Describe some important characteristics of a work group that mat render it more or less effective in making decisions

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“Describe some important characteristics of a work group that mat render it more or less effective in making decisions”

The purpose of this essay is to describe important characteristics of a work group and explain how these characteristics may contribute to the effectiveness of group decisions. The essay will first identify what is meant by the term ‘group’ in this context and will then go on to explain group characteristics.

In order to understand the characteristics of a work group it is important to understand what a group actually is. There have been a number of different explanations put forward by social psychologists to describe a group. One definition given by Johnson and Johnson captures all of the elements of a group (Hogg, 1998, p235)

“A group is two or more individuals in face-to-face interaction, each aware of the others who belong to the group, and each aware of their positive interdependence as they strive to achieve mutual goals”

Arguably, one of the most important and most basic characteristics of a group is its cohesiveness. According to Hogg (1998), group cohesiveness is the way the group works together. It is the level of solidarity and level of team morale between members. Hogg (1998) also describes cohesiveness as the essential property of a group that underpins group actions.  According to Sabini (1995), cohesiveness has been examined by social psychologists as how attractive the group is to its present members or potential members. Group cohesiveness has been linked to the achievement or striving to achieve group goals and aims. So using this theory it could be argued that groups with a low level of cohesiveness could be unattractive and therefore be less likely to achieve goals than a group with higher levels.

Cohesiveness is important as a characteristic because it often leads to a uniformity of attitudes (Sabini, 1995). If group members are striving to achieve the same goal the unity of attitudes can arguably be an effective tool for group decision-making. Festinger suggests (Sabini, 1995) that groups put pressure on members to meet group standards and that within cohesive groups this pressure will be strong. He also suggested the pressures to be about issues that were of great significance to the group. Festinger argued that when groups strive towards uniformity they direct a certain amount of communication at so-called ‘deviant’ group members. These are the group member’s whose attitudes do not conform to the rest of the group. This communication is to try and bring the deviants attitude in line with the rest of the groups uniformed attitude. In a work group, a complete uniformity of attitudes could arguably be of great benefit because decision-making would be made easier. That is if the whole group conforms to the same attitude or opinion on a subject. However, as Festinger (Sabini, 1995) has identified, some groups have members with attitudes that do not match that of the group. If a group has such a member then decision-making could be made more difficult because not everybody is in agreement. This may account for why Festinger suggests that the attitude of a deviant group member is attempted to be brought into line with the uniformed attitude of the group. However, this aspect of making decisions can also have a negative effect.

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Janis (Hogg, 1998) suggested a theory called groupthink to be an element of highly cohesive groups. Janis described groupthink to be a process in which poor decisions are often made. This accounts to the group being so cohesive in a way that all the members want to reach a unanimous decision regardless of whether the decision is the right choice or not. Decisions reached in this manner have been described by Janis as an irrational decision making process (Hogg, 1998). Callaway et al (Hogg, 1998) suggested that groupthink comes as a response to individual pressures or stress and is ...

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