Group Dynamics and Team Effectiveness

Formation and Development of Groups

by:

Charles Lamson

A group is a collection of two or more persons who interact with one another in such a way that each person influences and is influenced by the others. The members of a group draw important psychogical distinctions between themselves and people who are not group members. Generally, they

• Define themselves as members
• Are designated by others as members
• Identify with one another
• Engage in frequent interaction
• Participate in a system of interlocking roles
• Share common norms
• Pursue shared and interdependent goals
• Feel that their membership in the group is rewarding
• Have a collective perception of unity
• Stick together in any confrontation with other groups or individuals

These distinctions provide the group with boundaries and a sense of permanence. They lend the group a distinct identity and seperate it from other people and other groups. They also contrib8iute to group effectiveness, the ultimate aim of group activities. A group is effective when it satisfies three important criteria:

1. Production output.The product of the group's work must meet or exceed standards of quantity and quality defined by the organization. Group productivity is a measure of  this product.
2. Member satisfaction. Membership in the group must provide people with short-term satisfaction and facilitate their long-term growth and development. If it does not, members will leave and the group will cease to exist.
3. Capacty for continued operation. The interpersonal processes the group uses to complete a task should maintain or enhance members' capacity to work together. Groups that do not cooperate cannot remain viable.

An effective group is thus able to satisfy immediate demands for performance and member satisfaction while making provisions for long-term survival.

Whether a group is able to achieve these often conflicting goals depends on the closely related processes of group formation and group development.

The End

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The Beginning

Norms

4:22 PM

The expectations that make up roles and shape interpersonal relations are called norms. In a classroom setting, norms exist that direct students to sit down and wait for the instructor to begin the day's activities. Norms may also direct students to participate in class discussions and exercises and to contribute to group case discussions. Without such norms each class meeting would require the instructor to reestablish basic rules of behavior and an agenda for the day. As a result, there would be much less time for the learning activities on the day's agenda.

When role occupants choose to accept all these norms, the conformity is marked by a tendency to try to fit in with others in a loyal but in a non-creative way. People who conform to all norms are the caretakers of the past. So long as tasks remain unchanged and the work situation remains stable, conformity can facilitate productivity and performance. However, it can endanger long-term survival if tasks or the surrounding situation changes significantly.



The Middle



Divestiture socialization ignores or denies the value of the individual's personal identity or characteristics. The organization in this case wants to tear new members down to nothing then rebuild them as completely new and different individuals. Some organizations require either explicitly or implicitly that recruits sever old relationships, undergo intense harassment from experienced members and engage for long periods of time in doing the dirty work of the trade (work that is associated with low pay and low status). Some organizations may even force each new member to take on a new name. The organization promotes these ordeals in the belief that those who emerge from them will lose their sense of personal identity and become strongly committed to the organization's mission and objectives. In contrast, investiture socialization affirms the value to the organization of the recruit's particular characteristics. This type of socialization implies that rather than wanting to change the new member, the firm hopes that the recruit will change the organization. Under these conditions the organization may try to make the recruit's transition process as smooth as possible.


Designing Socialization Programs

The strategy chosen in designing a socialization program depends on the goals of that program. If the goal is to bring about a custodianship response, a group or an organization is best served by a strategy that is collective, sequential and serial,and involves divestiture. Such a strategy will ensure that every socialization recipient starts at the same place and receives the same experiences in the same order. If the goal is to promote innovation, a group or an organization is better served by the opposite strategy, which provides a unique and individualized program for each recipient, and places value on each recipient's particular personality, characteristics and style.


Quality of Interpersonal Role Relationships

Given the importance of role relationships within organizations, it is critical to have a framework whereby the quality of these relationships can be judged and enhanced. Equity theory is a theory of social exchange that describes the process by which people determine whether they have received fair treatment in their relationships.


Equity and Social Comparisons

Equity theory holds that people make judgments about relational fairness by forming a ratio of their perceived investments They then compare this ratio to a similar ratio reflecting the perceived costs and benefits of some other person . Equity theory does not require that outcomes or inputs be equal for equity to exist. Those receiving fewer desirable outcomes than someone else may sill feel fairly treated if they see themselves as contributing fewer inputs than the other person. The key to achieving perceived fairness despite unequal outcomes is that the methods used to translate inputs into outcomes must be seen as fair - a concept referred to as procedural justice. For example, the highest scorer on a professional basketball team may be paid more than a player who sits on the bench but most people would still feel that the team's management is treating both players fairly because of differences in their inputs. 

Equity theory provides a simple framework for understanding how people decide whether or not they are being treated fairly in their relationships. Yet even with this simple framework it is difficult to achieve widespread perceptions of equity in organizations for two reasons. First, equity judgments are based on individual perceptions of inputs and outcomes and the perception of the same inputs and outcomes may differ markedly from one person to the next. For instance, some CEOs might perceive that their inputs are deserving of a multiimillion dollar salary, whereas the general public might perceive the situation differently. Second, it is difficult to predict who will be chosen as the reference person. Any change in policy that is targeted to one group may, in an unforeseen way, spill over and create perceived inequity in another group. For example, in the late 1980s many organizations put in place family-friendly policies that enhanced the benefits package and time off provisions for working parents. However, by the mid-1990s, organizations were seeing a backlash from single workers without children who felt work policies were unfair. As one worker noted, "It's downright discriminatory for an employer to offer more or better benefits because you have children."

Responses to Inequity

Perceptions of inequity create unpleasant emotions. When people feel they are receiving a greater share of outcomes than they deserve, they may feel guilty. Perceiving oneself as coming up short in the equity comparison results in anger. Whether the emotion is guilt or anger, the tension associated with inequity motivates the person to do something to reduce the inequity and the response can manifest itself in different ways. First, the individual might alter personal inputs. For example, one study found that, in a decision-making team, If team members perceived that their opinions were not being given any weight, they stopped contributing to the group's discussion. A second response to inequity is to try to alter personal outcomes. Individuals who feel they are relatively underpaid according to the market may demand raises and threaten to leave or strike.

A third way to respond to inequity is to use what is called cognitive distortion, that is rationalizing the results of one's comparisons. For example, people can distort their perceptions of outcomes. In one equity study, people who were underpaid for a particular task justified this underpayment by stating that the task they were working on was more enjoyable than the task being performed by the overpaid, even though their tasks were identical.

A fourth way to restore equity is to take some action that will change the behavior of the reference person. Workers who in the eyes of their peers perform too well on piece-rate systems often earn the derogatory title of "rate-buster." Research has shown that if name-calling of this sort fails to constrain personal productivity, more direct and forceful tactics may be invoked. Finally, if all else fails, a person can secure equity by leaving an inequitable situation altogether. Turnover and absenteeism are common means are common means of dealing with perceptions of unfairness in the workplace.

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Roles and Socialization

As interdependent people associate with one another and gain experience with interpersonal relations, they come to expect others to behave in particular ways. Instructors expect students to complete reading assignments before coming to class. Students, in turn, expect that the tests instructors administer will be based on the same reading assignments. When either of these expectations is violated, strain in the relationship will be evident. As another example, upper-level managers expect middle-level managers to put the company's interest ahead of their own personal career interests. At the same time, middle-level managers expect promotion decisions made by upper-level managers to be based on merit and experience rather than race or sex. When these expectations are violated, a whole host of problems arise.

Expectations such as these and the behaviors they presuppose make up the roles that individuals occupy in interpersonal relations.

The behavioral expectations that make up work-related roles can include formal established task elements, that are generally determined by a company's management, as well as many other informal emergent task elements that evolve over time as interpersonal relationships develop and mature.

Established Task Elements	Emergent Task Elements
Created by managers or specialists independently of the role incumbent. Characterized by elements that are objective, that are formally documented and about which there is considerable consensus Static and relatively constant	Created by everyone who has a stake in how the role is performed, including the role incumbent Characterized by elements that are subjective, not formally documented and open to negotiation Constantly changing and developing

Established Task Elements

Emergent Task Elements

1. Created by managers or specialists independently of the role incumbent.
2. Characterized by elements that are objective, that are formally documented and about which there is considerable consensus
3. Static and relatively constant

1. Created by everyone who has a stake in how the role is performed, including the role incumbent
2. Characterized by elements that are subjective, not formally documented and open to negotiation
3. Constantly changing and developing

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Happy Wednesday

The God of The Day: Hermes

The God of Commerce

The Four Dimensions of Cognitive Ability

1. Verbal ability is the ability to understand and effectively use written and spoken language.
2. Quantitative ability - the ability to quickly and accurately solve arithmatic problems of all kinds, including addition, subtraction multiplication and division, as well as applying mathematical rules.
3. Reasoning ability - the ability to think inductively and deductively in order to invent solutions to novel problems.
4. Spacial ability - the ability to accurately detect the spacial arrangement of objects with respect to one's own body.

Wednesday

Wednesday is the day of the week following Tuesday and before Thursday. According to international standard ISO 8601 adopted in most western countries it is the third day of the week. In countries that use the Sunday-first convention Wednesday is defined as the fourth day of the week. It is the fourth day of the week in the Judeo-Christiancalendar as well, and was defined so in the ancient Mesopotamian and biblical calendars. The name is derived from Old English Wōdnesdæg and Middle English Wednesdei, "day of Woden", ultimately a calque of dies Mercurii "day of Mercury".

Wednesday is in the middle of the common Western five-day workweek that starts on Monday and finishes on Friday.

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Etymology

The name Wednesday continues Middle English Wednesdei. Old English still had wōdnesdæg, which would be continued as *Wodnesday (but Old Frisian has an attestedwednesdei). By the early 13th century, the i-mutated form was introduced unetymologically.

The name is a calque of the Latin dies Mercurii "day of Mercury", reflecting the fact that the Germanic god Woden (Wodanaz or Odin) during the Roman era was interpretedas "Germanic Mercury".

Hermes

Hermes
Messenger of the gods, god of trade, thieves, travelers, sports, athletes, border crossings, guide to the Underworld
Hermes Ingenui (Vatican Museums). Roman copy of the 2nd century BC after a Greek original of the 5th century BC. Hermes wears: kerykeion, kithara, petasus (round hat), traveler's cloak and winged temples.
Abode	Mount Olympus
Symbol	Talaria, caduceus,tortoise, lyre, rooster
Consort	Merope, Aphrodite,Dryope,  Peitho, Hecate(wife)
Parents	Zeus Maia
Siblings	Ares, Athena, Apollo,Artemis, Aphrodite,Dionysus, Hebe,Heracles, Helen of Troy,Hephaestus, Perseus,Minos, Muses, Graces
Children	Pan, Hermaphroditus, Tyche,  Abderus, Autolycus, Angelia
Roman equivalent	Mercury

Hermes (/ˈhɜːrmiːz/; Greek: Ἑρμῆς) is an Olympian god in Greek religionand mythology, the son of Zeus and the Pleiad Maia, and the second youngest of the Olympian gods (Dionysus being the youngest).

Hermes is considered a god of transitions and boundaries. He is described as quick and cunning, moving freely between the worlds of the mortal and divine. He is also portrayed as an emissary and messenger of the gods; an intercessor between mortals and the divine, andconductor of souls into the afterlife. He has been viewed as the protector and patron of herdsmen, thieves, oratory and wit, literature and poetry, athletics and sports, invention and trade, roads, boundaries and travelers.

In some myths, he is a trickster and outwits other gods for his own satisfaction or for the sake of humankind. His attributes and symbols include the herma, the rooster, the tortoise, purse or pouch, winged sandals, and winged cap. His main symbol is the Greek kerykeion or Latin caduceus, which appears in a form of two snakes wrapped around a winged staff.

In the Roman adaptation of the Greek pantheon (Hermes is identified with the Roman god Mercury, who, though inherited from the Etruscans, developed many similar characteristics such as being the patron of commerce.

Messenger of the gods, god of trade, thieves, travelers, sports, athletes, border crossings, guide to the Underworld

Hermes Ingenui (Vatican Museums). Roman copy of the 2nd century BC after a Greek original of the 5th century BC. Hermes wears: kerykeion, kithara, petasus (round hat), traveler's cloak and winged temples.

Mount Olympus

Talaria, caduceus,tortoise, lyre, rooster

Merope, Aphrodite,Dryope,  Peitho, Hecate(wife)

Zeus
Maia

Ares, Athena, Apollo,Artemis, Aphrodite,Dionysus, Hebe,Heracles, Helen of Troy,Hephaestus, Perseus,Minos, Muses, Graces

Pan, Hermaphroditus, Tyche,  Abderus, Autolycus, Angelia

Mercury

Mythology

Early Greek Sources

Hermes with his mother Maia. Detail of the side B of an Attic red-figure belly-amphora, c. 500 BC.

Kriophoros Hermes (which takes the lamb), late-Roman copy of Greek original from the 5th century BC.Barracco Museum, Rome

Homer and Hesiod

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Homer and Hesiod portrayed Hermes as the author of skilled or deceptive acts and also as a benefactor of mortals. In the Iliad, he is called "the bringer of good luck", "guide and guardian", and "excellent in all the tricks". He was a divine ally of the Greeks against the Trojans. However, he did protect Priamwhen he went to the Greek camp to retrieve the body of his son Hector and accompanied them back to Troy.

He also rescued Ares from a brazen vessel where he had been imprisoned byOtus and Ephialtes. In the Odyssey, Hermes helps his great-grand son, the protagonist Odysseus, by informing him about the fate of his companions, who were turned into animals by the power of Circe. Hermes instructed Odysseus to protect himself by chewing a magic herb; he also told Calypso of Zeus' order to free Odysseus from her island to allow him to continue his journey back home. When Odysseus killed the suitors of his wife, Hermes led their souls to Hades. In The Works and Days, when Zeus ordered Hephaestus to create Pandora to disgrace humanity by punishing Prometheus's act of giving fire to man, every god gave her a gift, and Hermes' gifts were lies, seductive words, and a dubious character. Hermes was then instructed to take her as wife to Epimetheus.

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The End