Transcript GROUP DYNAMICS - Universiti Putra Malaysia

GROUP DYNAMICS
A GENERAL MODEL OF GROUP DYNAMICS
Phase One
Type of Group
Group Formation
Phase Two
Group Development stages
 Mutual Acceptance
 Communication and Decision
Making
 Motivation and Productivity
 Control and Organization
Group Characteristics
 Productive
 Adaptive
 Self-Correcting
Performance Factors
 Composition
 Size
 Norms
 Cohesiveness
Phase Three: Mature group
Member Characteristics
 Interdependent
 Coordinated
 Cooperative
 Competent
 Motivated
 Communicative
Group Decision Making and Interactions with Others Groups
DEFINITION OF GROUPS
A group is two or more persons who
interact with one another that each person
influenced by each other person
CLASSIFICATION SCHEME FOR TYPES OF
GROUPS
Relatively Permanent
Formal
Informal
Relatively Temporary
 Command groups
 Task groups
 Quality assurance
 Pope’s Special
department
Council on Finances
 Cost accounting group  Task force on new
product quality
 Friendship groups
 Interest groups
 Friends who do many  Bowling group
activities together
 Women’s network
(attend the theater,
play games, travel)
TYPES OF GROUP

Formal Group
Are formed by the organization to do its work and
usually are included in the organization chart
-
-
Command/Functional Group
Is a relatively permanent, formal group with
functional reporting relationships.
Task Group
Is a relatively temporary, formal group established to
do a specific task
 Informal
groups
- Established by their members
 Friendship
group
Relatively permanent and informal and draws
its benefits from the social relationships among
its members
 Interest group
Relatively temporary and informal and is
organized around a common activity or interest
of its members
STAGES OF GROUP DEVELOPMENT

Mutual acceptance
 stage of group development is characterized
by members sharing information about
themselves and getting to know each other.
 Communication
 Members
and Decision Making
discuss their feelings more openly
and agree on group goals and individual roles
in the group


Motivation and Productivity
 Members cooperate, help each other and work
toward task accomplishment
Control and organization
 Members work together and are flexible,
adaptive, and self-correcting
GROUP PERFORMANCE FACTORS

Group performance factors including;
 Composition
 Size
 Norms
 Cohesiveness
They
affect the success of the group in
fulfilling its goal

Group Composition

Degree of similarity or differences in the characteristics of the
members on factors important to the group’s work.
A homogeneous group is
more useful for :
A heterogeneous group is
more useful for:
• Simple tasks
• Sequential tasks
• Cooperation required
• Speed required
• Complex tasks
• Collective tasks
• Creativity required
• Speed not important

SOURCE: Based on discussion in Bernard M. Bass and Edward C. Ryterband, Organizational
Psychology, 2nd ed.

Group size
 Number of members of the group and affects the
number of resources available to perform the task

Group norm
 Standard against which the appropriateness of a
behavior is measured
i.
Norms help the group survive
ii. Norms simplify and make more predictable the
behaviors expected of group members
iii. Norms help the group avoid embarrassing
situations
iv. Norms express the central values of the group
and identify the group to others

Group Cohesiveness
Factors that affect group cohesiveness
and consequences of group cohesiveness
Factors that affect
group cohesiveness
Consequences of high
cohesiveness
• Homogeneous
composition
• Mature development
• relatively small size
• Frequent interactions
•Clear goals
(competition or
external threat)
• Success
• goal accomplishment
• personal satisfaction of
members
• increased quantity and
quality of interactions
• groupthink
Factors that
decrease
cohesiveness
Consequences of
low cohesiveness
• Heterogeneous
composition
• Recent formation
• Large size
• Physical
Dispersion
• Ambiguous Goals
• Failure
• Difficulty in
achieving goals
• increased
likelihood of
disbanding
• Fewer interactions
•Individual
orientation
GROUP DECISION MAKING

Group Polarization
 Tendency for a group’s average post-discussion
attitudes to be more extreme than its average prediscussion attitudes.

Groupthink
 Mode of thinking that occurs when members of a
group are deeply involved in a cohesive in group and
desire for unanimity offsets their motivation to
appraise alternative courses of action

Participation in Decision Making
 Important part of managing motivation, leadership,
organization structure, and decision-making processes

Group Problem Solving
 Brainstorming
 Technique used in the alternative generative phase
of decision making that assists in development of
numerous alternative courses of action
 Nominal Group Technique (NGT)
• Group members follow a generate discussion vote
cycle until they reach an appropriate decision.
 The Delphi technique
• Method of systematically gathering judgments of
experts for use in developing forecasts
INTERGROUP DYNAMICS

Interaction among groups are based on the characteristics of
the interacting groups, the organizational context within which
the groups operate, and the task and situational bases of the
interactions

Five factors that determine the nature of group interactions
are;
 Location
 Resources
 Time and goal interdependence
 Task uncertainty
 Task interdependence