Group Dimensions of Organisational Behaviour

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by Wand of Knowledge Team

Group in Organisational Behaviour

Group in Organisational Behaviour

Meaning of Group

A group is a collection of individuals who interact with each other such that one person’s actions have an impact on the others. In other words, a group is defined as two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent, who have come together to achieve particular objectives. In organizations, most work is done within groups.

Groups where people get along, feel die desire to contribute to the team, and are capable of coordinating their efforts may have high-performance levels. Group can be defined as a collection of individuals who have regular contact and frequent interaction, mutual influence, the common feeling of camaraderie, and who work together to achieve a common set of goals.

The definition of a group can be given by some other simple ways like:

  • Several people or things that are together or in the same place.
  • Several people who are connected by some shared activity, interest, or quality.
  • Several individuals assembled or having some unifying relationship.
  • A set of people who meet or do something together because they share the same purpose or ideas.

The term group can be defined in several different ways, depending on the perspective that is taken.

A comprehensive definition would say that is a group exists in an organization, its members:

  • Are motivated to join.
  • Perceive the group as a unified unit of interacting with people.
  • Contribute in various amounts to the group processes (that is, some people contribute more time or energy to the group than do Others).
  • Reach agreements and have disagreements through various forms of interaction.

Types of Groups

Groups may be classified according to many dimensions, including function, the degree of personal involvement and degree of organization.

Types of Groups are;

  1. Formal Groups

Formal groups are created to achieve specific organizational objectives. Usually, they are concerned with the coordination of work activities.

People are brought together based on different roles within the structure of the organization. The nature of the task to be undertaken is a predominant feature of the formal groups.

Goals are identified by management and short and rules relationships and norms of behavior established. Formal groups chain to be related to permanent although there may be changes in actual membership.

However temporary formal groups may also be created by management, for example, the use of project teams in a matrix organization.

  1. Informal Groups

Within the formal structure of the organization, there will always be an informal structure.

The formal structure of the organization and system of role relationship, rule, and procedures, will be augmented by interpretation and development at the informal level.

Informal groups are based more on personal relationships and agreement of group’s members than on defined role relationships. They serve to Satisfy psychological and social needs not related necessarily to the tasks to be undertaken.

Groups may devise ways of attempting to satisfy members’ affiliations and other social motivations that are lacing in the work situation, especially in industrial organizations.

  1. Managed Group

Groups may be formed under a named manager, even though they may not necessarily work together with a great deal. The main thing they have in common, at least the manager and perhaps a similar type of work.

  1. Process Group

The process group acts together to enact a process, going through a relatively fixed set of instructions. The classic environment is a manufacturing production line, where every movement is prescribed.

There may either be little interaction within process groups or else it is largely prescribed, for example where one person hands something over to another.

  1. Semi-Formal Groups

Many groups act with less formality, in particular where power is distributed across the group, forcing a more collaborative approach that includes- negotiation rather than command and control.

Families, communities and tribal groups often act as semi-formal ways as they both have nominal leaders yet members can have a high degree of autonomy.

  1. Goal Group

The goal group acts together to achieve a shared objective or desired outcome. Unlike the process groups, there is no clear instruction on how they should achieve this, although they may use some processes and methods along the way.

As there is no detailed instruction, the members of the goal group need to bring more intelligence, knowledge, and experience to the task.

  1. Learning Group

The learning group comes together to increase their net knowledge. They may act collaboratively with discussion and exploration, or they may be a taught class, with a teacher and a syllabus.

  1. Problem-Solving Group

Problem-solving groups come together to address issues that have arisen. They have a common purpose in understanding and resolving their issue; although their different perspectives can lead to particular disagreements.

Problem-solving may range along a spectrum from highly logical and deterministic, to uncertain and dynamic situations there creativity and instinct may be better ways of resolving the situation.

  1. Friendship Group

Groups often develop because individual members have one or more common characteristics. We call these formations of friendship groups.

Social alliances, which frequently extend outside the work situation, can be based on similar age or ethnic heritage, support for Kolkata Knight Riders cricket, or the holding of similar political yiews, to name just a few such characteristics.

  1. Interest Group

People who may or may not be aligned into a common command or task groups may affiliate to attain a specific objective with which each is concerned. This is an interest group. Employees who band together to have their vacation schedules altered, to support a peer who has been fired, or to seek improved working conditions represent the formation of a united body to further their common interest.

Functions of Groups

The organizational functions of groups help to realize an organization’s goals. Such functions include the following:

  1. Working on a complex and independent task that is too complex for an individual to perform and that cannot be easily broken down into independent tasks.
  2. Generating new ideas or creative solutions to solve problems that require inputs from several people.

Serving liaison or coordinating functions among several workgroups whose work is to some extent independent.

  1. Facilitating the implementation of complex decisions. A group composed of representatives from various working groups can coordinate the activities of these interrelated groups.
  2. Serving as a vehicle for training new employees, groups teach new members methods of operations and group norms.

Psychological groups, therefore, may well be the key unit for facilitating the integration of organizational goals and personal needs.

For example, a formal workgroup in an industrial establishment often evolves into a psychological group that meets a variety of its members’ psychological needs.

If this process occurs, the group often becomes the source of much higher levels of loyalty, commitment, and energy in the service of organizational goals that would be possible if the members psychological needs had to be met elsewhere.

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