Chapter 9: Foundations of Group Behavior
DEFINING AND CLASSIFYING GROUPS
**Group – two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent, who have come together to achieve
particular objectives
*Formal Group – a designated work group defined by an organization’s structure
*Informal Group – group that is neither formally structured nor organizationally determined;
such a group that appears in response to the need for social contract
**Social Identity Theory – perspective that considers when and why individuals consider themselves
members of groups
**Ingroup favouritism – we see members of our ingroup as better than other people, and people not in
our group as all the same
Characteristics That Make a Social Identity Important to a Person
1. Similarity
2. Distinctiveness
3. Status
4. Uncertainty Reduction
STAGES OF GROUP DEVELOPMENT
The Five-Stage Model – five distinct stages groups go through
1. Forming – much uncertainty
2. Storming – intragroup conflict
3. Norming – close relationships and cohesiveness
4. Performing – group is fully functional
5. Adjourning – wrapping up activities
An Alternative Model for Temporary Groups with Deadlines
**Punctuated-Equilibrium model – set of phases that temporary groups go through that involves
transitions between inertia and activity
GROUP PROPERTIES: ROLES, NORMS, STATUS, SIZE, COHESIVENESS, DIVERSITY
Roles – set of expected behaviour patterns attributed to someone occupying a given position in a social
unit
**Role Perception – an individual’s view of he is supposed to act in a given situation
**Role Expectations - how others believe a person should act in a given situation
*Psychological Contract – unwritten agreement that sets out what management expects
from an employee and vice versa
**Role Conflict – individual is confronted by divergent role expectations
Norms – acceptable standards of behaviour within a group that are shared by the group’s members
**The Hawthorne Studies- physical environment and productivity
**Conformity – adjustment of one’s behaviour to align with the norms of the group
*Reference group – important groups to which individuals belong or hope to belong and
with whose norms individuals are likely to conform
**Deviant Workplace Behavior – voluntary behaviour that violates significant organizational
norms; threatens the well-being of the organization or its members; antisocial behaviour or workplace
incivility
Status – socially defined position or rank given to groups or group members by others
***What Determines Status?
1. The power a person wields over the others
2. A person’s ability to contribute to a group’s goals
3. An individual’s personal characteristics
*Status Characteristics Theory – differences in status characteristics create status hierarchies within
groups
Size
**Social Loafing – tendency for individuals to expend less effort when working collectively than
when working individually
Cohesiveness – degree to which group members are attracted to each other and are motivated to stay
in the group
Diversity – extent to which members of a group are similar to, or different from, one another
GROUP DECISION MAKING
Groups versus the Individual
**Strengths of Group Decision Making
-more complete information and knowledge
-increased diversity of views
-increased acceptance of a solution
**Weaknesses of Group Decision Making
-conformity pressures
-dominated by one or a few members
-ambiguous responsibility
**Effectiveness and Efficiency
-group decisions are generally more accurate
-speed…individuals are more superior
-groups are more creative
-groups have higher degree of acceptance
Groupthink and Groupshift
**Groupthink – phenomenon in which the norm for consensus overrides the realistic appraisal of
alternative courses of action
**Groupshift – change between a group’s decision and an individual decision that a member within the
group would make
**Groupshift or Group polarization
Group Decision-Making Techniques
**interacting groups – typical group in which members interact with each other face to face
**Brainstorming – idea generation process that specifically encourages any and all alternatives while
withholding any criticism of those alternatives
**Nominal group technique – individual members meet face to face to pool their judgments in a
systematic but independent manner
**Electronic Meeting – members interact on computers, allowing for anonymity of comments and
aggregation of votes
