Chapter 7: Group and teams Flashcards
group
Two or more people interacting interdependently to achieve a common goal.
Formal Work Groups
Groups that are established by organizations to facilitate the achievement of organizational goals.
informal groups
groups that emerge naturally in response to the interest of organizational group members
what are the stages of group development
1) forming
2) Storming
3) norming
4) preforming
5) adjourning
forming
orient “by testing the waters” - what are we doing/purpose
storming
conflict emerges, confrontation and criticism determine whether or not they get along and sort roles is an issue. Problems are likely to happen earlier than later.
norming
members resolve the issues that provoked the storming and develop consensus (compromise is necessary)
preforming
devote energy to task
adjourning
rites and rituals that affirm the group’s previous successful development are common (like work parties)
punctuate equilibrium
A model of group development that describes how groups with deadlines are affected by their first meetings and crucial midpoint transitions.
phase 1
first meeting, this is critical to set the agenda for what will happen in the remainder of this phase.
- the first meeting end up dominating the first half of the group life
midpoint transition
the halfway point of the deadline marks the change in the group approach and how the group manages the change is critical for the group to show progress - may seek advice and even do a different approach.
- answering questions
- assessing strengths and weaknesses
phase 2
concludes with final meeting that reveals a burst of activity and concern for how outsiders will evaluate the product.
additive tasks
this is when the group performance is dependent on the sum of the performance of individual group members
disjunctive tasks
when the group performance is dependent on the BEST GROUP MEMBER
Process losses
group performance difficulties stemming from the problems of motivating and coordinating larger groups
Conjunctive tasks
when the group is limited by the poorest performer
summary of the two
for additive and disjunctive tasks, larger groups might perform better up to a point but at increasing costs to the efficiency of individual members.
purely conjunctive groups should decrease as group size increases
social norms
collective expectations that members of social units have regarding the behaviour of each other.
Typical Norms EXAMPLES
dress norms
reward allocations
performaance norms
what are roles
positions in groups that have a set of expected behaviours attached to them
role ambiguity
the lack of clarity of job goals or methods
elements that lead to ambiguity
organizational - “fail to provide the bigger picture”
role sender - unclear focus
the focus person - the expectation that are clearly developed and sent might not be fully digested by the FOCAL person
role conflict
a condition of being faced with incompatible role expectations
intrasender role conflict
when the sender provides incompatible expectations to the role occupant
intersender
this is when two or more sender provide role occupant with incompatible expectations
interrole conflict
Several roles held by a role occupant involve incompatible expectations
- ex. conflicts between work and family role
person-role conflict
role demands call for behaviour that is incompatible with the personality or skills of a role occupant.
status
the rank of social position accorded to group member in terms of prominence and prestige
formal status systems
managements attempt to publicly identify those people who have higher status
- including status symbols like job titles and working relationships, pay
informal status
not advertised but known, like people who are naturally regarded as mentors (even if they arent a manager)
group cohesiveness
the degree to which a group is attractive to its members
(players tell the world how fine it is to be playing with “a great bunch of guys.”)
consequences of cohesiveness
more participation in group activities
more conformity
more success
social loafing
The tendency to withhold physical or intellectual effort when performing a group task.
what are the 2 forms
In the free rider effect, people lower their effort to get a free ride at the expense of their fellow group members.
In the sucker effect, people lower their effort because of the feeling that others are free riding, that is, they are trying to restore equity in the group.
psycological safety
A shared belief that it is safe to take social risks.
team reflexivity
The extent to which teams deliberately discuss team processes and goals and adapt their behaviour accordingly.
shared mental models
Team members share similar information about how they should interact and what their task is
collective efficacy
Shared beliefs that a team can successfully perform a given task.
team resilience
A team’s capacity to bounce back from setbacks or adversity
self-managed work team
Work groups that have the opportunity to do challenging work under reduced supervision.
composition of self-managed
stable
size
expertise
diversity
cross functional teams
work groups that bring people with different specialties together for better production
vitual teams
use tech to organize time, space, and organizational boundaries.
advanatges
- around the clock
- reduced time and cost
-larger talent pool
disdvantages
- communication
- trust
- management issues
-isolation
