Homework #1
Submitted by:
Mizna AlZamil
201002228
Submitted to:
Dr: beverly
Prince Mohammed Bin Fahd University
Organizational behavior
1-define group? What are different types of groups?
Group is when two or more individual interacting and interdependent, who have come
together to achieve particular objectives.
The types are: formal group is a designated work group defined by an organization structure.
informal group that is neither formally structured nor organizationally determined such group
appears in response to the need for social contact. Command group a group composed of the
individuals who report directly to a given manager. Task group; people working together to
complete a job task. Interest group people working together to attain a specific objective
with which each is concerned. Friendship group: people brought together because they share
one or more common characteristics.
2-what are the five stages of group development?
a)forming stage: the first stage in group development characterized by much uncertainty.
b)storming stage: characterized by intragroup conflict.
c)norming stage: characterized by close relationship and cohesiveness.
d)performing stage: the group is fully functional.
e)adjourning stage: the final stage for temporary groups characterized by concern with
wrapping up activities rather than task performance.
3-Do role requirements change in different situation? If so, show?
role is a set of expected behaiviour patterns attributed to someone occupying a given
position in a social unit. Role perception is an indivisuals view of how he or she is supposed
to act in a given situation. Role expectation how other believes a person should act in a
given situation.
4- How do group norms and status influence an individual’s behavior?
When the group norms are agreed and to be accepted by the group, norms influences
members’ behavior with a minimum of external controls. Norms can cover virtually any
aspect of group behavior. The most common is a performance norm, providing explicit cues
about how hard members should work, what the level of output should be, how to get the
job done, what level of tardiness is appropriate and the like. These norms are extremely
powerful in affecting an individual’s performance. There are other types such as appearance
norms, social arrangement norms and resource allocation norms. Group norms and status
influence an individual’s behavior because people in groups are impacted by compliance
pressure.
5- How does group size affect group performance?
The evidence indicates that smaller groups are faster at completing tasks than are larger
ones and that individuals perform better in smaller groups. However, in problem solving,
large groups consistently get better marks than their smaller counterparts. Translating these
results into specific numbers is a bit more hazardous, but large groups (those with a dozen
or more members) are good for gaining diverse input. So if the goal of the group is factfinding, larger groups should be more effective. On the other hand, smaller groups are
better at doing something productive with that input. Groups of approximately seven
members tend to be more effective for taking action.
6- What are the advantages and limitation of cohesive groups?
Cohesiveness is important because it affects the group productivity. Studies consistently
show that the relationship of cohesiveness and productivity depends on the group’s
performance related norms. If performance-related norms for quality, output, and
cooperation with outsiders are high, a cohesive group will be more productive than will a
less cohesive group. But if cohesiveness is high and performance norms are low, productivity
will be low. If cohesiveness is low and performance norms are high, productivity increases,
but less than in the high-cohesiveness/high-norms situation. When cohesiveness and
performance related norms are both low, productivity will tend to fall into the low-tomoderate range.
7- what are the strength and weaknesses of group?
The strengths of group decision making is that groups generate more complete information
and knowledge by aggregating the resources of several individuals, which results in more
input as well as a heterogeneous decision making processes. Groups offer increased
diversity of views, which opens up the opportunity to consider more opportunities. Groups
also lead to increased acceptance of a solution, where usually many decisions fail because
people don’t accept them, however when group members participate in making a decision
they are more likely to support the decision.
The weaknesses of group decision making is that they are time consuming, where groups
consume more time to reach a solution. There are conformity pressures as well, since group
members desire to be accepted and considered. One or few members will dominate group
discussions, which will cause a drawback in the group’s overall effectiveness. Group
decision-making suffer from ambiguous responsibility, where on the other hand individual
decisions are clearer on who holds accountability for the final outcome.
8- how effective are interacting, brainstorming, nominal and electronic meeting groups?
Interacting groups are typical groups in which members meet face to face and interact with
each other, they often censor themselves and pressure individuals toward conformity of
opinion, and it’s good for achieving commitment to a solution. Other techniques such as
brainstorming and nominal meeting groups were created to reduce problems generated by
this traditional method. Brainstorming encourages all alternatives without criticism, people
sit around a table and the group leader states the problem, afterwards individuals have the
opportunity to give as many alternatives and ideas as they can where ideas stimulate each
other in this technique, it also develops group cohesiveness. However individuals working
alone generate more ideas, since when people are generating ideas in a group many will be
talking at the same time which can block the thoughts of others. Nominal group technique is
a decision making method in which individuals meet face to face to pool their judgments in a
systematic but independent fashion, it permits a group to meet formally but does not
restrict independent thinking, and it is an inexpensive mean. Electronic meetings are
meeting where members interact on computers allowing for anonymity of comments and
aggregation of votes, where it allows people to be brutally honest, eliminates chitchat, and
all participants can talk at the same time without blocking one another’s thoughts. It also
eliminates social pressures and conflicts.
9- what is the evidence for the effect of culture on group status and social loafing ?how
does diversity effects groups and effectiveness overtime?
The importance of status varies among cultures, for example the French are highly status
conscious in comparison to others. Countries also differ on the criteria that create status,
where Latin Americans and Asians derive status from family position and formal roles in
organizations. It is important to understand who and what holds status when interacting
with people from different cultures, for example an A.U.S manager who doesn’t know office
size is not a measure of a Japanese executive’s position is likely to unintentionally offend his
interpersonal effectiveness. Social loafing has a Western bias, it’s consistent with
individualistic cultures, such as US and Canada that are dominated by self-interest. In studies
that compared US employees with Chinese employees, the Chinese showed no propensity to
engage in social loafing and performed better in groups. Group diversity increases group
conflict especially in early stages , which lowers group morale. When diverse groups were
compared with homogeneous groups, both groups performed equally well but the diverse
groups were less satisfied. However, on the long run diverse groups perform better, since
surface-level diversity alerts people to possible differences in deep level diversity underlying
attitudes, values, and opinions. Although differences within a group may create conflict they
also provide an opportunity to solve problems in unique and creative ways.