COMM 222 - Chapter 7

List some common norms;

- Dress norms - Reward allocation norms (equity, equality, reciprocity, social responsibility) - Performancenorms

Why do individuals comply with norms?

- The norm corresponds to privately held attitudes. - They often save time and prevent social confusion. - Groups have a range of rewards and punishments available to induce conformity to norms.

Why is group membership important? (2)

-Groups exert influence on us -Groups provide a context in which we are able to exert influence on others -Often a very innovative way to produce new ideas

How do you counteract social loafing?

-Make individual performance more visible -Make sure that the work is interesting -Increase feelings of indispensability -Increase performance feedback -Reward group performance

What are the consequences of good group cohesiveness?

-More participation in group activities -More conformity -More success

What are some of the factors that influence group cohesiveness?

-Threat and competition -Success -Member Diversity -Size -Toughness of initiation

What is a group?

A group consists of two or more people interacting interdependently to achieve a common goal.

What is the punctuated equilibrium model?

A model of group development that describes how groups with deadlines are affected by their first meetings and crucial midpoint transitions

Explain phase 1 of the PEM?

Begins with the first meeting and continues until the midpoint in the group's existence. • The first meeting is critical in setting the agenda for what will happen in the remainder of the phase. • The group makes little visible progress toward the goal.

What is Storming?

Conflict often emerges at this stage. Confrontation and criticism occur as members determine whether they will go along with the way the group is developing. Sorting out roles and responsibilities is often at issue.

How many stages does the PEM have?

Essentially 3: The group development process is broken down in two phases, and emphasises the importance of midpoint transition

What is a formal work group vs. an informal work group? (And examples)

Formal: Groups that are established by organizations to facilitate the achievement of organizational goals. Ex: Task forces, committees. Informal: Groups that emerge naturally in response to the common interests of organizational members. This can help or hurt an organization.

What are the 5 stages of group development?

Forming Storming Norming Performing Adjourning

What is Forming?

Group members try to orient themselves by "testing the waters." The situation is often ambiguous, and members are aware of their dependency on each other.

What is group structure?

Group structure refers to the characteristics of the stable social organization of a group - the way a group is "put together".

How do groups develop? Are there stages?

Groups develop through a series of stages over time. Each stage presents the members with a series of challenges they must master to achieve the next stage.

What is norming?

Members resolve the issues that provoked the storming, and they develop social consensus. Compromise is often necessary. Norms are agreed on and the group becomes more cohesive. Information and opinions flow freely.

What is Adjourning?

Rites and rituals that affirm the group's previous successful development are common. Members often exhibit emotional support for each other.

Explain Group Size. Do smaller or larger groups get more satisfaction?

Smallest group size is 2, usually have between 3 and 20 members. Influenced by satisfaction, and performance. • Members of larger groups consistently report less satisfaction with group membership than those in smaller groups. • Chance to work on and develop friendships decrease as size increases. • Larger groups might prompt conflict and dissension. • Many people are inhibited about participating in larger groups. • In large groups, individual members identify less easily with the success and accomplishments of the group.

What is group cohesiveness?

The degree to which a group is especially attractive to its members. • Members want to stay in the group and they describe the group in favourable terms. • Cohesiveness is a relative, rather than absolute, property of groups.

What is performing?

The group devotes its energies toward task accomplishment. Achievement, creativity, and mutual assistance are prominent themes at this stage.

What are the main components of group structure? (Plus the three other less important ones)

The most basic structural characteristics along which groups vary are size and member diversity. Others include: norms, roles and cohesiveness

Do smaller or larger groups perform better?

The relationship between group size and performance depends on the task the group needs to accomplish and on how we define good performance. • Types of tasks: - Additive tasks - Disjunctive tasks - Conjunctive tasks

What is social loafing? What are some examples?

The tendency to withhold physical or intellectual effort when performing a group task. Free Rider Effect - lower their effort to take a free ride with their fellow group members. Sucker Effect - People lower their effort because of the feeling that others are free riding, so they try to restore equality in the group.

Explain Intrasender Role Conflict

• A single role sender provides incompatible role expectations to a role occupant. Example: A manager might tell an employee to take it easy while delivering a new batch of reports that require immediate attention. PROVOKES AMBIGUITY

Explain phase 2 of the PEM?

• Decisions and approaches adopted at the midpoint get played out in Phase 2. • It concludes with a final meeting that reveals a burst of activity and a concern for how outsiders will evaluate the product.

Explain some positives and negatives of group diversity.

• Diverse groups have a more difficult time communicating effectively and becoming cohesive. • Diverse groups might take longer to do their forming, storming, and norming. • Once they do develop, more and less diverse groups are equally cohesive and productive. • Diverse groups sometimes perform better when the task requires cognitive, creativity- demanding tasks, and problem-solving. • In general, any negative effects of "surface diversity" in age, gender, or race seem to wear off over time. • "Deep diversity" in attitudes toward work or how to accomplish a goal can badly damage cohesiveness.

What are Process Losses?

• Group performance difficulties stemming from the problems of motivating and coordinating larger groups. • As groups performing tasks get bigger, they tend to suffer from process losses. • Problems of communication and decision making increase with size. Actual performance = Potential performance - Process losses • Potential performance and process losses increase with group size for additive and disjunctive tasks. • Actual performance increases with size up to a point and then falls off. • The average performance of group members decreases as size gets bigger. • Thus, up to a point, larger groups might perform better as groups, but their individual members tend to be less efficient.

What are the best ways to avoid role conflict? (as a manager?)

• Managers can help prevent employee role conflict by: - Avoiding self-contradictory messages - Conferring with other role senders - Being sensitive to multiple role demands - Fitting the right person to the right role

How can role ambiguity be reduced?

• Managers can reduce role ambiguity by providing clear performance expectations and performance feedback.

Why do norms develop? What do norms develop about? How do norms develop?

• Norms provide regularity and predictability to behaviour. • Norms develop about behaviours that are at least marginally important to their supporters. • Shared attitudes among members of a group form the basis for norms.

Explain the midpoint transition of the PEM?

• Occurs at almost exactly the halfway point in time toward the group's deadline. • The transition marks a change in the group's approach. • How the group manages it is critical for the group to show progress. • This transition crystallizes the group's activities for Phase 2.

What are roles? How many kinds of roles exist in an organization?

• Positions in a group that have a set of expected behaviours attached to them. • There are two basic kinds of roles in organizations: - Assigned roles - Emergent roles

What is role ambiguity?

• Role ambiguity exists when the goals of one's job or the methods of performing it are unclear. • There are a variety of elements that can lead to role ambiguity: - Organizational factors - The role sender - The focal person

What is role conflict?

• Role conflict exists when an individual is faced with incompatible role expectations.

Explain Person-Role Conflict

• Role demands call for behaviour that is incompatible with the personality or skills of a role occupant. • Many examples of "whistle-blowing" are signals of person-role conflict. • The organization has demanded some role behaviour that the occupant considers unethical.

Explain Interrole Conflict

• Several roles held by a role occupant involve incompatible expectations. • Competing demands for one's time are a frequent symptom of interrole conflict.

What are group norms? Is it conscious or subconscious?

• Social norms are collective expectations that members of social units have regarding the behaviour of each other. • They are codes of conduct that specify the standards against which we evaluate the appropriateness of behaviour. • Most normative influence is unconscious; we are only aware of it in special circumstances.

What are disjunctive tasks?

• Tasks in which group performance is dependent on the performance of the best group member. • The potential performance of groups doing disjunctive tasks increases with group size.

What are additive tasks?

• Tasks in which group performance is dependent on the sum of the performance of individual group members. • For additive tasks, the potential performance of the group increases with group size.

What are conjunctive tasks?

• Tasks in which group performance is limited by the performance of the poorest group member. • Both the potential and actual performance of conjunctive tasks would decrease as group size increases.

Evidently the consequences of role conflict towards the employee in question are:

• The most consistent consequences of role conflict are job dissatisfaction, stress reactions, lowered organizational commitment, and turnover intentions.

What are the consequences of role ambiguity?

• The most frequent outcomes are job stress, dissatisfaction, reduced organizational commitment, lower performance, and intentions to quit.

What are the four types of role conflict?

• There are four types of role conflict: - Intrasender role conflict - Intersender role conflict - Interrole conflict - Person-role conflict

Explain Intersender Role Conflict

• Two or more role senders provide a role occupant with incompatible expectations. • Employees who straddle the boundary between the organization and its clients or customers are especially likely to encounter this form of conflict.