Phase One Type of GroupGroup Formation Phase Two Group Development stages  Mutual Acceptance  Communication and Decision Making  Motivation and Productivity  Control and Organization Performance Factors  Composition  Size  Norms  Cohesiveness Phase Three: Mature group Group Characteristics  Productive  Adaptive  Self-Correcting Member Characteristics  Interdependent  Coordinated  Cooperative  Competent  Motivated  Communicative Group Decision Making and Interactions with Others Groups

A group is two or more persons who interact with one another that each person influenced by each other person

Relatively PermanentRelatively Temporary Formal  Command groups  Quality assurance department  Cost accounting group  Task groups  Pope’s Special Council on Finances  Task force on new product quality Informal  Friendship groups  Friends who do many activities together (attend the theater, play games, travel)  Interest groups  Bowling group  Women’s network

 Formal Group Are formed by the organization to do its work and usually are included in the organization chart - Command/Functional Group Is a relatively permanent, formal group with functional reporting relationships. - Task Group Is a relatively temporary, formal group established to do a specific task

 Informal groups - Established by their members  Friendship group  Relatively permanent and informal and draws its benefits from the social relationships among its members  Interest group  Relatively temporary and informal and is organized around a common activity or interest of its members

 Mutual acceptance  stage of group development is characterized by members sharing information about themselves and getting to know each other.  Communication and Decision Making  Members discuss their feelings more openly and agree on group goals and individual roles in the group

 Motivation and Productivity  Members cooperate, help each other and work toward task accomplishment  Control and organization  Members work together and are flexible, adaptive, and self-correcting

 Group performance factors including;  Composition  Size  Norms  Cohesiveness  They affect the success of the group in fulfilling its goal

 Group Composition  Degree of similarity or differences in the characteristics of the members on factors important to the group’s work.  SOURCE: Based on discussion in Bernard M. Bass and Edward C. Ryterband, Organizational Psychology, 2 nd ed. A homogeneous group is more useful for : A heterogeneous group is more useful for: Simple tasks Sequential tasks Cooperation required Speed required Complex tasks Collective tasks Creativity required Speed not important

 Group size  Number of members of the group and affects the number of resources available to perform the task  Group norm  Standard against which the appropriateness of a behavior is measured i. Norms help the group survive ii. Norms simplify and make more predictable the behaviors expected of group members iii. Norms help the group avoid embarrassing situations iv. Norms express the central values of the group and identify the group to others

 Group Cohesiveness Factors that affect group cohesiveness and consequences of group cohesiveness Factors that affect group cohesiveness Consequences of high cohesiveness Homogeneous composition Mature development relatively small size Frequent interactions Clear goals (competition or external threat) Success goal accomplishment personal satisfaction of members increased quantity and quality of interactions groupthink

Factors that decrease cohesiveness Consequences of low cohesiveness Heterogeneous composition Recent formation Large size Physical Dispersion Ambiguous Goals Failure Difficulty in achieving goals increased likelihood of disbanding Fewer interactions Individual orientation

 Group Polarization  Tendency for a group’s average post-discussion attitudes to be more extreme than its average pre- discussion attitudes.  Groupthink  Mode of thinking that occurs when members of a group are deeply involved in a cohesive in group and desire for unanimity offsets their motivation to appraise alternative courses of action

 Participation in Decision Making  Important part of managing motivation, leadership, organization structure, and decision-making processes  Group Problem Solving  Brainstorming  Technique used in the alternative generative phase of decision making that assists in development of numerous alternative courses of action  Nominal Group Technique (NGT) Group members follow a generate discussion vote cycle until they reach an appropriate decision.  The Delphi technique Method of systematically gathering judgments of experts for use in developing forecasts

 Interaction among groups are based on the characteristics of the interacting groups, the organizational context within which the groups operate, and the task and situational bases of the interactions  Five factors that determine the nature of group interactions are;  Location  Resources  Time and goal interdependence  Task uncertainty  Task interdependence