Unit 04 - Group Dynamics
Transcript of Unit 04 - Group Dynamics
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Unit 04 GroupDynamics
Sociology of Organization
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Group
A group is any collection of individuals who have
mutually dependent relationships.
It refers to a collection of two or more interacting
individuals with a stable pattern of relationships
between them, who share common goals and who
perceive themselves as being a group.
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Group
A group is two or more persons who are
interacting with one another in such amanner that each person influences and is
influenced by each other person
-Marvin Shaw
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Types of Groups
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Groups may be classified into different types. The basis of
differentiation may be based on purpose, extent of
structuring and process of formation, membership and size ofthe group.
The groups are classified as:
Primary Groups and Secondary Groups
Formal and Informal Groups
Membership and Reference Groups
Command and Task Groups
In-Groups and Out-Groups
Open and Closed Groups
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Primary Groups
A Primary Group is characterized by intimate, face to
face association and co-operation.
The membership of such a group is small and is
based on intimate relationship.
For Ex: Family, Friendship Groups or NeighbourhoodGroups.
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Secondary Groups
A Secondary Group is more formal, general and remote.
The members of the secondary group may not have any
interest in the problems and pleasures of others.
The continuous interaction, intimacy, face-to-face
interaction, co-operation and association of Primary Groups
may not be found in Secondary Group.
For Ex: employment, vendor-to-client relationships, etc.
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Formal Groups A Group that is officially, deliberately and consciously
created to perform certain tasks is know as Formal Groups.
It refers to the structure of well-defined jobs each bearing a
definite authority, responsibility and accountability.
Such a group has a hierarchical structure.
The members of the group are allotted definite tasks.
They have to adhere to certain rules and regulations.
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Formal Groups
It is also known as Command Group.
Every superior has subordinates to whom he delegates
authority to enable them to carry out the tasks assigned.
For the performance of the tasks by the subordinates, the
superior is answerable to his own superior.
For Ex: Departments, task forces, project groups, board of
directors.
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Characteristics of Formal Groups
A Specific Function
Norms
Division of Labour
Authority
Bureaucracy
Rationality
Tests of Membership
Substitution
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Formal Groups
According to Classical theorists, the formal
organization is built on Four Pillars:
I. Division of Labour
II. Scalar and Functional Processes
III. Structure
IV. Span of Control
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Characteristics of Formal Organization
Organization structure is designed by the top managementto fulfil certain requirements- performance of necessary
activities thereby achieving organizational goals.
Organization Structure is based on the principle of Division
of Labour and efficiency in operation.
Organisation concentrates more on the performance of the
jobs, and not on the individuals performing the job.
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Characteristics of Formal Organization
The authority and responsibility assigned to each job
have to be adhered to by the job holders. Based on
the concept of authority and responsibility, people
are placed in hierarchy and their status iddetermined accordingly.
Coordination among members and their control are
well specified through process procedures, rules, etc.
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Informal Group
An Informal Group is one that is unofficially created, it
arises owing to personal relationships between the
individuals in an organization.
Factors such as friends, language, religion and hobbies,
personal likes and dislikes influence the formation of
informal groups.
Informal Groups maintain and strengthen the values and
beliefs of their members.
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Informal Groups The provide a feeling of security to the members and help
them interact with one another.
They further strive to solve work related problems.
For Ex: Clubs
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Types of Informal Groups
Friend Group: The Friendship Group emerge to meet
the Social affiliation needs of members for belonging,
for affection, acceptance, etc.
Interest Group: Emerge to pursue certain goals and
interest. Few members in an organization may band
together to protect their interest. For Ex: A volley ball
group.
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Characteristics of Informal
Organization
Informal organization is a natural outcome at theworkplace, it is not designed and planned.
Informal organization is created on the basis of similarityamong its members. The basis of similarity may be age,sex, place of origin, caste, religion, personality
characteristics, likes and dislikes etc.
Membership in an informal organization is voluntary, aperson may become member of several informalorganization at the same time.
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Characteristics of Informal Groups
Behaviour of members of the informal organization is
coordinated and controlled by group norms and not by the
norms of the formal organization.
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Membership Groups
A Membership Group is one which an individual
really belongs.
An individual may be member of several groups at atime but he may not participate actively in all such
groups but he would like to participate in that whose
norms are more attractive and gratifying.
Ex: Literary Group, History Club, Golf Club
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Reference Groups
Reference Group is one with which the individual
identifies or to which he would like to belong.
The attractiveness of the Reference Group makes thenorms of that group more attractive to the individuals
who aspire to it and its norms will become more
influential in determining behaviour.
They have more relevance to organizational behaviour
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Command Groups
A command group is composed of the subordinates
who report directly to a common superior.
This type of group is determined by organizationchart.
Ex: College Principal and Teachers
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Task Groups
A task group is comprised of employees who work
together to complete a particular task or project.
Task Group is usually formed to solve a problem orperform an activity, thus membership of the group
may extend beyond the hierarchical command of a
superior.
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In-Groups
The In-Groups represent a clustering of individual
holding prevailing values in a society or at least
having a dominant place in social functioning.
It can be a majority numerically, or it may represent
the power structure with it a pattern of behaviour
considered desirable.
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Out-Groups
The Out-Group is the conglomerate looked as
subordinate or marginal in the society it is usually
referred to as the minority group even though in
certain instances, it may represent the numericalmajority.
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Open Groups
An open Group is one that is in a constant state of change.
Its membership keeps fluctuating, i.e. existing members
may leave and new members may join.
The group accepts the ideas of the new members and may
slowly give up certain old practices, in view of such trend ,
the group can have plans and proposals only for a shortperiod of time.
Open Groups faces conditions of imbalance and instability
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Closed Groups
A closed group is one that is stable.
It maintains stable membership and does not shed
established practices. It therefore can have proposalsfor a fairly longer period of time.
It does not face conditions of imbalance andinstability.
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Importance of Groups
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Delegate Tasks
Working in a group allows members to share
responsibilities, rather than the brunt of the work
falling in the hands of one person.
Instead, group members can delegate tasks to
individuals who possess the knowledge, skills and
abilities necessary to accomplish the task
successfully.
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Spark Creativity
Group work helps spark creativity in the minds of thegroup members giving them a wider range of ideas asthey work to come up with solutions for organizationalproblems.
Individuals may go into a group with ideas, but with thehelp of the group, their ideas get expanded upon andturned into creative, attainable, strategic or timely
solutions.
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Share Diverse Opinions
Group work gives members an opportunity to explore diverse
opinions, which can provide different points of view, as they
work to solve problems.
One group member may consider an option or have a stance
that other members of the group have not considered.
With diverse experiences and knowledge, group work ensuresthat problems are not solved using one person's input.
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Learn to Combine
Group work teaches members the essence of
compromising and not insisting upon their own ways.
As group members come up with solutions, they work toincorporate the ideas and opinions of the group in their
final decisions.
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Combine Skills
Groups are composed of individuals who may share
some of the same knowledge and skills, however,
oftentimes, members come from different educational
backgrounds and have different work and volunteer
experiences, which uncovers strengths that one group
member may have, while others are lacking.
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Build Relationships
Working in a group can help individuals build long-lasting
relationships based on trust and loyalty.
As group members, people learn about thecommonalities they share and differences, which leads
them to seek group members they can build
relationships with even outside of the group.
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Nature of Groups
Shaw has summarized various definitions of groups into four
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Shaw has summarized various definitions of groups into fourcategories.
First, group is defined as consisting of individuals whoperceive the existence of a group & their membership in it.
Second, group is defined on the basis of a common
motivation or goal.
Third, this class of definitions looks to the structure of thegroupthe relationships and ties among group members
which bind them into a group.
Fourth, this definition perceives the central element of agroup to be interacting among its members.
This approach Shaw finds most acceptable and defines group as
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This approach, Shaw finds most acceptable and defines group as
two more persons who are interacting with one another in such
a manner that each person influences and is influenced by each
other. This definition may be expanded further to include
qualifications, as identified by Shepherd.
Firstly, the small group is a kind of social phenomenon which is
more enduring and tighter than social relationship but is looseror less organized than a formal organization.
Second, a group should be large enough so its members
feel a sense of common identity and mutual awareness.This size of a group cannot be prescribed in terms of exact
number of persons.
However as small group increases in size it reaches
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However as small group increases in size, it reachessome upper limit where the group altered so that itsmembers establish some formal rules and regulations
and group members more like a formal organization.
Third, the small group, apart from its size, possessessome other characteristics. Moreover, it is not
necessary that a group can be informal only, aspointed out by Shepherd.
Thus, a group may be defined as the aggregation ofsmall number of persons who work for commongoals, develop a shared attitude, and are aware thatthey are part of a group and perceive themselves as
such.
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Group Dynamics
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Group Dynamics
In simple terms group dynamics refers to the study offorces operating within the group.
The social process by which people interact face to face insmall groups is called group dynamics.
Group dynamics is concerned with the interaction of the
individual in a face to face relationship.
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Group Dynamics It focuses on the team work where in small groups are
constantly in contact with each other and share common
ideas to accomplish the given tasks.
The group develops in its goals clearly and furnishessuggestions to its members for the accomplishment of
goals.
Every goal chooses its leader who may effectively
coordinate group efforts towards accomplishment of these
objectives.
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Group Dynamics
Group dynamics can be studied based on different views of KURTLEWIN.
NORMATIVE VIEW : is that group dynamics which describes how
a group should be organized and conducted.
VIEW THAT TAKES GROUP DYNAMICS AS A SET OF TECHIQUES:here role playing, brain storming, buzz groups, group therapy,
sensitively training, team building are traditionally equated with
group dynamics.
Third view: this is closest to Lewin s conception group dynamicsis viewed from the perspective of the maternal nature of groups,
how they form their structural and processes and how they
function and affect the individual member, other groups and the
organization.
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How Group Dynamics
Influence and Affect theWorking of the Organization??
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Organizational Goals and Tasks
Just like individual and groups, organizations are formed topursue certain goals which are at once sources of co-
operation and conflict.
such goals as survival, self-reliance, freedom of action,
adaptation, unity and the like, tend to be shared by group
members as goals. Organizations undertake certain tasks to
achieve their goals.
Tasks may be differentiated in some way: Tasks vary in their
complexity, skill requirements, co-operation requirements,
specificity, measurability and divisibility.
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Assumption and Assignment of Roles
The term role is defined as a set of behaviours
expected of a member who occupies a particular position
in a organization. For ex: the role expected of a senior in
an organization is different than a junior.
The expected role of each member in a group is explicitly
or implicitly indicated .
Roles also differ in the degree of their clarity and
compatibility.
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Leadership in Organization
Informal leaders emerge in an organization by commonconsent. They reflect and shape the views and values of
members.
They tend to command more influence and power than
formal leaders. They gain confidence and acceptance of
organization members by virtue of their personality traits,
abilities and skills.
In general, leaders in organization are expected to interact
more intensely and frequently with group members.
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Leadership in Organization
They are also expected to undertake functions such
as providing emotional support and sense of
direction to members, facilitating tasks to perform
for achieving goals, enforcing norms or behaviour tomaintain the entity, unity and autonomy of the
organization, building the organization image and
strength and creating climate in which members
derive some social satisfaction.
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It refers to the situation where people interact in
large or small groups, it happens that some groups
perform well and result into social loafing.
This happens because there are several factors, both
within groups and outside these, which affect group
performance.
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Factors Affecting Group Behaviour
Physical Proximity
Age and Experience
Social Background
Ethnicity
Status of Job
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External Conditions
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External Conditions A group is not an independent but is created by an organization
to perform certain specified work. Thus, A group has to work
within the framework provided by the organization.
Organizational factors that impose conditions for group working
are organizations strategy, its resources, rules and regulations,authority structure, performance evaluation and reward
systems, physical work setting, and culture.
To the extent these are positive, group performance will bepositive. In alternative scenario, group performance will be
negative.
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Group Structure
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Group Structure A group is not unorganized mob of few individuals but a
conscious and purposive creation. Therefore, the group must
have structure just like an organization has structure, in simpleterm; structure is the pattern in which various parts or
components of an object are interrelated or interconnected.
In the case of the physical object, such a pattern is visible but in
case of a social object like work group, this is not visible.Therefore, the structure of a work group has deducted from its
various components and how they work.
These are group composition, group size, roles, leadership,
group norms, group cohesiveness and status. All these affect
group performance.
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Group Composition The composition of a group plays a important role in
determining group performance.
Group composition is most often defined in terms of
homogeneity of the group members.
A group is homogeneous if the members are similar in one or
several ways that are critical to the work of the group, such as
age, work experience, education, technical specialty, etc. in aheterogeneous group, the members differ in one or more ways
that are critical to the work of the group.
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Group Size
A group can have as few as two members as can interact
meaningfully and influence one another.
Group size can have an important effect on groupperformance.
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What are norms?
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What are norms?
Norms are more encompassing than roles.
While roles involve behaviouralexpectations for specific positions, norms
help organizational members determine
right from wrong and good from bad.
Definition of Norm
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Definition of Norm
Norms are Shared attitudes, opinions, feelings, or actions
that guide social behaviour (that is by two or more people
that guides their(Group) behaviour).
According to Michael Argyle:
"Group norms are rules or guidelines of accepted behaviour
which are established by a group and used to monitor the
behaviour of its members".
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Group Norms in simple
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Group Norms in simple
terms, Group members follow standards of behaviour that they all agree on. Once these standards have been accepted by everyone in the group, they become
norms.
Norms determine how the members should or should not behave in certain
circumstances.
Norms represent value judgments about appropriate behaviour in social situations.
Although they are infrequently written down or even discussed, norms have
powerful influence on group behaviour.
Norms guide behaviour and reduce ambiguity in groups.
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Although Norms are typically unwritten and seldom discussed openly,
they have a powerful influence on group and organizational behaviour.
For example, groups establish performance normssome groups push
each other to work hard, others to see who can do the least; appearance
norms as to what is acceptable and unacceptable; and norms regarding
punctuality and loyalty to the organization.
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Th i i ti b f li d
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The norms in an organization may be formalized or
informal norms.
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While norms of a functional
nature help achieve
organizational goals.
Norms of a dysfunctional
nature do just the reverse.
Though every work group has
a unique set of norms, there
are certain classes of norms
that are common to most
work groups.
Thus,depending on their effectiveness, informal norms can be functional
or dysfunctional in nature.
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Behaviour Norms
Behaviour norms are rules that standardise how individuals act while
working on a day-to-day basis.
Examples are:"do not come to committee meetings unless you have read the reports to be'"discussed"', "greet every customer with a smile'', etc.
These norms tend to reflect motivation, commitment to the organization andtherefore result in high level of performance.
Performance Norms Performance norms are rules that standardize employee output and
number of hours worked.
The Development of
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The Development of
Norms Norms usually develop slowly as groups learn those behaviours that
will facilitate their activities. However, this slow development can be
short-circuited by critical events or by a group's decision to change
norms.
Most norms develop in one or more of four ways:
(1) Explicit statements by supervisors or co-workers;
(2) Critical events in the group's history;
(3) Primacy, or by virtue of their introduction early in the group's
history; and
(4) Carryover behaviours from past situations.
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Norms tend to be enforced by group
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Norms tend to be enforced by groupmembers when they
Help the group or organization survive.
Clarify or simplify behavioural expectations.
Help individuals avoid embarrassing situations.
Clarify the groups or organizations central values and/or
unique identity.
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Uniqueness of Group Norms
The norms of one group cannot be easily mixed withanother group.
Some differences are primarily due to the difference in
structure of the groups.
However, even very similar work groups may develop
different norms
The members of one group may be friendly with their
supervisor whereas those of another group may not.
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Norm Conformity
Norms have the power to force a certain degree ofconformity.
There are several factors consist of norm conformity, whichare as follows:
Some groups may exert more pressure for conformity than
others because of the personalities of the group members.
The history of the group and its members also plays a part
in conformity.
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Aspects of Group Norms
Prescriptive norms: define the socially appropriate way to
respond in a social situation.
Example: Food should be shared equally, Follow the orders ofthe leader.
Proscriptive norms: in contrast are prohibitions; they define the
types of actions that should be avoided if at all possible,
Example: Do not take more than your share of food and water
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Group Cohesiveness
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Group cohesiveness refers to the extent which the members of
a group are attached to each other and willing to remain within
the group.
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L d hi
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Leadership
If the leader is capable, he will be able to secure cohesioneasily among members.
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Si f G
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Size of Group
When the size of the group increases, securing cohesion
among members becomes difficult.
L ti f G
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Location of Group
Vague lines between different groups have a negativeeffect on group cohesion.
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C titi
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Competition
While intergroup competition (between 2 differentgroups) is constructive for the groups cohesiveness,
intra-group competition will be detrimental to the
groups stability and therefore, cohesiveness.
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Increasing the membership of like minded persons:
Measures to Increase Group
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p
Cohesiveness
Increasing interaction among the members:
Measures to Increase Group
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p
Cohesiveness
Taking care of the group size: If the group is unwieldy, securingconsensus among the members is sure to become difficult. It is,
therefore, necessary to take care of the group size.
Measures to Increase Group
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p
Cohesiveness
Encouraging competition among groups:
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Meaning
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Meaning
Group decision making is an activity based on the old adagetwo heads are better than one.
It permits many persons simultaneously to interact and to arrive
at a decision. In group decision making, there can be either
consensus among the members of the group or the decision can
be arrived at through simple majority unless the group
prescribes any other mode of majority. Consensus implies that
all members must agree to the proposed decision, whereas
majority vote implies that it is enough for the majority of the
group members to agree on the decision arrived at.
Process of decision making
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Process of decision making
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While generating the alternatives, the concept of limiting
factor should be applied. A limiting factor is one which stands
in the way of accomplishing a desired objective. If these
factors are identified, managers will confine their search for
alternatives to those which will overcome the limiting factors.
A decision maker can use several sources for identifying
alternatives: his own past experience, practices followed by
others and using creative techniques.
Evaluation of Alternatives
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Evaluation of Alternatives
After the various alternatives are identified, the next step is to
evaluate them and select the one that will meet the choice
criteria.
In narrowing down the number of alternatives, two approachescan be followed: constraint on alternatives and grouping of
alternatives of similar nature.
Having narrowed down the alternatives which require seriousconsideration, the decision maker will go for evaluating how
each alternative may contribute towards the objectives
supposed to be achieved by implementing the decision.
Evaluation of various alternatives dissects an alternative into
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Evaluation of various alternatives dissects an alternative into
various tangible and intangible factors.
Tangible factors are those which can be quantified because they
are quite obvious like the cost per unit, investment required,
output to be received, etc.
Intangible factors are mostly qualitative and cannot be
measured in terms of quantity. For example, in a plant location,
various non-economic factors like psychological problem arising
out of displacement of persons from the plant sight, ecological
balance, etc.
Choice of alternative
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Choice of alternative The evaluation of various alternatives presents a clear picture
as to how each one of them contributes to the objectives
under question. A comparison is made among the likely
outcomes of various alternatives and the best one is chosen.
Choice aspect of decision making is related to deciding the
most acceptable alternative which fits with the organizational
objectives. It may be seen that the chosen alternative should
be acceptable in the light of the organizational objectives.
Thus, it is not necessary that the chosen alternative is the best
one. In choosing an alternative, the decision maker can go
through three approaches: experience, experimentation and
research and analysis.
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Implementation of a decision required the communication to
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Implementation of a decision required the communication to
subordinates, getting acceptance of subordinates over the
matter involves in the decision and getting their support forputting the decision into action.
The decision should be effected at appropriate time and in
proper way to make the action more effective. Theeffectiveness of action is important because it is the only
effective action through which organizational objectives can
be achieved and right decisions help in effective action.
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The feed back may also help I reviewing the decision when
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The feed back may also help I reviewing the decision when
conditions change which may require changes in decision.
Therefore, a successful manager is one who keeps a close lookat the objectives and results of the decision and modifies his
decision according to the changes in the situations.
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Quality of Decision: Group decision making generally leads to
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Quality of Decision: Group decision making generally leads to
higher quality solutions unless an individual has expertise in the
decision area and this is identifies in advance.
Climate of decision making: Supportive climate encourage
group problem solving whereas competitive climate stimulates
individual problem solving.
Time availability: Group decision making is a time consuming
process and therefore when time at the disposal is sufficient,
group decision making can be preferred.
Merits of group decision making
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process
Every member of the group will come out with his views on theproblem considered. The problem , therefore, can be
thoroughly discussed and the best solution can be found out.
Such an advantage is not available in the case of individual
decisions.
The decision of the group, usually, will not be a biased one. This
is because every member of the group has his own ideals and
values. No member can impose his views on others. There is
always a chance for bias in individual decisions.
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The group usually consists of members who represent different
segment of an organization. Therefore, each member will
ensure that injustice is not done to segment he represents.
The process of group decisions making also provides scope for
proper coordination and cooperation among the members.Every member has to take the other members into confidence
when he discusses any issues.
Group decisions enjoy a greater sense of acceptability thanindividual decisions.
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It is also possible that a few influential members of the group
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It is also possible that a few influential members of the group
may try to put pressure on others and get their consent.
Group decisions are always expensive when compared to the
individual decisions in terms of time, money and efforts
required.
Conflicts may also arise between the members of the group
which may affect the decision of the group