4154 EBL: Group and Organisational

Behaviour

Mr Raymond Smith

                                 

Assignment #1

     Group Behaviour: Comparison between Work

 Group and Study Group

 

Nibedita Roy        

                                  GUID 2635831

  16th   April

                                      Word limit: 2,460

Content

Introduction        

Group        

Introduction

     A group can be define as a collection of individuals who have regular contact and frequent interaction, mutual influence, common feeling of camaraderie, and who work together to achieve a common set of goals. People have been living their lives in groups, in the workplace, in families, among friends, in neighbourhoods, and in communities (Lawler, E. J., 2005).

   

     Working in a group effectively is a challenge for the members of the group. One challenge is conflict as there are so many people who have so many opinions (De

Dreu, Harinck, & Van Vianen, 1999; Thomas, 1992; Wall & Callister, 1995). In a group,  members contribute to the group through social inputs and task inputs (Forsyth, 1983), conflict in group is concerned with relationship and task issues as because individual group members has individual personal taste, values, and interpersonal style. Even though these conflict people work in a group and take right decision to reach their goal.

      As there are so many groups and in group there is conflict to take a decision, so it is important to understand the group dynamics of diverse groups and their functionality in different aspects. This paper aims to evaluate the study group which is an informal group, where the class mates get together to complete their group study tasks for example, group presentation or group assignment, with the same goal to get higher. On the contrary, this paper will also concentrate on another group, work group which is a formal group. Work group also have similar goal and motivation. They also face problem while taking decision as there are so different types of members with different opinion.  This paper will focus on these two group’s behaviour from the perspective of decision making.

Group

       A group consist with two or more individuals, who are interacting and interdependent and work together to achieve similar objectives. There are two types of group, formal and informal group. Formal is a designed group who has specific tasks to accomplish with responsibilities within an organisational structure. In these types of groups the behaviours that one should engage in are usually determined by the organisational structure. In formal groups people has specific tasks to do and they must have a person in charge of the group. Formal groups have particular policies, procedures and outcomes.  On the contrary, informal group is a group which is neither formally structured nor organisationally determined. These types of group are created to meet people’s social needs (Robbins, S. P.; Millett, B.; Cacioppe,R. & Marsh, T. 1998, p. 307).

       People join the group because of security, status, self-esteem, affiliation, power and goal achievement. Also a group develop through five stages which are forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. So the first step of forming group is forming that means group development. Secondly, group develop by intra group conflict. Thirdly, members of the group try to set up pa close relationships among the members. Fourthly, members perform their best and finally group prepares for its disbandment (Robbins, et.al 1998, p. 307-309).

So, it can be said that group forming is a process through which members of the group try to take a decision exchanging their opinions to achieve their goal and of course group work is affected by members’ behaviour.

Study group

     Study group is that group where few students study together to complete their study requirements. Though they have to follow the study rules but they are considered as informal group because this type of group does not emerge officially and they are not formally designated as parts of the organisation (Wood. P. J., Wallace, J., Zeffane, R. M., Chapman, P. J., Fromhiltz, M. & Morrison, V. 1994, p. 264). For study group students prefer to build a group by themselves with their familiar persons or with friends (Kelly, P. 2008). In study group there are student with different views, norms, ideas and different personality. This type of group is informal and they build good relationship among them. Study group has to design a pattern to accomplish their task and also there are some instruction provided by the professor or instructor. Study group also follow the five stage model. According to five stages model study group form a group, face conflict to make a leader, divide their tasks and discuss their opinion to get a decision and lastly they present their task. But normally they do not have any leader, so sometimes if the members are not easy going so there can emerge a leadership conflict. As well as they are from different background so they need to be more patience, self efficacy and have ability to except other members of the group to take a decision by avoiding conflict. For example, in a study group it is difficult for all the group members to come to consensus due to different cultural background and experience. And also facing difficulty in taking decision as there is no formal leader selected in the group which gives rise to dominating behaviour leading to conflict.

Join now!

Work Group

 Work group is a group where members work in a formal environment with a similar specific purpose. Work group is a formal group as they have to follow the organisational rules and regulations and they are officially designated and formally emerged as the part of the organisation. Regard on decision making they depend on the group leader for example, manager.  Because within these formal work groups, people are assigned positions for example, supervisor or manager (Wood et.al. 2004, p. 263-264).

A work group context can be defined as a situation where group members perceive ...

This is a preview of the whole essay