In Mixed Company
Chapter Three
Group Development
Speech 140 Chapter 3 Group
Developments
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Task and Social Dimensions:
Working and Socializing
• All decision-making groups have both task
and social dimensions.
• The task dimension is the work performed
by the group.
• The social dimension is the relationships
that form between members in the group
and their impact on the group as a whole.
• The task and social dimensions are
interconnected.
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Task and Social Dimensions:
Working and Socializing
• The output from a group’s task dimension is productivity.
Productivity is the result of the efficient and effective
accomplishment of a group task.
• The output from the social dimension is cohesiveness.
Cohesiveness is the degree to which members feel a
part of the group, wish to stay in the group, and are
committed to each other and to the group’s work.
• In general, cohesiveness enhances group productivity
unless overemphasized. This relationship, however is
stronger in small groups than in larger ones, for ongoing
natural groups than for artificially created groups, and
for cooperative groups than for competitive groups.
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Building Cohesiveness:
Bringing Us Together
1. Encourage compatible membership- When
group members enjoy each other’s company
and share an attraction for one another,
cohesiveness can be easily built. Although
some membership is mandated from outside.
2. Develop shared goals- one aspect of
cohesiveness is sharing a common vision.
When all group members are pulling together
to achieve a goal valued by all, cohesiveness
increases.
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Building Cohesiveness:
Bringing Us Together
3.
4.
5.
Accomplish tasks- If group members feel good about
work accomplished this often pulls the group together
and promotes team spirit. As a rule, successful teams
exhibit harmony, yet unsuccessful teams manifest
bickering and finger pointing.
Develop a positive history of cooperation, if group
members work together cooperatively rather than
competitively, cohesiveness can flourish.
Promote acceptance of group members by making
them feel valued and welcomed to the group.
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Interpersonal and Group Attractions
• We seem drawn to others who are similar in
personality, attitudes and beliefs, ethnic origin,
sexual orientation, and economic status.
• Forming social bonds with group members can
provide protection from outside threats to one’s
person and possessions.
• Joining a group because you are attracted to the
group’s activities doesn’t preclude the additional
draw from social connection among members.
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Attraction to Group Goals:
A Purpose-Driven Membership
• Another reason why we join groups and
wish to remain as members is an
attraction to the group’s goals.
– Political groups gain members because
individuals are drawn to the cause of the
candidate.
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Establishment of Meaning and
Identity: Groups-R-Us
• We sometimes join groups to make sense
of our world.
– Consider Cults, making sense of the world is
the fundamental basis of cult conversions.
Individuals who join cults are in the throes of
an identity crisis. They are searching for
meaning in their lives, and cults offer such
meaning and identity.
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Fulfillment of Unrelated Needs:
Our Miscellaneous Reasons
• We join groups to satisfy needs that are
unrelated to the group’s task, goals, members,
or even our desire to belong. We may become
group members to enhance our resume or
establish business contacts.
• The reasons individuals join groups have
noticeable effects on the productivity and
cohesiveness of those groups.
• If they join because they are attracted to the
other members, the likelihood of cohesiveness
in the group is certainly more probable than if
they join to meet self-oriented needs.
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Fulfillment of Unrelated Needs:
Our Miscellaneous Reasons
•
The competent communicator can show sensitivity to
the needs of the group during the forming phase in the
following ways:
1. Express positive attitudes and feelings-Avoid
disagreement and disagreeableness. This phase is the
getting –acquainted stage of group development. This
is not the appropriate time to be deviant.
2. Appear friendly, open, and interested- be approachable
by establishing eye contact with group members,
responding warmly to interactions with others.
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Primary and Secondary Tension
• When you first gather in a group, you normally
feel some jitters and uneasiness called primary
tension. (A natural dynamic of group life)
• The stress and strain of tight deadlines for task
completion, later in the groups development is
secondary tension.
• Signs of secondary tension include a sharp
outburst, a sarcastic barb, hostile and
antagonistic exchanges between members.
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Secondary Tension
•
A competent communicator can handle secondary
tension as follows:
1. Tolerate and encourage disagreement- suppressing
differences of opinion will likely increase tension and
exacerbate conflict.
2. Keep a civil tongue- disagree with out being
disagreeable while fostering a cooperative discussion
environment.
3. Be an active listener- make an hones effort to
understand the point of view that is in opposition to
your own.
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Types of Norms:
Explicit and Implicit
• Explicit norms are rules that expressly
identify acceptable behavior. Such rules
are codified in constitutions and bylaws of
fraternal organizations, religious orders,
and the like. (A syllabus)
• Implicit norms are rules that are indirectly
indicated by uniformities in the behavior
and expressed attitudes of members. (Not
interrupting teacher while teaching.)
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Purpose and Sources of Norms:
Achieving Group Goals
•
The general purpose of norms is to achieve group goals, and there
are three sources of norms in small groups.
1. The first source of norms is from systems outside the small group.
Standards of excellence and specific norms of performance for work
teams within organizations often are externally influenced by
management outside the team.
2. A second source of small group norms is the influence of a single
member. Research show that a single person can influence the
group to accept higher standards of behavior and performance that
would exist without the influence of this member.
3. A third source of small group norms is the group itself. Small group
norms most often develop from transactions within the group.
Sometimes this is explicitly negotiated, but most often it emerges
implicitly from trial and error.
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Degree of Conformity:
Strength of Group Pressure
• Conformity is the adherence to group
norms by group members, in this case
“followed the crowd” by choosing the
wrong answer.
• Collectivist cultures place greater
emphasis on group harmony and on
individuals blending into groups than do
individualist cultures.
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Why We Conform: Fitting In
• We conform for two principal reasons:
1. First, we conform to norms to be liked, we want social
acceptance, support, companionship, and recognition.
Loyalty to the group is manifested in conformity to group
norms and is reward with approval from the members.
Norms create solidarity with group members. Our
natural desire to belong and to be liked makes such
solidarity attractive.
2. Second, we conform to norms because we want to be
right. Acting incorrectly can be embarrassing and
humiliating. Group norms identify correct behavior.
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Conditions for Conformity:
When We Bow to Group Pressure
1. The stronger the cohesiveness in the group,
the greater is the conformity to group norms.
Cohesiveness, by definition, is the degree of
attraction we have to a group and our desire to
be a member.
2. Conformity increases as the task importance
increases. When accurately performing the
group task assumes great importance, we tend
to conform even when other group members
confess to a general lack of confidence in the
accuracy of their own judgments.
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Conditions for Conformity:
When We Bow to Group Pressure
3. Conformity is grater when individuals expect to
be group members for a long time. Since you
will be with these people a long time why make
your life unpleasant by not conforming.
4. Conformity is greater when individuals perceive
that they have somewhat lower status in the
group than other members or that they are not
completely accepted by the group.
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Addressing Nonconformity:
When Groups Get Tough
1. Group members attempt to reason with the deviant. Groups show
an intense interest in convincing nonconforming members of their
folly.
2. If reason fails to sway nonconforming member, a group will often try
seduction. This is usually a ploy to make the deviant feel guilty or
uncomfortable because the group is made to look bad in the eyes of
outsiders.
3. The third line of defense against nonconformists is coercion. This is
where groups begin to get rough. Communication turns abusive and
threatening by using nasty and unpleasant tactics.
4. The final stage of group pressure to induce conformity is ostracism.
This strategy ignores or excludes a member by giving the silent
treatment or isolating the member from social interaction with the
group.
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Addressing Nonconformity:
When Groups Get Tough
•
A competent communicator should do the
following during the norming phase of group
development to be appropriate and effective.
1. Adapt communication to the norms of the group
2. Encourage change when norms are
excessively rigid
3. Encourage change when norms are too elastic.
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Motivation to Perform: Social
Loafing and Social Compensation
• The Collective Effort Model (CEM) suggests that
group members are strongly motivated to
perform well in a group if they are convinced that
their individual effort will likely help in attaining
valued results.
• If members view the task as unimportant or
meaningless or a members effort is expected to
have little effect on the group outcome even
when the outcome is highly valued, then social
loafing will likely occur.
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Social Loafing
• Social Loafing is the tendency of a group
member to exert less effort on a task when
working in a group than when working
individually.
• Members display social loafing by missing group
meetings, showing up late to meetings,
performing and participating in a lackluster
manner, or failing to star or complete individual
tasks requested by the group.
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Addressing the problem of
Social Loafing
1. Choose meaningful tasks
2. Establish a group responsibility norm
3. Note the critical importance of each members
effort
4. Hold members accountable
5. Enhance group cohesiveness
6. Confront the loafer
7. Consult a higher power
8. Kick the loafer out
9. Sidestep the loafer (minimize responsibilities)
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Social Loafing
• Social Compensation- an increased motivation to work
harder on a group task to counterbalance the lackluster
performance of others.
• Social compensation is especially likely when a high
ability group member senses that his or her maximum
effort is required for the group to be successful on a
meaningful task because other group members have
less ability to perform effectively.
• Compensation is especially unlikely when high-ability
group members are suspected of loafing.
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When Groups
Outperform Individuals
1. When the task requires a wide range and variety of information and
skills, groups tend to be superior to any individual.
2. Groups generally outperform individuals when both the group and
any individual compared are without expertise on the task.
3. Groups will usually outperform an individual when both the group
and the individual have expertise and the task is an especially large
and complex one.
4. Even when comparing a group of reasonably bright and informed
non-experts to an individual with special expertise, group, group
decisions are sometimes superior.
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When Individuals Outperform
Groups: No Magic in Groups
1. Groups composed of uninformed laypersons will not
usually outperform someone with special expertise,
such as a doctor or lawyer, on issues of medicine and
law.
2. Individuals outperform groups when groups establish
norms of mediocrity.
3. When groups become too large, individuals outperform
groups.
4. When the task is a simple one, groups are not superior
to individuals.
5. Finally, when time is a critical factor, groups usually
perform less effectively than individuals.
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Risk Taking and Polarization
• Group polarization is the group tendency
to make a decision after discussion that is
more extreme, either riskier or more
cautious, than the initial preferences of
group members.
• Groups tend to polarize decision making if
there is a clear majority leaning one way
(risk) or the other (caution).
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Risk Taking and Polarization
• There are two primary explanations for group
polarization:
• Social comparison
• A second explanation for the group polarization
effect is persuasive argumentation.
• In general, the greater the number of arguments
advanced during discussion that support the
initial majority group opinion, the more cogent,
reasonable, and persuasive they seem to be;
and the more original or non-redundant the
arguments are, the greater will be the group
polarization.
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Risk Taking and Polarization
•
A competent communicator does the
following to enhance group performance:
1. Focus on the task.
2. Encourage participation from group
members.
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Nature of the Group: The
Challenge of Acceptance
• First the level of group development has a
direct bearing on a newcomer acceptance.
• Second the level of group performance
affects the acceptance of newcomers.
• Third, the number of members affects
acceptance of a newcomer into a group
• Fourth, the degree of turnover in a group
also affects acceptance of newcomers.
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Newcomer Strategies:
Gaining Acceptance
1. Conduct a thorough reconnaissance of the
group. Most newcomers do a poor job scouting
out a group to determine whether they and the
group are a good match.
2. Play the role of newcomer. Seek the advice of
longtime members, avoid disagreements with
old-timers, and talk less than they do.
3. Seek mentors within the group.
4. Collaborate with other newcomers. When more
than one newcomer enters a group, they stand
to gain from banding together.
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Newcomer Strategies:
Gaining Acceptance
• Group development encompasses four
periodic phases: forming, storming,
norming, and performing.
• These periodic phases do not occur in
rigid sequence. They frequently overlap,
and groups ay jump around between
phases depending on the circumstances
and situations groups face.
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