Group Processes
and Work Teams
Chapter 8
Learning Objectives
1. Define what is meant by a group and identify different types
of groups operating within organizations.
2. Describe the importance of norms, roles, status, and
cohesiveness within organizations.
3. Explain how individual performance in groups is affected by
the presence of others (social facilitation), the cultural
diversity of group membership, and the number of others
with whom one is working (social loafing).
4. Define what teams are and describe the various types of
teams that exist in organizations.
5. Understand the evidence regarding the effectiveness of
teams in organizations.
6. Explain the factors responsible for the failure of some teams
to operate as effectively as possible and identify steps that
can be taken to build successful teams.
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Your Team Experiences
How have your personal
experiences in work teams
compared to those described in this
chapter?
What insights did you gain while
reading this chapter?
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Group Dynamics
The social science field
focusing on the nature of
groups – the factors
governing their formation
and development, the
elements of their
structure, and their
interrelationships with
individuals, other groups,
and organizations.
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Group
A collection of two
or more interacting
individuals who
maintain stable
patterns of
relationships, share
common goals, and
perceive themselves
as being a group.
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Types of Groups
Formal Groups: Groups that are
created by the organization,
intentionally designed to direct its
members toward some organizational
goal.
Informal Groups: Groups that develop
naturally among people, without any
direction from the organization within
which they operate.
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Types of Groups
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Formal Groups
Command Group: A group determined by the
connections between individuals who are a
formal part of the organization (i.e., those
who legitimately can give orders to others).
Task Group: A formal organizational group
formed around some specific task.
Standing Committees: Committees that are
permanent, existing over time.
Ad Hoc Committee: A temporary committee
formed for a special purpose.
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Informal Groups


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Interest Group: A
group of employees
who come together to
satisfy a common
interest.
Friendship Groups:
Informal groups that
develop because their
members are friends,
often seeing each
other outside of the
organization.
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Reason You Joined Groups
 What groups do you belong to?
 Why did you join?
 Are the reasons you remain a
member the same as why you
joined?
 What were reasons you did not
remain a member of other groups?
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Why People Join Groups
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How Groups are Formed
 Five-Stage Model: The conceptualization
claiming that groups develop in five
stages – forming, storming, norming,
performing, and adjourning.
 Punctuated Equilibrium Model: The
conceptualization of group development
claiming that groups generally plan their
activities during the first half of their time
together, and then revise and implement
their plans in the second half.
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Five-Stage Model
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Punctuated-Equilibrium Model
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Structural Dynamics
The pattern of interrelationships between
the individuals constituting a group; the
guidelines of group behavior that make
group functioning orderly and predictable.
Roles: The hats we wear
Norms: A group’s unspoken rules
Status: The prestige of group membership
Cohesiveness: Getting the team spirit
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Role Concepts
 Role: The typical behavior that
characterizes a person in a specific social
context.
 Role Incumbent: A person holding a
particular role.
 Role Expectations: The behaviors
expected of someone in a particular role.
 Role Ambiguity: Confusion arising from
not knowing what one is expected to do as
the holder of a role.
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Role Concepts
 Role Differentiation: The tendency for various
specialized roles to emerge as groups develop.
 Task-Oriented Role: The activities of an
individual in a group who, more than anyone else,
helps the group reach its goal.
 Socio-Emotional Role: The activities of an
individual in a group who is supportive and
nurturant of other group members, and who helps
them feel good.
 Self-Oriented Role: The activities of an individual
in a group who focuses on his or her own good,
often at the expense of others.
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Common Group Roles
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Norms
Generally agreed on informal rules
that guide group members’ behavior.
Prescriptive Norms: Expectations
within groups regarding what is
supposed to be done.
Proscriptive Norms: Expectations
within groups regarding behaviors in
which members are not supposed to
engage.
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Norm Development
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Status
The relative prestige, social position, or rank
given to groups or individuals by others.
Formal Status: The prestige one has by
virtue of his or her official position in an
organization.
– Status Symbols: Objects reflecting the position of
any individual within an organization’s hierarchy of
power.
Informal Status: The prestige accorded
individuals with certain characteristics that
are not formally recognized by the
organization.
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Group Cohesiveness
The strength of group members’
desires to remain a part of the group.
Influencing factors:
– Severity of initiation
– Conditions of high external
threat or competition
– Time spent together
– Group size
– History of success
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Group Cohesiveness
Positive consequences:
–
–
–
–
–
Increased group member satisfaction
Increased participation in group activities
Increased acceptance of group goals
Potentially high productivity
Decreased absenteeism and turnover
Negative consequences:
– May be counterproductive if group’s goals are
contrary to organization’s goals
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Social Facilitation
 The tendency for the presence of others sometimes to
enhance an individual’s performance and at other times to
impair it.
 Drive Theory of Social Facilitation: The theory according to
which the presence of others increases arousal, which
increases people’s tendencies to perform the dominant
response.
 If that response is well learned, performance will improve.
 But, if it is novel, performance will be impaired.
 Evaluation Apprehension: The fear of being evaluated or
judged by another person.
 Computerized Performance Monitoring: The process of
using computers to monitor job performance.
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Cohesiveness & Work-Related Tension
Group Cohesiveness from low to high
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6
Mean tension
3.7
3.8
3.9
4
Number of groups
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From S. E. Seashore, Group Cohesiveness
in the Industrial Work Force, 1954.
Research conducted by Stanley E.
Seashore at the Institute for Social
Research, University of Michigan.
Reprinted by permission.
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Social Facilitation
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Computer Monitoring
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Social Loafing
The tendency for group members to exert less
individual effort on an additive task as the size of
the group increases.
– Additive task: A type of group task in which the
coordinated efforts of several people are added together
to form the group’s product.
Social Impact Theory: The theory that explains
social loafing in terms of the diffused
responsibility for doing what is expected of each
member of a group. The larger the size of a
group, the less each member is influenced by the
social forces acting on the group.
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Social Loafing
Describe an incident of social loafing
in which you may have been
involved.
 What might have been done to
overcome the social loafing in this
situation?

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Social Loafing
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Social Loafing and Culture


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Individualistic Cultures:
National groups whose
members place a high
value on individual
accomplishments and
personal success.
Collectivistic Cultures:
National groups whose
members place a high
value on shared
responsibility and the
collective good of all.
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Overcoming Social Loafing
 Make each performer
identifiable
 Make work tasks more
important and
interesting
 Reward individuals for
contributing to their
group’s performance
 Use punishment threats
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Team
A group whose
members have
complementary skills
and are committed to
a common purpose or
set of performance
goals for which they
hold themselves
mutually accountable.
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Groups vs. Teams
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Work Teams: Then and Now
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Types of Teams
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High-Performance Teams
Teams whose members are deeply committed
to one another’s personal growth and
success.
Characteristics:
People are free to make their own decisions without
checking with others.
Everyone on the team shares responsibility.
All members agree on what they are trying to
accomplish.
Everyone cares about results and members
coordinate their individual talents to achieve them.
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Continuum of Autonomy
In work groups, bosses have
responsibility over decisions
and are accountable for work
outcomes. The workers
themselves have very little
autonomy.
 By contrast, in self-managed
work teams, the workers
themselves have responsibility
over decisions and are
accountable for work
outcomes.
 Semiautonomous work groups
are positioned between these
two extremes.

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Self-Managed Teams vs.
Traditional Work Groups
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What SMWTS Manage
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Creating Teams
 Stage One: Prework
–
–
–
–
Determining whether a team should be formed
Establishing the team’s objectives
Creating an inventory of needed skills
Determining the team’s authority
 Stage Two: Creating Performance Conditions
– Ensuring the team has the resources to carry out its work
 Stage Three: Forming and Building the Team
– Establishing who is and is not a member of the team
– Ensuring members accept the team’s mission
– Clarifying the team’s mission and responsibilities
 Stage Four: Providing ongoing assistance
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How Successful are Teams?
People enjoy working in teams after they
have adjusted to them.
Teams help enhance commitment among
employees.
Teams appear to be an effective way of
eliminating layers of management,
allowing more to be done by fewer people.
Teams are not always responsible for
making individuals and organizations
more productive.
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Why Teams Fail
Members are unwilling to cooperate
with each other.
Teams fail to receive support from
management.
Some managers are unwilling to
relinquish control to teams.
Teams may fail to cooperate with
other teams.
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Developing Successful Teams
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Provide training in team skills.
Compensate team performance.
Provide support.
Communicate the urgency of the team’s
mission.
Promote cooperation within and between
teams.
Select team members based on their skills
or potential skills.
Be patient.
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Teams in Union Environment
 What are the effects or implications
in a union environment where you
want to implement self-managed
work teams?
 What are the considerations?
– Obstacles
– Advantages
– Selling Points
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Skills Training
 Team Building: Formal efforts directed


toward making teams more effective.
Key Areas of Team Training:
– Being a team member
– Self-management
Team Training Exercises
– Role-definition exercises
– Goal-setting exercises
– Problem-solving exercises
– Interpersonal-process exercises
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Interpersonal Skills
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Self-Management Skills
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So What?
What can you do to make your
(current and future) team
experiences more successful?
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