<Return OB Index>

Groups

Composition, Cohesiveness and Norms

Definition:

A group is a collection of two or more employees who interact with each other, perceive themselves as sharing common interests or goals and come together or are brought together to accomplish a meaningful Organisational activity.

Composition

Homogeneous

Have members with similar qualities in several areas (values, work experience, intelligence, gender and education)

Heterogeneous

Differ in given characteristic.

ü Creates more conflict

ü Increases groups potential to problem-solve.

Result of Group Composition is Cohesiveness

1. Attraction to group including resistance to leave

2. High morale exhibited by members

3. Strong co-ordination of member effort.

Cohesiveness

Cohesive Group Trends	Incohesive Group Trends
Perform well if goals conform to Organisational goals	Perform poorly.
Energetic members – motivated	Members indifferent to group effort and goals
Less absenteeism	High lateness and absenteeism.
Celebrate group’s success and lament its failures.	Indifferent to success & failure of the group.
Value membership	Indifferent to group membership
Resist transfer	Seek transfer
Homogenous over time	Remain unchanged in characteristic.

Three conditions influence performance

1. Level of work group cohesiveness

2. Performance goals set by the group

3. Degree of agreement between group performance goals and Organisational performance goals.

Norms

ü Control members’ behaviour

ü Group standards for members’ behaviour,

ü Exist in any work group.

ü Create basis for conformity

ü Members exhibit compliance motive to gain rewards and escape punishment.

1. Influence process to make the work group efficient – police member behaviour.

2. Apply to member behaviour not to their thoughts.

3. Develop behaviour influence levels of member effort and group goals. (Core)

4. Develop over time and resistant to change.

5. Some members have more right to deviate from norms than others

Managerial principles for controlling work group norms and member conformity:

☺ Create desire to remain in-group. – Cohesiveness

☺ Carefully illustrate how high standard for group achievement meet individual needs and trigger rewards at group level.

☺ Specify importance of giving up individual gain in favour of group success.

☺ Seize opportunities to show small difference between members’ personal preferences and what group asks of its members.

☺ Carefully define how members’ contribution help group achieve goals

☺ Give members a say in creating norms about effort level and performance standards.

☺ Develop simple accepted system for recording and publicizing workgroup success in core performance areas.

☺ Develop valued rewards to motivate members.

☺ Link between team goals and personal accomplishments

☺ Creativity necessary, temporarily suspend norms to encourage member innovation.

☺ Make it clear that there are serious negative consequences for noncompliance with performance norms.

☺ Do not expel members who deviate from norms if:

+ Have history of helping group

+ High status members

+ Group has history of helping versus isolating deviants.

☺ Do not allow becoming too isolated so that they ignore company’s need for co-ordination.

<Return OB Index>