Groups & Teams Flashcards
Group
Two or more people interacting interdependently to achieve a common goal
Formal Work Groups
Groups that organizations establish to facilitate the achievement of organizational goals
Informal Groups
Emerge naturally in response to the common interests of organizational members
Seldom sanctioned by organization
Stages of Group Development
Forming: group members try to orient themselves by testing the waters
Storming: conflict emerges as members determine whether they will go along with way group is developing
Norming: resolve issues from storming, develop social consensus
Performing: devote energy toward task accomplishment
Adjourning
Punctuated Equilibrium
When groups have specific deadline by which to complete some problem solving task, observe different sequence of development
Punctuated Equilibrium Timeline
Phase 1: first meeting, continues until midpoint of group existence
Midpoint transition: occurs at halfway point in time toward deadline
Phase 2: concludes with final meeting
Group Structure
Characteristics of the stable social organization of a group
Size & Satisfaction
Larger groups consistently report less satisfaction
Incorporating many members can promote conflict
Time available for each person to contribute decreases with larger groups
Additive Tasks
Predict potential performance by adding the performances of individual group members together
E.g. building a house
Potential performance increases with group size
Disjunctive Tasks
Potential performance of the group depends on the performance of its best member
E.g. looking for single error in computer program
Potential performance increases with group size because potential of group including a superior performer is greater
Process Losses
Performance difficulties stemming from problems of motivating and coordinating larger groups
Actual performance = potential performance - process lesses
Conjunctive Tasks
Performance of group limited by poorest performer
E.g. assembly line limited by weakest link
Both potential and actual performance of conjunctive tasks decreases as group size increases due to probability of including a weak link increasing
Social Norms
Collective expectations that members of social units have regarding the behaviour of each other
Roles
Positions in a group that have a set of expected behaviours attached to them
Designated/Assigned Roles
Formally prescribed by organization as means of dividing labour and responsibility to facilitate task achievement
