Module 6

Question 1

What is a group?

Answer 1

A group within the organization is defines as two or more employees that:

1. interact with each other,
2. perceive themselves as sharing several common interests or goals, and
3. come together or are brought together to achieve a meaningful organizational activity.

Question 2

Define a formalised group?

Answer 2

• Two or more members
• Prescribed interaction patterns
• Purpose(s) started in meaningful organizational terms
• Members are aware of the formal groups existence and their involvement in it

Question 3

What are the main reasons individual need to join groups?

Answer 3

1. Interpersonal attraction is defined as a set of factors that lead to the conclusion that members share similar and highly desirable characteristics
   a. Proximity
   b. Physical attraction
   c. Attitude, value, and/or belief similarity
   d. Economic and social similarity
   e. Race and gender similarity
   f. Perceived ability of others
2. Activities of the group
3. Goals of the group

Question 4

Define the cohesiveness of a group?

Answer 4

The cohesiveness of a group is defined as:

1. Attraction to the group, including resistance to leaving it
2. High morale exhibited by members
3. Strong coordination of member effort

Question 5

How can managers raise cohesiveness?

Answer 5

• controlling the work group composition
• matching the group’s task to the characteristics and qualification of the members in the group
• keeping the group size relatively small
• providing clarity on goals and activities
• institutionalizing the role of disturbance handler in heterogeneous groups to facilitate agreement and establishing ground rules for handling conflicts
• creating the group perception of a common enemy
• carefully timing positive group feedback around group performance successes

Question 6

What are the common properties of work group norms?

Answer 6

1. Norms streamline and summarize the influence process to make the workgroup more efficient at policing member behavior.
2. Norms apply to member behavior and not their thoughts.
3. Norms develop for those behaviors that influence levels of member effort and group goals.
4. Group norms develop over time and are resistant to change.
5. Some members have more rights to deviate from work group norms than other members do.

Question 7

List the indicators for group think?

Answer 7

1. The illusion of invulnerability
2. Collective rationalization (group members are collectively oblivious to indicators that could spell trouble)
3. Mindguards (group has self-appointed guards who sift through and eliminate unwanted negative external information)
4. Belief in inherent morality of the group
5. Negative stereotyping of the opposition
6. Direct pressure applied to dissenters
7. Self-censorship
8. Illusion of unanimity (each member mistakes the silence of others as agreement)

Question 8

How do you safeguard groupthink?

Answer 8

1. The leader assigns the role of the critical evaluator on a rotating basis to members of the group.
2. Influential members should not pre-specify solutions or methods for reaching solutions.
3. Leaders might have subgroups (or individuals) arrive at their own conclusion first before polling the entire group.
4. At intervals, outside experts might provide guidance to the group.
5. When group decision-making deals with competitive organizations, sessions should be devoted to exploration of warning signs and possible forms of retaliation.
6. After the group has made its decision, a “second chance” meeting to provide a forum for expressing doubts should be held.

Question 9

Provide observations about group size

Answer 9

• 2-3 member groups can make members very anxious about their high performance visibility
• 2-5 member groups are better able to reach consensus than large groups
• 4-5 member groups foster greater member satisfaction than middle or large size groups
• 5-11 member groups tend to make more accurate decisions than groups outside that size range
• 11 or more member groups generate more ideas but as size increases beyond 20 members the mean performance per member starts to decline.

Question 10

What is the forming stage of group development?

Answer 10

Forming is the group phase-in during which the members move from a personal to a groups focus. Members wrestle with identifying important behaviors, assessing skills, abilities, etc. of members, discussing the goals and motives of members, and assessing the degree of commitment in the group.

Question 11

What is the storming stage of group development?

Answer 11

Storming is the phase during which members may become more assertive in their opinions about the group’s purposes, methods and norms because they are accumulating more knowledge about the work group. Member dissatisfaction with the current leader may surface and the leader may be replaced. If teams conclude that they are better off reaching their goals on their own, the group will never get past this stage.

Question 12

What is the norming stage of group development?

Answer 12

Norming: As interpersonal conflict subsides and the work group’s normative structure emerges.
During the Performing stage, the actual performance is close to potential performance because the group is minimizing its process losses.

Question 13

What is the performing stage of group development?

Answer 13

Interdependence and problem solving. Focus of the task and not maintenance.

Question 14

Outline the steps of brainstorming?

Answer 14

1. Assemble the work group and appoint a session leader
2. Define the purpose and/or problem (ideas, strategies, solutions, alternatives, etc.).
3. Set a time limit for the session.
4. Select a recording method
5. Review the rules of brainstorming

Question 15

Outline the delphi technique

Answer 15

1. Each group member independently and anonymously records comments, suggestions and solutions to the problem facing the group.
2. All the data generated in step 1 are sent to a centrally located individual who is responsible for data compilation and reproduction.
3. Each member receives a copy of all written comments from other members.
4. Members generate feedback on other members’ comments, and all second round feedback is written down and sent to the centrally located individual.
5. Steps 3 and 4 are repeated as many times as necessary to reach consensus.

Question 16

Outline Nominal Group Technique?

Answer 16

1. The question under study is posted in front of the group whose members silently generate ideas in writing without looking at the work of others or discussing the question (5 to 10 minutes).
2. The session facilitator goes around the table and asks each participant to read one idea from his or her notes. This idea is recorded in some way. In a round-robin fashion, all participants present their ideas for recording until all are shown.
3. Each idea recorded is discussed in the order it appeared. The session facilitator reads each item and asks the participants if there are any questions or points needing clarification.
4. Each member records the ideas on 3’×5’ cards and rank orders them secretly from 1 to n. The mean average rankings are used as a basis for the group’s decision. The NGT process can end here or the decision may be refined through discussion and rewording. The voting patterns can be analyzed and reasons can be examined to see if more accurate decisions can be made.
5. A final vote is taken in the same way as in step 4. This vote closes the decision loop so members experience closure to the NGT process.

Question 17

Explain a pathway for effective intergroup relations?

Answer 17

• Create rules and procedures to ensure communication and cooperation between groups for tasks requiring cooperation.
• In order to foster better understanding between the groups, members might be exchanged temporarily.
• Formally creating a position (linking role) designed as overseeing and linking the groups.
• Using task-forces to temporarily create a group filling the linking role.
• Due to a need for fast decision-making, organizational security, or intergroup conflict the groups might benefit from decoupling them (potentially just temporarily).

Question 18

What are the theoretical reasons for social loafing?

Answer 18

• Create rules and procedures to ensure communication and cooperation between groups for tasks requiring cooperation.
• In order to foster better understanding between the groups, members might be exchanged temporarily.
• Formally creating a position (linking role) designed as overseeing and linking the groups.
• Using task-forces to temporarily create a group filling the linking role.
• Due to a need for fast decision-making, organizational security, or intergroup conflict the groups might benefit from decoupling them (potentially just temporarily).

Question 19

Outline how you would manage social loafing?

Answer 19

• Focus on the interesting and important aspects of the task to increase the level of job involvement of group members.
• Assure group members that their individual contributions are identifiable and significant.
• Tell group members that they should not tolerate inadequate effort or performance from group members.
• Tell them that they should expect to have their performance evaluated.
• Ensure that some portion of rewards received by group members is dependent on their performance.

Question 20

Outline methods to deal with conflict?

Answer 20

Avoidance
Accommodation
Forcing
Compromising 
Collaboration

Question 21

Outline the forms of decision making from the Vroom-Yetton-Jago normative decision model?

Answer 21

AI: A manager makes a decision alone, using the information currently available. This is the most authoritarian, boss-centered style of decision-making.
AII: A manager seeks information from subordinates or group members and then makes a decision. Employees may or may not be aware of the problem before the manager takes a decision.
CI: A manager explains the problem to his subordinates in a one-to-one format. The manager takes a decision which may or may not reflect the ideas of his subordinates.
CII: A manager explains the problem at hand to his subordinates in a group format. The manager takes a decision which may or may not reflect the ideas of his subordinates.
GII: A manager explains the problem to his subordinates in a group format. With the manager, the group makes a final decision.

Question 22

What are the problem attributes of Vroom-Yetton-Jago model?

Answer 22

Quality requirement 
Commitment requirement 
Leader's information (i.e. how good)
Problem structure
Commitment probability
Goal Congruence (i.e subordinate share same goals)
Subordinate Conflict
Subordinate Information (do subordinates have the information to make high quality decision