Ob Mod 6 Work Groups

Front 1

Can Stage 4 Work Groups Retain their Position Indefinitely? Why/Why not?

Back 1

No. Turnover,
new goals, new technologies, rising competition, and losing key members can
all push work groups out of stage 4.

Front 2

What does The nominal group technique (NGT) accomplish? 4 DASS

Back 2

separates idea generation from evaluation; it lessens the influence of dominant individuals in the group, ensures the systematic movement towards aggregation of votes to a preferred outcome, and is usually experienced by group members as satisfying.

Front 3

The Delphi Technique can be used for decision making when .........4

Back 3

the group can not meet, dominant members involved (neutralize), anonymity is required or members don't know eachother.

Front 4

A group within the organization is defined as two or more employees that:

Back 4

1. interact with each other,
2. perceive themselves as sharing several common interests or goals, and
3. come together or are brought together to achieve a meaningful organizational activity.

Front 5

Informal groups are

Back 5

groups of employees that come together voluntarily for a common purpose, which may or may not be work related

Front 6

Formal groups have the following characteristics:4

Back 6

• Two or more members
• Prescribed interaction patterns
• Purpose(s) started in meaningful organizational terms
• Members are aware of the formal groups existence and their involvement in it

Front 7

Work groups can be either

Back 7

formal/informal, task groups which work together on a series of related activities or command groups which exercise authority within the organization.

Front 8

Characteristics of successful use of project teams to find solutions to organizational problems:

Back 8

• The life span of the typical project team is kept short.
• Membership is always voluntary; thereby the projects have to be perceived as interesting and motivating so that people want to join.
• The project team is put together quickly without a formal selection process.
• Follow up to the suggested solution is swift as close ties with higher management are formed.
• Support staff is not assigned to the project team. Team members should develop expertise in gaining organizational support.
• Communication and Project Documentation are informal so that the project’s focus stays with the problem and does not shift to creating a paper trail.

Front 9

The central aspect of joining groups and organizations is

Back 9

the individual’s belief that membership creates a pathway to the satisfaction of important needs.

Front 10

The main factors why individuals want to join groups are as follows: AIG

Back 10

1. Interpersonal attraction is defined as a set of factors that lead to the conclusion that members share similar and highly desirable characteristics
a. Proximity
b. Physical attraction
c. Attitude, value, and/or belief similarity
d. Economic and social similarity
e. Race and gender similarity
f. Perceived ability of others
2. Activities of the group
3. Goals of the group

Front 11

Heterogeneity of a group is a prime supporter of

Back 11

of high-quality group decision making

Front 12

Heterogeneity has two effects

Back 12

: it creates more conflict and increases the group’s potential problem-solving capacity.

Front 13

The cohesiveness of a group is defined as:3

Back 13

1. Attraction to the group, including resistance to leaving it
2. High morale exhibited by members
3. Strong coordination of member effort

Front 14

Managers can raise cohesiveness by:

Back 14

• controlling the work group composition
• matching the group’s task to the characteristics and qualification of the members in the group
• keeping the group size relatively small
• providing clarity on goals and activities
• institutionalizing the role of disturbance handler in heterogeneous groups to facilitate agreement and establishing ground rules for handling conflicts
• creating the group perception of a common enemy
• carefully timing positive group feedback around group performance successes

Front 15

In order for work groups to be high performers in areas valued by organizations

Back 15

organizations the level of cohesiveness needs to be high and the performance goals for the group are aligned with the organizations performance goals.

Front 16

Common properties of workgroup norms:5 BPE/GRV

Back 16

1. Norms streamline and summarize the influence process to make the workgroup more efficient at policing member behavior.
2. Norms apply to member behavior and not their thoughts.
3. Norms develop for those behaviors that influence levels of member effort and group goals.
4. Group norms develop over time and are resistant to change.
5. Some members have more rights to deviate from work group norms than other members do.

Front 17

Managerial principles for controlling work group norms and member conformity

Back 17

Create a desire to remain in the group. Cohesiveness is an important benefit valued by members, so acknowledge
employee expressions of esprit de corps.
2 Show how high standards for group achievement meet individual needs and trigger rewards at the group
level.
3 Specify the importance of giving up individual gains in favour of group success. The manager must be a role
model for this.
4 Seize opportunities to show the small difference between members’ personal preferences and what the group
asks of its members.
5 Carefully define how members’ contributions help the group achieve its goals.
6 Give members a say in creating norms about effort levels and performance standards.
7 Develop a simple and accepted system for recording and publicising work group success in core performance
areas.
8 Develop valued rewards to motivate members who meet or exceed team performance standards.
9 Forge a link between team goals and personal accomplishments.
10 If creativity is necessary to ensure team success, temporarily suspend norms to encourage member innovation.
11 Make it clear that there are serious negative consequence for non-compliance with core performance norms.
12 Do not expel members who deviate from norms if: 1) they have a history of helping the group, 2) they are
high status members and 3) the group has a history of helping rather than isolating deviants.
13 Do not allow work groups to become too isolated so that they ignore the company’s need for coordination.

Front 18

groupthink is present

Back 18

If a group’s critical thinking process is suspended because of high cohesiveness and conformity,

Front 19

The following is a list of indicators that groupthink might be present:8

Back 19

1. The illusion of invulnerability
2. Collective rationalization (group members are collectively oblivious to indicators that could spell trouble)
3. Mindguards (group has self-appointed guards who sift through and eliminate unwanted negative external information)
4. Belief in inherent morality of the group
5. Negative stereotyping of the opposition
6. Direct pressure applied to dissenters
7. Self-censorship
8. Illusion of unanimity (each member mistakes the silence of others as agreement)

Front 20

How to safeguard against groupthink:6

Back 20

1. The leader assigns the role of the critical evaluator on a rotating basis to members of the group.
2. Influential members should not pre-specify solutions or methods for reaching solutions.
3. Leaders might have subgroups (or individuals) arrive at their own conclusion first before polling the entire group.
4. At intervals, outside experts might provide guidance to the group.
5. When group decision-making deals with competitive organizations, sessions should be devoted to exploration of warning signs and possible forms of retaliation.
6. After the group has made its decision, a “second chance” meeting to provide a forum for expressing doubts should be held.

Front 21

The group structure is defined as

Back 21

as the arrangement of roles or positions within the group.

Front 22

Positional status

Back 22

refers to the rank of a position in a work group and is expressed in the amount of responsibility for managing the group and the group’s hierarchy of authority

Front 23

Personal status

Back 23

is the rank, standing, or prestige of the individual in the work group.

Front 24

Group size increasing influences several aspects of a group:4

Back 24

• As a group size increases the range of abilities, talents and aptitudes of members for task accomplishment increases
• Larger groups provide for more opportunity to meet interesting colleagues as well as the opportunity for more anonymity.
• As work group size increases the opportunity for direct participation decreases and some members might become reluctant to voice their concerns in a larger group.
• As work group size increases the opportunity for internal conflict increases.

Front 25

The following summarizes observations about group sizes:

Back 25

• 2-3 member groups can make members very anxious about their high performance visibility
• 2-5 member groups are better able to reach consensus than large groups
• 4-5 member groups foster greater member satisfaction than middle or large size groups
• 5-11 member groups tend to make more accurate decisions than groups outside that size range
• 11 or more member groups generate more ideas but as size increases beyond 20 members the mean performance per member starts to decline.

Front 26

Forming

Back 26

Forming is the group phase-in during which the members move from a personal to a groups focus. Members wrestle with identifying important behaviors, assessing skills, abilities, etc. of members, discussing the goals and motives of members, and assessing the degree of commitment in the group.

Front 27

Storming

Back 27

is the phase during which members may become more assertive in their opinions about the group’s purposes, methods and norms because they are accumulating more knowledge about the work group. Member dissatisfaction with the current leader may surface and the leader may be replaced. If teams conclude that they are better off reaching their goals on their own, the group will never get past this stage.

Front 28

Norming:

Back 28

As interpersonal conflict subsides and the work group’s normative structure emerges.

Front 29

Performing

Back 29

the actual performance is close to potential performance because the group is minimizing its process losses.

Front 30

Brainstorming is

Back 30

a technique for generating ideas, not for evaluating them. It does not require accountability for the idea, so creativity is more abundant and less inhibited

Front 31

Brainstorming procedure and rules

Back 31

1. Assemble the work group and appoint a session leader
2. Define the purpose and/or problem (ideas, strategies, solutions, alternatives, etc.).
3. Set a time limit for the session.
4. Select a recording method
5. Review the rules of brainstorming:
• Break down complex problems into problems specific enough to be brainstormed.
• Any suggestion or idea can be proposed by any member at any time.
• Ideas must be generated as quickly as possible.
• Use ideas already suggested for spawning new ones.
• Criticisms or evaluations are not allowed during the ‘brainstorming period’.
• Lengthy explanations or discussions are to be postponed.
• The more suggestions the better.
• The session runs for the allotted time or until no more ideas are forthcoming.
• Idea evaluation is separate from and follows idea generation.
• Do not use brainstorming as a substitute for individual thinking.

Front 32

Groups spend time on task and maintenance related activities. The following guidelines help to minimize the process loss in the group:

Back 32

• Define work groups tasks and problems carefully
• Do not jump to idea evaluation before idea generation has created numerous alternatives
• Avoid groupthink
• Manage the norms of the group by making values rewards contingent on high-quality group performance
• Make group level rewards contingent on the group’s contribution to work unit success

Front 33

Groups interact with each other due to the following reasons

Back 33

• Interdependence
• Information flow
• Integration

Front 34

Interdependence

Back 34

refers to the frequency and quality of the interaction between the groups

Front 35

If the groups have a high level of uncertainty (tasks unclear and/or highly complex),

Back 35

the information requirements rise rapidly.

Front 36

If the number of interacting groups rises together with task uncertainty,

Back 36

the information requirements escalate.

Front 37

If integration requirements between the different groups are low

Back 37

, they can become highly differentiated and develop their own methods and forms of communication

Front 38

Integration requirements generally rise with

Back 38

an increase in task uncertainty.

Front 39

When and if a company switches from a hierarchical to a delayered structure with self-directing teams, the Intergroup Behavior Management and Performance factors can cause major obstacles in successfully making the change in the organizational structure. The following pathways can help in developing effective intergroup relations:

Back 39

rules
exchange members
link role
task force as link role
decouple

• Create rules and procedures to ensure communication and cooperation between groups for tasks requiring cooperation.
• In order to foster better understanding between the groups, members might be exchanged temporarily.
• Formally creating a position (linking role) designed as overseeing and linking the groups.
• Using task-forces to temporarily create a group filling the linking role.
• Due to a need for fast decision-making, organizational security, or intergroup conflict the groups might benefit from decoupling them (potentially just temporarily).

Front 40

Theoretical reasons for social loafing: 4 CRES

Back 40

• Equity of effort (“no one is working hard, why should I”)
• Loss of personal responsibility (“no one will miss me in the large group”)
• Reduced effort caused by reward sharing (“everyone is paid the same, why should I put in the extra effort”)
• Co-ordination complexity in larger groups (“we are all stepping on each others feet”)

Front 41

How to manage social loafing:

Back 41

• Focus on the interesting and important aspects of the task to increase the level of job involvement of group members.
• Assure group members that their individual contributions are identifiable and significant.
• Tell group members that they should not tolerate inadequate effort or performance from group members.
• Tell them that they should expect to have their performance evaluated.
• Ensure that some portion of rewards received by group members is dependent on their performance.

Front 42

The Vroom-Yetton-Jago normative decision model lists the following forms of decision making

Back 42

AI, AII, CI, CII, GII

Front 43

AI

Back 43

A manager makes a decision alone, using the information currently available. This is the most authoritarian, boss-centered style of decision-making.

Front 44

AII

Back 44

A manager seeks information from subordinates or group members and then makes a decision. Employees may or may not be aware of the problem before the manager takes a decision.

Front 45

CI

Back 45

A manager explains the problem to his subordinates in a one-to-one format. The manager takes a decision which may or may not reflect the ideas of his subordinates.

Front 46

CII:

Back 46

A manager explains the problem at hand to his subordinates in a group format. The manager takes a decision which may or may not reflect the ideas of his subordinates.

Front 47

GII

Back 47

A manager explains the problem to his subordinates in a group format. With the manager, the group makes a final decision.

Front 48

Group Conflict can be seen as either dysfunctional/unhealthy to the organization or as a by-product of organizational life that is unavoidable but manageable. The following methods can be used to deal with conflict:

Back 48

avoid, accomodate, force, compromise, collaborate

Front 49

Avoidance:

Back 49

: this is usually a short-run, damage control strategy. It is used when
• the issue is trivial,
• there is no chance of satisfying the concern,
• the cost of disruption outweigh the benefits of resolution,
• people need to calm down to gain perspective, and
• gathering information is more important than action

Front 50

Accommodating:

Back 50

should be selected when
• a manager decides he is wrong and shows reasonableness,
• an issue is more important to others than it is to the decision maker,
• to cut losses when in a loosing argument,
• the goal of harmony is more important than the potential benefit of the resolution, or
• employees can benefit from learning from their mistakes

Front 51

Forcing:

Back 51

should be selected when
• emergency conditions require decisive action,
• the issues is extremely important and unpopular actions have to be implemented,
• the company is at stake and the decision maker knows he is right, or
• an organized opposition would take advantage of non-competitive behavior.

Front 52

Compromising:

Back 52

should be used when
• the decision maker believes that her goals are important but insisting on them in not worth the potential disruption caused by other, more forceful measures,
• the opponent has equal power and is committed to mutually exclusive goals,
• a temporary solution is needed for a complex issue,
• time pressure dictates a quick resolution, or
• Serving as a backup when collaboration has not worked.

Front 53

Collaboration

Back 53

both parties are involved in solving the problem permanently through mutual commitment to the solution.

Front 54

Collaboration Usually these steps are followed:

Back 54

• Define the problem and share the facts (rather than make emotional appeals and distort facts).
• State the problem in specific terms before searching for solutions.
• Once facts are collected, focus on them instead of focusing on the disagreement.
• Conduct non-judgmental discussion of the facts and the problem.
• Collaborate on alternatives which lead to the best mutual solution rather than those alternatives which lead to solutions favoring one party’s interests.
• Develop criteria for measuring the quality and acceptability of the proposed solutions, agree on them, and present the solutions for criteria review before one is selected.
• Define all agreements as tentative until all facets of the conflict have been addressed. Thus, there is no implementation of any agreement until both parties are convinced they can support the solution.