Human Behavior in Organizations

1
Human Behavior in Organizations
MGMT 4534 (Monday -Wednesday Sessions)Class 08
How can you be successful on a teamDr.
James A. Burrescia
2
Class 8 What to expect! (Monday)
Saturday November 19, 2005
3
Class 8 What to expect! (Wednesday)
Saturday November 19, 2005
4
Group Processesand Work Teams

• Chapter 8

5
Learning Objectives

• Define what is meant by a group and identify
  different types of groups operating within
  organizations.
• Describe the importance of norms, roles, status,
  and cohesiveness within organizations.
• Explain how individual performance in groups is
  affected by the presence of others (social
  facilitation), the cultural diversity of group
  membership, and the number of others with whom
  one is working (social loafing).
• Define what teams are and describe the various
  types of teams that exist in organizations.
• Understand the evidence regarding the
  effectiveness of teams in organizations.
• Explain the factors responsible for the failure
  of some teams to operate as effectively as
  possible and identify steps that can be taken to
  build successful teams.

6
Group Dynamics

• The social science field focusing on the nature
  of groups the factors governing their formation
  and development, the elements of their structure,
  and their interrelationships with individuals,
  other groups, and organizations.

7
Group

• A collection of two or more interacting
  individuals who maintain stable patterns of
  relationships, share common goals, and perceive
  themselves as being a group.

8
Types of Groups

• Formal Groups Groups that are created by the
  organization, intentionally designed to direct
  its members toward some organizational goal.
• Informal Groups Groups that develop naturally
  among people, without any direction from the
  organization within which they operate.

9
Types of Groups
10
Formal Groups

• Command Group A group determined by the
  connections between individuals who are a formal
  part of the organization (i.e., those who
  legitimately can give orders to others).
• Task Group A formal organizational group formed
  around some specific task.
• Standing Committees Committees that are
  permanent, existing over time.
• Ad Hoc Committee A temporary committee formed
  for a special purpose.

11
Informal Groups

• Interest Group A group of employees who come
  together to satisfy a common interest.
• Friendship Groups Informal groups that develop
  because their members are friends, often seeing
  each other outside of the organization.

12
Why People Join Groups
13
How Groups are Formed

• Five-Stage Model The conceptualization claiming
  that groups develop in five stages forming,
  storming, norming, performing, and adjourning.
• Punctuated Equilibrium Model The
  conceptualization of group development claiming
  that groups generally plan their activities
  during the first half of their time together, and
  then revise and implement their plans in the
  second half.

14
Five-Stage Model
15
Punctuated-Equilibrium Model
16
Discussion Question
Define what is meant by a group and identify
different types of groups operating within
organizations.
17
Structural Dynamics

• The pattern of interrelationships between the
  individuals constituting a group the guidelines
  of group behavior that make group functioning
  orderly and predictable.
• Roles The hats we wear
• Norms A groups unspoken rules
• Status The prestige of group membership
• Cohesiveness Getting the team spirit

18
Role Concepts

• Role The typical behavior that characterizes a
  person in a specific social context.
• Role Incumbent A person holding a particular
  role.
• Role Expectations The behaviors expected of
  someone in a particular role.
• Role Ambiguity Confusion arising from not
  knowing what one is expected to do as the holder
  of a role.

19
Role Concepts

• Role Differentiation The tendency for various
  specialized roles to emerge as groups develop.
• Task-Oriented Role The activities of an
  individual in a group who, more than anyone else,
  helps the group reach its goal.
• Socioemotional Role The activities of an
  individual in a group who is supportive and
  nurturant of other group members, and who helps
  them feel good.
• Self-Oriented Role The activities of an
  individual in a group who focuses on his or her
  own good, often at the expense of others.

20
Common Group Roles
21
Norms

• Generally agreed on informal rules that guide
  group members behavior.
• Prescriptive Norms Expectations within groups
  regarding what is supposed to be done.
• Proscriptive Norms Expectations within groups
  regarding behaviors in which members are not
  supposed to engage.

22
Norm Development
23
Status

• The relative prestige, social position, or rank
  given to groups or individuals by others.
• Formal Status The prestige one has by virtue of
  his or her official position in an organization.
• Status Symbols Objects reflecting the position
  of any individual within an organizations
  hierarchy of power.
• Informal Status The prestige accorded
  individuals with certain characteristics that are
  not formally recognized by the organization.

24
Group Cohesiveness

• The strength of group members desires to remain
  a part of the group.
• Influencing factors
• Severity of initiation
• Conditions of high external
• threat or competition
• Time spent together
• Group size
• History of success

25
Group Cohesiveness

• Positive consequences
• Increased group member satisfaction
• Increased participation in group activities
• Increased acceptance of group goals
• Potentially high productivity
• Decreased absenteeism and turnover
• Negative consequences
• May be counterproductive if groups goals are
  contrary to organizations goals

26
Discussion Question
Describe the importance of norms, roles, status,
and cohesiveness within organizations.
27
Social Facilitation

• The tendency for the presence of others sometimes
  to enhance an individuals performance and at
  other times to impair it.
• Drive Theory of Social Facilitation The theory
  according to which the presence of others
  increases arousal, which increases peoples
  tendencies to perform the dominant response.
• If that response is well learned, performance
  will improve.
• But, if it is novel, performance will be
  impaired.
• Evaluation Apprehension The fear of being
  evaluated or judged by another person.
• Computerized Performance Monitoring The process
  of using computers to monitor job performance.

28
Social Facilitation
29
Computer Monitoring
30
Social Loafing

• The tendency for group members to exert less
  individual effort on an additive task as the size
  of the group increases.
• Additive task A type of group task in which the
  coordinated efforts of several people are added
  together to form the groups product.
• Social Impact Theory The theory that explains
  social loafing in terms of the diffused
  responsibility for doing what is expected of each
  member of a group. The larger the size of a
  group, the less each member is influenced by the
  social forces acting on the group.

31
Social Loafing
32
Social Loafing and Culture

• Individualistic Cultures National groups whose
  members place a high value on individual
  accomplishments and personal success.
• Collectivistic Cultures National groups whose
  members place a high value on shared
  responsibility and the collective good of all.

33
Overcoming Social Loafing

• Make each performer identifiable
• Make work tasks more important and interesting
• Reward individuals for contributing to their
  groups performance
• Use punishment threats

34
Team

• A group whose members have complementary skills
  and are committed to a common purpose or set of
  performance goals for which they hold themselves
  mutually accountable.

35
Discussion Question
Define what is meant by a team and identify
different types of groups operating within
organizations.
36
Groups vs. Teams
37
Work Teams Then and Now
38
Types of Teams
39
High Performance Teams

• Teams whose members are deeply committed to one
  anothers personal growth and success.
• Characteristics
• People are free to make their own decisions
  without checking with others.
• Everyone on the team shares responsibility.
• All members agree on what they are trying to
  accomplish.
• Everyone cares about results and members
  coordinate their individual talents to achieve
  them.

40
Continuum of Autonomy

• In work groups, bosses have responsibility over
  decisions and are accountable for work outcomes.
  The workers themselves have very little autonomy.
• By contrast, in self-managed work teams, the
  workers themselves have responsibility over
  decisions and are accountable for work outcomes.
• Semiautonomous work groups are positioned between
  these two extremes.

41
Self-Managed Teams vs. Traditional Work Groups
42
What SMWTS Manage
43
Creating Teams

• Stage One Prework
• Determining whether a team should be formed
• Establishing the teams objectives
• Creating an inventory of needed skills
• Determining the teams authority
• Stage Two Creating Performance Conditions
• Ensuring the team has the resources to carry out
  its work
• Stage Three Forming and Building the Team
• Establishing who is and is not a member of the
  team
• Ensuring members accept the teams mission
• Clarifying the teams mission and
  responsibilities
• Stage Four Providing ongoing assistance

44
How Successful are Teams?

• People enjoy working in teams after they have
  adjusted to them.
• Teams help enhance commitment among employees.
• Teams appear to be an effective way of
  eliminating layers of management, allowing more
  to be done by fewer people.
• Teams are not always responsible for making
  individuals and organizations more productive.

45
Why Teams Fail

• Members are unwilling to cooperate with each
  other.
• Teams fail to receive support from management.
• Some managers are unwilling to relinquish control
  to teams.
• Teams may fail to cooperate with other teams.

46
Developing Successful Teams

• Provide training in team skills.
• Compensate team performance.
• Provide support.
• Communicate the urgency of the teams mission.
• Promote cooperation within and between teams.
• Select team members based on their skills or
  potential skills.
• Be patient.

47
Skills Training

• Team Building Formal efforts directed toward
  making teams more effective.
• Key Areas of Team Training
• Being a team member
• Self-management
• Team Training Exercises
• Role-definition exercises
• Goal-setting exercises
• Problem-solving exercises
• Interpersonal-process exercises

48
Interpersonal Skills
49
Self-Management Skills
50
1.       Define what is meant by a group and
identify different types of groups operating
within organizations. 2.       Describe the
importance of norms, roles, status, and
cohesiveness within organizations. 3.      
Explain how individual performance in groups is
affected by the presence of others (social
facilitation), the cultural diversity of group
membership, and the number of others with whom
one is working (social loafing). 4.       Define
what teams are and describe the various types of
teams that exist in organizations. 5.      
Understand the evidence regarding the
effectiveness of teams in organizations. 6.      
Explain the factors responsible for the failure
of some teams to operate as effectively as
possible and identify steps that can be taken to
build successful teams.
51
1.       Define what is meant by a group and
identify different types of groups operating
within organizations. Answer A group is a
collection of two or more interacting individuals
with a stable pattern of relationships between
them who share common goals and who perceive
themselves as being a group. Within
organizations, there are two major classes of
groupsformal groups (which include command
groups and task groups) and informal groups
(which include interest groups and friendship
groups). 2.       Describe the importance of
norms, roles, status, and cohesiveness within
organizations. Answer Norms are generally agreed
upon informal rules. Roles are the typical
pattern of behavior in a social context. Status
refers to the prestige accorded group members.
Cohesiveness describes the pressures faced by
group members to remain in their groups.
Together, these factors determine the dynamics of
people working in groups. 3.       Explain how
individual performance in groups is affected by
the presence of others (social facilitation), the
cultural diversity of group membership, and the
number of others with whom one is working (social
loafing). Answer Individual productivity is
influenced by the presence of other group
members. Sometimes a persons performance
improves in the presence of others (when the job
he or she is doing is well learned), and
sometimes performance declines in the presence of
others (when the job is novel). This phenomenon
is known as social facilitation. Not only is
performance influenced by the presence of others
but also by the groups racial/ethnic diversity.
Performance in diverse groups is initially worse
than performance in homogeneous groups, although
these differences disappear with repeated
involvement with the group. On additive tasks
(i.e., ones in which each members individual
contributions are combined), social loafing
occurs. According to this phenomenon, the more
people who work on a task, the less each group
member contributes to it. 4.       Define what
teams are and describe the various types of teams
that exist in organizations. Answer Teams are
special kinds of groupsones whose members focus
on collective rather than individual work
products, are mutually accountable to each other,
share a common commitment to purpose, and are
usually self-managing. Teams differ with respect
to several dimensions their purpose or mission
(work teams versus improvement teams), time
(temporary teams or permanent teams), degree of
autonomy (work groups, semiautonomous work
groups, or self-managed teams), authority
structure (intact teams versus cross-functional
teams), and physical presence (physical teams
versus virtual teams). 5.       Understand the
evidence regarding the effectiveness of teams in
organizations. Answer Comprehensive case studies
also have found organizational productivity gains
(e.g., increased outcome, improved quality,
lowered costs) resulting from the use of teams.
However, more objective empirical studies have
found that, although employees are generally more
satisfied in teams than working under traditional
management, they tend to be no more productive at
the individual level. 6.       Explain the
factors responsible for the failure of some teams
to operate as effectively as possible and
identify steps that can be taken to build
successful teams. Answer Despite some evidence
of team successes, some teams fail. This is often
because team members are unwilling to cooperate
with each other, they fail to receive support
from management, some managers are unwilling to
relinquish control, and some teams fail to
coordinate their efforts effectively with other
teams. With some effort, teams can yield
exceptionally high levels of performance. To
build successful teams, it helps to do the
following provide training in team skills,
compensate team performance, provide managerial
support, promote employee support, promote
cooperation within and between teams, and select
team members based on their skills or potential
skills.
52
Learning Objectives

• Define what is meant by a group and identify
  different types of groups operating within
  organizations.
• Describe the importance of norms, roles, status,
  and cohesiveness within organizations.
• Explain how individual performance in groups is
  affected by the presence of others (social
  facilitation), the cultural diversity of group
  membership, and the number of others with whom
  one is working (social loafing).
• Define what teams are and describe the various
  types of teams that exist in organizations.
• Understand the evidence regarding the
  effectiveness of teams in organizations.
• Explain the factors responsible for the failure
  of some teams to operate as effectively as
  possible and identify steps that can be taken to
  build successful teams.