initial assumptions made by the group

– New inputs are not debated, by applying pressure on members

who express doubts or question validity of arguments

– Members want to speak but remain silent because they want to

avoid being labeled as deviating from the group norms

– Illusion of unanimity in the group, i.e. if everything is well now, it

should be well later too

• An special case of group think, where groups tend to take an

extremist stance, is called group shift


Ask yourself: If you are the same today as you were yesterday, then what is the progress you made?

Source: http://www.grantthornton.com.au/images/graphics/ahr_succession_web.jpg

http://www.grantthornton.com.au/images/graphics/ahr_succession_web.jpg



Decision-making techniques in groups

• Interacting groups - Face to face meeting to discuss and decide

• Brainstorming - An idea generation process that specifically

encourages any and all alternatives while

withholding any criticism

• Nominal group - Individuals meet face to face but use

systematic and independent methods to

pool their judgments to arrive at a decision

• Electronic meeting - Members meet online and interact via

computers to arrive at decisions; the

benefit here is the chance for an individual

to remain anonymous in his contribution


Which method to choose?



For discussion

• How would you handle if you found someone in your group not doing their

part of the job, i.e. they are involved in what we call as ‘social loafing’?

• What could be the reasons for ‘social loafing’, and is it always ‘unethical’?

• What are the criteria you think are most important in deciding whether the

group has to by its norm-based decisions, or consider a challenging

perspective from an individual within the team?

• What in your view should be done to handle deviant behaviors?

• If members of an organization comply too much, then there is a problem

we call as ‘herd behavior’. If they do not comply, then there is the problem

of ‘deviance’. How should organizations cope up with these?


Exercise

• Write a reflective note on your experience in working with

your group on the module task; and whether you see any

relation with the theory learnt in this module.

• Submit your video to the instructor

– Either on a CD

– Or carry it on a pen drive and copy it on his/her system


End of module 5.

Please post your feedback for this session to [email protected] / [email protected]

Do not forget to mention the ‘session date/section’ details

Upcoming

Activity: Presentation of your group work

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Module 5 #Group behavior

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