Chapter Seven-Social Behaviour and Organizational Processes

What is a Group? * Group- two or more people interacting interdependently to achieve a common goal * Interacting * suggest who is in and who isn’t in the group * need not to meet face to face or verbal communication ie. Telecommute * interdependence * group members rely on each other to accomplish goals all groups have 1 or more goals * Importance of group membership * Group tremendous influence on us * social mechanism by which we acquire many beliefs, values, attitudes and behaviours * provide a context in which we are able to exert influence on others * Formal work groups-group that organizations establish to facilitate the achievement of organizational goals * Intentionally designed to channel individual effort in an appropriate direction * Most common formal groups: a manager and employees who report to manager ie. Production manager, supervisor (who report to manager) * Hierarchy of most organizations is a series of formal interlocked work groups * Task forces-temporary groups that meet to achieve particular goals or to solve particular problems ie suggesting productivity improvements * Committees- permanent groups that handle recurrent assignments outside the usual work group structures * Informal groups- groups that emerge naturally in response to the common interests of organizational members * Seldom sanctioned by organization, members often cuts across formal groups * Can either help or hurt organization, depending on their norms of behaviour

Group Development
Typical Stages of Group Development * like hierarchy, in which each stage must be mastered to achieve next stage * a good tool for monitoring and troubleshooting how groups are developing, but