Session 1 group and team

GROUP & TEAM BUILDING
DR. KIRUBA NAGINI R

TOPICS TO COVER TODAY
CONCEPT OF GROUP - CONCEPT OF GROUP - CHARACTERISTICS OF GROUP -
TYPES OF GROUPS - GROUP STRUCTURE - GROUP DYNAMICS - TECHNIQUES FOR
MANAGING GROUP DYNAMICS - GROUP DEVELOPMENT - GROUP FUNCTIONS
TEAM BUILDING - WHY TEAM - TEAMWORK - TYPES OF TEAMS - STAGES OF TEAM
DEVELOPMENT - TEAM BUILDING PROCESS - CHARACTERISTICS OF AN EFFECTIVE
TEAM - TEAM COHESION - FACTORS NEEDED TO DEVELOP TEAM COHESION

DEFINITION - GROUP
A group is defined as two or more individuals interacting and interdependent,
who come together to achieve particular objectives .
The group dynamics refers to change which takes place within groups and is
concerned with the interaction and forces obtained between group members in
social settings . It is the study of forces operating within a group . A group doesn’t simply mean
Individuals possessing same identical features .( e.g., A collection of students or
musicians doesn’t form a group .
There are two principal types of group interaction, one exists when people are
discussing ideas and is generally called a meeting, and the other exists when
people perform task together and is called a team .

A group can be identified by :
1) Studying the perception of the group and cognition of each of the
group members to determine as to which other individuals
exist for each of the members psychologically.
2) Analysis of the group itself and the behavior of
each of its members to ascertain as to whether or not a
particular individuals fits in as a member .

CLASSIFICATION OF GROUPS
Psychological group :
It may be defined as one in which the two or more persons who are interdependent as each
members nature influences every other person, members share an ideology and have common
tasks . ( e.g families , friendship circles )
Social group :
It may be defined as integrated system of interrelated psychological groups formed to accomplish a
defined function or objective .( e.g., political party )
Formal group :
It refers to those which are established under the legal or formal authority with the view to achieve a
particular end result ( e.g., people making up the airline flight crew)
Informal group :
It refers to the aggregate of the proposal contacts and the interaction and the network of
relationships among the individuals obtained in the formal groups .

Primary group :
The primary groups are characterized by small size ,face to face interactions and intimacy
among the members .The examples are family groups.
Secondary group :
The secondary group are characterized by large size and individuals identification with the
values and beliefs prevailing in them rather than actual interactions . ( e.g., occupational
association and ethnic groups )
Membership group : The membership group is those where the individual actually
belongs .
Reference group : The reference is one which they would like to belong .

Command group :
The command group are formed by subordinates reporting directly to the particular
manager and are determined by the formal organizational chart. (e.g an assistant regional
transport officer and his two transport supervisors form a command group .
Task group : The task group are composed of people who work together to perform a
task but involve a cross command relationship .
Interest group : The interest group involves people who come together to accomplish a
particular goal with which they are concerned .( e.g., office employees )
Friendship group: The friendship group are formed by people having one or more
common features

CLASSIFICATION OF INFORMAL GROUPS
Mayo and Lombard classify the informal groups into :
A) Natural groups : it reveals no / too little internal structure
B) Family groups : these possess a core of regulars who exerts marked influence on the
behavior of the members .
C) Organized groups : these possess acknowledged leaders who themselves
dedicatedly with intelligence and skill attain group integrity

Sayles classifies informal groups into four categories as :
A) apathetic groups : these groups possess consistently indifferent attitudes towards
informal groups and are characterized by dispersed ,lack of cohesiveness,internal disunity
and conflict
B) erratic groups : these groups fluctuate between antagonism and cooperation marked by
the poorly controlled pressure tactics –behavior inconsistency –quick conversation to good
relations with management ,centralized and union formation activities
C) Strategic groups : there is consistent antagonism ,continuous pressures high degree of
internal unite and usually good production record in long run .
D) Conservative groups : these groups are marked by the usual cooperation, limited
pressure for highly specific objectives , moderate internal unity and self assurance
.

Dalton’s analysis classifies informal groups as :
A) Horizontal groups : these are associations of the worker , managers or any other
member of equal ranks engaged in performing more or less similar works.
B) Vertical groups : these are composed of members from varied levels within a particular
department , e.G., Workers , foreman , managers .
C) Mixed groups :refers to groups composed of members of varied ranks, department and
physical location .

REASONS FOR GROUP FORMATION
1) Have a sense of security : the group enables the person to reduce a sense of
insecurity and have a stronger feeling with few self doubts and more resistant treats when
they are a part of the group .
2) Have a status : the persons in a group can be easily recognized and a status is
achieved by them
3) Develop self-esteem : the groups can help a person develop a sense of “ to belong”.
This provides with feeling ,of self-worth and develops confidence in its members.
4) Affiliation: the groups can fulfill social needs. People enjoy the regular interaction that
comes with the group membership.
5) Power: the power is derived on the strength of closeness of the group members with
greater power achieved when in group then if a person is alone or individually .
6) Goal achievement : the goal can be achieved more easily when a group effort is
present as “ UNITED WE STAND,DIVIDED WE FALL”

FUNCTIONS OF A GROUP
• Working on a complex and independent task that is too complex for an individual to
perform and that cannot be easily broken down into independent tasks.
• Generating new ideas or creative solutions to solve problems that require inputs from
several people.
• Serving liaison or coordinating functions among several workgroups whose work is to
some extent independent.
• Facilitating the implementation of complex decisions. A group composed of
representatives from various working groups can coordinate the activities of these
interrelated groups.
• Serving as a vehicle for training new employees, groups teach new members methods
of operations and group norms.

GROUP DEVELOPMENT THEORIES
• Social exchange theory offers an alternative explanation for group development.
According to this theory, individuals form relationships based on the implicit expectation
of mutually beneficial exchanges based on trust and felt obligation. Thus, a perception
that exchange relationships will be positive is essential if individuals are to be attracted
to and affiliate with a group.
• Social identity theory offers another explanation for group formation. Simply put, this
theory suggests that individuals get a sense of identity and self-esteem based upon their
membership in salient groups. The nature of the group may be demographically based,
culturally based, or organizationally based. Individuals are motivated to belong to and
contribute to identity groups because of the sense of belongingness and self-worth
membership in the group imparts.

TUCKMAN’S FIVE
STAGES OF GROUP DEVELOPMENT

TUCKMAN’S FIVE
1) FORMING : this is characterized by the great deal of uncertainty about groups purpose
structure and the leadership . the stage is completed when the members have begun to
think that they are the parts of the group .
2) STORMING : the members accept the existence of the group but they are still resisting
the constraints the group poses on them . there is conflict as to who will control the group .
when this stage completes there does a relatively clear hierarchy exist in the group .
3) NORMING : this is the one in which there is close relationship between the members
and the group demonstrates cohesiveness . there is sense of group identify and this stage
is complete when the group structure solidifies and the group has assimilated a common
set of expectations defining the behavior .

4) PERFORMING : The structure at this point is fully functional and accepted. The group
energy has moved from getting to know and understand each other to performing a task at
hand. For permanent work groups this is the last stage . but for temporary committees,
team, task forces and similar groups the adjourning stage is the last .
5) ADJOURNING : The groups prepare to disband. The high task performance is no
longer the required goal. The attention is towards the wrapping up of activities and
responses of the group members. The responses of the group members vary in this
stage.Some are upbeat, basking in the groups accomplishment .Some are depressed over
the loss of colleagues and friends made during the course .
TUCKMAN’S FIVE

PRINCIPLES OF GROUP DYNAMICS
1) The members of the group must have a strong sense of belonging to the group.
2) The more attraction a group member is to its members, the greater influence it would exercise on its
members .
3) The successful efforts to change individuals sub parts of the group would result in making them
confirm to the norms of the group .
4) Information relating to the need for change , plans for change and the consequences of the changes
must be shared by the members of the group .
5) The changes in one pact of the groups may produce stress in the other parts, which can be reduced
only by eliminating the change or by bringing about re-adjustments in the related parts .
6) The groups arise and function owing to common motives.
7) The intergroup relations, group organization, member participation is essential for effectiveness of a
group .

GROUP COHESIVENESS
Cohesion in a group develops if the needs, hopes and expectations of members are
realized. Group cohesiveness is an important indicator of how influence the group as a
whole exerts over the individual members.
Features of cohesive groups : Groups in high cohesion are likely to exhibit
The following characteristics :
they have relatively few members .
members have similar interests and backgrounds .
they enjoy a high degree of status within the organization .
leader of such groups rewards co-operative behavior .
they are pressured or threatened by some common outside force .
they enjoy a history of past success .

TECHNIQUES FOR MANAGING GROUP
DYNAMICS
1. CHANGE THE PURPOSE OF GROUPS.
2. CHANGE THE STRUCTURE OF GROUPS.
3. CHANGE THE PERSONALITY OF INDIVIDUALS IN A GROUP.
4. PROMOTE AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE MOTIVES OF OTHERS IN THE GROUP.
5. IMPROVE MORALE.
6. SOLVE PROBLEMS BY REDUCING CONFLICT.

DUNBAR’S NUMBER
• The Dunbar’s number is a statistically calculated number to decide on the optimal size
of a group, which can be managed by a manager. The statistical technique used was
regression.
• The accurate number is 148, while it is often rounded off to 150.
• This number is still valid in making the agile groups, while the team size remains 6-10.
• This number is used even to form the groups in defence.

WHY TEAM
• A team is a group of people who come together to achieve a common goal. The
main task is to select these people and combine them into forming high
performing teams. The team leader should select employees with diverse talents
and experiences so they can elevate each other’s performance.
• Team building deals with two main aspects- recruiting people from same or
different teams and then engaging them in activities to achieve results.

WHAT IS TEAMWORK?
• In team building, you form groups and help team members to acquire the
knowledge and skills required to fulfill a responsibility. Once the groups are
made and team members have the required skills and experiences, they are
ready to contribute to teamwork.
• For teams to succeed, they need teamwork and the readiness to accept each
other. As legendary baseball player Babe Ruth rightly said,
• “The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the
greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together,
the club won’t be worth a dime.”

For members to work as a team, they need to function through teamwork’s necessary vital organs.
These important aspects are-
• Defined roles and responsibilities
• Strong internal communication
• Mutual respect
• Accepting people with diverse opinions
• Holding discussions before arriving at a consensus
• Involving everyone in decision making processes
• Giving everyone the freedom and autonomy to fulfill their functions
• Strong leadership skills
• Having the required skills and ability to come up with innovative ideas
• Being accountable and responsible for their actions

OBJECTIVES OF TEAMWORK
• Problem solving: Diverse opinions and ideas, if harnessed properly, can solve even the
most complex set of problems. Diverse ideas when combined together can lead to
effective problem solving. Improve communication and can actually regulate more
collaboration
• Encourage cooperation: Working in a team requires people to work towards a common
goal. Individual expertise is portrayed. Help employees learn skills like patience, trusting
each other, listening and trying to find common ground. Open up to each other and
participate in the completion of their function.
• Improve team productivity: more done in less time. strategize the best possible way to
complete the tasks. This saves time, enhances individual performance and increases the
team’s overall productivity.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A TEAM
Team trust
• Team members who cannot trust one other or who don’t believe in the process
and goals of the team seldom find success. Effective teams focus on solving
problems. Trust is an adjunct of effective communication; there can be trust
between team members only if they are allowed to air their views freely. This is
the reason why organizations often undertake team-building exercises that put
team members in positions of trust.

Collaboration
• Close collaboration is a trait shared by every successful team, whether it be the
apple leadership team or lennon-mccartney of the beatles fame or jordan-
pippen of the chicago bulls fame. The idea is simple enough: the more you
collaborate and the more you communicate, the more you create.
Support risk taking and change
• Good teams support appropriate risk taking and experimentation for change.
They look on first time mistakes as opportunities for learning.

Encourage differences in opinions
• Agreeing on a common goal is essential. But it shouldn’t come at the cost of
suppressing alternative ideas and opinions. Having divergent opinions within a team
enhances team performance; a diverse team is its competitive advantage.
• Diverse opinions stir imagination and new ideas. Imagination and new ideas stir
creativity. Unless the status quo is threatened and questioned, you won’t find those
crucial “out of the box” ideas.

Common goals
• A chief characteristic of any successful team is that members place the common
goal above individual interests. While scaling individual targets is great for
personal morale, teams succeed when they understand, appreciate and work
with a common purpose.
Mutually accountable
• Teams accept responsibility as individuals and as a team. They don’t blame one
another for team mistakes and failures. No one should spend any time, useless
time, in personal justifications. They should celebrate their successes together
and recognize special performances and contributions that each team member
makes to the total work of the team.

Communicate freely
• Communication is the cousin of chemistry. In any team, communication is
crucial to building a sense of camaraderie between members. The content of the
communication is rather irrelevant, as researchers at mit’s human dynamics
laboratory have shown. Rather, the manner of communication — how freely and
frequently team members communicate — determines the effectiveness of the
team. Put simply, the more freely you talk to your fellow team members, the
more comfortable you are in sharing insights and ideas. This is just one major
reason why modern businesses emphasize communication and spend
significant time each year on social communication and collaboration tools.

Defined roles
• Roles might shift somewhat once the team is assembled, but understand the
skill sets and thinking styles are needed on the team. If a team needs to develop
a new product for market, that team will need a detail-oriented person (the
task-master), who is methodical and can keep the team on track.
• The explorer will be more of a big-picture thinker who can help the team see
what is possible. The number-cruncher will take charge of measurement and
metrics. It’s possible your team will have other roles to fill, but you should have
a good handle on those roles before you begin staffing.
• Once you have a plan for those basics, begin choosing the strongest team
members to carry out the project.

Clear direction
• Sometimes, organizations are in such a hurry to move on their projects that
they pull together groups of people without first deciding on the goals and
desired outcomes. In his book, team renaissance: the art, science and politics of
great teams (old man river publishing, 2013), richard spoon explains that
without a clear sense of what the team needs to accomplish and how a
successful outcome will be defined, it’s impossible to assemble the right group
of people to get there.
• So decide on team goals and desired outcomes first. Use it for clear direction
for the team you select. Start at the end point: what is the outcome you want
and why? Leave the team flexibility to develop the best way to get there.

Listening
• The most important part of communication is listening. Listening is not just a
way to find things out. It’s also a sign of respect. So send the message that your
conversation partner is valuable. Listen like you mean it. Demonstrate that
you’re listening. Paraphrase, re-state, and react to what you hear. Ask for
clarification. Get involved.

FACTORS TO DEVELOP AND IMPROVE TEAM
COHESION
The main factors that determine team cohesion are the
• Similarity between members' interests,
• group size,
• shared successes, and
• the threat of external competitors.
There are different ways of improving team cohesion such as
• empowering group members,
• resolving disputes, and
• valuing every contribution made.

TYPES OF TEAMS
Management team
• The team which comprises of the department heads who are responsible for
managing the whole business operations is called a management team.
Operational team
• The operational team takes care of the overall functioning of an organization,
and the team members fix the issues that hinder the company’s smooth
operation.
Self-directed team
• The team which not lead by any leader or manager; instead, each member
controls and directs their actions.

Troubleshooting team
• The team comprising of people with analytical thinking and problem-solving who come together for
streamlining the process is a troubleshooting team.
Virtual team
• Such teams are ubiquitous in the organizations which have a global presence. Since the team
members are located in different countries, with different time zones, they cannot directly interact
with each other. Thus, such people stay connected through technology, in spite of varying
languages and cultures.
Special purpose team:It is formed to fulfil a specific project or purpose. After completion of the task,
such a team is disintegrated.
Project team: Similar to the special purpose team, a project team is the one which is built to
efficiently execute a given project on time, by following a common strategy.
TYPES OF TEAMS

PROJECT TEAM TYPES
• Functional team: such a team is formed within a department and is usually
permanent. It is regulated by a manager and works on regular projects ensuring
that their part of the task is appropriately accomplished.
• Multi-functional team: it consists of team members who hold expertise in their
fields. Such a team can be set temporarily or permanently, depending on the
project and organization.
• The purpose of these teams is to carry out high level or special projects.
• Contract team: the team which is formed by hiring the members from an
external source is a contract team. A contract binds all the individuals in it.
• The project manager is the one who coordinates between the team members
and the client. After the project completion, the customer can disassociate from
the team.
• Matrix team: in this ‘two-boss system or matrix organizational structure, the
top-level managers exercise superior power or control, whereas the middle-
level managers take care of the functioning and decision-making.

ADVANTAGES OF A TEAM
Identify strengths and weaknesses: through team-building exercises, the
strengths and weaknesses of each member can be identified. In day to day routine
work, such an analysis cannot be done. These competencies can be used by the
managers to form effective teams.
Direct towards vision and mission: team building activities define the role and
importance of the team for the organization to reach its vision. It makes the
individuals understand the organization’s goals, objectives, mission and vision
very clearly and motivates them to contribute towards it.
Develops communication and collaboration: team building activities enhance the
interpersonal relations of the team members. It makes individuals comfortable
and familiar with one another. Collaboration develops trust and understanding
among the team members.
Establishes roles and responsibilities: it defines and clarifies the role of each
member of a team. Moreover, the members are given individual responsibilities,
along with the motivation of performing as a team.

ADVANTAGES OF A TEAM
• Initiates creative thinking and problem solving: in a team, individuals are motivated to
give their views, opinions and solution to a particular problem. It leads to brainstorming
and exploring their creative side.
• Builds trust and morale: by conducting team building activities, the organization makes
the employees feel valued. It encourages them to develop their skills and build strong
interpersonal relations, ultimately boosting the morale and trust of the team members.
• Introduces and manages change: the technique of team building makes it easier for the
managers to incorporate an organizational change by making the individuals familiar
with the change and its necessity. It also helps in managing such change and its impact
over the working and team’s performance.
• Facilitates delegation: the managers find it more suitable to delegate the work to a team
rather than an individual. Therefore, team building helps the managers to efficiently and
adequately delegate the task to the team.
• Better productivity: if the team is wisely formed and all the team members work
collaboratively to achieve the objectives, the productivity of all the individuals improve.

DISADVANTAGES OF A TEAM
Develops conflict: sometimes, the team lacks coordination and understanding
among its members. This leads to conflict and clashes within the team and hence
decreases the efficiency and productivity. A lot of time is wasted in such conflict
management.
Unproductive or freeride team members: at times, some of the team members do
not contribute much to team performance. Such individuals are considered to be
freeriding team members. They prove to be inefficient and less productive for the
team.
May lead to non-cooperation: every individual is different from one another. The
team members sometimes lack cooperation and unity. This non-cooperation
among the team members leads to wastage of efforts and hinders the
performance of the team as a whole.

DISADVANTAGES OF A TEAM
Difficult to evaluate individual performance: whatever the result or the outcome
the organization gets by team building is the team’s achievement or failure.
Usually, the organization overlooks the contribution of each member individually
while rewarding the efforts of the whole team.
Involves cost: team building activities require time and money. Moreover, a lot of
time, cost and resources are consumed in ensuring coordination, balance,
feedback, decision making and conflict management within the teams formed.
Accountability and credibility issues: in case of failure, it becomes difficult to find
out the reason. The team members sometimes do take up the accountability of
their work, holding the other members to be responsible for the unfavourable
outcome.
In case of success, the team members get busy in taking up the credit
themselves, ignoring the efforts of the whole team together.

GOOGLE’S STUDY ON TEAM BUILDING
• Google once conducted a study on how to build a perfect team? To find out the
psychology behind effective team building.
• On conducting various experiments, it found that the concept of putting those
people in a team who are comfortable working with each other does affect the
performance much. Neither creating a mix of extroverts and introverts was very
helpful.
• It noticed that people with like minds giving a fair chance to one another for
putting forward their views and equally listening to the ideas of one another
tend to form a high-performance team together.

DIFFERENCE AND COMPARISON OF GROUP AND TEAM
BASIS GROUP TEAM
Meaning A group is made when independent
individuals, having something in
common, come together.
A team is that group of
interdependent individuals, who
join hands for the realization of a
specific goal.
Accountability Individual Individual and mutual
Decision-Making Authority Group members Team leader
Individual Growth Proper training but limited
application
Skill development and application
Focus On Individual goals Team goals
Dependency Independent members Interdependent members
Specific Roles Assigned to
Individuals
No Yes
Interpersonal Understanding Not necessary Compulsory
Leadership Unstructured Structured
Level of Trust Low High
Level of Commitment Low High

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Session 1 group and team

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