·         Two basic attributes define a group: 

o   Members of a group interact with each other: what one person does affects everyone else and vice versa.

o   Members of a group believe there is the potential for mutual goal accomplishment – that is, group members perceive that by belonging to the group, they will be able to accomplish certain goals or meet certain needs.

Formal Work Group: 

• a group established by management to help the organization achieve its goals. 
•  Managers establish each of these groups to accomplish certain organizational goals.

Informal Work Group

• a group that emerges naturally when individuals perceive that membership in a group will help them achieve their goals or meet their needs.
• Such as a group of coworkers that go out after work Friday nights to satisfy their common need for affiliation.

• a formal work group consisting of subordinates who report to the same supervisor. 
• Usually represented on organizational charts as departments. The vehicle through which much of the work in an organization gets accomplished. 

• a formal work group consisting of people who come together to accomplish a specific goal. Once the task is accomplished, the task force is usually disbanded.

• long term task forces that don’t disband; rather, they occasionally get new members for new insight on a long term problem.

• a formal work group consisting of people who work intensely together to achieve a common group goal.

• Cross Functional Teams: are composed of members from different functions such as product design, engineering, and manufacturing.

• Just because people work in a group does not mean they work as a team, which is further characterized by intense interaction and a strong commitment to its goals.

• a formal work group consisting of people who are jointly responsible for ensuring that the team accomplishes its goals and who lead themselves.

o   an informal work group consisting of people who come together because they have a common goal or objective related to their organizational membership. 

·         Bruce Tuckman’s Five Stage Model:

o   Stage 1: Forming: group members try to get to know each other and establish a common understanding as they struggle to clarify group goals and determine appropriate behavior within the group. Once individuals truly feel they are members of the group.. next stage.

o   Stage 2: Storming: characterized by considerable conflict. In this stage, members resist being controlled by the group and might disagree about who should lead the group or how much power the leader should have. Completed when members have a mutual agreement about who will lead the group.

o   Stage 3: Norming: members really start to feel like they belong to the group, and they develop close ties with one another. BY the end of this stage, group members agree on standards to guide behavior in the group.

o   Stage 4: Performing: when this stage is reached, the group is ready to tackle tasks and work toward achieving its goals.

o   Stage 5: Adjourning: the group disbands after having accomplished its goals. Ongoing work groups in orgs do not do this. This is a task force thing. 

o   A group composed of people with different backgrounds, experiences, personalities, abilities, and “views of the world” may be better able than a homo group to make good decisions because more points of view are represented in the group. A heterogeneous group may also be able to perform at a high level because the group has a variety of resources at its disposal.

the work a group performs as its contributions to the accomplishment of organizational goals.

·         The function of a group affects the behavior of its members by letting them know how their work contributes to the organization achieving its goals. A group’s function gives its members a sense of meaning and purpose. 

·         the implicitly agreed upon, perceived importance for the organization as a whole of what a group does.

o   The more important the task performed by a work group or a group’s function is, the higher is the group’s status in the organization.

the shared belief group members have about the ability of the group to achieve its goals and objectives.

·         Efficacy is not something that exists when a group is initially formed but rather a shared belief that emerges over time as members work together. 

• the effects that the presence of others has on performance, enhancing the performance of easy tasks and impairing the performance of difficult tasks.
   
•  Audience effects: are the effects of passive spectators on individual performance.

•  Co-action effects: are the effects of the presence of other group members on the performance of an individual when the other group members are performing the same task as the individual. 

·         roles, rules, and norms.

a set of behaviors or tasks a person is expected to perform by virtue of holding a position in a group or organization.

·         Associated with each role in a group are certain responsibilities and rights. All of the behaviors expected of a role occupant (the individual assigned the role) are the role occupant’s responsibilities. 

·         Roles facilitate the control of group members’ behaviors for several reasons. 

o   First, roles tell members what they should be doing.

o   Second, roles not only enable a group to hold its members accountable for their behavior but also provide the group with a standard by which to evaluate the behavior.

o   Last, roles help managers determine how to reward members who perform the behaviors that make up their various roles.

·         Individuals conform to group norms for three main reasons:

o   Compliance: assenting to a norm in order to attain rewards or avoid punishment.

o   Identification: associating oneself with supporters of a norm and conforming to the norm because those individuals do.

o   Internalization: believing that the behavior dictated by a norm is truly the right and proper way to behave.

·         the freedom to violate group norms without being punished that is accorded to group members who have contributed a lot to the group in the past.