GROUP AND TEAM WORK1

Dr. Oscar G. Nalzaro2

I.

Introduction
In all human interactions there are two major ingredients-content and
process. The first deals with the subjects matter or the task upon which the group
working. In most interactions, the focus of attention of all the persons is on the
content. The second ingredient, process is concerned with trust is happening
between and to group members while the group is working.
Group process, or dynamic, deals with such items as morale, feeling tone,
atmosphere, influence, participation, styles of influence, leadership struggle,
conflict, competition, cooperation, etc. In most interactions, very little attention is
paid to the process, even when it is the major cause of ineffective group action.

II.

Objectives
At the end of the presentation, the participants are expected to:
1. describe the characteristics of formal and informal groups;
2. explain how group leaders, group norms, and group cohesiveness
develop;
3. identify the individual roles of the group; and
4. explain the importance of groups in work organization.

III.

The Meaning, Elements and Types of Groups

Many definitions of group have common elements, which suggest that:
o is a collection of people interacting with each other for fairly some time
utilizing certain resources and methodologies to achieve common goals or
interests;
o a group of more than two is best, although for better coordination and
control, the ideal size is between seven and eleven;
o may be defined as two or more people who interact with and influence
each other toward a common purpose.

_____________
1

A lecture presented to the participants of the Public Safety Junior Leadership Course conducted by the
Philippine Public Safety College, Police National Training Institute, Regional Training School - 4 held at
the Law Enforcement Training Center, Sitio Magarwak, Sta. Lourdes, Puerto Princesa City on 01 February
2012.
2
Associate Professor IV & Director, Provincial Center for Human Rights Education. of the Western
Philippines University, Puerto Princesa City.

Types of Groups
The types of groups that commonly exist in organizations:
1. Command groups composed of managers and their subordinates;
2. Committees and task forces, formed to carry out specific
organizational activities;
3. Informal groups, which emerge in the organization whether or not
managers desire or encourage them.
4. Reference groups are made up of those persons with whom specific
individuals identify and compare themselves. This can be an
important influence in organizational life, since the members
frequently adopt the performance standards and expectations of their
reference groups.
Classification of Groups
Groups can be classified into formal and informal.
1. Formal Groups are created deliberately by managers and charged
with carrying out specific tasks to help the organization achieve its
goals. Formal groups arise from assigned tasks and responsibilities,
derived from the position in an organizational structure. Formal
groups are thus formed like units, sections, divisions and departments.
a. Permanent formal groups include command groups and
permanent committees.
b. Temporary formal groups include task forces and project
group groups that are created to deal with a particular problem
and are disbanded once the problem is solved.
2. Informal groups arise from formal groups. Informal groups emerge
whenever people come together and interact regularly.
Informal groups serve major functions:
a.
b.
c.
d.

They perpetuate commonly held social and cultural values.

They provide social satisfaction, status and security.
They help their members communicate.
They help to solve problems.

Disadvantages of Informal groups:

a. Conformity. Informal groups usually act as reference groups,
encouraging conformity among their members.
b. Conflict. Providing social satisfaction may enhance the work
environment, but it may also conflict with managements needs.
c. Rumor. Every organization must come to grips with the
grapevine the informal communication system that dispenses
true and false humors with equal dispatch.
d. Resistance to change. Perpetuating shared values preserves the
integrity of the group and adds stability to the work situation.
Characteristics of groups in Organizations
Managers who deal with groups must:
a. determine when and how groups can be utilized most effectively to
achieve organizational goals;
b. manage groups so they perform at a high level; and
c. overcome the disadvantages that may be associated with groups.
Group Performance
Two aspects of group performance that are frequently important to
managers are:
a. the relationship between group cohesiveness and performance, which
is especially important when managers work with informal groups;
Group cohesiveness, or solidarity, is an important indicator of how
much influence the group as a whole as over individual members. It
tends to develop in a circular fashion: Individuals will join groups
whose members they admire or identify with.
b. the differences between group and individual problem solving and
decision making, which are especially importantly when managers
work with task forces and committees.
IV.

The Importance of Groups in Work Organization

o The need for relationships with other people is one of the strongest of
human drives.
o Social needs are among the most compelling, potent and powerful on-thejob motivators.

o The people who compose an organization behave as members of groups.

o Groups have been found to be effective sources of social change including
those in the work setting.
o Changing group opinion is more effective than changing opinions of
individuals.
Groups are worth considering as fundamental building blocks:
1. Groups, which provide needed support especially during stressful and
crisis periods satisfy membership and activities needs.
2. Groups serve as problem solving tools and develop innovation and
creativity.
3. Groups than by individuals derive better decisions.
4. For application and implementation, groups serve as useful tools.
5. Groups can control and discipline individuals better than impersonal,
formal and quasi-legal system.
6. Groups that preclude long communication lines, steep hierarchy levels,
lost individuals in a crowd, temper big size of organizations.
V.

Limitations of Group and Group Work

Much as the group exerts pressure on the individual and the organization
to perform better, its adverse effects cannot be discounted.
1. Deindividuating effects. A very strong value for group and group
work may tend to smother ones self.
2. Majority rule. In western countries, one half plus of the constituency
or membership is the ruling group without considering most of the
time the issue concerned and the quality of decision arrived.
3. Groupthink. This is the tendency to make loyalty to the group a very
powerful norm.
4. Free riding. It brings out the phenomenon of free riding as a limitation
of group work.

VI.

Group Development
The issue is not whether groups are beneficial or not but whether groups
are planned. Groups go through distinct development phases, which set up and
clarify the patterns that later on determine the group processes.
Stages of Work-Group Development
Stage

Description

Formation

o Members get acquainted and size up the new

territory
o Initial task definition and identification of
simple group processes
o first attempts to clarify member roles and
authority and responsibility relationship
o Members try to determine how their skills will
fit the group task and how the group activity
will help group members
o Tentative decision on leadership and behavioral
norms
Differentiation
o Progress in identifying roles and norms
o Better feel for group task
o Formation of coalitions within the group to
promote certain views and interests
o Emergence of interpersonal and intercoalition
conflicts
o Working through conflicts
o Emergence of competing values and norms for
guiding behavior
Integration
o Stage of balance in the life of a group
o Norms operating to obtain conformity
o Procedures for coping with deviations from
norms established
o Work flow handled easily
o Development of cohesiveness among group
members
o Danger of groupthink, where loyalty to the
group becomes a powerful group norm; fat and
sassy attitude
o Members perceive themselves as a group
Maturity
o Appreciation of groups need for stable norms,
roles, goals, leadership and work processes
o Appreciation of groups need to be flexible
about changing demands on group
o Members awareness of each others strengths
and weaknesse
o Acceptance of individual differences
o Efficient and effective group processes
5

o Tolerance of conflict over task-related issues;

positive approach to conflict management
o Minimal intermember conflict
VII.

Group Structure
After its initial stage of development, certain patterns of structures develop
within the group. These patterns may include the groups goals, norms, roles,
configuration; communication system, power, influence, status.
1. Group Goals
Goals are the main justification for the groups existence.
Initially, they are somewhat tenuous and vague but as the members
reaffirm their sincerity and purposefulness in its formation, they become
firm and are accepted by enough members to motivate the group to work
towards them.
When the goals of individual members are incongruent with group
goals, individuals develop agenda, which are hidden from the group.
2. Group Norms
Observations of various groups reflect certain regularities in their
behavior. As more members follow these patterns regularly, they become
part of the unwritten and informal code of behavior.
Norms can be classified as:
a. Prescriptive, that is, dictating behavior that should be followed;
b. Proscriptive, that is dictating behavior that should not follow be
performed and should be avoided.
Ways by which group norms develop (D. C. Feldman):
a. Practices over time. Precedents are powerful guides that
establish routines resulting in an orderly, predictive pattern. A
group may set up ways of conducting a regular meeting to save
time.
b. Carryovers from certain situations. The contents of agenda for
a conference and their sequence may have been adapted from
those of successful organizaitions.
c. Express statements from others. The newcomers who are told
thats how we do it here usually look up to the old timers.
d. Critical events in-group history. Singular and uncommon
behaviors help establish, reaffirm or modify a group norm.

3. Roles in the Group

As work groups develop, the members come to play different parts
in the social structure. The emergence of different roles is a natural
process. Roles are the hats we wear according to Baron.
Classification of Group Roles
A. Task-oriented roles
o Initiator - offers new ideas or suggests solutions to
problems
o Information seeker seeks pertinent facts or classification
of information
o Coordinator coordinates activities, combines ideas or
suggestions
o Evaluator assess the quality of suggestions, solutions or
norms
B. Maintenance roles
o Encourager encourages cohesiveness and warmth, praise
and accepts others ideas.
o Harmonizer alleviates tension; resolves inter-group
disagreements
o Gatekeeper encourages participation by others and
sharing of ideas
o Standard setter raises questions about group goals, helps
set goals and standards
o Follower agrees pursues others activities
o Group observers monitors group operations; provides
feedback to group
C. Individual roles
o Blocker resists stubbornly; negative; returns to rejected
issues
o Recognition -seeker - calls attention to self by boasting,
bragging, acting superior
o Dominator manipulates group; interrupts others; gains
attention
o Avoider remains apart from others; resists passively
VIII.

Cohesiveness and Team Building

The forces acting on the members to remain in the group should be greater
than the forces acting on them to leave it. In a cohesive group members are
attracted to each other and engage in frequent social interaction. They share
positive feelings about their group and are protective of its existence.
Characteristics of High-Performing Teams
High performing teams can be described and characterized in
terms of the following components:
1. Mission. The team has a clearly defined mission, which its
members participate in developing.
2. Goals. All members who are involved in setting them and who
are agree with them understand goals and priorities.
3. Roles. Roles are clearly defined and do not overlap. All
understands them. Team members and leader know their
assignments.
4. Leadership.
Effective leadership with clearly defined
responsibilities is strong but is shared when appropriate.
Members are empowered to take on responsibility and
authority.
5. Communication. Open and honest communication exists
among team members and a structure is used functionally for
written and verbal communication.
Members are kept
informed of events and they listen well to each other.
6. Decision Making. Decisions are made with an orderly,
problem-solving approach.
7. Systems/Procedures.
Information is readily available for
decision making and coordinating work.
8. Climate. Team identity, esprit de corps and pride exist.
Members respect and support each other. They possess a cando attitude.
9. Rewards. Team members are rewarded for the work they
accomplish.
Frequent feedback is given to individuals
regarding performance.
IX.

Group Methods and Techniques

1. Meetings. Group meetings refer to committees, conferences that meet
face to face to discuss work problems in an organization. For many
purposes, meetings cover decision-making, negotiation, advice,
information, planning, coordination, evaluation, creative thinking.
Meetings can be made constructive instead of its being
characterized as an act of taking down plenty of minutes but wasting
many hours. The following points can be followed:

a. Keep its size small enough for people to interact

dynamically and big enough to get a variety of ideas.
Groups of seven to eleven are ideal.
b. Have clear objectives for each meeting together with an
agenda that is known to all members way before the
meetings.
c. As much as possible, committee members should come
from the same rank for they give considerable weight to
their rank outside the committee.
d. The group membes are regarded as a very important source
of ideas.
The climate during the meeting should be
permissive and healthy to allow them to articulate these to
make the meeting productive.
e. Activities in meetings could be varied and content could be
substantive.
2. Brains storming. This technique is usually used when a group
searches for new courses of action or some solutions to pressing issues
and problems.
3. Group Dynamics. This is a technique in which the group members
articulate their actual experiences, emote their feelings, sentiments and
emotions on certain aspects, areas, or problems with the aid of a
facilitator.
Group dynamics activities can be either structured or unstructured.
With the use of some prepared instrumentations, exercises, games,
stories, pictures, poetry and the like, the participants project
themselves and discuss their perceptions of these stimuli, relating them
to their own experiences.
4. Sensitivity Training. This is also called T-group Training, one of the
commonly used forms of experiential group method in training. Being
process-oriented instead of content-oriented, the primary stress is on
the feeling level of communication between people rather than on the
conceptual or information level. The T-group approach is used with
small groups of between eight to twelve members to allow a high level
of participation, involvement and communication.
5. Quality Circle. This is a process of identifying, recognizing and
resolving problems which serve as bottlenecks in the workplace and
which is performed by a group directly affecting its members.

Quality circle which originated in Japan makes use of the group

approach, a contribution of the Japanese in which work is
considered fundamentally group work.

X.

Group Atmosphere
Most persons leave group meeting with certain overall general
impressions or feelings about meeting. One might have the impressions that not
much work was done, owing to general inability to get started or that a lot of
work was accomplished but that in the course of work tempers flared or members
were on edge or touchy.
This type of impression relates to a group atmosphere; something about
the way group works, which creates an atmosphere during the group meeting but
grumble about afterwards. It might be helpful to look at some of the various
ways if categorizing group atmosphere, to facilitate exchange of feelings about
the way the group is working. The atmosphere may change within a single
meeting. Thus, several words must be used to describe one meeting:
1. Rewarding. When a group member have work together well and
accomplished the task for them a rewarding atmosphere may be
reported.
2. Sluggish. Often a group just cant get going.
3. Cooperative. As opposed to the competitive atmosphere group
members may work together harmoniously. When members seem to
share a goal and support one another in attaining group goals, the
atmosphere may be described as cooperative.
4. Play. The opposite of being task or work oriented is play. This
condition exist when the group avoids its tasks and cant seem to shake
off a light-hearted unserious attitude long enough to get anything done.
The bull session might be described as play.
5. Work. When the group devotes itself to its tasks in a purposeful
manner, the group atmosphere is one task-oriented. This may be
true regardless of what other impressions results as well; it is possible
to fight and still work hard.

XI.

Summary
A group is composed of individuals working together towards common
goals by interacting with one another and utilizing some resources. They need a
certain period of time for common interests to be discussed, explained and
internalized so that stability and efficiency would ensue.

10

In any work organization, groups have great significance. Workers social

needs to commune with one another, to affiliate with a clique, gang, to be
recognized directly by close members and to yearn for status and esteem are very
strong. Group membership shapes their attitude and work behavior, the
organization and their job. Groups exercise stronger control over their members
than management.
Group work differently than people alone. A good match of people,
situation and job can maximize the formers effectiveness. Groups have to be
planned not only in their formation but more so in their development for them to
be productive and efficient. They undergo various stages of development
depending on their size and objectives.
XII.

References
Martires, C. R. and S. F. Galileo. 2000. Management of Human Behavior in
Organizations. 2nd Edition. Mandaluyong City: National Book Store, Inc.
Stoner, J. A. F. and C. Wankel. 1987. Management. 3rd Edition. Kalookan City:
National Book Store, Inc.

11