UNIT- III

FOUNDATION OF GROUP BEHAVIOR

A. What is a Group?
 A group refers to the association of two or more person interacting themselves for the
achievement of a common goal.
 Two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent, who have come together to
achieve a particular goal

B. Classification of group

Group

Formal Informal
Group Group

Command Interest Friendship

Task Group
Group Group Group

Formal and informal groups

a. Formal Groups
 Groups which are deliberately created by the organization to achieve organizational goals
 Defined by organization structure
 Designated with work assignments

b. Informal group
 It is a natural and spontaneous association of people whenever they work together over a
period of time.
 It is created by mutual alliance and not formally structured
 Not organizationally determined and appear in response to the social contact
Classification of Formal Group- Command group and Task group

A. Command Group: Groups created by the organization and composed of a manager and
his subordinates who carry out orders on the basis of authority within their group.
It is relatively permanent group and included in organization chart
Eg: HR Department- HR Manager and his subordinates
B. Task group: Groups created by the organization to do a specific job task.
It is relatively temporary in nature Eg: Task force on a new product quality

Classification of Informal Groups- Interest group and friendship group

A. Interest group: Those groups organized around a common interest and working together
to attain a specific objective with which is concerned.
Relatively temporary in nature Eg: hobby societies, Treckers, artists, Nature Lovers,
Animal Protection groups
B. Friendship groups: Association of people who likes each other and they share one or
more common characters.
It is relatives permanent and draws benefits of social relations

C. Group Formation
Five stage model

1. Forming –
 Initial stage of group formation where people come together and members are treated as
strangers.
 There is an uncertainty among group members about roles, structure and norms, size, etc.
2. Storming
 Members start to frequently communicate each other and share their views.
 They resist control by group leaders and show hostility.
 High degree of conflict among the members
3. Norming-
 People feel part of the team and group is cohesive with strong group identity and norms
4. Performing
 Group fully functional and working towards objectives
5. Adjourning
 Dissolving stage. After achieving the goal, start gradually to dissolve.
 D. Group Properties or Elements

1. Roles
2. Norms
3. Status
4. Size
5. Cohesiveness

a. Roles
 It is an important element in a group and every group members are required to
play certain roles in the group.
 Role is a set of expected behavior pattern attributed to someone occupying a
given position in a social unit.

Role perception: An individual view of how he or she is supposed to act in a given situation

Role Expectation: How others believe a person should act in a given situation

Role conflict: A situation in which an Individual is confronted by divergent role expectation

Eg: Principal and Parent of children

b. Norms
 Acceptable standard of behavior, attitude, feelings within a group that are shared by the
group’s members.
 Norms are controlling and influencing behavior of members in the group.
 Different kinds of norms- performing norms, appearance norms, resource allocation
norms, etc.

c. Status-
 A socially defined position or rank given to groups or group members by others
 Determinants of Status: power of a person wields over others, person’s ability to
contribute to the groups goals, Individual personal characteristics

d. Size-
 size of the group overall affects the group’s overall behavior
 Smaller groups are faster at completing task
 Odd numbers groups do better than even
 e. Cohesiveness
 Degree of relationship among the members
 Degree to which groups memebers are attached to each other and are motivated to stay in
a group
 Cohesiveness can be improved through reducing the group size, encouraging agreement
with group goals, division of task, competition with other groups, rewards, etc.

E. Why do people form or join in groups?

1. Goal achievement
 Generally, we need a pool of talents, knowledge and skilled people to accomplish a
particular task.
 Achievement – Groups have the capability to achieve more than individuals acting
alone.
2. Security
 By joining a group, individual can reduce the insecurity of standing alone.
 People feel stronger and more resistant to threats when they are part of group.
 Safety and protection against a common enemy
3. Affiliation/companionship
 We enjoy the regular interaction and groups fulfill the social need of affiliation.
4. Power
 Get opportunity for leadership and it makes powerful
5. Self-esteem/status
 Membership of prestigious group increases the self-esteem.
 Generating positive feeling of self-worth
 Recognition and status when they are members of groups that are considered to be
important by others
F. Group Cohesiveness:
 Cohesiveness refers to the bonding of group members or the degree of attachment
or closeness that members feel with the group.
 It affects the group behavior including worker satisfaction, low turnover and
absenteeism, and higher productivity.

Features of a cohesive group

1. The members interact among themselves quite frequently and interpersonal

communication is very effective.
2. Absence of conflicts among group members
3. Group loyalty among the members is high because the group enjoys high status.
4. The members stand united against any perceived external threats to the group.
5. The group has a history of past success.

Factors affecting the Group Cohesiveness

1. Size of the group
 Research says small groups are more effective than large group
 Because each members have ample opportunity to interact, participate and
become actively involved in the group
2. Nature of the group
 Homogenous group and heterogeneous group
 Homogenous groups there is similarities of age, education, background,
experiences, attitudes, Values and interests
 So, people enjoy the company of people who hold similar opinions, morals,
beliefs, interests and code of conduct. It creates a friendly atmosphere in groups
 If someone disagrees with us, this might make us scared that we are wrong.
3. The degree of dependency on the group
 The greater the degree of dependency which will be greater attraction
 Satisfaction of needs from the groups
4. Time spent together
 The amount of time people spends with one another.
 They come to know each other and closer to each other and strengthen the
cohesiveness. For example: in class room
5. Physical Distance among members
The close distance is likely to have greater opportunity for interaction and It enhances the
free exchange of ideas, sharing the problems and prospects
6. The frequency of interaction
7. Personal characteristics or attractiveness of members
8. Cooperation
9. Leadership style- the quality of group leaders. Dynamic, energetic, motivating leaders
make impacts in the group.
10. Competition or threats from other groups
 Intergroup competition brings cohesiveness in the group and intragroup
completion is destructive to the group cohesion
11. Previous success and shared goals
 When a group achieves a meaningful goal the cohesiveness increases and The
success is shared among members
 COMMUNICATION
 Exchange of ideas from one person to another/group to another
 It may be a thought, opinion, information, etc.
 Organizational communication - Informational flow that happens in an organization, it
has some structure, direction and process
A. Communication Process
 Sender
 Message
 Encoding
 Channel
 Receiver
 Decoding
 Response or feedback
The sender encodes the message (to symbolic form) and passes it through a medium (channel) to
the receiver, who decodes it and gives a response or feedback

B. The structure or Direction of Communication

a. Horizontal /Lateral communication

 The communication takes place among members of same work group or level.
For Example: communication between managers of two departments
 It may be for, task coordination, problem solving, conflict resolution, etc.

b. Vertical communication
 Two types of vertical communication
Downward communication –

 Communication that flows from one level of a group to a lower level

 For Example: Job instruction from group managers or leaders to subordinates

Upward communication –
 Communication flow from lower level employees to higher level (supervisors,
managers, heads, etc.)
 For example: feedback about training programs, new project or programs, etc.
 C. Types of Organisational Communication

1. Formal and Informal

 Formal- communication related to rules, job tasks in the organization. It may be a chain
of command, written word, etc.
 Informal- gossips, chitchats, etc.
 Grapevine- the informal communication network in the organization. The rumors and
gossips transmitted through the grapevine

2. Internal or External Communication

a. Internal Communication
 Communication that takes place within an organization.
 To employees, partners, investors, etc.
 Face to face, telephone, email , notices, facx, etc.

b. External Communication
 Communication between the organization and those outside the organization
 To customers, competitors, government, press, etc.
 Telephone, fax, emails, pressnotes, websites, reports, notices, etc.

D. Modes of Communication

a. Oral communication
 Any type of communication which makes through use of spoken words
 It includes meetings, videoconferencing, telephone, etc.

b. Written Communication
 Communication through written letters, notices, email, instant messaging, organization
bulletin, social media, etc.

E. Barriers of communication
 Communication skills- language, voice,
 Quality of message- continuity of message
 Context
 Poor listening
 Noise
 Distance
 Mechanical failure
F. Importance of Communication
 Controlling the behavior of group members
 Motivating employees
 Make them understanding of organizational goal and objectives
 Organizational culture depend on communication
 Improve performance
 Decision making
 CONFLICT
 It’s a kind of perception
 It can be considered as an expression of hostility, negative attitude, aggression and
misunderstanding, etc.
 Conflict may arise between different organisation or within the organisation

A. Definition

Joe Kelly- Conflict is defined as opposition or dispute between person, groups or ideas

A series of disagreement or argument between two or more person

B. Sources of Conflict
 Organisational Change
 Different sets of values and belief- superior and inferior
 Contrasting perception or misunderstanding
 Communication problems or gaps
 Personality clashes- incompatible personalities
 Lack of trust
 Job related issues
 Competition
 Other agendas

C. Views and Approaches of Conflict

a. Traditional view of conflict (1930 and 1940s)

 All conflicts is harmful and must be avoided
 Conflict are outcome of poor communication, lack of openness, trust between people and
failure of managers to be responsive to the needs and aspiration of the employees

b. The Interactionist view of conflict

 See the conflict in a positive way
 Conflict is a positive force in a group to perform effectively
 They does not proposes that all conflicts are good
 But some minimal level of conflict can help keep a group viable, self-critical and
creative
 It helps management to identify the needs and demands of the employees

D. Types of Conflict
 a. Task Conflict- conflict over content and goals of the work
b. Relationship Conflict- conflict based on interpersonal relationship
c. Process conflict – conflict over how works gets done- roles

We can classify the conflict based on where it occurs

a. Dyadic conflict- conflict between two people

b. Intragroup conflict- conflict that occurs within a group or team
c. Intergroup conflict- conflict between different groups

a. Functional Conflict (Constructive Conflict)

 Conflict that results in benefits to individuals, groups or organisations
 It works towards the goal of the organisation
 It may stimulate new ideas, healthy competition and team effectiveness

b. Dysfunctional conflict (Destructive conflict)

 Brings negative outcome to the people or organisaiton
 It divert energies, hurts group cohesion, promotes interpersonal hostilities, brings
negative environment in the organisation

E. Effect of Conflict
 Both positive and negative impacts
 Positive- when it encourages creativity, clarification of point of view,
 Negative- when it creates resistance to change, negative environment, clashes

F. Conflict handling/resolution Styles

a. Avoiding
 Ignoring the conflict and hope it will resolve itself over a time
 It is not the best way to handle every situation
 It is one of the easiest way

b. Accommodating Style
 In this one party in a conflict is willing to place the opponents interest above his or
her own
 Sacrificing to maintain the relationship
 But this is weak method

c. Forcing style
  Try to win at all cost- opponent is considered as his enemy
 No consideration to the opponent- violation of rules

d. Collaborating style
 Seek a win-win solution for the conflict
 The demand or desires of each parties is satisfied
 It is time consuming but best style of conflict management

e. Compromising Style
A give and take tactics
The parties in conflict is willing to give up something
Negotiation and bargaining through offers

G. Conflict Resolution Techniques

a. Problem solving- face to face meeting and identifying the problem and resolving it
b. Expansion of resources- when conflicts arise based on scarcity of resources (promotion,
salary or other amenities)
c. Avoidance- withdrawal from or suppression of the conflict
d. Compromise- Each party gives up something of value
e. Smooting- collaborating
f. Authoritative command- using formal authority to resolve (police, government)
g. Altering human variable- changing behavior of employee through training,
h. Altering the structural variable- changing the organizational structure , interaction
pattern, transfers, suspension, etc.
 INTERGROUP BEHAVIOR
A. Introduction
• An organization is an aggregate of many small groups – formal or informal- teams, task
groups, departments, etc.
Intergroup behavior-
The way groups interact with other groups or behavioral pattern among different groups
• The intergroup behavior impacts the organizational performance
• All groups are interdependent and they interact with each other for a common goal

B. Intergroup Conflict
 Each groups has its own particular characteristics- some groups will be very
dynamic and cooperative and others will be competitive in nature.
 The existence of groups leads to competition, conflict, etc.

a. Horizontal strain- competition or conflicts between functions or departments

Eg: Production and Sale department
b. Vertical Strain- Competition between heirarchial levels
Eg: Management vs Trade Union

C. Approaches to Inter-Group Relationship:

Rensis Likert
 A organisation encompasses a series of overlapping groups.
 Each group is linked with the rest of the organisation by persons who hold membership in
more than one group.
 These people are called ‘linking pins’ as they forge link between different groups.
 Though the success of decision making depends upon group process and interaction,
occurring at different levels, yet everything revolves around the ‘linking pins’.
According to him- the Success of Organisation depends on:
(a) Good group process of decision making and
(b) Supervision
D. Managing inter-group relations
a. Rules and procedures- a standard operating procedure to specify how group members
are to interact with each other
b. Planning and goals- specific plan and goals for each department and responsibility chart.
– each department should know what they are supposed to do.
c. Intergroup team development/task groups
d. Effective communication channels
e. Negotiation- a process in which two or more parties attempt to reach acceptable
agreement
f. Leadership development
 NEGOTIATION
A. Introduction
• A kind of bargaining among different stakeholders
• A process in which two or more parties exchange goods or services and attempt to agree
on the exchange rate for them.
• In organizations, involves your employees, a vendor, a customer or a potential investor.
• Sometimes managers negotiate with employees and peers, sales people negotiate with
customers, purchasing agent with customers
• Negotiating over the salary, leave, and other benefits.

B. Bargaining Strategies
 There are two general approaches to negotiation
 Distributive bargaining and integrative bargaining
Distributive bargaining
• A kind of bargaining in which every party tries to put its best foot forward to grab a
bigger chunk of the resources
• It is competitive in nature and requires that every party views every other party as a
competitor
• In this you don’t take the other party’s needs into consideration when making a deal and
any one of the party will lose – either buyer or seller
• This negotiation ends up in a win-lose situation where some parties get advantage and
the others lose out.
Eg: wage negotiation between owners and labour unions
Relationship is not important and looks for short term gains
Integrative Bargaining
• The parties cooperate to achieve maximum benefits by integrating interests of both
parties
• It is in collaborative in nature and all the parties negotiate on friendly terms, acting as
allies to one another.
• in which both parties feel as if they gained something in the deal.
• Relationship is more important and aim at long term gain
• integrative negotiation will be most beneficial in situations where your position is not
strong but you still want to win something in the bargain.
• Eg: Purchasing used vehicles

Third party negotiation

 A mediator will be there- A neutral third party who facilitates a negotiated solution by
using reasoning and suggestions

DECISION MAKING
A. Introduction
 It is the process of making best choice among the alternatives available for reaching
objectives (Certo, 2009)
 In our daily life we take decisions- regarding career, partner, dress, course, food, etc.
 Some decision we take collectively- friends tour destination, resource person, etc.
 Group Decision Making: Process in which individuals collectively makes choice from
the alternatives before them.
 Organizational decision making is the process by which one or more organizational
units make a decision on behalf of the organization (Huber, 1980).
 Many organizational decisions involve several managers. The problems may affect many
departments, multiple viewpoints, and even other organizations,

B. Types of Decisions in an Organisation

a. Programmed Decision - Highly routine decision or those that are repeated over time and
for which an existing set of rules can be developed to guide the process.- purchasing
materials, duty scheduling, etc.
b. Non-Programmed Decisions- Decisions about a novel problem and there is no set course
of action – adopting a new technology

C. Decision Making Process

a. Diagnose the problem- collecting evidence/data about all aspects of the problems
b. Developing Alternative- finding out available alternative solution for the problem.
From previous experiences and idea generation meetings
c. Evaluating the Alternative- evaluating the strength and weakness of each
alternatives (plus and minuses)
d. Selecting and Implementing the decision
e. Evaluate the effectiveness

D. Group Decision Making Techniques

1. Brainstorming
  It is an idea generation process in which 7-12 members come together and discuss the
issue
 it encourages and generate as many as ideas and alternatives possible-
 No criticism is allowed

2. The nominal group technique (NGT)

 A group decision making method in which individual members meet face to face to
pool their judgments but it restricts discussion or interpersonal communication during
decision making process
 Before discussion take place, each members develop solutions/ideas independently
and write down ideas on cards
 After this silent period, each member presents one idea to the group.
 No discussion takes place until all ideas have been presented and recorded
 Brief time is allotted to clarify the ideas, after presentation by all members
 Group members individually rank the solution by secret ballot
 The final decision is made based on the ranking

Benefit: less time consuming, equal participation but dominant group members may
make collective decision

3. Delphi Technique

Members selected are experts and scattered over a large distance and having no face to face
interaction for decision making

Process-

 A set of questions are made relating to the problem

 Experts in the problems area are identified and contacted and question is being sent.
 The experts independently answers the questions and send it back to the central
coordinator
 These responses are compiled and anlaysed
 A second questionnaire is developed based on the evaluation and sent to participating
members to comment
 The experts comment on others solution
 If the consensus is arrived then the final decision is taken

4. Consensus Mapping
 Making decision by pooling the ideas together generated by several task groups
 The facilitator send the problem for discussion among different task group inside the
organization
  Encourage the participants to further develop cluster of ideas
 The ideas are compiled and narrowed in smaller number of ideas in a structure called
strawman map
 Group Size- Groups should not to be too large or too small, 5-7 is the ideal
 Group Composition- Some experts, some members from higher heirarachial level,
influential people among employees

Advantages/strength of Group Decision Making

 Quality decision- pooled knowledge and information

 Increased diversity of views/perspectives
 Acceptance of solution – decision acceptance and commitment
 UNIT IV
LEADERSHIP
A. Introduction
 Leadership- The ability to influence a group toward the achievement of a vision or set of
goals.
 Leadership is the inspiration and mobilization of others to undertake collective action in
pursuit of the common good- Crosby and Bryson- 2005
 The source of this influence may be formal (provided by the organisation) or informal
(within the group- trade unions).

 Leader- one that leads or in command of others

 A leader is one who set vision, goal and motivate people and obtain commitment to
achieve the goals and realize the vision.
 All organisations need a strong leadership and management for optimal effectiveness
 Not all leaders are managers, nor all managers leaders
 Management to formulate detailed plans, create effective structures, oversee day to day
operations, etc.
 Leadership- establishing direction, motivating and inspiring people and leading the
organisation towards the overall goal.

B. Theories of Leadership
1. Trait Theory-
• Leaders are born, not made
• Leadership traits are innate
• It focus on personal qualities and characteristics
• Leaders who have certain trait do appear to be more effective leaders
• Extraversion to be the most predictive trait of effective leadership
• Another trait is EI- emotional intelligence
• Used in military services
Example: Leaders such as Abraham Lincoln and Mark Zuckerberg were born with inborn
ability to lead

2. Behavioral Theory
3. Great leaders are made, not born
4. People can learn to become leaders or we could train people to be leaders
5. Anyone who adopts appropriate behavior can be a good leaders
6. Leaders are made through training and experience
C. Leadership Styles

1. Autocratic Leadership

• Managers retains as much as power and decision making authority as possible

• They make decision alone without involvement of staff

• Decision are enforced using rewards and the fear of punishment

• Bossing people around

2. Democratic Leadership

• Participative style

• Include employees in the decision making process and encourages them to be a part of
the decision making

• Suggestion are made in both direction

• Communication flow freely towards staffs

Laissez-faire model

• Leaders who gives power to subordinates to make the decisions

• The leaders give the direction

• The leaders are still responsible for the decisions that are made

• This is used when employees are able to analyse the situation.

D. Leadership Skills
E. Robert Katz
a. Technical Skills- knowledge and ability
b. Human Skills- interpersonal skills, relationship, problem solving skill, etc.
c. Conceptual Skills- ability to analyse complex situations, interpret available information

• Intelligence- cognitive ability to understand things

• Self confidence
• Determination
• Honesty
• Problem solving
• Communication
• Sociability
• Motivation
• Coordination
• Creativity
• Flexibility and adaptability