"What is group dynamics and, why is understanding of group dynamics essential for any team manager or a group member."
Topic one:
"What is group dynamics and, why is understanding of group dynamics essential for any team manager or a group member."
Around the world for most social activities, groups are involved, and it is also part of many organizations and its culture. Everywhere we turn, we find groups, audiences, board of directors, committees, families and so on. As individuals we all belong to at least one or two groups. There are many types of groups from permanent groups, temporary groups, virtual teams and many more. Even though a team can be a group, there are some differences. Team dynamics has many meanings but we will look it relating to the social and business circle, how it originated and some misconceptions held. Each team member and group member will need to understand its purpose and what its goals are, to be successful.
Let's start by looking at the differences between teams and groups. A team can consist of two or more people and have the same goals. These goals are what drives a team. A group however, can be just ordinary people assembled together for many reasons, such as being family, friends and so on. But teams are also groups. There are many types of groups. Some of them are permanent teams which can be team based departments, team based organisations and small teams formed to solve quality and productivity problems also known as quality circle. Another would be skunk teams which refer to temporary teams developed to solve complex problems. Informal groups however differ from the rest as these are formed for personal reasons rather than organizational needs. Virtual teams which operates through communication with the team members. These are only the main group types which operate within society and the business circle.
What is team dynamics? Team dynamics has several meanings such as it being a field of study in social sciences, another way it is described is a growing body of knowledge. but we are looking at it referring to groups and how it is the complex forces that are acting upon group existence and cause its behavior style. If we look at a group, we can see there are many aspects such as its name, structure, purpose and other fixed characteristics. Along with it, it has dynamic aspects such as its always interactive, always doing something, moving and reacting. The direction of the group movements was determined by forces which come to toward it and how it is looked upon by the group. All in all group dynamic is something which occurs naturally nobody has invented it.
If nobody invented group dynamics, when did people realize its presence? We will look how it was used in the past and how it's used now. The group has always been a important part of many human purposes. First in the family, then the clan, the tribe the community, the state, groups has been used by government for many purposes such as war, work and more. In the early historical development people began to discover by various methods that certain ways of doing things in groups worked out to be better than other methods. Surprisingly however people have ...
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If nobody invented group dynamics, when did people realize its presence? We will look how it was used in the past and how it's used now. The group has always been a important part of many human purposes. First in the family, then the clan, the tribe the community, the state, groups has been used by government for many purposes such as war, work and more. In the early historical development people began to discover by various methods that certain ways of doing things in groups worked out to be better than other methods. Surprisingly however people have worked with groups, small or large through most of their lives with out practically no scholarly attention till recent times.
Between the time period of 1960 and 1970 group dynamics expanded, and it was a controversial topic. One major thing which happened in this time concerning group dynamics was that there was a major growth in the technical literature. Such as articles were published relating to small group study. Another characteristic of this time was that lot of attention was paid to group dynamic by media. Lastly techniques of group dynamics were more prominently used for training and education. Some ideas of this was incorporated into the curriculums of many schools, leadership training for voluntary organisations and some consulting firms. As you can see this era was a time where group dynamic was taken into account in a much larger scale than ever before. However there are few misconceptions when it comes to group dynamics. One is that it is a way of doing things, as some people call it the "group dynamic method". As mentioned earlier it has nothing to do with way of doing but the forces which involved and how the group define them. Another misconception is that group dynamic is a doctrine approach to organisations which talk about group think and individualism. Although it is obvious that is far fetched to the simple meaning of group dynamic as explained earlier.
Here we look at team diversity which has mainly to do with the individuals of the group. It is a important part of the team composition and its effectiveness. There are two different types of diverse teams. One would be homogenous teams. This means that they have the same technical ideas, ethnicity, sometimes demography, experience and values could be part of a homogenous team. The other type of team would heterogeneous team. It has very diverse members with different characteristics and backgrounds. With both these diverse teams there are advantages and disadvantages. Some advantages with homogenous teams would be that the team members would get along well with each other and agree on things much more easily than a heterogeneous team as they have similar backgrounds and ideas. However a disadvantage would be they would lack creativity compared to heterogeneous team as there ideas would be similar. Even though heterogeneous team might take much more time than the other, it is much beneficial to have a diverse team with much more ideas and different opinions of issues where they would discuss it in further details than agree to amicably. If you look at diverse teams in a group dynamic perspective, it would be easy to see that each group would have different dynamics as the structure and the way they would are different to each other. There fore you can assume that characteristics of a team have an effect on its group's dynamics.
There are five stages for team formation. Forming is the first stage where they evaluate and test benefits, costs and how well people get along with each other and so on. The second step is storming. This stage is where the team members compete for various roles in the team. Norming is the third step and here the team develops its rules and objections. Performing is the fourth stage where the members become task oriented and communicate clearly to each other with less conflict. Lastly adjourning is where task groups and informal groups terminate. This is mainly when their project is completed. In these stages you can see how team dynamics work and its important that each team member and the group leader (if there is one) to know their own group dynamics. As in the characteristics of their team so, as a group they can work and perform better. This will also help them understand each other and also be able to work on the strengths and the weaknesses of the group and allocate tasks effectively.
In the earlier paragraph in the second stage we briefly looked at how people will choose their roles. When it comes to task oriented roles there are role activities such as the initiator who identifies the goals and how to go on to achieve them, information seeker goes and finds the information and the documentation to achieve the goal. Information giver shares the information related to the team goals and tasks. Coordinator, coordinate subgroups and keep the team working together. Evaluator, evaluate the group work and see whether group is working up to the standard needed. Summarizer keeps in check with the group activity and is like the group memory. Lastly Orienteer keep the team focused on their goal and make sure they head the right way. As you can see there are many role activities in a team. It is also easy to see that all these roles are important for the success of the team and its projects.
Earlier we briefly looked at why the group leader needs to know and understand its group dynamic. Now we will look at in a little more depth and see the difference between understanding their group dynamic and ignoring it would change the performance and the success of the team. Understanding once team dynamic would mean understanding what makes the group work, what influences the group, what are the strength, weaknesses of the group and much more. Knowing these details means that you can be a much more effective group leader who understands the individuals of the group, their capabilities and in capabilities and working around it. By understanding these elements of the group you have every chance of success than not understanding and ignoring your team dynamics, which would lead to dysfunctional group who cannot work together. This in the end would mean in a uncompleted project where they might have to replace the whole team because of it. Overall it is very important that the group leader and also the team members understand their group dynamics to be a successful and achieve their full potential as a group.
All in all we have looked at how groups are formed, what group dynamics is and the past and present and its expansion, misconceptions people have about group dynamics such as it is a doctrine subject. We also looked at team diversity with homogenous and heterogeneous groups where diverse group brings better results and how each of these groups have a different structure and a different group dynamic. The five steps of group formation and group roles were also looked at. Finally we discussed why it is important for group members to know and understand its group dynamic. Overall you can see group dynamics can be a simple or a complex thing as you want it to be. It is up to the individual to assess it and it is also important to know each team or group has different forces directing them, which would mean they would have different group dynamic. There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to this topic and the things which effects a group can vary from one group to another. However to be an effective team, it is essential each team member and its leader has to understand its characteristics and its behavior. As mentioned earlier this is otherwise known as group dynamics. This would give the group every chance for success and if these elements are used effectively and positively the work needed to be done would be much easier and it would most likely be a success.
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Accessed: 15th April 2003
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