GROUP

 Two or more individuals, interacting and

interdependent, who come together to achieve
particular objectives.

 A group is not a population but a set of two or

more people aware of each other
IMPORTANCE OF GROUPS
The study of groups is important to the manager for a number
of reasons:

1. The group is a key element in the social

order of our culture. Groups serve not only
as the focal point of social life, but they
provide an important source of direction to
individuals for understanding social values
and norms.
IMPORTANCE OF GROUPS (cont..)

2.Through participation in groups, individuals

may satisfy important economic status,
safety, security and friendship needs.

3. The behavior and performance of groups

provides a major mechanism for the
achievement of organizational goals
WHY DO PEOPLE JOIN GROUPS?

 Security
 Status
 Self-esteem
 Affiliation
 Power
 Goal Achievement.
TYPES OF GROUPS

1. FORMAL GROUP : Is formed by the

organization to do its work, is relatively
permanent

2 INFORMAL GROUP: Is established by its

members and is relatively temporary.
1. FORMAL GROUP

.
 Command group
 Task group
 Affinity group
 COMMAND GROUP:
Is relatively a permanent, formal group with
functional reporting relationships and is
usually included in the organizational charts.

 TASK GROUP:
Is a relatively a temporary, formal group
established to perform a specific task.
 AFFINITY GROUPS:
They are the collection of employees form the
same level in the organization who meet on
regular basis to share information, capture
emerging opportunities and solve
problems.
2. INFORMAL GROUPS

 Interest group : Bowling group, Women’s

network.

 Friendship group:
Friends who do many activities together.
( attend the theater, play games, travel)
STAGES OF GROUP
DEVELOPMENT
Groups go through five distinct stages:

1. Forming stage:

 The first stage in group development

 Characterized by much uncertainty about the group’s purpose,

structure and leadership.

 Members are” testing the waters” to determine what types of

behavior are acceptable .

 This stage is complete when members have begun to think of

themselves as part of a group.
2. Storming stage :

 It is characterized by intra group conflict.

 Members accept the existence of the group but there is resistance

to the constraints that the group imposes on the individuality.

 Furthermore, there is conflict over those who will control the

group.

 When this stage is complete, there will be a relatively clear

hierarchy of leadership within the group
 3. Norming stage:
 This is the third stage in group development,
characterized by close relationships and cohesiveness.

 This stage is complete when the group structure

solidifies and the group has assimilated a common set of
expectations of what defines correct member behavior.
4. Performing stage:

 This is the fourth stage in group development , when the

group is fully accepted and functional.

 Group energy has moved from getting to know and

understand each other to performing the task at hand.

 4.
5. Adjourning stage:

 The final stage in group development for temporary

group

 Is characterized by concern with wrapping up activities

rather than task performance
GROUP PERFORMANCE FACTORS

 Group composition
 Group size
 Group norms
 Group cohesiveness
GROUP PERFORMANCE FACTORS
(cont..)
1. GROUP COMPOSITION:
Is the degree of similarity or difference among
group members on factors important to the
group’s work.

2. GROUP SIZE:
Is the number of members of the group; group
size affects the number of resources
available to perform the task
GROUP PERFORMANCE FACTORS
(cont…)
3. GROUP NORM:
Is a standard against which the
appropriateness of a behavior is judged

4. GROUP COHESIVENESS:
Is the extent to which a group is committed to
staying together
 INTERGROUP DYNAMICS
ORGANISATIONAL SETTING
GROUP
GROUP Rules and procedures, history,
Traditions and culture, Goal and CHARACTERSISTICS
CHARACTERSISTICS
Reward systems, Decision Individual Personalities
Individual Personalities
Making process. and characteristics,
and characteristics,
Group action Group action
tendencies and tendencies and
Dispositions, Dispositions,
INTERACTION
Group Composition, Group Composition,
Cohesiveness, Cohesiveness,
Size, Norms and Size, Norms and
Roles BASES FOR INTERACTIONS Roles
Location
Resources, time and Goal
Interdependence
Task uncertainty
Task interdependence
GROUP PROPERTIES

 Role (role identity, role perception, role expectations, role

conflict)

 Norms- tells members of group what they ought to do and

ought not to do under certain circumstances.

 Status

 Size

 cohesiveness
GROUP DECISION MAKING

The belief – characterized by juries that – two

heads are better than one has long been
accepted as a basic component of North
American and many other countries’ legal
systems.

This belief has expanded to the point that,

today, many decisions in organizations are
made by groups, teams, or committees.
GROUP DECISION MAKING IN AN
ORGANIZATION

 GROUP POLARIZATION
 GROUP THINK
 PARTICIPATION
GROUP DECISION MAKING IN AN
ORGANIZATION (cont..)
 Group polarization:
Is the tendency for a group’s average post
discussion attitudes to be more extreme than its
average pre-discussion attitudes.
 GROUP THINK:
Is a mode of thinking that occurs when members
of a group are deeply involved in a cohesive in-
group, and the desire for unanimity offsets their
motivation to praise alternative courses of action
GROUP DECISION MAKING IN AN
ORGANIZATION (cont..)
 PARTICIPATION:

Employee participation in decision making

appropriate depends on the situation

Participation in decision making is also related to

organizational structure for eg. Decentralization
involves delegating some decision making
authority throught the organizational hierarchy.
GROUP PROBLEM SOLVING

To improve the generation of alternatives,

managers may employ any of the following
three techniques to stimulate the group’s
problem solving capabilities:
1. BRAIN STORMING
2. NOMINAL GROUP TECHNIQUE
3. DELPHI TECHNIQUE
BRAIN STORMING

 It is meant to overcome pressures for

conformity in the interacting group that retard
the development of creative alternatives.

 It does this by utilizing an idea-generation

process that specifically encourages any and
all alternatives while with-holding any
criticism of those alternatives.
BRAIN STORMING (cont…)
 In a typical brainstorming session, a half a
dozen to a dozen people sit around a table.

 The group leader states the problem in a

clear manner so that it is understood by all
participants.

 Members then free associate as many

alternatives as they can in a given length of
time.
BRAIN STORMING (cont…)

 No criticism is allowed, and all the

alternatives are recorded for later discussion
and analysis.

 Brainstorming may indeed generate ideas-

but not in a very efficient manner
BRAIN STORMING (cont…)
 Research consistently shows that individuals
working alone will generate more ideas than
a group in brainstorming session.

 In other words, when people are generating

ideas in a group, many people are talking at
once, which blocks the thought process and
eventually impedes the sharing of the ideas.
NOMINAL GROUP TECHNIQUE

 Nominal group technique restricts discussion

or interpersonal communication during the
decision making process, hence, the term
nominal.

 Group members are physically present, as in

a traditional committee meeting, but
members operate independently.
NOMINAL GROUP TECHNIQUE
(cont…)
Specifically, a problem is presented and the
following steps take place:

1.Members meet as a group , but before any discussion

takes place each member independently writes down
ideas about the problem.

2.After this silent period, each member presents one

idea to the group.

3.Each member takes a turn, presenting a single idea

until all ideas have been presented and recorded.
NOMINAL GROUP TECHNIQUE
(cont…)
4.No discussion takes place until all ideas have been recorded.

5. The group then discussed the ideas for clarity and evaluates
them.

6. Each group member silently and independently ranks the

ideas in order of value or quality.

7. The idea with the highest aggregate ranking determines the

final decision.
Advantage of the nominal group
technique
The chief advantage of the nominal group
technique is that :
 it permits the group meet formally
 but does not restrict independent thinking, as
does the interacting group.

Research generally shows that nominal

groups outperform brainstorming groups.
ELECTRONIC MEETING
TECHNIQUE

 The most recent approach to group

decision making blends the nominal
group technique with sophisticated
computer technology.

 It’s called the computer assisted group

or electronic meeting.
 Up to 50 people sit around a horseshoe-
shaped table, empty except for a series of
responses into their computer terminals.
 Issues are presented to participants, and they
keyboard their responses into their
computers.
 Individual comments as well as aggregate
votes, are displayed on a projection screen.
Advantages of Electronic
Meeting Technique.
1.The proposed advantages of electronic
meetings are anonymity, honesty and speed.

2. Participants can anonymously type any

message they want, and it flashes on the
screen for all to see at the push of a
participant’s key.
3.It also allows people to be brutally honest
without penalty.

4.And it’s supposedly fast because :

 chitchat is eliminated,
 discussions don’t digress, and
 many participants can ‘talk’ at once without
stepping on one another’s toes.
DISADVANTAGES OF ELECTRONIC MEETING

 The early evidence, however, indicates that

electronic meetings don’t’ achieve most of
their proposed benefits.

 Evaluations of numerous studies found that:

 electronic meetings actually led to decreased
group effectiveness,
 required more time to complete tasks and
 resulted in reduced member satisfaction when
compared to face-to-face groups.
DISADVANTAGES OF ELECTRONIC
MEETING (cont..)

 Nevertheless, current enthusiasm for

computer-mediated communications
suggests that this technology is here to stay
and is only likely to increase in popularity in
the future.
 THE DELPHI TECHNIQUE

1. The Delphi Technique is a method of

systematically gathering judgments of experts for
use in developing forecasts

2. It is designed for groups who do not meet face-to-

face.
For E.g.. The product manager of a Mahor toy
manufacturer might use this technique to probe
the views of industry experts to forecast the
developments in the dynamic toy market.
 THE DELPHI TECHNIQUE (cont..)
3. The manager who wants the inputs of a group
is the central figure in the process.

4. After recruiting the participants, the manager

develops a questionnaire for them to complete

5.The questionnaire is relatively simple in that it

contains straightforward questions that deal
with the issue, trends in the area, new
technological developments and other factors
the manager is interested in.
THE DELPHI TECHNIQUE (cont..)

6. The manger summarizes the responses and

reports back to the experts with other
questionnaire
7. This cycle may be repeated as many times
as necessary to generate the information the
manger needs.
ADVANTAGES OF THE DELPHI
TECHNIQUE
 It is useful technique when experts are physically
dispersed
 Anonymity is desired, or the participants are
known to have trouble communicating with one
another because of extreme differences of
opinion.
 This method also avoids the intimidation problems
that may exists in decision-making groups.
TEAM

Team is a small number of people with

complementary skills who are committed to a
common purpose, common performance
goals and an approach for which they hold
themselves mutually accountable.
WORK GROUP

A group that interacts primarily to share

information and to make decision to help
each group member to perform within his or
her area.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A GROUP
AND A TEAM
 A work group is a group that interacts primarily to share
information and to make decisions to help each member perform
within his or her area of responsibility. Work groups have no
need or opportunity to engage in collective work that requires
joint effort. So their performance is merely the summation of
each group member’s individual contribution . There is no
positive synergy that would create an overall level of
performance that is greater then the sum of the inputs.

 In contrast, a work team generates positive synergy through

coordinated effort. Their individual efforts result in a level of
performance that is greater then the sum of those individual
inputs.
TYPES OF TEAMS

The four most common types of teams are:

1. Problem solving teams

2. Self managed work teams

3. Cross-functional teams

4. Virtual teams
PROBLEM SOLVING TEAMS

In problem-solving teams,
 members share ideas or offer suggestions on

how work processes and methods can be

improved,
 although they rarely have the authority to

unilaterally implement any of their suggested

actions.
PROBLEM SOLVING TEAMS
(cont..)
For instance, Merrill Lynch created a problem-
solving team to specifically figure out ways to
reduce the number of days it took to open up
new cash management account.
By suggesting in the number of steps in the
process from 46 to 36, the team was able to
reduce the average number of days from 15
to 8.
SELF MANAGED WORK TEAMS

Self managed work teams are groups of

employees (typically 10 to 15 in number) who
perform highly related or interdependent jobs
and take on many of the responsibilities of
their former supervisors.
.
SELF MANAGED WORK TEAMS
(cont…)
Typically, this includes
1. planning and scheduling of work, assigning tasks
to members, collective control over the pace of
work,
2. making operating decisions,
3. taking action on problems, and
4. working with suppliers and customers.
SELF MANAGED WORK TEAMS
(cont…)
 Fully self-managed work teams even select
their own members and have the members
evaluate each other’s performance.

 As a result, supervisory positions take on

decreased importance and may even be
eliminated
CROSS FUNCTIONAL TEAMS

 These teams are made up of employees

from about the same hierarchical level, but
from different work areas, who come together
to accomplish the task.
CROSS FUNCTIONAL TEAMS
(cont..)
The Boeing example illustrates the use of cross-
functional teams.
The Boeing company created a team made
up of employees from production, planning,
quality, tooling, design engineering, and
information systems to automate shims on
the company’s C-17 program.
The team’s suggestions resulted in drastically
reduced cycle time, cost and improved
quality on the C-17.
CROSS FUNCTIONAL TEAMS
(cont..)
 Cross-functional teams are an effective
means for allowing people from diverse areas
within an organization or even between the
organizations) to exchange information,
develop new ideas, solve problems, and
coordinate complex projects.
VIRTUAL TEAMS

 Virtual teams use computer technology to tie

together physically dispersed members to achieve
a common goal.

 They allow people to collaborate online- using

communication links such as wide area networks,
video conferencing, or e-mail- whether they’re
only a room away or continents apart.
VIRTUAL TEAMS (cont…)
 Virtual teams can do everything that other
teams do other than face to face interaction.

 Virtual teams tend to be more task oriented

and exchange less social-emotional
information.

 It allows people to work together who might

otherwise never be able to collaborate.
BENEFITS OF TEAMS IN THE
ORGANIZATIONS
1. Enhanced Performance
2. Employee benefits
3. Reduced costs
4. Organizational enhancements
Enhanced Performance

 Working in teams enables worker to

1. Avoid Wasted efforts,
2. Reduce errors and
3. React better to customers
4. Result in more output for each unit of employee
input.
Enhanced Performance
(cont..)
Enhanced performance can come in many
forms including:
1. Improved productivity
2. Quality and
3. Customer service
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

Teams can provide the -

 sense of self-control
 Human dignity
 Identification with work,
 Sense of self-worth and
 Sense of self fulfillment for which the current
workers seems to strive
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS (cont..)

Team gives the employees –

 The freedom to grow
 To gain respect and dignity by managing themselves,
 Making decisions about their work and
 Really making a difference in the world around them

As a result, employees have a better work life, face less

stress at work and make less use of employee
assistance programs.
REDUCED COSTS

 When the team members feel that

1. they have a stake in the outcomes,
2. want to make contributions because they are
valued and
3. Are committed to their team and do not want to
let it down show significant cost reduction
REDUCED COSTS (cont..)

 Empowered teams showing significant cost

reductions could be by-
1. Reducing scrap,
2. make fewer worker compensation claims
3. Reduce absenteeism and turn over.
ORGANIZATION ENHANCEMENTS

 Improvements in organization that result

from other cultures to team based cultures
includes
1. Increased innovation
2. Creativity and
3. flexibility
 Use of teams can eliminate redundant
layers of bureaucracy and flatten the
hierarchy in large organizations
Type of Benefit Specific benefit Organizational examples

Enhanced performance Increased productivity Ampex: on-time customer delivery

rose 98%
Improved quality KShoes: Rejects per million dropped
from 5,000 50 250
Improved customer
service Eastman : Productivity rose 70%

Employee benefits Quality of work life Milwaukee Mutual: Employee

assistance program usage dropped to
40% below industry average
Lower stress
Reduced costs Lower turnover, Kodak: reduced employee turnover to
Absenteeism one-half the industry average
Fewer injuries Texas Instruments : reduced costs
more than 50%
Organizational Increased innovation, IDS Mutual fund Operations: improved
enhancements flexibility flexibility to handle fluctuations in
market activity.
Helwet-Packard: Innovative order-
processing system.
CREATING EFFECTIVE TEAMS

The key components making up of effective

teams can be subsumed into four general
categories.
 First is the resources and the other contextual
influences that make teams effective.
 The second relates to the team’s composition.
 The third category is work design.
 Finally, process variables reflect those things that
go on in the team that influences effectiveness.
PHASES OF TEAM
IMPLEMENTATION
 Implementation of teams in organization is a long
and arduous process
 After the decision is made to initiate teams, the
steering committed develops the plans for the
design team, which plans the entire process.
 The goal is for teams to become self-managing.
 The time it takes for each stage varies with the
organization
 PHASE 5:
PHASES OF TEAM
IMPLENTATION Self-Managing teams

PHASE 4:
PHASE 3: Tightly Formed Teams
Leader-Centered
Teams

PHASE 2:
Reality & Unrest
PHASE 1:
Start-Up

Plan the
implementation

Make the Decision