Small Groups and the Informal Organization

1
CHAPTER 9

• Small Groups and the Informal Organization

2
Groups

• A group is two or more individuals who interact.

3
Group Formation

• Group formation what causes people to join
  groups?
• Security to feel safe.
• Affiliation to be with other people who share
  your interests and values.
• Self-esteem to increase pride in yourself,
  self-respect, and self-worth.
• Power to acquire strength from numbers.

cont.
4
Group Formation

• Group formation what causes people to join
  groups?
• Social reality to find security in your beliefs
  from the support or consensus of opinion from
  colleagues.
• Goal accomplishment to achieve goals more
  readily because of the variety of group member
  skills and knowledge.

5
Group Synergy

• Synergy a whole that is greater than the sum of
  its parts.

• Synergism the interaction of two or more
  independent parts, the effects of which are
  greater than that which would be achieved by each
  individually.

6
Formal Groups

• Formal groups required systems formed by
  management.
• Required systems a group positioned and
  coordinated by management for the purpose of
  attaining organizational goals.

cont.
7
Formal Groups

• Accomplish goals less haphazardly.
• Coordinate organizational activities.
• Establish logical authority relationships.
• Apply specialization concepts.
• Create more group cohesion.

8
Informal Groups

• The informal organization exists in tandem with
  the formal organization.
• Sometimes informal groups benefit the formal
  organization, sometimes they do not.
• Informal groups can close gaps in the formal,
  make up for deficiencies, or work against the
  formal organization (for example, influencing
  people to work slower).

9
Group Member Characteristics

• Devils advocate role someone who argues
  against the consensus in order to probe for
  weakness in that position.
• Role conflict differences between ones group
  role and ones other roles.
• Role ambiguity confusion over roles in a
  group and their boundaries.
• Role Overload - or team assignments that are
  too great for a person

cont.
10
Group Member Characteristics

• Group standards social norms behavior
  acceptable to the group, like being on time for
  meetings.

cont.
11
Group Member Characteristics

• Group cohesion an emotional attraction and
  closeness that members have for each other and
  the group.
• Group attractiveness the ability to generate
  interest in others or the ability to entice
  others to join a group.
• Group task activities - behaviors that directly
  affect goal accomplishment
• Group maintenance activities - behaviors
  related to social and emotional needs

12
Factors that Increase Group Attractiveness and
Cohesiveness

• Prestige.
• High status and power.
• Increased interactions with others.
• Member cooperation.
• Facing a common threat.
• Member similarity.
• Small group size.

13
Factors that Decrease Group Attractiveness and
Cohesiveness

• Group or its work has an unfavorable image.
• Unreasonable demands are made of members.
• Members disagree on group norms.
• Group and individual goals are dissimilar.
• Admission to group is too difficult.
• Individual had previous bad experience with the
  group or a group member.
• Initiation rites.

14
The Grapevine

• The grapevine is the informal organizations
  communication channel.
• The grapevine is oral and fast.
• The grapevine thrives on insecurity.
• The grapevine fills gaps.
• Half of all rumors are inaccurate, its just hard
  to tell which half.

cont.
15
The Grapevine

• Single-strand chains the person-to-person
  transmission of informal messages.
• Gossip chain one person passing information to
  another.
• Probability chain information flowing through
  the informal organization on a random basis.
• Cluster chain individuals selectively passing
  on information.

16
Group Problem Solving

• Planned agenda the items proposed to be covered
  in a meeting.
• Hidden agenda the attitudes and feelings a
  person brings to a meeting.

• Brainstorming generating ideas without
  concern for their feasibility.
• Brainwriting writing down ideas individually
  before discussing them in the group.

cont.
17
Group Problem Solving

• Delphi method group members submit solutions
  anonymously for analysis and then solutions are
  repeatedly revised from the feedback.

• Quality circles or teams a group that meets to
  exchange information for mutual improvement.

18
Forming a Committee

• Standing committee a continuous committee.
• Ad hoc committee one formed to handle a
  specific situation.
• Task force a temporary grouping of individuals
  and resources for the accomplishment of a
  specific objective.

19
Group Decision-Making Deficiencies

• Wasters of time poorly planned meetings.
• Groupthink suppression of dissent within a
  group.
• Anti-synergy some doing less because there are
  others.

• Diluted responsibility vague accountability due
  to shared responsibility.
• Costly delays longer group decision time costs
  time and money.

20
Avoiding Meeting Pitfalls

• Have a good reason to meet (to present or receive
  information or to solve problems).
• Respect peoples time.
• Be creatively brief.
• Consider the physical settings.
• Clarify everyones responsibility.

21
Meeting Tips

• No memo meetings.
• Give some before-meeting work.
• Train those who run meetings.
• If useful, bend the agenda.
• Summarize meeting, for clarity.
• Consider having a meeting-free day, like Mondays.

22
Teamwork

• Teams groups whose members are selected based
  on the variety of knowledge and expertise each
  possesses.

23
Team Development Model 1

• Forming group members becoming acquainted with
  each other.
• Storming conflict over the direction a team
  will take and over leadership.

• Norming cohesion and communication as a team
  agrees on its direction and leadership.
• Performing a team working on the assigned
  task.

24
Team Development Model 2

• Forming group members becoming acquainted with
  each other.
• Focusing a team learning, stating,
  establishing, determining, or clarifying its
  goals.

• Performing a team working on the assigned task.
• Leveling performance remaining steady.