Organizational Behavior Chapter 9: Group Norms

Group Property 1: Roles

• A role is a function assumed by someone occupying a given position in a group.
• Role perception is our view of how we are supposed to act in a given situation.
• Role expectations are the way others believe we should act in a given context.
• In the workplace, we often look at role expectations through the perspective of the psychological contract: an unwritten agreement between employees and employers that establishes mutual expectations.

Group Property 2: Norms

• Norms are acceptable standards of behavior within a group that are shared by the group's members.
• Norms can cover any aspect of group behavior and significantly influence employee behavior.
• Norms can be formal or informal, and they can be established by leaders or emerge through group interactions.
• Positive group norms can lead to positive outcomes, but only if other factors are present.
• Negative norms can facilitate poor group outcomes and deviant behavior.

Group Property 3: Status

• Status is a socially defined position or rank given to groups or group members by others.
• Status tends to derive from one of three sources: power, ability to contribute to a group's goals, and personal characteristics.
• High-status individuals are more likely to deviate from group norms and resist conformity pressures.
• Introducing high-status members into a group can improve performance to an extent, but may also introduce counterproductive norms.

Group Property 5: Cohesiveness

• Cohesiveness is the shared bond driving group members to work together and stay in the group.
• Factors affecting cohesiveness include time spent together, small group size, external threats, and specific purpose.
• The relationship between cohesiveness and productivity depends on performance-related norms.
• High cohesiveness with high performance norms can lead to high productivity, while low cohesiveness with low performance norms can lead to low productivity.

Group Property 6: Diversity

• Diversity is the extent to which members of a group are similar to or different from one another.
• Types of diversity include surface-level diversity (visible traits), deep-level diversity (values, beliefs, attitudes), diversity in motivational needs, and diversity in trust propensity.
• Diversity can bring unique perspectives and approaches to problem-solving, but it can also lead to conflicts and lower cohesion.
• Effective management and leadership are necessary to integrate diverse perspectives and motivations.

Group Size and Dynamics

• Larger groups (12+ members) are better for gaining diverse input and more effective for fact-finding and idea-generating.
• Smaller groups (around 7 members) are more productive for accomplishing tasks and viewed as more trustworthy.
• Cultural influence can affect group dynamics, with individualistic cultures (e.g., US, Canada) more prone to social loafing than collectivistic societies.

Group Decision-Making

• Group discussion can amplify initial leanings and lead to more extreme decisions.
• Groupthink and groupshift can lead to poor decision-making by preventing groups from considering all available information and perspectives.
• Managers can take steps to mitigate these effects, such as encouraging open discussion and appointing a devil's advocate.### Group Decision Making and Diversity
• Brainstorming and nominal group technique can reduce problems inherent in traditional interacting groups.
• Surface-level diversity (e.g., differences in race and gender) can lead to the formation of faultlines within groups, undermining cohesion and performance.
• Strategies for managing diversity include integrating roles across subgroups, promoting prodiversity beliefs, and recognizing cultural differences in how diversity influences group dynamics.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Group Decision Making

• Advantages:
  • More comprehensive information and knowledge
  • Increased diversity of views
  • Greater acceptance of decisions
• Disadvantages:
  • Time-consuming
  • Conformity pressures
  • Domination by a few members
  • Ambiguous responsibility
  • Possibility of deviant workplace activities

Types of Teams

• Problem-solving teams: groups of 5-12 employees from the same department who meet to discuss ways of improving quality, efficiency, and work environment.
• Self-managed work teams: groups of 10-15 people who autonomously implement solutions and take responsibility for outcomes.
• Cross-functional teams: employees from different work areas who come together to accomplish a task.
• Virtual teams: teams that use technology to tie together physically dispersed members.

Creating Effective Teams

• Team context:
  • Adequate resources
  • Leadership and structure
  • Culture or climate
  • Performance evaluation and reward system
  • Crises and extreme contexts
• Team composition:
  • Abilities and personalities of team members
  • Allocation of roles
  • Diversity
  • Cultural differences
• Team processes and states:
  • Member commitment to a common plan and purpose
  • Team efficacy
  • Team identity
  • Team cohesion
  • Conflict
  • Social loafing
  • Trust

Effective Team Management

• Managers should recognize that groups can have a dramatic impact on individual behavior in organizations, to either a positive or negative effect.
• Managers should ensure that group norms do not support antisocial behavior.
• Managers should pay attention to the status aspect of groups and use larger groups for fact-finding activities and smaller groups for action-taking tasks.

Benefits and Drawbacks of Teams

• Benefits:
  • Can make products, provide services, negotiate deals, coordinate projects, offer advice, and make decisions
  • Can be more accurate than the average individual
  • Can be more creative and lead to more widely accepted decisions
• Drawbacks:
  • Can be inefficient due to groupthink and groupshift
  • Can be more time-consuming than individual decision-making
  • Can be affected by conformity pressures and domination by a few members### Team Dynamics
• Effective teams have members who believe in the team's capabilities, are committed to a common plan and purpose, and have an accurate shared mental model of what is to be accomplished.
• Teams that have been successful raise their beliefs about future success, which motivates them to work harder.
• Selecting individuals with interpersonal skills, providing training to develop teamwork skills, and rewarding cooperative efforts can foster positive team identity and improve team outcomes.

Communication

• Communication is the primary means through which people connect with one another.
• Communication is not only used to transmit a message or impart meaning but also to bond and forge connections with others.
• There are five major functions within a group/organization:
  • Managing Behavior
  • Feedback
  • Emotion Sharing
  • Persuasion
  • Information Exchange

Team Trust and Conflict

• Trust in teams entails a mutual, positive state of positive expectations between team members.
• Team conflict has a complex relationship with team performance.
• Relationship conflicts are always dysfunctional, while task conflicts can stimulate discussion, promote critical assessment of problems and options, and lead to better team decisions.

Social Loafing and Team Identity

• Social loafing occurs when individuals engage in social loafing and coast on the group's effort when their contributions cannot be identified.
• Recognizing individuals' specific skills and abilities, creating a climate of respect and inclusion, leaders and members can foster positive team identity and realize improved team outcomes.

Turning Individuals into Team Players

• Organizations can cultivate a culture of collaboration that leads to improved performance and increased overall success.
• Selecting team players, investing in team training, and rewarding cooperative efforts can lead to improved team performance.
• Communication is a fundamental mechanism by which members show satisfaction and frustration and can provide for the sharing of feelings to fulfill social needs.

The Communication Process

• The communication process involves the sender, message, channel, receiver, and feedback.
• Before communication can occur, it needs a purpose, a message to be conveyed between a sender and a receiver.
• The result is a transfer of meaning from one person to another.

Types of Communication

• Oral Communication is the primary means of conveying messages and has advantages of speed, feedback, and exchange.
• Written Communication includes letters, e-mail, instant messaging, and any other method that conveys written words or symbols and is suitable for complex and lengthy communications.
• Nonverbal Communication includes body movements, tone of voice, and facial expressions and can convey an unspoken message.

Channel Richness

• Channels differ in their capacity to convey information, with some being rich and able to handle multiple cues simultaneously, facilitate rapid feedback, and be very personal.
• The choice of channel depends on the type of message, with routine messages being straightforward and having minimal ambiguity, and nonroutine communications being complicated and having the potential for misunderstanding.