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UNIT 14
GROUPS AND GROUP
DYNAMICS
Smita Choudhary
Book Code – MB 0027
Faculty HR & OB
 Contents
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 Introduction
 Meaning and characteristics of groups
 The types of groups
 Formal work groups
 Informal work groups
 Group characteristics
 Group decision making
 Advantages of group decision making
 Group dynamics
 Principles of group dynamics

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 Introduction
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 The concept of group is very old.

 Men lived in groups in ancient time.
 Man used to hunt and protect itself from wild
animals in groups.
 With the advancement of civilization, many racial
groups developed in different parts of the world
and developed different cultures.
 The culture of different countries flourished with
different racial groups.

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 Learning Objectives
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 After studying this unit, you will be able

to
 Understand groups as they exist in
organizations
 Identify group characteristics

 Explain group dynamics and principles of

group dynamics.

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03034
 Meaning and Characteristics of
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Group
 A group refers to two or more persons who share a
common purpose.
 “A group is defined as two or more persons in a
state of social interaction.”
---- Kimball Young
 “A group consists of two or more persons who
share norms about certain things with one another
and whose social roles are closely interlocking.”
---- T.M. Newcomb
 “A group is plurality of persons who interact with
anyone else.”
---- W.J.H. Sprott
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 Characteristics of a Group
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The necessary characteristic of a group are

1. Two or more people,

2. Who interact with one another, (The members of a

group occasionally meet, talk, and do things together)

3. Share some common ideology, and (The members of

a group have something in common like common

goals, common threat, security concern, etc.)
4. See themselves as a group. (People who interact with

each other and who have a common ideology are

attracted to one another)

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 s
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PROXIMITY,
INTERACTION AFFILIATION
INFLUENCE

WHY PEOPLE
SECURITY POWER
JOIN GROUPS?

ESTEEM IDENTITY

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 A group fulfills the following needs of its
8 members:

 Affinitive needs of an individual are fulfilled by the

group through friendship between individuals.
 A group also fulfills egoistic needs of an individual
by developing self-esteem and status.
 A group fulfills functional needs of its members by
helping him/her in his daily activities, adjusting
work routines and avoiding boredom.
 Cognitive needs may be satisfied by motivation.

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 A groups serves the following purposes:
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 Group is a means for affiliation needs like needs

for friendship, love and support.
 A group is a means of developing a sense of
identity and maintaining self-esteem.
 It is a means of establishing reality through
developing consensus among group members.
 It is a means of increasing security and power to
handle a common enemy or threat.

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 The Types of Groups
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 Groups may be classified on the basis of the following
criteria
 Purpose or goal
 Extent of structuring
 Legal organization or setting
 Groups may be formal or informal.
 All groups have the following common characteristics
 Have leaders
 Have followers
 Try to achieve some goal or goals
 Have ideas about how to achieve the goals
 Communicate expectations to members
 Satisfy some needs of its members

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 Formal Work Groups
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 Organizing means arranging people

in such a pattern that they can
perform the required activities.
 The purpose of manager’s organizing
responsibility is to create formal work
groups that are necessary to achieve
the goals of the organization.
 The characteristics of formal
workgroups are
 They are approved by some authority.
 There is a fixed division of labor.
 Individuals are assigned specific
responsibilities.
 There are personal interactions between
the group members.
 Group members are
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 Informal Work Groups
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 Informal groups are not

very well organized groups.
 They exist because the
formal groups in an
organization do not satisfy
human needs sufficiently.
 Informal workgroups
provide a means of
satisfaction for security
needs, social needs and
esteem needs.

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 Informal Work Groups and
Security Needs
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 Informal groups support their members and

protect them from outside pressure and
authority.
 The group protects an individual from unfriendly
work environment.
 When a person is new in the organization, he
may feel worried. He does not know his
surroundings well.
 New employees try to find an existing group and
join it for help in the orientation process.

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 Informal Work Groups and Social
Needs
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 Many jobs do not allow communication and

interaction between workers.
 In this situation, people cannot make friends and
are unable to satisfy their need for
companionship.
 People want to belong to a small social group in
which relationships are based on common
interests and values.
 Social groups occur in most companies.
 Members of a social group enjoy each other’s
company.
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 Informal Work Groups and Esteem
Needs
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 Informal groups are also a means of status or

prestige for its members.
 This is specially true if
 The group is well known in the organization
 Outsiders want to join the group
 It is difficult to achieve acceptance into the group
 The informal group is a source of egoistic need
satisfaction.
 The need to achieve can be partially satisfied by
the informal group.

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 Advantages of Informal
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Groups
 Informal groups increase the employee’s sense of
security and help him to do the work more
effectively.
 Informal groups can help the manager in
maintaining discipline.
 Informal groups help to maintain “no time clock”
policy because the employee are highly
motivated and also there is peer pressure. So any
individual cannot take undue advantage of this
policy.

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 Disadvantages of Informal
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Groups
 The disadvantages of informal groups arise when the
goals of the group do not match with the
organizational goals.
 This problem occurs when a planned change is
implemented.
 The protection and social relationships provided by
informal groups are in danger due to new plans that
disturb order and stability, create new procedures of
standard and production and disturb the pattern of
personal interactions on the job.

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 Group Characteristics
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The main elements of group behavior are:

1) Membership in the Group
 It is a process in which membership is provided to

individuals on the basis of common interests and

readiness to be cooperative and follow group norms.
2) Emergent Leadership
 The informal leader performs two functions:

 He starts the action and provides direction. He tries to

eliminate the differences of opinion within the group and
makes effort so that the group achieves its goals.
 He communicates the groups’ beliefs about policies, job,
organization, supervision and other matter to non-members.

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 3) Formal Hierarchy
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 All groups have some formal arrangement.

 The sub-leaders communicate the message to the
members of the group.
 The individuals performing leadership role
possess prestige because of their role.

4) Group Has Some Activity or Task to

Perform
 A group does something which may be related to

its job or not related to it.

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 5) Interaction
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 All people interact with one another.During interaction one person

responds to another.
 According to Berne, “people interact with each other in terms of
three psychological positions or behavioral patterns known as ego
states. These ego states are parent, adult and child.
 Persons interacting with a parent ego are protective (caring),
dogmatic (strict), evaluative and righteous (honest and respectable).
They prefer laws, rules and standards.
 People with adult ego state are based on reasons, looking for
information and processing it and on factual discussions. It views
people as equal, worthy and reasonable human beings.
 The child ego state shows the conditions and experiences of
childhood. It is dependent, rebellious (disobedient), selfish and
sometimes creative.

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 6) Group Norms

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 Every group has some rules, norms,

beliefs, traditions and attitudes that
the group members must follow.
 “Norms are the ought to’s of behavior.
They are prescriptions for acceptable
behavior determined by a group,
institution or society.”
---- Luthens
 “Group norms are rules or guidelines
of accepted behavior which are
established by a group and used to
monitor the behavior of its members.”
---- Argyle

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 i) Group cohesiveness
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 It is the degree of attraction that the group has for its

members.
 Cohesiveness is shown by attitudes like loyalty to the group,
a feeling of responsibility for group efforts, friendliness.
ii) Member satisfaction
 The end result of group membership is satisfaction of
members.
 In a survey of 37 studies, Heslin and Dumply have shown
specific relationship between satisfaction of members of
work group and
i. Perceived freedom to participate
ii. Perceived goal attainment
iii. Status consensus

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 i) Perceived Freedom to Participate
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 A member’s opinion of freedom to participate affects need
satisfaction.
 Individuals who feel that they are active participators are more
satisfied while those who feel that their freedom to participate
is not important were less satisfied.
ii) Perceived Goal Attainment
 A group member’s opinion of progress towards achievement of
desired goals is related to member satisfaction.
 Members of the groups which progressed towards goal
achievement showed higher satisfaction while members of the
groups which are not progressing towards achievement of
goals showed lower satisfaction.

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 iii) Status Consensus
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 It is an agreement about the relative status of all

group members.
 When the degree of status consensus within the
group is low, members satisfaction is low.
 Status consensus is achieved in groups where
 The members consider group task specialist as
competent.
 A leader plays an important role.
 A leadership role is performed by an individual who
focuses on coordinating and maintaining the activities of
the group.

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 Group Decision Making
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 Important decisions are taken by groups and not

by individuals.
 Generally, group decision making is better than

individual decision making.

Advantages of group decision making
 Groups perform better than individuals in
decision making because:
 A wide range of alternatives and solutions is considered.
 Decisions taken in a group are well accepted and the
level of commitment is also high. People accept a
decision when they have contributed to decision making.

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 Potential Problems with Group Decisions
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 Group decisions take longer time than individual

decisions.
 Sometimes, group decision may be a compromise which
gives no positive results.
 A dominant person in a group may dominate over other
members and affect decision making.
 This is more common when group members are of
unequal rank. A person with high rank tries to dictate over
members with low rank.
 Problem of individual dominance can be handled in the
following ways:
 Avoid announcing your preferred solution while the group is
working on the problem.
 Listen carefully to suggestions from every member.
 Encourage every group member to participate.
 Try to achieve a good solution

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 Group Dynamics
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 It is related to the interactions between group

members in a social situation.
 It is concerned with getting knowledge of groups,
how they develop, and their effect on individual
members and organization.
 “Group dynamics is an expression that describes the
situation in which people acting together in a group
accomplish certain thing, either positively or
negatively in a way that cannot be explained
adequately in terms of the individual acting
separately.”
 ---- Thomas Harrell
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 The word ‘dynamics’ is derived from a Greek word which

means ‘force’.
 Thus, group dynamics are the forces working in a group.
 Kurt Lewin established the Research Centre for Group
Dynamics in 1945. The centre is making efforts to improve
scientific understanding of groups through experiments and
field studies.
 Many factors in the work environment affect group behavior.
The two most broad aspects are
 The physical environment, e.g., plant, equipment, layout
 The psycho-social environment, e.g., worker needs reward systems,
work group structure, supervisory practices, work group norms,
worker roles and attitudes.

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 Principles of Group
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Dynamics
 Principles of group dynamics (termed by Cartwright) are
the norms that the group must follow to work effectively.
 These principles are----
i. There should be no barrier between the leader and the
follower. The leader (who changes others) and the follower
(who are changed) should have a strong sense of
belongingness to the group.
ii. The group should be attractive to its members. It increases
the group’s influence on its members.
iii. A group member with higher prestige has a greater
influence on other members of the group.

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iv. Efforts to change individual members of a group will make

them conform to the norms of the group.
v. Pressure for changes in a group can be established by
creating the perception that there is a need for change.
vi. Information related to the need for change, plans for
change, and the results of change should be shared by all
members of the group.
vii. Changes in one part of the group may cause tension in
other parts. This tension can be reduced by removing the
change or making some adjustments.

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 Cattell proposed seven theorems which show
characteristics of synergy within a group:
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Groups are formed to satisfy individual needs and

stop to exist when this purpose is not solved.
The total synergy of a group is the result of the

attitudes of all members towards the group.

Effective synergy may be aimed to achieve goals

outside the group.

Individual group members may also use groups to

achieve personal goals, group goals may be

secondary to them.
Group memberships may overlap, but the total

synergy in the group remains constant.

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