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i.
II. Group Properties 2: Norms
A. Introduction
1. All groups have norms
circumstances.
2. Norms and Emotions
emotions for the individuals and for the groups—in other words, people
3. Norms and Conformity
a. The impact that group pressures for conformity can have on an individual
others. (Exhibit 9-2)
b. Do individuals conform to the pressures of all groups to which they
belong?
vary and sometimes are contradictory.
d. People conform to their reference groups, in which a person is aware of
other members, defines himself or herself as a member or would like to be
pressures on their members.
4. Norms and Behavior
a. Experiments conducted between 1924 and 1932 by Elton Mayo at Western
Electric at the company’s Hawthorne Works in Chicago.
b. The Hawthorne researchers began by examining the relationship between
output increased steadily.
ii. It became evident that this group’s performance was significantly
influenced by its status as “special.”
d. In essence, workers in both the illumination and assembly-test-room
individually maximize their outputs.
ii. Their output became controlled by a group norm that determined what
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was a proper day’s work.
i. Don’t be a rate-buster, turning out too much work.
ii. Don’t be a chiseler, turning out too little work.
iii. Don’t squeal on any of your peers.
h. How did the group enforce these norms?
norms.
ii. Members also ostracized individuals whose behavior was against the
group’s interest.
5. Positive Norms and Group Outcomes
a. One goal of every organization with corporate social responsibility (CSR)
would grow exponentially.
b. We might expect the same outcomes from political correctness (PC)
d. Positive group norms may well beget positive outcomes, but only if other
factors are present, too.
susceptible to positive group norms.
ii. Individual personalities factor in, too, as well as the level of a person’s
social identity with the group.
6. Negative Norms and Group Outcomes
a. Deviant workplace behavior refers to a full range of antisocial actions by
both. (Exhibit 9-3)
b. Few organizations will admit to creating or condoning conditions that
encourage and maintain deviant behaviors. Yet they exist.
characterized by positive or negative attributes.
ii. Second, employees have been reporting an increase in rudeness and
disregard toward others by bosses and coworkers in recent years.
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negative outcomes for the victims.
(i) Nearly half of employees who have suffered this incivility say
it has led them to think about changing jobs; 12 percent
actually quit because of it.
more likely to do so when working in a group.
7. Norms and Culture
a. Do people in collectivist cultures have different norms than people in
individualist cultures? Of course they do.
b. But did you know that our orientation may be changed, even after years of
living in one society.
B. Group Property 3: Status
members by others.
2. What determines status?
status hierarchies within groups.
i. Status is derived from one of three sources:
(c) Individual’s personal characteristics.
3. Status and Norms
from norms than other group members.
b. High-status people are also better able to resist conformity pressures.
4. Status and Group Interaction
a. Interaction is influenced by status.
b. High-status people tend to be assertive.
c. Status differences inhibit diversity of ideas & creativity.
d. Lower-status members tend to be less active.
5. Status Inequity
a. When inequity is perceived, it creates disequilibrium that results in
corrective behavior.
of the status continuum.
c. Large differences in status within groups are also associated with poorer
individual performance, lower health, and higher intentions to leave the
group.
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groups whose status criteria are different, or when they join groups whose
members have heterogeneous backgrounds.
their companies as determinants of status.
ii. Government bureaucrats may use the size of their budgets, and
blue-collar workers years of seniority.
attempts to reconcile the differing hierarchies.
i. As we’ll see in Chapter 10, this can be a problem when management
creates teams of employees from varied functions.
6. Status and stigmatization
others with their stigma.
i. This “stigma by association” effect can result in negative opinions and
C. Group Property 4: Size
1. The size of a group affects the group’s overall behavior, but the effect depends
on the dependent variables.
input.
b. Smaller groups—seven members—are better at doing something
productive with that input.
2. Social loafing is the tendency for individuals to expend less effort when
working collectively than when working individually.
a. Causes of social loafing
i. A belief that others in the group are not carrying their fair share.
their contribution cannot be measured.
b. Social loafing appears to have a Western bias.
i. It’s consistent with individualistic cultures, such as the United States
and Canada that are dominated by self-interest.
ii. It is not consistent with collective societies, in which individuals are
motivated by group goals.
c. Preventing social loafing
i. Set group goals, so the group has a common purpose to strive toward.
ii. Increase intergroup competition, which again focuses on the shared
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outcome.
contribution.
iv. Select members who have high motivation and prefer to work in
groups.
v. If possible, base group rewards in part on each member’s unique
contributions.
A. Group Property 5: Cohesiveness (Exhibit 9-4)
2. Cohesiveness is important because it is related to the group’s productivity.
performance-related norms established by the group.
productive.
low.
6. How to encourage group cohesiveness:
a. Make the group smaller.
b. Encourage agreement with group goals.
c. Increase the time members spend together.
d. Increase the status of the group and the perceived difficulty of attaining
membership in the group.
e. Stimulate competition with other groups.
f. Give rewards to the group rather than to individual members.
g. Physically isolate the group.
B. Group Property 6: Diversity
1. The final property of groups we consider is diversity in the group’s
membership, the degree to which members of the group are similar to, or
different from, one another.
2. A great deal of research is being done on how diversity influences group
performance.
a. One study compared groups that were culturally diverse (composed of
people from different countries) and homogeneous (composed of people
from the same country).
i. On a wilderness survival exercise (not unlike the Experiential Exercise
at the end of this chapter), the groups performed equally well, but the
diverse groups were less satisfied with their groups, were less
cohesive, and had more conflict.
b. Another study examined the effect of differences in tenure on the
performance of 67 engineering research and development groups.
i. When most people had roughly the same level of tenure, performance
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were not related to lower performance for groups when there were
effective team-oriented human resources practices.
in underlying attitudes, values, and opinions.
i. One researcher argues, “The mere presence of diversity you can see,
such as a person’s race or gender, actually cues a team that there’s
likely to be differences of opinion.”
ii. Two studies of MBA student groups found surface-level diversity led
to greater openness even without deep-level diversity.
c. But even positive effects are unlikely to be especially strong. As one
review stated, “The business case (in terms of demonstrable financial
results) for diversity remains hard to support based on the extant
research.”
detrimental to group functioning and performance.
b. Overall, although research on faultlines suggests that diversity in groups is
a potential double-edged sword, recent work indicates they can be
strategically employed to improve performance.
IV. Group Decision Making
A. Groups Versus the Individual
1. Strengths of group decision making:
considered.
d. The evidence indicates that a group will almost always outperform even
the best individual.
e. Groups lead to increased acceptance of a solution.
2. Weaknesses of group decision making:
a. It is time consuming.
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3. Effectiveness and efficiency
a. Whether groups are more effective than individuals depends on the criteria
you use.
superior.
e. If creativity is important, groups tend to be more effective than
individuals.
f. If effectiveness means the degree of acceptance the final solution achieves,
groups are better.
increases in effectiveness are more than enough to offset the reductions in
efficiency.
4. Summary
a. Groups offer an excellent vehicle for performing many of the steps in the
decision-making process.
gathering.
c. When the final solution is agreed upon, there are more people in a group
decision to support and implement it.
d. Group decisions consume time, create internal conflicts, and generate
pressures toward conformity.
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