Group Game!!!
(Please see Activity Sheets)
Goal: The exercises provide opportunity to experience and explore several components of group dynamics. This activity reflects many of the challenges faced by work groups and teams. The exercises call on decision-making and interpersonal behavior skills necessary to effectively manage a collaborative work effort.
Discussion questions:
1. How did the group try to solve the problem? Did you plan out your approach/strategies?
2. Describe the climate or personality of the group.
3. Did some of you try to dominate the process? How well did you get along in doing the exercise? Was there conflict?
4. What changes in behavior or expectation occurred as time progress and the group became more or less focused on the activity?
5. Did you begin to monitor how well other groups where doing? Did your group try to spy on their answer? Did you negotiate any trades?
Question???
Q: As educational managers, why is there a need for us to study group behavior, teams and conflict?
A: Most employee behavior takes place in group or teams. Therefore, it is important for a manager or a leader to understand group dynamics. This understanding is especially important in light of the increasing use of teams by organizations (Lawler 2001).
Definition of a Group
General definition:
Two or more people who perceive themselves as a group and interact in some way.
Gordon’s (2001) definition of a group:
For a collection of people to be called a group, the following four criteria must be met:
a) The members of the group must see themselves as a unit
b) The group must provide rewards to its members (group rewards)
c) Anything that happen to one member of the group affects every other member (corresponding effects)
d) The members of the group must share a common goal
Activity:
Directions: Using the definition of a group given by Gordon, identify whether the people mentioned below is considered as a group or not.
1. A Social Science professor, an English professor and a Mathematics professor resting in the faculty lounge.
2. A newly-hired teacher consulting her coordinator regarding teaching strategies on a certain topic.
3. A high school teacher learned that one of the staff in the canteen was terminated due to frequent absenteeism.
4. The subject area coordinator, academic coordinator, and the principal met to discuss the list of teachers who will be tenured for next school year.
5. Since it is the last day of classes, a professor in a graduate school agreed to dine with his students in a nearby restaurant.
Possible answers:1. If there is no interaction among the professors present in the faculty lounge, situation #1 is not considered as a group. However, if they start to talk about something, whatever the degree of importance it might be, then they could be considered as a group.
2. Situation # 2 is considered as a group since the four criteria of a group was met.
3. If the work load of the teacher was affected due to shortage of work force in the school canteen, then situation #3 is considered as a group.
4. Situation # 4 is considered as a group since the four criteria of a group was met.
5. The relationship of the professor to his students is not considered as a group since some of the criteria of a group were not met.
Formal and Informal Groups
Organizations contain formal groups which have been put into place by the organizational management to perform specific tasks in order to further the aims of the organization. In addition to the formal groups, there are informal groups which can assume an existence in organizations as a result of the mutually shared interests of the individuals who are a part of the organization. Informal groups exist purely because of mutual interests and have no formal mandate from the organization. The membership of the informal groups seeks to satisfy some need by belonging to these groups. These needs may include needs for security, knowledge acquisition, informal attempts to shape organizational policy, family, social interaction etc.
For example, in a high school department, new employees are hired consisting of teachers with different majors. They are assigned in one of the subject areas where they will be part of a formal group (e.g. Math Department, English Department). However, informal groups will be formed within the formal group. (e.g. group of tenured math teachers; group of newly-hired math teachers; group of single female English teachers; group of married male English teachers)Reasons for Joining Groups
Assignment
-The most common reasons for joining groups are that employees are assigned to them.
Principal assigns new teachers in a certain grade level or subject area which makes the rookie teacher a new member of the group Physical Proximity
-People tend to form groups with people who either live or work nearby.
-Employees tend to form groups that consist of those who work in the same general area.
-Some employees seek close physical proximity to people in power, hoping they will become part of an elite group.
Various units/departments in a company: purchasing unit, finance department, medical/dental section Affiliation
-People with high need for affiliation perform better in groups than alone (Klein &Pridemore, 1992)
-People are not equal in their desire or need to affiliate with others
Persons with high interpersonal skills will perform better in groups rather than those with high intrapersonal skillsIdentification
-Desire for identification with some group or cause
Company uniforms increases the employee’s level of identification. Employees of elite companies would like to see themselves wearing the company uniform since they want to be recognized as part of an outstanding company Students wearing lanyards of prestigious schools even though they are not actually enrolled in those schoolsEmotional Support/ Assistance or help
-People join support group to obtain emotional support
-People often join group to obtain assistance or help
Examples: Aids Society of the Philippines, Inc. - promotes and supports activities directed towards the prevention and control of the spread of HIV/AIDS
Alcoholics Anonymous - a voluntary, worldwide fellowship of men and women from all walks of life who meet together to attain and maintain sobriety
Autism Society Philippines (ASP), Inc. - a national, non-stock, non-profit organization of parents, professionals and institutions dedicated to the education and well-being of persons with autism spectrum disorder.
Common Interest/Goals
-People often join group because they share a common interest
Clubs and various school organizations (Chess club, Young Writers Club, Actors Guild)Factors Affecting Group Performance
Group Cohesiveness
-The extent to which group members like or trust one another, are committed to accomplishing a team goal and share a feeling of group pride
-In general, the more cohesive the group, the greater its:
*Productivity and efficiency
*Decision Quality
*Member satisfaction
*Member interaction
*Employee courtesy
-Cohesiveness can also lower group performance. When employees become too cohesive, they often lose sight of organizational goals. Cohesive work groups will conform to a norm of lower production even though they are capable of higher performance (Fosyth, 2006)
For example, employees of a company will go on strike and demand for salary increase and other benefits. This will cause work stoppage and will delay the productivity of a company. A group of teacher will agree not to comply on a certain guideline set by their principal due to personal interests and motives. Factors Affecting Group Cohesiveness
1. Group Homogeneity – the homogeneity of a group is the extent to which its members are similar. Homogeneous group contains members who are similar in some or most ways whereas a heterogeneous group contains members who are different than alike.
2. Stability of Membership – the greater the stability of the group, the greater the cohesiveness. Groups in which members remain for long periods of time are more cohesive and perform better than groups that have high turnover (Bell, 2005)
3. Isolation – groups that are isolated or located away from other groups tend to be highly cohesive.
4. Outside pressure – groups that are pressured by outside forces tend to become highly cohesive. When we believe that someone is trying to intentionally influence us to take some particular action, we react by doing the opposite.
5. Group Size – groups are most cohesive and perform best when group size is small.
6. Group Status – the higher the group status, the greater its cohesiveness
Group Ability and Confidence
-Groups consisting of high-ability members outperform those with low-ability members (Devine & Philips, 2010)
Personality of the Group Members
-Group whose members have task-related experience and score high in the personality dimensions of openness to experience and emotional stability will perform better than groups whose members do not have these characteristics. (Bell, 2005)
Communication Structure
-For a group to perform successfully, good communication among members is essential
-The best communication networks depends on the situations and goals of the group
Group Roles
-Extent to which its members assume different roles. Member’s roles must fall into one of two categories: task-oriented and social oriented
-Task-oriented roles involve behaviors such as offering new ideas, coordinating activities and finding new information. Social-oriented roles involve encouraging cohesiveness and participation.
In a group assigned to do a certain task, it is noticeable that only some of the members are really doing their part to accomplish the task while others just act as “moral support” for the group. Presence of Others: Social Facilitation and Inhibition
-Social Facilitation involves the positive effects of the presence of others on an individual’s behavior; Social inhibition involves the negative effects of others’ presence
-Social facilitation increases performance; social inhibition decreases performance
-Performance increases only when the tasks being performed is easy or well learned; performance decreases when the task is difficult or not well learned (Bond & Titus, 1983; Platania & Moran, 2001)
-4 explanations regarding social facilitation and inhibition
a. Mere presence of others naturally produces arousal/stimulation (Zanjonc, 1980) – this arousal, or increase in energy, helps an individual perform well-learned tasks but hinders him in performing poorly-learned or unpracticed tasks.
b. Co acting audience provides a means of comparison – if an individual is working on a task with another individual, he can directly compare his performance with the other person’s.
c. Evaluation apprehension – judgment by others causes the differential effect of social facilitation (Cottrell, 1972)
d. Presence of others is distracting to the individual who is trying to perform a task – on well-learned tasks; the individual is able to perform despite the distraction because the behavior is almost automatic. On a complicated task, however, the distraction caused by other people presence keeps the individual from concentrating and learning the task.
-Social Loafing
-members reduced their effort and performance levels when acting as part of a group
-social loafing can be reduced by evaluating employees on their individual contribution to the group
Theories on social loafing
a. Group members realize that their individual effort will not be noticed, there is a little chance of individual reward
b. Free-rider theory (Kerr & Brunn, 1983) – when things are going well, a group member realizes that his effort is not necessary thus does not work as hard as he would if he were alone
c. Sucker effect – individual lowers his work performance to match those of other members
Individuals who seek personal recognition will not perform better in a group because they think that their contributions will not be evaluated or considered. Individual Dominance
-Another variable that can affect group performance is individual dominance by a leader or single group member. If the leader or group member has an accurate solution to a problem the group is trying to solve, the group will probably perform at a high level. But if a leader or group member has inaccurate solution, the group will perform poorly.
For a group to perfom better, there must be a creditable and competent leader.Groupthink
-members become so cohesive and like-minded that they make poor decisions despite contrary information that might reasonably lead them to other options. Groupthink most often occurs when the group:
1. is cohesive
2. is insulated from qualified others
3. has an illusion of invulnerability and infallibility
4. believes that it is morally superior to its adversaries/rivals
5. is under great pressure to conform
6. has a leader who promotes a favorite solution
7. has gate-keepers who keeps information from other group members
-Seven ways of preventing groupthink
1. Leaders should assign each member the role of “critical evaluator”. This allows each member to freely air objections and doubts.
2. Higher-ups should not express an opinion when assigning a task to a group.
3. The organization should set up several independent groups, working on the same problem.
4. All effective alternatives should be examined.
5. Each member should discuss the group's ideas with trusted people outside of the group.
6. The group should invite outside experts into meetings. Group members should be allowed to discuss with and question the outside experts.
7. At least one group member should be assigned the role of “Devil's advocate”. This should be a different person for each meeting.
Individual versus Group Performance
Nominal group – several people individually work on a problem but do not interact
Interacting group – several individuals interact to solve a problem
*Interacting group will usually outperform one individual, but interacting groups do not outperform nominal groups (Kerr &Tinsdale, 2004)
*The superiority of nominal groups over interacting groups may depend on the type of task.
