Essentials of Organizational Behavior

1.

Essentials of Organizational Behavior
Fifteenth Edition
Chapter 9
Foundations of Group
Behavior
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2.

Defining and Classifying Groups
Learning Objective 9.1
• Group: two or more individuals, interacting and
interdependent, who come together to achieve
particular objectives
– Formal: defined by the organization’s structure
– Informal: neither formally structured nor
organizationally determined
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3.

Social Identity
• Social identity theory
– Perspective that considers when and why individuals
consider themselves members of groups
– Relational identification (connect because of our roles)
– Collective identification (connect with the aggregate
characteristics of our groups)
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4.

Ingroups and Outgroups
• Ingroup
– Members of a group we belong to
– Ingroup favoritism – when we see our ingroup
members as better than other people and people not in
our group
• Outgroup
– The inverse of an ingroup; “everyone else”
– Can mean anyone outside the group, but usually it is
an identified other group
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5.

The Punctuated Equilibrium Model
(Exhibit 9-1)
Learning Objective 9.2
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6.

Group Property 1: Roles
Learning Objective 9.3
• Role: the set of expected behavior patterns that
are attributed to occupying a given position in a
social unit
– Role perception – our view of how we’re supposed to
act in a given situation
– Role expectations – how others believe you should
act in a given situation
– Role conflict – conflict experienced when multiple
roles are incompatible
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7.

Group Property 2: Norms
Learning Objective 9.4
• Norms:
– Acceptable standards of behavior within a group that
are shared by the group’s members
– Norms and emotions
– Norms and conformity
– Norms and behavior
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8.

Norms and Conformity
• Reference groups: groups in which a person is
aware of other members, defines self as a
member, believes group members to be significant
– Individuals try to conform to norms of these groups
• Asch Studies
– Members avoid being visibly different
– Members with differing opinions feel extensive
pressure to align with others
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9.

Norms and Behavior
• Lessons from the Hawthorne studies:
– Productivity increased because groups were paid
attention to by the observers – not because of changes
in environment
– Workers in groups do not maximize individual
economic rewards
– Group standards are set and enforced by the group
itself
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10.

Negative Norms and Group Outcomes
• Deviant Workplace Behavior: voluntary behavior
that violates significant organizational norms and,
in doing so, threatens the well-being of the
organization or its members
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11.

Typology of Deviant Workplace Behavior
• Production
• Political
– Leaving early
– Intentionally working
slowly
– Wasting resources
• Property
– Showing favoritism
– Gossiping and
spreading rumors
– Blaming coworkers
• Personal aggression
– Sabotage
– Lying about hours
worked
– Stealing from the
organization
– Sexual harassment
– Verbal abuse
– Stealing from coworkers
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12.

Group Property 3: Status
Learning Objective 9.5
• Status: a socially defined position or rank given to
groups or group members by others
• Determined by:
– The power a person wields over others
– A person’s ability to contribute to a group’s goals
– An individual’s personal characteristics
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13.

Group Property 3: Status (1 of 2)
• Status and Norms
– High-status members often have more freedom to
deviate from norms and are better able to resist
conformity pressures
• Status and Group Interaction
– People seeking higher status are more assertive
– Low status members may not participate
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14.

Group Property 3: Status (2 of 2)
• Status Inequity
– Perceived inequity creates disequilibrium
• Status and Stigmatization
– People who are stigmatized can “infect” others
– Stigma by association
• Group Status
– Us versus them mentality
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15.

Group Property 4: Size and Dynamics
• Smaller groups are faster at completing tasks
• Large groups are consistently better at idea
generation
• Social loafing: tendency for individuals to expend
less effort when working collectively than alone
– Consistent with individualistic cultures
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16.

Preventing Social Loafing
• Set group goals
• Increase intergroup competition
• Engage in peer evaluation
• Select members who have high motivation and
like to work in groups
• Distribute group rewards based on members’
individual contributions
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17.

Group Property 5: Cohesiveness
Learning Objective 9.6
• Cohesiveness: the degree to which members of
the group are attracted to each other and
motivated to stay in the group
– Performance-related norms are the moderating
variable for productivity and cohesiveness
High cohesiveness with high norms yields higher productivity
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18.

Encouraging Cohesiveness
1. Make the group smaller
2. Encourage agreement with group goals
3. Increase the time spent together
4. Increase the status and perceived difficulty of
group membership
5. Stimulate competition with other groups
6. Give rewards to the group rather than to
individual members
7. Physically isolate the group
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19.

Group Property 6: Diversity
• Diversity: the degree to which members of the
group are similar to or different from one another
• Types of group diversity
– Surface level diversity
– Deep level diversity
– Functional level diversity
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20.

Challenges of Group Diversity
• Faultlines: perceived divisions that split groups
into two or more subgroups based on individual
differences such as gender, race, age, work
experience, and education
– Splits are generally detrimental to group functioning
and performance
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21.

Group Decision Making
Learning Objective 9.7
Strengths
Weaknesses
• Generate more complete
information and knowledge
• Increased diversity of views
• Increased acceptance of a solution
• Takes longer
• Conformity pressures
• Discussions can be dominated by
one or a few members
• Ambiguous responsibility for the
final outcome
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22.

Effectiveness and Efficiency
• Effectiveness
– Accuracy – group is better than average individual but
worse than most accurate group member
– Speed – individuals are faster
– Creativity – groups are better
– Degree of acceptance – groups are better
• Efficiency
– Groups are generally less efficient
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23.

Groupthink and Groupshift
• Groupthink: relates to norms and describes
situations in which group pressures for conformity
deter the group from critically appraising unusual,
minority, or unpopular views
• Groupshift: describes the way group members
tend to exaggerate their initial positions when
discussing alternatives and arriving at solutions
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24.

Minimizing Groupthink
• Limit group size
• Encourage group leaders to actively seek input
from all members and avoid expressing their own
opinions
• Appoint a “devil’s advocate”
• Use exercises that stimulate active discussion of
diverse alternatives
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25.

Groupshift or Group Polarization
• Groupshift: Group discussions lead members to
assume new, more extreme, positions
– Groups often take positions of greater risk or greater
caution
– May be due to diffused responsibility or greater comfort
level among members
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26.

Group Decision-Making Techniques
• Interacting groups
Rely on verbal and non-verbal interactions to
communicate
• Brainstorming
Generates a list of creative alternatives
– Problem: production blocking
• Nominal Group Technique (NGT)
Restricts discussion during the decision-making
process to encourage independent thinking
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27.

Evaluating Group Effectiveness (Exhibit 9-5)
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28.

Implications for Managers
• Recognize that groups can dramatically affect individual
behavior in organizations, to either a positive or negative
effect.
• To decrease the possibility of deviant workplace
activities, ensure that group norms do not support
antisocial behavior.
• Pay attention to the status aspect of groups.
• Use larger groups for fact-finding activities and smaller
groups for action-taking tasks.
• To increase employee satisfaction, ensure people
perceive their job roles accurately.
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