BS PSY 4 -2

August 23, 2016

Industrial Psychology

GROUP BEHAVIOR, TEAMS AND CONFLICT

REPORTER: DAVID, Jhanine V.

GROUP DYNAMICS
Some experts generally define a group as two or more people who perceive themselves
as a group and interact in some way.
Using the definition of Gordon who believes that for a collection of people to be called a
group, the following four criteria must be met:
o the members of the group must see themselves as a unit
o the group must provide rewards to its members
o anything that happens to one member of the group affects every other member
o the members of the group must share a common goal

Multiple Members Who Perceive Themselves as a Unit

The group must have multiple members. At least two people are necessary to form a
group. Two people in a group is known as a dyad, 3 people as a triad and 4 to 20 people as a
small group.
Group Rewards
The membership in a group must be rewarding for each individual in a group.
Corresponding Effects
This describe that an event that affects one group member should affect all group
members. That is, if something significant happens to one person and does not affect any of the
other people gathered with him/her, then the collection of the people cannot be considered as a
group.

Common Goals
The group must have a common aim or purpose shared by the members.
REASONS FOR JOINING GROUPS
Assignment
In the workplace, the most common reason for joining groups is that employees are
assigned to them. A new employee might be assigned to department with 3 employees, 5
employees appointed to payroll department, etc.

Physical Proximity
People tend to form groups with people who either live or work nearby. At work,
employees tend to form groups that consist of those who work in the same general area.

Affiliation
One reason people join groups is to be near and talk to other people. If people are not
allowed the opportunity for affiliation, they make attempts to secure at least minimal contact.
When even minimal contact is not possible, morale and perhaps even the will to live are
lessened.

Identification
Another reason we join groups is our desire for identification with some group or cause.
It is found that for each generation, the purpose of the odd self expression may have been to
separate oneself from a previous generation and identify with a new, better generation.
A study conducted by Cialdini, he found that when the football team won, the students
answered by saying We won. When the team lost, the students answered by saying, They
lost. He called this identification process basking in reflected glory.

Emotional Support
People also join groups to obtain emotional support from the members.

Assistance or Help

People often join groups to obtain assistance or help when problems are encountered.
They seek advices from the group members to help him/her cope up from the difficult times.
Common Interests
People join groups because they share a common interest. At school, students join
organizations that offer activities that match their interests.

Common Goals
People who join political parties exemplify being in pursuit of a common goal. These
people may also share common interests, but their primary purpose is to get a particular person
or member elected to office.

FACTORS AFFECTING GROUP PERFORMANCE

Group Cohesiveness
It is the extent to which group members like and trust one another, are committed to
accomplishing a team goal, and share a feeling of group pride. The more cohesive the group, the
greater its:
o
o
o
o
o

performance
decision quality
member satisfaction
member interaction
employee courtesy

Cohesiveness can also lower group performance, especially in a work setting. When
employees become too cohesive, they often lose sight of the organizational goals. It has been
also demonstrated that employees in cohesive work groups will conform to a norm of lower
production even though they are capable of higher performance.

Group Homogeneity
The homogeneity of a group is the extent to which its members are similar.
o Homogeneous Group
Contains members who are similar in some or most ways
o Heterogeneous Group
Contains members who are more different than alike

Aamodt, Kimbrough, and Alexander hypothesized that previous research yielded

mixed results because the composition of the best performing groups were actually
somewhere between completely homogeneous and completely heterogeneous. This was
labeled as slightly heterogeneous group.
The homogeneous groups result in higher member satisfaction, higher levels of
communication and interaction, and lower turnover. The group member who is
different in a slightly heterogeneous group may not have the same level of satisfaction
as the rest of the group members.

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. And groups whose members have previously worked
together perform better than groups whose members are not familiar with one another.

Isolation
Groups that are isolated or located away from other groups tend to be highly
cohesive.

Outside Pressure
Groups that are pressured by outside forces also tend to become highly cohesive.
When we believe that someone is trying to intentionally influence us to take some
particular action, we often react by doing the opposite. This phenomenon is known as the
psychological reactance.

Group Size
Groups are most cohesive and perform best when group size is small. Studies
show that larger groups have lower productivity, less coordination, lower morale, less
active, less cohesive, and more critical than smaller groups. Research suggests that
groups perform best when they consist of approximately five members.
o Additive tasks
The groups performance is equal to the sum of the performance is
equal to the sum of performances by each group member
o Conjunctive Tasks

The groups performance depends on the least effective group

member
o Disjunctive Tasks
The groups performance is based on the most talented group
member
The addition of group members has its greatest effect when the group is small as
described by the social impact theory.
Research indicates that when group works via computer, members whose opinion
is in minority are more likely to express opinions than when a group meets face to face.
Group Status
The higher the group status, the greater its cohesiveness. This is an important
point: A group can be made more cohesive by increasing group status. The group does
actually have to have high status, but it is important that its members believe they have
high status.

Group Ability and Confidence

Groups consisting of high ability members outperform those with low ability members.
Groups whose members believe that their team can be successful both at a specific task (high
team efficacy) and at tasks in general (high team potency) perform better than groups whose
members arent as confident about their probability for success.

Personality of the Group Members

Groups whose members have high 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 the characteristics.

Communication Structure
For a group to perform successfully, good communication among members is essential. A
god leader chooses the communication network that best facilitates the goals of the group.

Communication Structure
CHAIN

How it Functions
One person passes information to
others down to the line of hierarchy,
who then passes it to their own chain
of authority.

CENTRALIZED

It is characterized by the central

position of the leader who is the only
one who can send messages to all
members.
Each member of the circle has exactly
the same authority or power to
influence the group.
All members are equal and that each
member may communicate with other
member.

CIRCLE

OPEN

Group Roles
o Task oriented Roles
Involve behaviors such as offering new ideas, coordinating activities and
finding new information
o Social oriented Roles
Involve encouraging cohesiveness and participation
o Individual Role
Includes blocking group activities, calling attention to oneself, and
avoiding group interaction

REPORTER: VEGA, Mitos

FACTORS AFFECTING GROUP PERFORMANCE

Presence of Others: Social Facilitation and Inhibition
Social Facilitation involves the positive effects that occur when a person performs a task in the
presence of others.
Social Inhibition involves the negative effects that occur when a person performs a task in the
presence of others.
Social facilitation and social inhibition can be further delineated by audience effects and
coaction.
Audience Effect

is the effect on behavior when one or more people passively watch the behavior of
another person.
The strength of the effect of having an audience present is a function of at least three
factors:

o an audiences size
o its physical proximity to the person or group
o status
Coaction is the effect on behavior when two or more people are performing the same task in the
presence of each other.
Explaining Social Facilitation Effects

Four explanations have each received some empirical support.

o Mere presence is the theory stating that the very fact that others happen to be
present naturally produces arousal and thus may affect performance
o Comparison is the effect when an individual working on a task compares his or
her performance with that of another person performing the same task.
o Evaluation appprehension is the idea that aperson performing a task becomes
aroused because he or she is concerned that others are evaluating his or her
performance.
o Distracting is the idea that social inhibition occurs because the presence of
others provides a distraction that interferes with concentration.

Social Loafing

The fact that individuals in a group often exert less individual effort than they would if
they were not in a group.
First investigated by Ringleman
Although it is clear that social loafing occurs, especially in poor performers, it is not clear
why it occurs. Theories that explain why social loafing occurs are the following:
o Group members realize that their individual efforts will not be noticed, there is
little chance of individual reward.
o Free rider theory postulates that when things are going well, a group member
realizes that his effort is not necessary and thus does not work as hard as he would
if he were alone.
o Sucker effect hypothesizes that social loafing occurs when a group member
notices that other group members are not working hard and thus are playing him
for a sucker
Social loafing can be reduced by evaluating employees on their individual contribution to
the group, posting performance results, explaining the link between individual effort and
group performance, and rewarding those who achieve.

How does a manager know whether to assign employees to a group or have the employees
work alone?

If the task is complex and not well learned, employees should work alone.

If the task is easy and well learned, and each individuals performance can be identified,
working in groups might be best.

Individual Dominance

when the member of a group dominated the group.

Groupthink
a state of mind in which a group is so concerned about its own cohesiveness that it
ignores important information.
It was coined by Janis after studying the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.
Groupthink most often occur when the group
o Is cohesive
o Is insulated from qualified outsiders
o Has an illusion of invulnerability, infallibity, or both
o Believes that it is morally superior to its adversaries
o Is under great pressure to conform
o Has a leader who promotes a favorite solution
o Has gatekeepers who keep information from other group members
Groupthink can be reduced in several ways:
o The group leader should not state his own position or beliefs until late in the
decision-making process.
o The leader should promote open discussion and encourage grouo members to
speak.
o A group or committee can be separated into subgroups to increase tha chance of
disagreement.
o One group member can be assigned the job of devils advocate-a group member
who intentionally provides opposing opinion that expressed by the leader or the
majority of the group.
Individual versus Group Performance
Nominal Group is a collecttion of individuals whose results are pooled but who never interact
with one another.
Interacting group is a collection of individuals who work together to perform a task.
Group polarization
o Suggests that group members will shift their beliefs to a more extreme version of
what they already believe individually
Brainstorming is a technique in which ideas are generated by people in a group setting.

TEAMS
Teams work best in situations in which

The job requires high levels of interaction

A team approach will simplify the job
A team can do something an individual cannot
There is time to create and properly train team members

What is a work team?

A work team is a collection of three or more individuals who interact intensively to provide an
organizational product, plan, decision, or service.
Factors to be considered before calling a group of individuals a team
Identification is the extent to which group members identify with the team rather than with
other groups.
Interdependence is the extent to which team members need and rely on other team members
Power differentiation is the extent to which team members have the same level of power and
respect.
Social distance is the extent to which team members treat each other in friendly, informal
manner.
Conflict management tactics. Team members respond to conflict by collaborating and try to
understand the others views, make attempts to compromise, and use nonthreathening tones.
Negotiation process. In teams, members negotiate in win-win style in which the goal is for
every one to come out ahead.
Teams differ in two other ways:
Permanency is the extent to which a team will remain together or b disbanded after a task has
been accomplished
Proximity is the physical distance between people.

Virtual teams are teams that communicate through email rather than face to face.

REPORTER: OLASIMAN, Elsbeth

TYPE OF TEAMS AND GROUP CONFLICTS

In a typical work setting, the traditional approach is usually practiced where in different
employees assigned to perform specific tasks (e.g. manager, chef, janitor, waiter, etc.) but in a
team approach workers are cross-trained to perform all of the tasks. There would be no
supervisor and each individual would be called a team member.
Before teams become teams, they undergo a process of developing one first. Tuckman proposed
an influential theory of team development in 1965. He proposed that teams go through four
developmental phases:
1. Forming stage: team members get to know each other and decide roles. Members are
on their best behavior as they try to impress and get along with others. They are
excited about the potential to accomplish work and anxious about working with
others. Then the team concentrates on clarifying its mission, determining goals,
deciding on tasks, setting rules and procedures and developing alternative courses of
action to achieve their goals.
2. Storming stage: good behavior disappears; team members become frustrated with
their roles, show stress of balancing their previous duties with their new team
responsibilities and question whether they have the ability to accomplish their goals.
Members begin to disagree and challenge each others ideas. From this, the team
often gets the energy to perform well in later stages.
3. Norming stage: members begin to acknowledge the reality of the team by accepting
the team leader and work directly with other team members. Members have either
accepted their initial roles or made adjustments to roles better suited for them.
4. Performing stage: team begins to accomplish goals, makes innovative suggestions,
participates at high levels, continually monitors its progress toward goals, determines
additional resources that might be needed, provides assistance and feedback to team
members, and makes necessary strategic adjustments.
Teams are created based on various factors. There are two major characteristics where teams
differ: temporal duration (ad hoc vs. ongoing) and product type (project vs. production) as
surveyed by Devine et al. (1999). However, Cohen and Bayley (1997) determined four
categories wherein teams were classified:
Work Teams
group of employees who manage themselves, assign jobs, plan and schedule work, make
work-related decisions, and solve work-related problems (e.g. production teams and
customer service teams).
formed to produce goods, provide service or increase the quality and cost-effectiveness of
a product or system

 Crews are group of expert specialists having specific role positions, perform brief events
that are closely synchronized with each other and repeat these events across different
environmental conditions. (e.g. firefighters, flight crew) They are an important type of
work team. They are less affected by changes in membership because they are highly
trained specialists and often rely on technology.
Parallel Teams (Cross-functional Teams)
Representatives from various departments or functions within an organization
Members are often torn between representing the interests of their function and doing
what is best for the organization as a whole that is why building trust, receiving
support from each functional area and having a clear purpose is important.
Project Teams
Formed to produce one-time outputs
Dismantled once the teams goal has been accomplished (e.g. creating a new product,
installing new software system)
Management Teams
responsible for providing general direction and assistance to the teams mentioned above
coordinate, manage, advice and direct employees and teams
Although there has been an abundance of advice about how to create successful teams, scientific
literature suggests that teams are seldom more effective than individuals (Allen & Hecht, 2004).
Moran, Musselwhite and Zenger identified the common problems encountered by teams. Here
are the six most important ones:
The Team Is Not a Team
-Teams arent often successful because they are teams in name only.
Excessive Meeting Requirements
-Teams either meet too infrequently or so often that they waste time when they do meet.
-The tendency to stretch a meeting can reduce the motivation and enthusiasm of a team.
The key to successful team meetings is to limit the topics to be discussed and to
meet only when the entire team is needed to contribute.
Lack of Empowerment
-Teams are not given sufficient authority to conduct their business.
-Teams arent empowered because managers worry that the job wont be done correctly,
the teams are moving too fast and the teams will overstep their boundaries such that other
parts of the organization will be affected (Moran etl al., 1996).
-It is common for team members to reject their empowerment status because its
advantages come with the risk of making mistakes and getting others angry.

 Empowerment is essential for the success of most teams. Properly empowering

teams would give them the authority to overcome the political resistance of each
affected department.
Lack of Skill
-Team members lack either the skills needed to work in a team or the expertise to solve
the problem.
Teams whose members are bright, conscientious, extraverted and emotionally
stable perform better than teams whose members do not possess such
characteristics (Barrick, Stewart, Neubert, &Mount, 1998; Devine & Phillips, 2001).
Distrust of the Team Process
-Many teams do not succeed because management doesnt trust the concept of teams.
Some of the distrust comes from managers being unwilling to give up any authority
while some source of distrust is due to the fact that not all work is appropriate for
teams.
Team members must be receptive to the team process.
Unclear Objectives
Teams work best when they know why they were formed, what they are expected
to accomplish and when they are supposed to be finished.
Group Conflict
Conflict is the psychological and behavioral reaction to a perception that another person is
either keeping you from reaching a goal, taking away your right to behave in a particular way or
violating the expectancies of a relationship. The level of conflict that occurs is a function of the
importance of the goal, behavior or relationship. One of the key components of conflict is
perception. Conflict is often the result of ones misperception of anothers goals, intentions or
behavior. In order to resolve the conflict, it is important for each party to discuss their
perceptions of the situation.
According to a meta-analysis by De Dreu and Weingart in 2003, most conflicts result in lower
team performance and lower member satisfaction. This is a dysfunctional conflict that keeps
people from working together, lessens productivity, spreads to other areas and increases
turnover. It usually occurs when one of both parties feel a loss of control due to the actions of
the other party and has its great effect on team performance when the task being performed is
complex. Most of the times conflict is dysfunctional but there are times when a moderate degree
of conflict can result in better performance. It is called a functional conflict - conflict in
moderate levels that can stimulate new ideas, increase friendly competition, increase team
effectiveness and reduce the risks of much larger conflicts.
Types of Conflict

 Interpersonal Conflict
occurs between two individuals
Individual-Group Conflict
occurs when the individuals needs are different from the groups needs, goals or norms
Group-Group Conflict
occurs between two or more groups, annually as departments fight for budget allocations
and space.
Conflict can occur when working with others. There must be reasons for having misperceptions
of an individual towards others. Here are several factors (reasons) that cause conflict to arise:
Competition for Resources
In groups, conflict occurs when demand for resources exceeds its supply. It is especially true
when there is not enough money, space, personnel or equipment to satisfy the needs of every
person or every group.
Task Independence
Conflict occurs when the performance of some group members depends on the performance
of other group members. Conflict is likely to arise when two groups who rely on each other have
conflicting goals.
Jurisdictional Ambiguity
Conflict ascends when geographical boundaries or lines of authority are unclear. When lines
are unclear, conflict is most likely to result when new situations and relationships develop.
To avoid this, thorough use of job description and up-to-date organizational charts is vital.
Communication Barriers
Barriers to interpersonal communication be it physical (separate locations on different floors
or buildings), cultural (different language or customs) or psychological (different styles or
personalities) can cause conflict.
Beliefs
Another cause of conflict is the belief systems of individuals or groups. Belief such as the
following listed below are most likely to cause conflict.
They are superior to other people or groups
They have been mistreated by others
They are vulnerable to others and are in harms way
They cannot trust others
They are helpless or powerless
Personality
Conflict is often the result of people with incompatible personalities who must work together.
Some people are generally more difficult to work with (difficult people). Abnormally high needs
for control, perfection approval or attention form the basis for the difficult personality.

People have different ways of dealing with conflicts. It can be measured by the Rahim
Organizational Conflict Inventory II or by the Cohen Conflict Response Inventory.
According to experts, there are five common conflict styles:
Avoiding Style
-ignoring the conflict and hope it will resolve itself, withdrawal from the situation
-only postpones conflict rather than prevents it
-Triangling: a form of avoidance that is when an employee discusses the conflict with the
third party in hopes that the third party will talk to the second party and conflict will be
resolved without having the two parties meet.
Accomodating Style
-a person, so willing to resolve the conflict, gives in and risks hurting himself. They are
viewed as cooperative but weak.
Forcing Style
-handles conflict in a win-lose fashion and does what it takes to win with little regard for the
other person.
Collaborating Style
-seek win-win solutions wherein both sides get what they want; time consuming
Compromising Style

-adopts give-and-take tactics that enable each side to get some of what it wants but not
everything it wants; a solution that would benefit both sides
-negotiation and bargaining
-acceptable compromise: falls within the settlement range for both sides
-settlement range is between the least acceptable result (LAR) which is the lowest
settlement the person is willing to accept, and the maximum supportable position (MSP)
which is the initial offer.
-Best alternative to a negotiated agreement (BATNA) is the best alternative that
negotiators have if they cant reach an agreement.
Finally after learning about conflicts, it is essential to know how to resolve it as well. A key to
resolving conflict is to reduce tension and increase trust between the two parties.
Prior to Conflict Occurring
-An organization should have a formal policy on ho conflict is to be handled.
-Employees should receive training on the causes of conflict, ways to prevent it and strategies for
resolving it.
When Conflict First Occurs
-both parties should be encourage to use the conflict resolution skills they learned in training to
resolve conflicts on their own.
-reduce tension and increase trust, conflicts can be resolve through negotiation
-both parties explain their perception of the problem. The focus should not be on who the
employee is but rather what he has done.
-Conflict is labeled dispute when both parties cant agree. There is a need for third-party
intervention.
-Cooperatrive problem solving: representatives work to define the problem, identify possible
solutions and arrive at the best one.
Third-Party Intervention
-provided through mediation (third party helps both parties in reaching a mutually aggreable
solution to the conflict) and arbitration (listens to both sides and then makes a decision)
-Arbitration decisions can be binding (both sides agree to abide by the decision no matter what)
or nonbinding (one or both sides can reject an unfavorable decision).