Unit 4: Group behaviour and organizational change

A group is two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent, who come together to achieve particular objectives. Group dynamics studies the forces operating within groups.

• Formal groups: command groups (manager and subordinates) and task groups.
• Informal groups: interest groups and friendship groups.

Theories of group formation

• Propinquity theory: people form groups because of physical proximity.
• Homans' theory: activities, interactions and sentiments are interrelated.
• Balance theory (Newcomb): people with similar attitudes are attracted to each other.
• Exchange theory: people join groups when rewards exceed costs.

• Norms: acceptable standards of behaviour shared by group members (dress, output, punctuality).
• Roles: expected behaviour patterns of a person in a position — role ambiguity and role conflict cause stress.
• Status: the rank given to a person by others.
• Cohesiveness: the degree to which members are attracted to each other and motivated to stay. High cohesiveness with high performance norms gives high productivity; with low norms, low productivity.

• Techniques: brainstorming, nominal group technique, Delphi, electronic meetings.

Conflict is a process that begins when one party perceives that another party has negatively affected, or is about to negatively affect, something the first party cares about.

• Functional conflict supports goals and improves performance; dysfunctional conflict hinders it.
• Types: task, relationship and process conflict; intrapersonal, interpersonal, intragroup and intergroup conflict.
• Sources: communication problems, structure (goal incompatibility, scarce resources, unclear authority) and personal variables (values, personality).

• Power: capacity to influence the behaviour of others.

• Organisational politics: activities not required by one's formal role that influence the distribution of advantages — coalitions, impression management, networking, blaming others.
• Causes: scarce resources, ambiguous goals, unclear performance criteria, organisational change.
• Managing politics: transparent decisions, clear goals, fair appraisal, open communication.

• External: competition, technology, government regulation, economic conditions, customer expectations, globalisation, social trends.
• Internal: new leadership, low performance, employee dissatisfaction, growth, new strategy.

The systems model views the organisation as interrelated subsystems (people, structure, technology, tasks, culture); a change in one affects the others. Lewin's force field analysis: any situation is held in balance by driving forces (pushing for change) and restraining forces (resisting it). Change happens by strengthening drivers or, more effectively, weakening restraints.

• Change agents: persons who act as catalysts and manage change — internal (managers, HR) or external (consultants).

Organisation development is a long-range effort to improve an organisation's problem-solving and renewal processes through a collaborative management of culture, with the help of a change agent and behavioural science (French and Bell). Features: planned, long-term, system-wide, based on behavioural science, collaborative, uses action research and a change agent, and focuses on culture and processes. Objectives: improve effectiveness, build trust and openness, improve problem-solving, increase collaboration and help people and the organisation grow.

Strategies of change (Chin and Benne):

• Empirical-rational: people change when shown it is in their interest (information, evidence).
• Normative-re-educative: change by changing norms and values through involvement and learning.
• Power-coercive: change imposed using authority and sanctions.