Define ‘group’
Two or more people who act together to achieve common aims or goals.
Define ‘social aggregate’
A class or order of people who share certain characteristics bit do not necessarily share goals
Give an example of group membership
Formal/permanent group overlapped with informal/permanent group (have lunch with work friends), overlapped with formal/temporary (seconded one day a week to special project)
Define ‘security’
Belonging to a group may make us feel safer against external threats
Define ‘task complexity’
Belonging to a group may allow combinations of specialists to tackle tasks tha, individually, they would not normally tackle.
Define ‘social interaction’
Belonging to a group may help satisfy a need for human company
Define ‘proximity’
Belonging to a group sometimes happens simply because members find themselves located physically near each other
Define ‘exchange’
Belonging to a group sometimes depends on a cost-benefit calculation made continually by members
Define ‘synergy’
The whole group’s performance is greater than the sum of its equal parts
Explain group vs individual performance
Individuals can be motivated by the presence of others because of:
- the sheer stimulating effect of other people
- self-presentation, or the desire to show others how good you are (competition)
Define ‘social loafing’
The tendency of some group members to put in less effort if they believe that their underperformance will not be noted - the phenomenon of one group member Can be prevented by: - Limiting scope of the project - Reducing group size - Running peer evaluations
Define ‘role’
An unexpected behaviour
Define ‘task role’
Relates to the functional or technical nature of work
Define ‘socio-emotional role’
Relates to the interpersonal aspects of work
Define ‘destructive role’
Causes conflict and ineffectiveness in work situations
Outline some roles played in groups
Task roles:
Brainstormer, expert, judge, devil’s advocate, representative, implementer, ringmaster, memory
Socio-emotinal roles:
- encourager, peacemaker, tension reliever, confronter
Destructive roles:
- hisher, personaliser, recognition seeker, victim, blocker, shelver, distractor, aggressor, shadow, special-interest pleader
Define ‘formal norms’
An explicit rule-governing behaviour
- workers show up for work on time, observe safety rules
Define ‘informal norm’
An implicit rule-governing behaviour
- workers often refer to each other by nicknames, workers in this group always sit together for lunch
Define ‘group think’
A pattern of defective decision making seen in groups
Define ‘Abilene paradox’
The behaviour effect which occurs when organisations and individuals frequently take actions in contradiction to what they really want to do and therefore defeat the very purposes they are trying to achieve. Ways to reduce e.g.: - examine alternatives, generate contingency plans - appoint devil's advocate - increase group size, hetrogenity - remove physical isolation - de external reality checking - eliminate competition with other group
List some similarities between sports teams and work teams
- Both share need to train and prepare before going into action, share need to coordinate and comminicate
- Benefit from goal setting
- A coach/leader can use exhortation to lift the morale
- When everyone is working together harmoniously can be a pleasent experience
List the strenghts of ‘teams’
- good at generating ideas
- recalling informaiton
- deploy multiplicity of task and socio-emotional roles
- represent the advent of democracy in the workplace
- the excerise of authoritian power by individuals may become harder when groupsact as counterveiling power
- if all relevant decisions makers are presentin a group, then obviously it can be much easier to coordinate operations.
- teams represent a form of organisational redesign
- decisions and solutions can be more creative
- risks can sometimes be managed more competently within teams
- motivation can be increased through participation
List the weaknesses of ‘teams’
- not needed for routine decisions or tasks
- not always good at solving problems that require long chains or decisions and solutions
- ineffective teams allow disruptive role-playing to become significant and even dominate
- everyone is expected to be a team player, but not everyone is
- cliques, factions or teams-within-teams may dominate
- intra-group squabbling
- a mediocre or disastrous team will produice low-quality high risk decisions and solutions
- teams can be slow and costly
Define ‘virtual team’
A work group whose indivual memners are located in widely dispersed locations
