Org Behavior - Module 6 Eug

Front 1

What driving forces has forced management to move to group model of operating

Back 1

Competitive advantage - main reason
1) Deregulation
2) Global competitiveness
3) technological advances
4) drive to reduce costs

Front 2

What are the types of groups

Back 2

1) Formal
2) Informal

Front 3

What are the characteristics of an informal group

Back 3

1) 2 or more people interact with each other
2) common goal or interest
3) brought/come together voluntarily to accomplish an activity

Front 4

What can be the affect of informal groups on an organisation

Back 4

There are always informal groups in and org
if employee needs are met informal groups can help the org, if need not met they can be disruptive and cause polarization between management and workers

Front 5

What are the characteristics of a formal group

Back 5

1) 2 or more people
2) perscrided interaction patterns
3) share common interest or goal stated by organisation
4) formal assignment to a team - to achieve org goal, management aware of its existence

Front 6

How can groups be classified in an organisation

Back 6

1) command group - board of directors
2) task group - project group

Front 7

Why do people join groups

Back 7

Satisfies a personal need (Maslows) the more individual needs are satisfied the more important the group is to them, before people join group they will show group behavior.

Front 8

What factors cause the formation of groups

Back 8

1) Proximity - people in secretarial pool
2) physical attractiveness - joining gym in hope of meetings mate
3) attitudes similarity - political groups
4) Economic/social similarity - some people join golf club some join pitch and putt club (economic reasons)
5) Race and gender - womens
groups
6) abilities - team sports
7) activities for group - darts club
8) goals of group - fund raising

Front 9

How would you define group composition

Back 9

those that make up the group, degree of similarity or difference between members. (homogeneous or heterogeneous)

Front 10

If you descried a group an homogeneous what does this mean

Back 10

The member of the group have similar qualities

Front 11

If you descried a group as heterogeneous, what does this mean

Back 11

The group members have differenct characteristics - a group containing engineers and HR people.....both would look at things from different perspectives

Front 12

Why is it good to have a heterogeneous group

Back 12

1) creates conflict
2) which can lead to increased problem solving, make the group more versatile and creative.

Front 13

If you descried a group as being very cohesive; what does this mean

Back 13

Cohesiveness is the outcome of group composition and consist of
1) attraction to the group of the members
2) high moral exhibited
3) strong coordination of member effort

Front 14

How can managers cohesiveness

Back 14

1) Match group task to employee characteristics
2) small groups more cohesiveness
3) match feedback with group success, feedback needs to be timely
4) Controlling and clarifying the group goal - clear goals lets members know where the group is going
5) establish a common enemy

Front 15

What three conditions influence group performance

Back 15

1) level of work group cohesiveness
2) the performance goals set by the group
3) the degree of agreement between group performance goals and organisational performance goals

Front 16

What are the results for the organisation of having a cohesiveness group group

Back 16

1) perfrom well if its goal conform to org goals
2) less absenteeism
3) group celebrates success and laments failure
4) members resist transfer
5) becomes homogeneous over time

Front 17

What are work group norms

Back 17

Norms are the groups expectation for the members concerning
1) level effort of members
2) agreement with and support group goals
(norms are a groups standards for behavior of it members)

Front 18

What properties do norm exhibit

Back 18

1) police and censure members behavior that does not conform
2) behavior counts not thoughts - members can privately disagree with groups course of action and still be a member in good standing
3) applies to effort levels and goals of group, not personal matters
4) Norms develop over time and resist change - traditions
5) Some group members have more right to deviate from norms then other - higher status members

Front 19

What is group-think

Back 19

Group think happens when conformity and cohesiveness rules the group, its decision making process becomes distorted and ineffective

Front 20

What are the symptoms of group think

Back 20

We're great
1) we can achieve anything - illusion of invulnerability
2) morality - we are moral and upright
3) negative stereotyping of opposition
We're blind
1) collective rationalization - not objective to warning signs - do not see indicators of things going wrong
2) Mind guards sift through and eliminate any negative external information
We're united
1) pressure applied to dissenters by mind guards
2) self censorship - member elect to be silent
3) illusion of unanimity - silence mean consent right?

Front 21

How would you combat group-think

Back 21

We're not great
1) assign role critical evaluator to members on a rotating basis
We're not blind
1) keep idea generating from idea evaluation, to bring objectivity and stop the influence of key members
2) use outside experts for guidance
3) set time to explore warning signs
We're not that united
1) use subgroups to arrive at decisions
2) second chance meetings - forum to express doubts

Front 22

What two aspects of work group structures can affect group performance

Back 22

1) positional status
2) Group size

Front 23

What happens work group increase in size

Back 23

1) Potential performance increase slightly logarithmically with size
2) Process losses increase (slightly) exponentially
3) Actual performance increase but mean actual performance per member decreases

Front 24

How would you define potential performance

Back 24

It is defined as the level of performance which could be achieved with the ideal combination of members skills abilities and work experience

Front 25

How would you define process losses

Back 25

are any obstacle to achieve potential performance i.,e groupthink, conflicts etc

Front 26

Why does mean actual performance per member decrease when sizr increase

Back 26

Because of coordination difficulties

Front 27

What are the four stage of group development

Back 27

1) Forming
2) Storming
3) Norming
4) Performing

Front 28

What happens in forming stage of group development

Back 28

1) Identify the behavior most important to the group
2) Assessment of member skills and abilities
3) Discuss goal of group
4) Assess degree of conmmitment and involvement
5) often in this stage some authority and leadership battle may take place before a leader is selected.

Front 29

What happens in Storming stage

Back 29

1) Interpersonal conflict can emerge becuase memebers are learning more about each other.
2) This stage can see the current leader being replaced
3)These are process losses in stage two (disagreements about goals, member abilities etc) if group can get beyond these it forms a basis for trust and corporation -- allot of group can get stuck in this stage

Front 30

What happens in Norming stage

Back 30

1) commitment to the group strengthens
2) Harmony and agreement
3) groupthink can set in at this stage
4) Group Norms are setup and adhered to

Front 31

What happens in Performance stage

Back 31

Actual Performance is close to potential performance.
1) Minimal process losses,
2) willingness of group to confront interpersonal and task/goal issues
3) member feel empowered, resolve conflict via collaboration and negotiation

Front 32

Are group more willing to take risk then individuals

Back 32

NO, groups accept risk based on
1) Group members
2) expectation of org risk
3) Leader risk orientation
4) Groups history of deviating form the group norm - risk involves change, norm may have to change

Front 33

What three methods can be used to help groups make better decision

Back 33

1) Brainstorming
2) Nominal Group Technique (NGT)
3) Delphi Technique (Rand Corporation)

Front 34

What is the principle behind brainstorming and how does it work

Back 34

Principle: separate idea generation from evaluation
Two separate stages
Idea generation, no evaluation allowed - time limit set for this
focus clearly defined

Front 35

How does the Nominal Group Technique (NGT) work

Back 35

Principal: minimizes group verbal interaction. separates generation for evaluation
1) Each member writes ideas for 5-10 mins
2) Leader ask each one to read out an idea
3) Ideas are then ranked

Front 36

How does the Delphi Technique

Back 36

Principle: group memebers not in contact with each or decided not to speak to each other
1) each member writes his ideas and send them to central person of consolidation
2) each team member gets a copy of results
3) team members are then allowed to comments on other ideas'
4) Repeat the process if necessary based on
comments

Like all the techniques of decision making this eliminates the problem of having a dominant person running the show

Front 37

What would the Delphi technique be good for

Back 37

Virtual team decision making, each team member is in different global location

Front 38

What most a manager do when managing teams

Back 38

Look at
1) Task activities - how the team defines, plans and achieves the team aims
2) Maintenance activities - how to sustain the team member, satisfaction and well being

Front 39

How can manager reduce process losses

Back 39

1) careful define the task
2) develop norm for separate idea generation from evaluation - helps with decision making
3) monitor process losses - groupthink, conflict coordination issues
4) Make team and merit based rewards available

Front 40

What three interaction requirements if fulfilled make effective inter-group network

Back 40

1) INterdependence - the frequency and quality of interaction among groups - this most be carefully coordinated if task is complex and uncertain
2) Information flow - the amount quality and timing needed to make joint decisions
3) Interaction - the extent of collaboration and cooperation and structural unification need to achieve the common goal

Front 41

What way can you improve decision making for inter-group activities

Back 41

1) Have rules and regulations - not good for complex task requiring creativity
2) Member exchange
3) Linking role - person oversee s and coordinate work between two groups
4) Task-force - used as linking role
5) Decoupling -