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GROUP DYNAMICS

It was shown in Hawthorne studies that people behave as members of a group and
their membership helps shape their work behavior and attitude towards the
organization.

The process by which people interact face to face in small groups is called group
dynamics. Groups are formed within organizations for a particular well defined
purpose.

Types of Groups:
1. Formal Groups- such groups are a part of organization structure. They are
created deliberately by the management to perform assigned duties.
a. Command groups- superior subordinate relationship defined within a
command group
b. Task group- a group created to perform a particular task and
containing members who are assigned a common task.
2. Informal Groups- these groups arise spontaneously due to interaction
between members in an organization. They are not created by the
management.

Sayles’ classification of Group-

On the basis of pressure tactics adopted by small groups, Sayles identified 4 kinds of
groups in organizations which are-

a) Apathetic groups- consists of low skilled assembly line workers who lack unity
and power and hardly use any pressure tactics.
b) Erratic groups- consists of semi skilled workers. In their pressure tactics with
management, they are erratic or lack consistency. They are cooperative on
some occasions and antagonistic on others.

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c) Strategic groups- members of these groups have a clear strategy to deal with
management. The members are normally engaged in specialized activities
requiring special skills and knowledge.
d) Conservative groups- consists of professionals and highly skilled employees in
the plant. They are normally found at higher levels of the organization and
display considerable self confidence. Groups created by such employees are
most stable and powerful.

Clique:
A clique is a group containing people who have frequent interactions and observe
certain norms and standards. The purpose of a clique is to gain control and power.
There are only 5-6 members in a clique. Cliques were identified by Dalton.
The types are cliques are-
a) Vertical clique- people are drawn from different levels of hierarchy in a
vertical clique. It consists of superiors and subordinates. Same department.
b) Horizontal clique- consists of people of more or less the same rank and
working in the same unit.
c) Mixed clique- drawing members from different departments, ranks and
physical locations for a common purpose.

Interaction theory of group formation by Homan-

According to interaction theory, the more activities people share, the more
numerous are their interactions and stronger is their shared activities and
sentiments.

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Group Norms-
a) Not to be a “rate buster”- a group norm which says that members should not
produce too high a rate of output or to exceed the production restriction of
the group.
b) Not to be a “chiseller”- not to shrink production or to produce at too low a
rate of output compared with other members.
c) Not to be a “squealer”- not to say anything to the supervisor or management
which might harm other members of the group
d) Not to be “officious”- people with authority over members should not take
advantage of their position in the group.
e) Not to indulge in “social loafing”- social loafing is the tendency of group
members to do less than they are capable of as individuals. If there is no
loafing, the combined productivity of the group will be higher than sum of
productivity of individual members.

Quality Circle:

A quality circle is a small group of employees doing similar or related work who meet
regularly to identify, analyse and solve product quality problems and improve general
operations.

Benefits of quality circles-

• Help in bringing out innovations and changes
• QCs help in increasing productivity, improving quality and increasing worker’s
job satisfaction
• Provide a participative environment.

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Comparing work teams and groups-

• Group- a work group is a group that interacts primarily to share information

and to make decisions to help each group member perform within his or her
area of responsibility
• Work team- a group whose individual efforts result in performance that is
greater than the sum of individual inputs is called as a work team.

Stages of team or group development-

When people work together as a group or a team, they often pass through several
stages. These stages include-
a) Forming- initial formation stage of a group or team.
b) Storming- conflicts and disagreements arise when members of the group get
to know each other and express their views.
c) Norming- as disagreements are controlled and minimized, members of the
group establish guidelines and standards and develop norms of acceptable
behavior.
d) Performing- the group matures and learns to handle complex challenges.
e) Adjournment- after the targets are met, the team or group dissolves and
breaks up. This stage is called as adjournment.

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Punctuated Equilibrium Model-

example- a team is created in an organization to complete a project within 10 weeks.

Basic time schedule is established in the first meeting itself. It is followed by an
inertia of 4 to 5 weeks. At the end of the inertia, there is a transition to phase 2
where again there is an inertia for 4 weeks. After this there is a final burst of group
activity to complete its assignment in the last 2 weeks.

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Groupthink-
The tendency of a tightly knit or closed group to bring individual thinking in line with
group’s thinking is called as groupthink or the leveling effect. It happens when the
group starts valuing group solidarity and thinking so much that individual thoughts
are suppressed.
Groupthink has the negative effect of killing innovation, creativity and constructive
conflict.

Groupshift or Polarisation-
Groupshift is a phenomenon in which the initial positions of individual members of a
group are exaggerated toward a more extreme position. When people are in groups,
they make decisions about risk differently from when they are alone. In the group,
they are likely to make riskier decisions, as the shared risk makes the individual risk
less.
There are instances when the group might make conservative decisions as well.
Thus, polarization can happen in either direction- risky or conservative. But there are
higher chances of taking riskier decision as impact of failure on the group is less than
the impact of a risky proposition on an individual.

How do groups make decisions- brainstorming, nominal group technique, Delphi

technique and consensus mapping:

Brainstorming-
Brainstorming as a technique is used in the idea generation phase of decision-
making. It is intended to solve new problems. In brainstorming, all members are
given the freedom to generate ideas to solve the problem and provide explanation
for their ideas. There is no evaluation of ideas in first instance.
Brainstorming is a technique of generating out of the box ideas for solving a problem
and also to inculcate a sense of participation among employees.

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Under brainstorming, only alternatives are generated. There is no evaluation of ideas

under brainstorming.

Nominal group technique-

While brainstorming limited itself to generation of ideas, nominal group technique
takes it a step further and along with generation of ideas, it indulges in evaluation of
alternatives and taking group decision.
Under nominal group technique,
Firstly alternatives are sought by allowing every member to write her idea on cards.
Secondly, these ideas are shared among all members. There is no discussion. Only
specific questions can be asked.
Lastly, group members designate their preferences for the best alternative by secret
ballot. Group decision is lastly announced.

Delphi Technique-
Under Delphi technique the following steps are followed-
a) Experts are chosen but kept apart to prevent them from getting influenced
by each other.
b) The opinions of experts are taken through a well prepared questionnaire
c) The experts who have differed with majority opinion are fed back the result
of first round of survey and asked to communicate the reason for their

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divergence. This is done to understand the reason for such radical or

different thought and analyze the applicability of such argument.
d) The process of successive feedbacks and seeking of opinion continues until
the experts re-evaluate their opinions and a better convergence is achieved.
The final result is taken as “group decision”.

Consensus mapping technique-

Under consensus mapping, ideas of several task forces or subgroups are
consolidated or pooled to arrive at one decision. CMT is more useful in problems
with a multidimensional aspect.

CHANGE

• Change refers to any alteration that occurs in the overall work environment
of an organization. The alteration may be in structural relationship or
functional relationship of people in the organization.
• Change can take place due to external as well as internal forces.
• Change normally follows “a domino effect” i.e. one change creates a
sequence of related and supporting changes or one change leads to more
changes inside an organization.

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How to Manage Change: (remember the keywords)

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Force- Field Analysis-

• The theory of force field analysis was given by Kurt Lewin.
• According to the theory, there are forces supporting change as well as forces
opposing change in an organization. Both the forces act in opposite
directions. A balance is created (equilibrium) where these forces reconcile.
• A manager or change agent is expected to study and analyze both these
forces and strengthen/ weaken the required force in order to bring out
peaceful and smooth change in the organization.

• The implication of force field analysis for the manager is that before
embarking on a change strategy, he must properly identify and evaluate the
forces favouring change and those opposing change. This will enable him to
remove the hindrances that block change efforts.

Kurt Lewin’s Model of Planned Change-

• In order to bring out change in a planned manner, lewin gave a 3 step model,
which is as follows:

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o Step 1: Unfreezing- There are background factors or reasons

contributing to resistance to change. The job of change agent starts
with ‘explaining the problems in the present state of affairs’. In
unfreezing, the emotional link with status quo is loosened or
weakened so that resistance to change goes down and change agent
can easily bring out the new changes. Unfreezing results in unlearning
of old habits and knowledge and learning of new ones.
o Step 2: Moving to the new level- when subordinates become less
resistant to change, the change agent should introduce features of
the change to be brought about in the organization. In this step,
subordinates are to be helped to learn new methods and techniques
by helping them internalize the new patterns of behavior.
o Step 3: Refreezing at the new level- In this step, there is assimilation
and institutionalization of changes made in the organization. This
means that the change is made permanent and a new status quo is
established by the change agent.

Change Cycles-
• Four levels of changes may be introduced in an organization i.e.
o Knowledge change
o Attitudinal change
o Individual behavior change
o Group behavior change

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• Knowledge change- this level of change is easy to bring about as it is

dependent upon providing more knowledge to the person. By reading or
listening to someone, knowledge change can be introduced.
• Attitude change- attitude change is slightly more difficult than knowledge
change as attitude of a person is emotionally connected to his personality.
• Individual behavior change- behavior of an individual is something more than
his knowledge and attitude. A person may disseminate knowledge to others
but may not follow the same as a part of his behavior.
• Group behavior change- while changing behavior of individuals is easier,
changing group behavior is even more difficult. It involves changing norms,
style of leadership, customs and whole group culture.

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Greiner’s stages of Growth-

• Greiner analyzed 5 stages of evolution, revolution and growth of

organization. Each stage contains a calm phase called as evolution, a
turbulent phase called revolution and growth is achieved once the turbulence
is controlled.
• Stage 1: Creativity- dominated by founding members of an organization. This
stage enjoys evolution as the product turns into a company. Founding
members are highly committed to making and selling the product and
building a brand. The crisis of leadership starts when the company grows in
terms of employees and communication previously followed becomes
ineffective. Professional managers are sought to resolve the problem and
create a formal channel of communication and direction within the company.
• Stage 2: Direction- in this stage, professional managers take charge and grow
the organization through formal systems of communication and control.
However, after a certain level of growth, the lower level managers start
demanding autonomy in decision making. Thus, the crisis of autonomy is
experienced. The crisis is solved through delegation of authority.

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• Stage 3: Delegation- after delegation, the company grows even further due
to more freedom of decision making provided to lower level managers, who
help in capturing new markets. However, decentralization results in a feeling
of lack of control among the top level managers. Thus, the crisis of control
sets in. this crisis is resolved through effective coordination among managers
at various levels.
• Stage 4: Coordination- coordination brings the crisis of conflict between line
and staff managers. With this conflict, formal procedures become even more
important and the crisis deepens. The crisis of red tape emerges where
procedures become more important than solving problems.
• Stage 5: Collaboration- Team work, collaboration in solving problems and
self discipline are followed to solve the crisis of red tapism experienced in
stage 4. Managers use behavioral approaches and become more flexible in
dealing with employees at various levels of the organization. This stage
experiences a psychological saturation of employees as they face the
pressure of innovation and teamwork.

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