Chapter 7

Question 1

Groups:

punctuated equilibrium model:

*

Answer 1

Group:A group consists of 2 or more ppl interacting interdependently to achieve a common goal

• Formal Work grps: established by org to achieve org goals
• Informal grps: emerge naturally in response to common interests

Punctuated Equilibrium Model: Describes how grps with deadlines are affected by first meeting and subsequent mid-point transitions

• Model breaks grp development process into 2 phases and emphasizes importance of midpoint transition as crucial in grp meeting its goal by deadline

Question 2

Group structures and consequences:

and main structural characteristcs

Answer 2

Group structures and consequences: Group structure refers to the characteristics of stable social org of a grp

Structural characteristics are: Group size/Diversity of members/Group norms/Roles/Status

Question 3

Group size

Answer 3

Group size

• Size of group has impact on task performance
• As grp size increases, indv verbal participation decreases
• Tasks may be:
  
  • Additive: tasks in which grp performance is dependent on sum of performance of indv group members(ex: building a house)
  • Disjunctive: grp performance is dependant on performance of the best member(ex research team)
  • Conjunctive: tasks in which grp perfomance is limited by perfomance of poorest grp member

Question 4

Diversity of members

Answer 4

Diversity of members

• Group diversity has strg impact on interaction patterns
• Diverse grp have more diffictult time communicating effectively and becoming cohesive
• Diverse grp might take longer to do forming, storming and norming
• Once they do develop, more and less diverse grps are equally cohesive and productive

Question 5

Group norms

• • • Norms cover:
• How do norms develop ?
• Why Norms are enforced ?

Answer 5

Group norms

• Social norms: are collective expectations that members of social units have regarding the behaviour of each other
• Norms: codes of conduct that specify standards against which we evaluate the appropriateness of behaviour. Provide regularity and predictability of behaviour
• Norms cover:
  • performance(work ethic, work quality, levels of tardiness)
  • Appearance(personal dress, when to look busy, when to ‘‘goof off’’, how to show loyalty)
  • Social Arrangement: how team members interact
  • Reward allocation: pay, assignments, tools& equipment
• How do norms develop?
  
  • Explicit grp member statements
  • Critical events in grp history
  • Primacy: initial patterns of behavior.
  • Carryover Behaviour
• Why Norms are enforced ?
  
  • Facilitate grp survival
  • Make behaviour predictable
  • Minimize embarrassment
  • Express central values
  • Clarify grp identify

Question 6

Roles

Answer 6

Roles

• Position in a grp that have a set of expected behaviours attached to them
• Roles represent packages of norms that apply to particular grp members
• 2 roles in org:
  
  • Assigned: formally prescribed by an org as a means of dividing labor and responsibility to facilitate task achievement(president software, engineer, programmer)
  • emergent roles: naturally develop to meet the social-emotional needs of group members or to assist job accomplishment (class clown and office gossip informal leaders)
• Role Ambiguity: exits when goals of one job or methods of performing it are unclear
• Role conflict: When indv is faced with incompatible role expectations. Four types of role conflict:
  
  • Intrasender Role Conflict, the guys like chill out but gives you work that necessitates immediate attention
  • Intersender role Conflict,:two or more senders differ in their expectations for a role occupant Intersender role Conflic can develop
  • inter-role Conflict( when you work you are expected to do several roles and sometimes these roles are incompatible)
  • person role Conflict.( sometimes you simply cannot accomplish a task as not compatible with skills)

Question 7

Status

Answer 7

Status

• Status: rank, social position or prestige according to grp members
• Represents grp evaluation of member
• What is evaluated depends of status system in question
• All orgs have Formal(tangible indicators of status) and Informal status systems

Question 8

Group Cohesiveness

• • • Following factors contribute to group cohesiveness:
• Consequence of Cohesiveness include:

Answer 8

Group Cohesiveness

• Characteristic of groups that are especially attractive to their members
• Cohesiveness is relative property of groups and is informal, emergent group process
• Following factors contribute to group cohesiveness:
  
  • Threat and competition
  • Success
  • Similarity of members
  • Size
  • Toughness of initiation
• Consequence of Cohesiveness include: Strong participation and commitment, conformity, additional success

Question 9

Social Loafing

• Some ways to counteract social loafing
  

Answer 9

Social Loafing

• Tendency of withholding physical or intellectual effort when performing grp task
  
  • Free rider: People lower effort to get free ride at expense of other grp members
  • Sucker affect: People lower effort bc of feeling that other are free riding
• Some ways to counteract social loafing
  
  • Make indv perfomance more visible
  • Make sure work is interesting
  • Increase felling of indispensability
  • Increase performance feedback
  • Reward grp performance

Question 10

Teams

• • • Collective efficacy:

Answer 10

Teams

• Teams is group of people that work jointly towards common objective
• Group and team interchangable
• Collective efficacy: consists of shared beliefs tat a team can successfully perform given task

Question 11

3 Types of teams

• • G
• • Principles for effectivenss: number of factors contribute to effectivenss of this type:
    * * * * * *
• Virtual:
  
  • Advantages:
  • Challenges:

Answer 11

3 Types of teams

• Self managed: groups generally provide members with opportunity to do challenging work under reduced supervision
  
  • Grp responsibilities include planning and scheduling of work, assigning tasks to team members, making operational decisions and taking action on problems
• Cross-functional: Work grps that bring people with different functional specialties together to better invent , design or deliver a product or service
  
  • Principles for effectivenss: number of factors contribute to effectivenss of this type:
    
    • Composition: all relevant specialties must be part of team
    • Superordinate goals: attractive outcomes that can only be achieved by collab
    • Physical proximity: team members located close to one another
    • Autonomy
    • Avoid petty rules and procedures: basic decision procedures must be laid down to prevent anarchy
    • Leadership: Leaders need strong people skills in addition to task expertise to avoid team conflict
• Virtual: use tech to communicate and collaborate across space, time and org boundaries
  
  • Advantages: around the clock work, reduced travel time and cost and larger talent pool
  • Challenges: difficulty to establish inter member trust, miscommunication, isolation , high costs and mana issues