Bachelor of Commerce Programme

Organizational Behaviour
Group Behaviour

Group Structure

The Da Vinci Institute for Technology Management (Pty) Ltd

Registered with the Department of Education as a private higher education institution under the Higher Education Act, 1997. Registration No. 2004/
HE07/003
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LESSON – 16

GROUP STRUCTURE AND GROUP PROCESS

CONTENTS
16.0 Aims and Objectives
16.1 Introduction
16.2 Group member attributes
- Knowledge, skills and abilities
- Personality characteristics
16.3 Group structure
- Formal leadership
- Roles
- Norms
- Status
- Size
- Composition and diversity
16.4 Group Process
- Synergy
- Cohesiveness
16.5 Group decision making
16.6 Group think and group shift
16.7 Let us Sum up
16.8 Lesson-End Activities
16.9 References

16.0 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

After completion of this lesson, the students may be able:

i) understand the types of attributes and personality characteristics required for the
formation of group.
ii) explain the structural components of group and able to design an effective group
iii) discuss the dynamics of process with special reference to enhance its overall
effectiveness and elicit synergy among group output.
iv) explain the phenomenon of groupthink and the remedial measures to overcome such
phenomenon.

16.1 INTRODUCTION

Individual members of groups bring with them certain individual characteristics that may
have an influence on group behavior. An individual’s typical behavioral patterns such as
how he or she reacts to others, and his available skill and abilities will have an impact on
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the overall performance o f a group. The discussion of individual characteristics and

group behavior includes four main components: 1) biographical and physical
characteristics, 2) abilities and intelligence, 3) personality and 4) expectations.

The structure of the group provides norms, social ranking influence, and the position or
role that each member occupies in the group. The following components of the group
structure are important: 1) group composition, 2) norms, 3) status, 4) emergent leaders 5)
role definition and 6) group cohesiveness. Research studies have shown that conformity
to group norms are a function of four factors; personality of the group member;
situational factors; stimulus factors; and intra- group relations. Individuals conform to
group norms generally in one of the three ways: conformity, rebellion or creative
individualism.

16.2 GROUP MEMBER ATTRIBUTES

A group’s potential level of performance is, to a large extent dependent on the attributes
that its members individually bring to the group. There are two attributes: i) knowledge,
skills and abilities of an individual and ii) his personality characteristics.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES

Intellectual abilities, skills and abilities are predicting the group’s performance more
confidently. It is reported that individuals whose abilities are crucial for attaining the
group’s tasks tend to be more involved in group activity and more likely to emerge as the
group leaders. Further, they are satisfied if their talents are effectively used by the group.
Intellectual ability and task relevant ability have both been found to be related to overall
group performance. Group performance is not merely the summation of its individual
member’s abilities. However, these abilities set the possibilities for what member can do
and how effectively they perform in a group.

PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS
There is a high level of relationship between personality traits, group attitudes and
behavior. It is reported that personality traits tend to have a positive connotation in our
culture and tend to positively related to group productivity, morale and cohesiveness.
These include traits such as sociability, self-reliance and independence. The magnitude of
the effect of any single characteristic is small, but all together the consequences for group
behavior are of major significance. Therefore, the personality characteristics of group
members play an important part in determining group behavior.

16.3 GROUP STRUCTURES

FORMAL LEADERSHIP

Formal leader of the group:

He is its principal representative and is the one individual who can legitimately exert
formal influence on the activities of the group. The leader is responsible for the direction
and goal accomplishment of the group and can reward or punish individual member when
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they do not comply with the directions, orders or rules of the group. Without a leader, the
group will never have direction and spirit to proceed further. Due to this, an organization
supports the leaders influence, and ensures that the leader has the power to make the
group members comply with directives.

Informal Group Leaders:

Informal group leaders generally are individuals who are respected by other group
members and who have acquired special status. The informal group leaders generally:
i) Aids the group in directing its activities toward goal accomplishment
ii) Embodies the values of the group
iii) Acts for the group in presenting their viewpoint when interacting with
management or other groups
iv) Facilitates the activities of the group by initiating group actions and assisting
in resolving group conflict.
The informal group leadership role can and often does change from person to person,
depending on the particular conditions that exist. An individual who is not able to
maintain the respect, status, and prestige of the group can be replaced by others who
embody the needed characteristics. To remain an informal leader person must have the
necessary qualifications, knowledge, and skills needed to aid and guide the group toward
goal accomplishment.

ROLES

Role refers to a set of expected behavior patterns attributed to someone occupying a

given position in a social unit. Roles are classified into three ways:

Expected Role:
It refers to the expectations of supervisors towards their subordinates on the type of
behavior or actions in their job. This expected role can be specified by giving a detailed
job description, position, title or by other directions from the organizations.

Perceived Role:
This concerns the set of activities or behaviors of the group that an individual believes he
or she should do. Most of the time, the perceived role corresponds to the expected role.
Many factors may be present in a situation that can distort the individual’s perception and
thus make the perceived role inaccurate.

Enacted Role:
This refers to the way in which the individual group member actually behaves. The
enacted role is generally dependent on the perceived role

If there is any differences exist between or among these roles, a considerable level of role
ambiguity or role conflict exists. Role ambiguity is the lack of clarity regarding job duties,
authority and responsibility that the individual perceives in his role. It can be caused by a
number of factors such as lack of clear job description, occupational levels with complex
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set of duties, lack of training, experience and clear job responsibilities, lack of self
confidence and other personalized factors. Role conflict occurs when multiple demands
and directions from one or more individuals create uncertainty in the worker’s mind
concerning what should be done, when or for whom. Employees must receive directions
or expectations only from one source. But in recent times, the employees have multiple
roles and therefore can receive multiple directions. Two different types of role conflict
exist; i) intra-role conflict and ii) inter-role conflict.

Intra-role conflict: It is created by many different directives sent simultaneously to some

one occupying one role, making it impossible for the individual to satisfy all directives at
the same time. For example: Production supervisor experiences role conflict by getting
conflicting demands from four sources such as i) production manager is demanding
greater emphasis on steady production levels and attention to cost control ii) Sales
manager asking not only for a greater variety of products, but also different qualities of
products for select customers ii) Maintenance managers demanding him to shutdown the
plant to do repair work. iv) Workers want more overtime, better working conditions and
less interference in their work from supervisors.

Inter-role conflict: It is created by many simultaneous roles presenting conflicting

expectations. It exists when an individual finds that compliance with one role
requirement may make it more difficult the compliance with another. At the extreme, it
would include situations in which two or more role expectations are mutually
contradictory.

All of us to face role conflict at various times. The critical issue is how the different role
expectations imposed by organizational requirements affect our behavior. Certainly they
increase internal tension and frustrations. There are a number of behavioral responses to
resolve such conflicts by following the organizational rules, regulations and procedures
that govern organizational activities. Other behavioral responses may include withdrawal,
staffing, negotiations, etc.

NORMS:

Norms act as standards of behavior and performance. Norms can be described as shared
belief among group members as to what behaviors are appropriate if one desires to be a
part of and belong to the group. It refers to acceptable standards of behavior that are
shared by the group members. Norms direct employees on what they ought and ought not
to do under certain circumstance. When agree to and accepted by the group, norms act as
means of influencing the behavior of group members with minimum of external controls.
Norms become unwritten rules, or implicitly understood codes of conduct for group
members. Interestingly, norms become explicit only when they are broken. For instance,
if the norms of a group include punctuality in attendance, and if group members come
late, the other members are likely to react to this behavior in several subtle or not so
subtle ways. Some of the types of norms are as given below:
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i) Performance related norms: Setting targets such as number of units produced per
day, number of calls attended etc will be performance related norms
ii) Non-performance related norms: Formal dress code, visiting office during
weekends, accepting transfers to distant locations etc, will be non performance
related norms.
iii) Informal Social Arrangements: These norms come from informal work group and
primarily regulate social interactions within the group. These norms influence
friendships on and off the job, whom group members eat lunch with, and social
activities.
iv) Allocation of Resources. This is related to fixing pay, assignment of difficult jobs,
and allocation of new tools and equipments etc.
v) Norm Conformity: An important issue facing all the managers of group is the
degree to which employees conform to group norms. There are certain factors
which strongly influence members to conform to group norms. They are as
follows:

i) Personal factors: It is reported that more intelligent individuals are less likely
to conform than are less intelligent individuals and that the more authoritarian
an individual is , the less likely that he or she will conform to group norms.
ii) Situational factors: The size, structure of the group, social contexts etc
strongly influence the norm conformity. As the size of the group increase
beyond certain limit say more than 10-12, the conformity to norm is likely to
decrease.
iii) Stimulus Factors: The more ambiguous the stimulus, the greater will be the
conformity to the group norms. The uncertainty will force the members to
work together to minimize its level and attain clarity in the work roles.
iv) Intra-group relationship: The types of intra-group relationships such as the
kind and extent of group pressure exerted, the rate of success achieved in
reaching group goals, the degree of identification with group goals etc.
strongly influence members to conform to the group norms.

Norms are thus leant by members through observation, and through reinforcement (being
rewarded when one conforms to valued norms and punished when one violates valued
norms), if an individual consistently transgresses the norms, ignoring the signals sent out
by members, the worst punishment will follow. He or she will sooner be totally ignored
and devalued as a member of the group, thus losing status in the group.

Establishing Norms
Norms are developed based on the following four ways:
i) Explicit statements made by a group member: Ensuring that no personal
telephone calls will be entertained during the office hours and getting acceptance
from all the employees will help to create an order
ii) Critical events in the group’s history: The accident occurred to a visitor of factory
premises due to his negligence will help to enforce certain guidelines and
becomes norms to every one.
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iii) Primacy: The initial behavior pattern exhibited by the group will become a norm
and difficult to change.
iv) Carry-over behavior from the past situations: New members expectations,
experiences will help reformulate or revise certain norms to meet the current
requirements.

The advantages of group- norms:

Enforcing group norms will help the organization in so many ways. Some of the
advantages are
i) It facilitates the group’s survival
ii) It increases the predictability of group member’s behavior
iii) It reduces embarrassing interpersonal problems for group member
iv) It allows members to express the central values of the group and clarify what is
distinctive about the group’s identity.
Groups attempt to perform at a level equal to their established performance norms. The
degree of socializations will affect not only the level of performance of individual group
members, but whether the individual will remain as a group member.

STATUS:

Status is defined as a social ranking within a group and is assigned to an individual on the
basis of position in the group or individual characteristics. Status can be a function of the
title of individual, wage or salary level, work schedule mobility to interaction with others
with or outside the group, or seniority. Status also refers to the importance and reference
that people give to others. People at higher levels of the organizations and those who
have accomplished much are ascribed or bestowed higher status. People perceive those
high status persons as having more control, being more competent and as having more
influence over group decision than low status individuals. Members having charisma, a
high level of experts and access to the organization’s resources will be accorded higher
status than those who do not have them. Demographic factors such as gender, age,
educational level and length of service in the organization will have an effect on the
status enjoyed by the member of a group. Group characterized by high status congruence
tend to perform better than the groups in which there is status incongruence,

Formal and Informal Status:

Formal Status: The hierarchical position, job title, perks assigned to these positions is
formally assigned to the job holders. By virtue of holding such position, a person is
viewed as high.
Informal Status: Status may be informally acquired by such characteristics as education,
age, gender, skill or experience.

Status Equity: Maintaining status hierarchy in equitable manner is essential to keep the
moral of the employees. When inequity is perceived, it creates disequilibrium that results
in various types of corrective behavior. This is noticed in such occasions – promotions,
overseas job assignments etc.
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Status and Culture: Different cultures assign different weightings to the status. French
people are highly status conscious than Latin Americans. Status for Latin Americans and
Asians tends to be derived from family position and formal roles held in organizations.

SIZE:

The size of the group is an important determinant of overall effectiveness of the group.
But it is depending upon the objective of the group. If the group is interested to generate
creative solutions, the larger the size of the group will be more ideal. If the group is
interested to get more cohesiveness and try to get quick output, the smaller the size will
be more ideal. Groups of approximately seven members tend to be more effective for
taking quick action. The size of the group is linked with social loafing.

Social Loafing: It is the tendency of group members to do less than they are capable of
individually, resulting in an inverse relationship between group size and individual
performance. The more the number of employees assigned to do a task, the lesser will be
the amount of their effort than they normally tend to carry out in performing their tasks
individually. For instance, in group rope pulling task, it is expected that the groups’ effort
would be equal to the sum of the efforts of individuals with in the group. That is, three
people pulling together should exert three times as much pull on the rope as one person.
The result, on the contrary, showed that three members in a group exerted only two times
the average individual performance, lesser than the individual level effort. The primary
reason is the diffusion of responsibility as the results of group cannot be attributed to any
single person.

COMPOSITION AND DIVERSITY:

Group composition refers to the degree to which members of a group share a common
demographic attribute such as age, gender, race, educational or length of service in the
organization and the effect of this attribute on performance, satisfaction and turnover.
The composition of a group may be an important predictor of productivity, satisfaction,
and turnover. Group composition will be based on homogenous or heterogeneous
characteristics of the members.

Homogenous Groups:

In homogeneous groups the compatibility with respect to needs, motives and personalities
has been found to be conducive to group’s effectiveness because it facilitates group
cooperation and communication. Although the homogeneity tends to reduce the potential
for conflict, it also can create an overabundance of conformity, resulting in unproductive
group activity. Groups composed of individuals with similar and compatible
characteristics may be expected to behave in similar ways and will perform more
effectively on tasks that are routine and less effectively on tasks that are complex and
require a diversity of problem solving approaches.
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Heterogeneous Groups:

In heterogeneous groups, the variation in individual characteristics help to produce high

performance levels and a high quality of problem solving because members stimulate the
intellectual abilities of one another. The heterogeneity of individual characteristics in
such groups can create situations in which the potential for conflict is great.
Heterogeneous groups can be expected to perform more effectively on tasks that are
complex and require creative or innovative approaches to the problem, but less
effectively on tasks that are routine and require a high level of individual conformity and
coordination. For example, a group of research scientists are attempting to develop a
new product of petrochemical. The nature and complexity of the task requires a diversity
of talents, knowledge, and creative approaches which is provided more effectively by a
heterogeneously composed group.

Homogeneous groups perform well on tasks that are uniform and routine. Homogeneity,
while reducing the potential for dysfunctional conflict to arise, may be detrimental to
performance if there is an overemphasis on conformity. Heterogeneous groups perform
well on tasks that are complex and non-routine and that require a diversity of talents and
view points. However, heterogeneity can create conflict.

16.4 GROUP PROCESS

SYNERGY
Synergy refers to the cumulative effect of two or more substances which is different from
the individual summation of those substances. It connotes the creation of a whole which
is greater than the sum of the individual parts. For example, synergy is obtained when 2
+2 is not merely 4, but can be made to add up to more than 4. For example, three
engineers are given the tasks of solving a problem. The ideas generated jointly by these
three engineers will be richer and more creative than if the three engineers individually
generated their own ideas without any interaction among them. The ideas generated
jointly will be better than the individually generated ideas because the three now jointly
and creatively explore several different alternatives, discuss the pros and cons and
develop integrated thoughts which are more innovative, thus arriving at a much more
powerful solutions than what they would have been able to achieve individually. The
group has developed synergy by merely interacting with each other using their combined
wisdom to generate integrated solutions. This is positive synergy.
Social loafing represents a negative synergy where the whole is less than the sum of the
parts where individuals are likely to reduce their effort due to diffusion of responsibility.

Social Facilitation Effect: The mere presence of others also affects the performance of
individual. It reported that the presence of others tend to improve performance when the
tasks are relatively simple and well rehearsed. This Positive effect is termed as Social
Facilitation Effect.
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Social inhibition effect: This leads to a detrimental effect which occurs when an
individual is asked to perform a complex task with which he is unfamiliar or in which he
is unskilled to do any work.

GROUP COHESION:

Cohesion refers to the extent of unity in the group and is reflected in the members’
conformity to the norms of the group, feelings of attraction for each other, and wanting to
be co-members of the group. Attraction, cohesion and conforming to norms are all
intertwined. The more the members feel attracted to the group, the greater will be the
group cohesion. The greater the cohesion, the greater the influence of group members to
persuade one another to conform to the group norms. The greater the conformity, the
greater the identification of the members with the group, and the greater the group
cohesion. Cohesive groups work together to achieve the group goals. They can be
considered as valuable assets to the organization if the group’s goals coincide with the
organization’s goals.

Factors increasing Cohesiveness: The following factors can facilitate to increase

the cohesiveness of the work group.

i) Agreement on Group Goals: If the group agrees on the purpose and direction of
its activities, this will serve to bind the group together and structure interaction
patterns towards successful goal accomplishment

ii) Frequency of Interaction: When group member have the opportunity to interact
frequently with each other, the probability for closeness to develop will increase.
Managers can provide opportunities for increased group interaction by calling
frequent formal and informal meetings, providing a common meetings place or
physically designing the facilities so that group members are within sight of one
another

iii) Personal Attractiveness: Cohesiveness is enhanced when members are attractive

to one another if mutual trust and support already exists. Personal attraction also
helps group members to overcome obstacles to goal accomplishment and personal
growth and development.

iv) Inter-group Competition: Competition with other groups, both written and
external to the organization is a mechanism that acts to bring groups closer
together for attaining a common purpose.

v) Favorable Evaluation: If a group has performed in an outstanding manner, some

recognition for its performance by management serves to elevate the prestige of
the group in the eyes of the group members and other members of the group.
Favorable evaluation helps make group members feel proud about being members
of the group.
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vi) Group Size: As the size of the group increases, the frequency of interaction each
member has with other group members decreases, thus decreasing the probability
that cohesiveness will develop. Past studies have shown the groups of four to six
members provide the best opportunity for interaction.

vii) Pleasant experiences with the group: When group members are attracted to
each other or there is a full trust and cooperation, interaction may become a
pleasant experience resulting in high level of cohesiveness in the group.

viii) Lack of Domination: When one or few members dominate the group,
cohesiveness cannot adequately develop. Such behavior can create smaller
“cliques” within the group or identify individual members as isolates or deviates.

ix) Gender of Members: It is reported that women tend to have greater cohesion
than men. A possible reason is that women are more likely to be feeling types
than thinking types.

x) Previous Success: If a group has a history of success, it builds an espirit de corps

that attracts and unites members. Successful organizations find it easier to attract
and hire new employees than unsuccessful ones.

xi) Humor: Humor has been linked to increased cohesion in several studies.

It is reported that the greater the cohesion, the greater the influence of the group over the
behavior of members and subsequently group performance. As groups are composed of
individuals who are attracted to the goals of the group and to each other, one would
expect to find a strong relationship between cohesiveness and group performance.

The major difference between highly cohesive and low cohesive groups would be how
closely members conformed to the group norms. Further, the group performance would
be influenced not only by cohesion, but by the level of group norms.

16.5 Group Decision Making

Groups offer excellent techniques for performing many of the steps in the decision-
making process. They are a source of both breath and depth of input for information
gathering. If the group is composed of individuals with diverse backgrounds, the
alternatives generated should be more extensive and the analysis will be more critical.

Strengths of Group Decision-making:

The following aspects identified the main advantages that groups offer over individuals in
the making of decisions.
i) More information and knowledge: By aggregating the resources of several
individuals, the group brings more input into the decision process.
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ii) Increased diversity of views: Group brings heterogeneity to the decision-

making process and this opens up the opportunity for more approaches and
alternatives to be considered
iii) Increased acceptance of a solution: The group acceptance facilitates higher
satisfaction among those employees required to implement it.
iv) Increased legitimacy: The group decision making process is consistent with
demographic ideals and therefore may be perceived as being more legitimate
than decisions made by an individual.
Weakness of group decision making:
Some of the main disadvantages are:
i) Time-consuming: It takes time to assemble a group.
ii) Pressures to conform: The desire by group members to be accepted and
considered as an asset to the group can result in squashing any overt
disagreement, thus encouraging conformity among viewpoints.
iii) Domination by the few: Few people will try to dominate the group discussion.
If such people are happened to be mediocre, the group overall effectiveness
will suffer.
iv) Ambiguous responsibility: In group decision, the responsibility of any single
member is reduced.

16.6 Group Think and Group Shift

GroupThink
Groupthink refers to a situation where group pressure for conformity deters a group from
critically evaluating unusual, unpopular or minority views. It is phenomenon that occurs
when group members become so enamored of seeking concurrence that the norm for
consensus overrides the realistic evaluation of alternative course of action and the full
expression of deviant, minority or unpopular views. It describes deterioration in an
individual’s mental efficiency, reality testing and moral judgment, as a result of group
pressures.

The results of groupthink are often such that poor quality decisions are taken and
inappropriate responses are made to situational needs. The following are the antecedents
of Groupthink:
i) Excessive group cohesiveness
ii) Insulation of group from external information and influence
iii) Lack of impartial leadership and of norms encouraging proper procedures
iv) Ideological homogeneity of members
v) High stress from external threat and task complexity

These antecedents are relating to basic structural faults in the group and to the immediate
decision making contexts.
The following are some of the symptoms of groupthink:
i) Feelings of invulnerability and unanimity
ii) Unquestioning belief that the group must be right
iii) Tendency to ignore or discredit information contrary to group’s position
iv) Direct pressure exerted on dissidents to bring them into line
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v) Stereotyping of out-group members

vi) Ignore external information
vii) Overestimate its own abilities and capabilities to make good decision
viii) Rationalize or reject data that tend to disconfirm its original views and
judgments
ix) Apply direct pressures on those who momentarily express doubts about any of
the group’s shared views
x) Those who have doubts or different view point keep silent about misgivings
and even minimizing to themselves the importance of their doubts.

In a group where the groupthink phenomenon operates, members constantly monitor and
censor themselves to ensure that they are going along with the group’s opinion and not
deviating by expressing a different viewpoint. Too much cohesion has the built- in danger
of group member falling into the trap of groupthink, which in turn, compromises good
decision- making, especially in complex situations.

Group Shift
It is reported that group is willing to take greater risks than when the same members
make decision individually. In case more financial commitment is involved, individuals
tend to be very cautious and make conservative decisions. However, when the same kinds
of decisions are made by groups, the decisions made are less conservative. Groups feel
more at ease and comfort in making riskier decisions. Higher risk taking behaviors in a
group are probably a function of the responsibilities for the consequences of the decision
making shared by all the group members rather than one individual assuming more
burdens by himself. This phenomenon for groups to take greater risks while making
critical decisions when compared to individual decision making is known as the
Groupshift.

The most plausible explanation of the shift towards risk seems to be that the group
diffuses responsibility. Group decisions free any singly member from accountability for
the group’s final choice. Greater risk can be taken because, even if the decision fails, no
one member can be held wholly responsible. .

16.7 Let Us Sum Up

In this unit, we have discussed about the attributes of group members, structural
components of group and group decision making.

16.8 Lesson-end Activities

1. Explain the role of personality characteristics and member attributes in enhancing the
group cohesiveness.
2. What are the key structural components of the group? Design an affective work group
for an R&D organization which is assigned to develop a new product.
Explain the group dynamics and emphasize the various methods of eliciting synergy in
getting group output.
4. What are the symptoms of groupthink and group shift and the ways in which such
symptoms can be overcome?