Introduction

Groups are increasingly used by a wide range of organizations. From the factory floor
to the corporate board room, groups are viewed as a means to motivate participants,
increase productivity, and flatten the organizational hierarchy. Groups are not new
and have been around since the beginning of human history. What is new is the
concerted analysis of what makes work groups and the successful application of the
resulting principles to build effective groups.

What is Group?
A group is defined as two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent, who
have come together to achieve particulars objectives. Groups can be either formal or
informal.

1. Formal Group: Formal groups are those groups with specific organizational
structure and designated work assignment. Formal group behavior is directed
towards organizational goal. Formal groups can be converted into two other
groups.
• Command Group: It is composed of the individuals who report
directly to a given manager.
• Task Group: It is also organizationally determined. It represents those
groups in which members interact together to complete a job task.

2. Informal Group: Informal groups are alliances that are neither formally
structured nor organizationally determined. These groups are formed naturally
within the organization in response to the need of social contact. Informal
group also can be divided into two more groups.
• Interest Group: A group of people who interact and come together to
attain a specific objective with which each is concerned is an interest
group.
• Friendship Group: A group of people with one or more common
characteristics is known as a friendship group. Social alliance with any
common characteristics is friendship group.

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Stages of Group Development
Groups typically progress through several developmental stages before reaching the
point where task performance occurs. The stages that can be expected in group
development are given below.
1. Forming: Group members feel dependent on the group leader for direction.
Group members “test the waters” to get to know one another. Some anxiety
and uncertainty will occur about how the group will work together and how
the group should approach the problem.

2. Storming: Intragroup conflict and debate should occur during this stage.
Group members struggle with the group task as well as the roles each member
will play on the group. Openness and willingness to share ideas and hear from
all group members is important. Some groups get stuck in this stage and it
destroys the group.

3. Norming: Group member should feel secure about their roles and during this
stage the group focuses on distributing the workload. Group norms (rules)
develop and communication continues to be important.

Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5

Prestage
Forming Storming Norming Performing Adjourning

Figure: Stages of Group Development

4. Performing: The group is task focused. The leader often coordinates the
group’s activities. It is important that group members communicate their
progress on the task to other group members. Sharing of resources and
knowledge helps the group.

5. Adjourning: This is about completion and disengagement, both from the

tasks and the group members. They need to recognize what they've done, and
consciously move on. Performance of group members varies in this stage.

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 Some may be impressed with the completion of the group and some may be
depressed because of the loss of the work group life.

Group Structure
Groups have a structure that shapes the behavior of members and makes it possible to
explain and predict a large portion of individual behavior within a group as well as the
performance of the group itself. These structural variables are-

1. Roles: Role is a set of expected behavior patterns attributed to someone

occupying a given position in a social unit. One of the tasks in understanding
behavior is grasping the role that a person is currently playing.
• Role Identity: Role Identity is certain attitudes and behaviors
consistent with a role. People have the ability to shift roles rapidly
when they recognize that the situation and its demands clearly require
major changes.
• Role Perception: Role Perception is the view of how one is
supposed to act in a given situation is a role perception. Based on an
interpretation of how one believes he is supposed to behave, he
engages in certain types of behavior. We get them from stimuli all
around us-friends, books, movies, television.
• Role Expectations: Role expectations are defined as how others
believe one member should act in a given situation. How one behaves
is determined to a large extent by the role defined in the context in
which one is acting. When role expectations are concentrated into
generalized categories, then it is role stereotypes.
• Role Conflict: Role conflict is a situation in which an individual is
confronted by conflicting role expectations. It exists when an
individual finds that compliance with one role requirement may make
more difficult the fulfillment with another. This is how conflicts
imposed by differing expectations within the organization impact on
behaviour.

 They increase internal tension and frustration.

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  They also include withdrawal, stalling, negotiation
2. Norms: All groups have established norms. Norms are acceptable standards of
behavior that are shared by the group's members. Norms tell members what
they ought and ought not to do under certain circumstances. They tell what is
expected from a member in certain situations. When agreed to and accepted by
the group, norms act as a means of influencing the behavior of group members
with a minimum of external controls.
• Common Classes of Norms: Common classes of norms that
appear in most work groups:
 The most common class of norms is performance norms.
Work groups typically provide their members with explicit
cues on how hard they should work, how to get the job
done, their level of output
 A second category encompasses appearance norms. These
include things such as appropriate dress, loyalty to the work
group or organization, when to look busy, and when it's
acceptable to goof off.
 Another category of norms is social arrangement norms.
These norms come from informal work groups and
primarily regulate social interactions within the group.
• Conformity: When the member of a group desire acceptance by the
group then the member must act according to the group norms this
known as conformity. Here we also find reference groups; are
characterized as ones in which the person is aware of the others; the
person defines himself/herself as a member, or would like to be a
member; and the person feels that the group members are significant to
him.

3. Status: Status is a socially defined position or rank given to groups or group

members by others.
• Status and Norms: High-status members of groups often are given
more freedom to deviate from norms than are other group members.

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 Higher status members are better able to resist conformity pressures
than their lower-status peers.
• Status Equity: It is important for group members to believe that the
status hierarchy is unbiased. When discrimination is apparent, it
creates disequilibrium.
• Status and Group Interaction: Interaction among the members of
groups is influenced by status. High status group members are tend to
be more assertive.

4. Size: The size of a group affects the group's overall behavior.

• Large Groups: If large groups engage in problem solving,
consistently get better results. Large groups, with a dozen or more
members are good for gaining diverse input. So if the goal of the group
is fact-finding: Larger groups should be more effective.
• Small Groups: On the other hand, smaller groups are better at
doing something productive with that input. They are also faster at
completing tasks than bigger ones.

5. Cohesiveness: Groups differ in their cohesiveness, that is, the degree to which
members are attracted to each other and are motivated to stay in the
group. Cohesiveness is important because it has been found to be related to the
group's productivity. The relationship of cohesiveness and productivity
depends on the performance-related norms established by the group. If
performance-related norms are high, a cohesive group will be more productive
than will a less cohesive group.

Group Decision Making Process

1. Interacting Groups: The most common form of group decision making

takes place in interacting groups. In these groups, members meet face-to-face
and rely on both verbal and nonverbal interaction to communicate with each
other. The interacting group is good for building cohesiveness.

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 2. Brainstorming: Brainstorming is meant to overcome pressures for
conformity in the interacting group that hinder the development of creative
alternatives. Brainstorm, however, is merely a process for generating ideas.

3. Nominal Group Technique: The nominal group technique restricts

discussion or interpersonal communication during the decision and making
process where members pool their judgments in a systematic but independent
fashion. This is an inexpensive means for generating a large number of ideas.

4. Electronic meeting: A meeting in which members interact on computers,

allowing for anonymity of comments and aggregation of votes. They process
ideas fast.

Characteristics of Successful Groups

There are six basic principles of group discipline. These principles require adherence
to help ensure group success.

• Size: Keep group numbers to a minimum; optimum is six to ten members.

• Skills: Ensure that group members possess complementary skills, so that the
group has the right mix for the task.

• Purpose: Identify a clear performance purpose that is documented and agreed

to as a share common purpose among the group members.

• Goals: Agree upon outcome-based goals that can be measured.

• Roles: Provide clearly defined roles and responsibilities.

• Accountability: Ensure mutual and individual accountability.

Advantage and Disadvantage

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 Group advantages
• Group members have the opportunity to
learn from each other.
• New approaches to tasks may be
discovered.
• Group’s membership can provide social
facilitation and support for difficult tasks
and situations.
• Potential exists for greater acceptance and
understanding of group-made decisions.
• Greater autonomy, variety, identity,
significance, and feedback for workers
can occur.
• Group commitment may stimulate
performance and attendance.
Group disadvantages
• Some individuals are not
compatible with group work.
• Workers must be selected to fit
the group as well as requisite
job skills.
• Some members may
experience less motivating
jobs as part of a group.
• Conflict may develop between
group members or other
groups.
• Groups may be time-
consuming due to need for
coordination and consensus.
• "Free-riding" within the group
may occur.

When to Use Group and when Not to Use Group:

Despite the potential contributions of groups, not all tasks are suitable for group use.
Groups should be used only when there is a fit between the task and the strengths of a
group.

When to use groups When not to use groups

• The task is complex, requiring
multiple skills and knowledge.
Available information is
incomplete.
• Task or purpose is cross-
functional an/or requires input
from other organizational units.
• Creativity is needed.
• Path forward is unclear.
• More efficient use of personnel
is required.
• Sufficient time is available for
• One person has greater expertise on
the subject than all others and has
all information required at hand.
• Task or purpose is unidimensional
and/or contained within one
organizational unit.
• The task is straight forward.
• The task is routine.
• Insufficient space and equipment
resources are available for a group.
• Time constraints on task completion

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 When to use groups
group training and development
and for reaching consensus
decisions.
• High commitment is desirable.
• Cooperation needed for group
implementation is likely.
When not to use groups
do not support group training,
development, and decision making.
• Employee turnover is high.
• Lack of support for groups because
of organizational culture,
management, or management-union
relations.

Factors that Affect Group Performance

There are several factors that can affect proper working of the group. Among those
some important factors are-

1. Extrinsic Factors: Organizations are impacted by several, varied

environments, including the legal, technological, social, industrial, and
political circumstances in which they operate. Groups are no different.
• Collective efficacy: It is the amount to which a person believes his
or her own contributions to the group will result in positive group
accomplishments has a strong impact on the level to which he or she
performs.
• Social Rewards and Sanctions: The concept of social rewards and
sanctions generally refers to group acceptance, respect, disrespect, or
non-acceptance by team members toward an individual member. This
has the ability to impact a team member's contributive effort to the
collective team in both positive and negative ways.
• Social Loafing: Social loafing is a severe and pervasive problem
in team environments. It is defined very simply as expending less
effort when working in the group than working individually. There are
many factors associated with social loafing. Among them include
cultural heritage and absence of effective incentive systems.

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 2. Individual Factor: In addition to the external forces that affect and shape an
individual in a team setting, the individual also possesses a set of intrinsic
motivators, rationales, and justifications for exerting various levels of effort
when in collaborative teams.
• Team Size: team size also affects the individual's contribution in a
number of ways. Motivation of individual team members is tend to be
strongest in moderate-sized (four person) groups and dropped in
groups with any fewer or more members.
• Member Commitment: Task interdependence, inter-sender
conflict, and satisfaction with team members led to largest levels of
team commitment which in turn led to increased productivity. Factors
that led to lower levels of team commitment were satisfaction with
supervision and resource availability.
• Member Role Differences: There are two types of roles, task and
social, within teams to their corresponding personality traits. The
impact these roles have on other members within the team is strong.
Task role members and social role members should be appropriately
assigned and have the flexibility to maneuver within a collaborative
environment.

How Group Helps to Increase Performance in the Industry

The corporate world has adopted groups to downsize, increase quality and reduce
cost, and remain competitive in world markets. Businesses look to high performance
groups to provide the flexibility and ability to respond rapidly to changing market
conditions.
• Many companies use a simultaneous engineering approach in
which product developers from different functions work in parallel. In
this context a group is made up of a bundle of representatives from
several functions who work together, sharing information and
knowledge, and producing better results faster than they would have
done if operating individually.

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• By using multi-functional development groups, a wider range
of design and process knowledge from throughout the organization can
be focused on the product development objectives. Group members
may come from many functions such as marketing, design, service,
manufacturing engineering, test, quality and purchasing. Often key
suppliers are also included.
• The group involved in the early development of a product has a
great influence on the product's costs and quality. When multi-
functional groups are used in the early stage of a product's
development, their composite knowledge of design, materials,
manufacturing, quality, and customer requirements can be applied to
develop the best definition of the product and its manufacturing,
support and disposal processes.
• The improved communication resulting from group
membership helps reduce changes to specifications. Cross-training has
the same effect. As people understand better how other functions work,
they are less likely to create problems for downstream functions. The
reduction in changes results in less rework and in a reduction in the
overall product development cycle. The reduction in the development
cycle usually also results in a reduction in the number of development
hours. This has a direct effect in reducing development costs.
• The group approach also tends to prevent development cost
overrun as it focuses attention on the early identification and resolution
of problems. Groups are hierarchically almost flat. Removal of layers
of middle managers from the development process will also reduce
development costs.
• The group approach can also improve product quality. The
early involvement of downstream functions reduces the risk of
potential problems. Within the group, all functions are supposed to be
equal, so there is less chance of one function being completely out of
touch with customer requirements yet having the political strength to
force its views on the other functions.

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Conclusion

Groups have had spectacular success in improving quality, increasing productivity,

and adding to the profitability of their organizations. Examples are:

• Proctor & Gamble lowered manufacturing costs 30% - 40%.

• General Electric increased productivity 250%.
• Xerox experienced 30% higher productivity.
• American Transtech cut processing time and costs by 50%.

There are many other examples from both industry and government on the usefulness
of groups. Group members bring together skills and experience that exceed that of any
one individual. Different perspectives, knowledge, and information can be brought to
bear on the problem at hand. A group can provide more potential solutions than one
individual alone. Group members can be supportive of each other in brainstorming
and encouraging "thinking outside of the box” in problem solution.

As with all attempts to change the existing environment, group work can be difficult
to implement. Representatives of some departments will not want to see themselves at
the same hierarchical level in the group as representatives of other departments. Some
managers will not want to lose their titles. Some people work best as individuals and
not as members of a group. Some people can not adapt to playing different roles as
the development process progresses. The procedures used for the serial product
development process can not be used by the group, so new procedures must be
developed.

A lot of effort will have to be put into making group work succeed. Suitable training
is essential. Group members will need to learn the techniques that groups use for
group-building, problem-solving, decision-making, resolving conflicts, meeting
productively, and encouraging and helping each other. The group needs to share a
vision of what it is trying, as a group, to achieve. Within this vision, the aspirations of
individuals must be respected. In addition to the group's own efforts, there must be

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strong support from management. If there is a constraint from the organization the
group work cannot become successful.

Despite of all the difficulties group work still ensures higher return. Group
performance is sure to enhance the industry performance. To increase the motivation
of the employee and make the work environment better management must consider
group work.

Bibliography

1. Stephen P. Robbins, Organizational Behavior, 11th Edition, Pearson Education

International.
2. Paul E. Spector, Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Fourth Edition,
John Willey and Sons, Inc.
3. Katzenbach, J.R., Smith, D.K., The Wisdom of Groups: Creating the High-
Performance Organization, Harper Business.
4. Swenson, D., College of St. Scholastica, Duluth MN, "Groups--the good, the
bad, and the ugly."
5. Brewer MB, Brown RJ. Intergroup relations. Handbook of Social Psychology,
DT Gilbert, ST Fiske. McGraw-Hill
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_behaviour, accessed on November 26,
2008.
7. www.google.com
8. www.yahoo.com

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