Group Processes and Types of Groups

Group behavior is affected by the processes that go within a work group. The process comprises the communication pattern used by members for information exchange, group decision process, conflict, interaction etc. The group process is very much important to understand and group behavior. By understanding group behaviors, the behaviors can be controlled and with the help of desired behavior, work can be accomplished. Group process includes the following synergy: 

An action of two or more substances that results in an effect that is different from the individual summation of the substances. For example, social loafing (i.e. the tendency for individuals to expend less effort when working collectively than when working individually) is a negative synergy. 

Social Facilitation Effect 

The tendency for performance to improve or decline in response to the presence of others, while this effect is not entirely a group's phenomenon - people can work in the presence of other and not be members of the groups. The group situation is more likely to provide the condition for social facilitation to occur. 

Concept of Group Tasks 

There is certain nature of task, which needs groups to perform it. Individual alone cannot perform it. Sometimes one group has to depend upon other group due to its nature. The impact of group processes on the group's performance and member satisfaction is also moderated by the tasks that the group is doing. The complexity and interdependence of task influence the group effective. 

Group task can be simple or complex. 

1. Simple Task 

• Are routine wise or standardized
• Group's members do not need to discuss alternatives. 
• They can rely on standardized operation procedures for doing the job. 

2. Complex Task: 

• Ones that tend to be novel or non-routine.
• The more complex the task, the more the group will benefit from discussion among members on alternative work method. 
• There is high degree of interdependence among the tasks that the group member must perform. 

Types of Groups 

There are many types of groups in organizations and each type plays an important role in determining organizational effectiveness. The basis of differentiation may be purpose, extent of structuring, process of formation and size of the group membership. Each type has different features and different effect on its participants. Brief descriptions of different types of groups is as follows: 

1. Formal Work Group

Formal groups are created and maintained to fulfill specific needs or tasks which are related to the total organizational mission. Thus, these are consciously and deliberately created. Such groups may be either permanent in the form of top management item such as board of directors or management committees, work units in the various departments of the organization, staff group providing specialized services to the organization and so on or the formal groups may be constituted on temporary basis of fulfilling certain specified objectives. When such objectives are fulfilled, they disappear. These may be in the form of temporary committee, task-force etc. Managers establish formal work groups to help the organization achieve its goals. The goals of a formal work group are determined by the needs of the organization. There are different types of formal group as follows 

a) Command Group

Command group is the collection of subordinates who report to the same supervisor. It is composed of the subordinates who report directly to a common superior. This type of group is determined by organization chart. Command groups are based on the basic reporting relationships in organizations and they are frequently represented on organizational charts. These groups have a profound effect on the extent to which an organization is able to achieve its goals. Example of such a group may be a production manager and his subordinates in his department, a college principal and teachers and so on. 

b) Task Force

A task force is a collection of people who come together to accomplish a specific goal. It is made up of a group of people with different backgrounds who are assigned to a specific task or mission. Since the tenure of a task force is over when the task or mission is over, usually membership in the task group is temporary; each person remains part of it only so long as his skills and knowledge are required and task force continues. The task force also differs from a matrix organization in the sense that the later appears almost on continuous basis and personnel are assigned tasks in different projects at different periods of time. A task force is constituted when the organization faces some unusual problems which cannot be solved by a single individual or by a single department. A standing committee or task groups are task forces that may be enduring (though members may change) or permanent in nature. 

Formal group has following characteristics:

1. Group structure is designed by the top management to fulfill certain requirements like performance of necessary activities there by achieving organizational goal.
2. Group structure is based on the principles of division of labor and efficiency in operations.
3. Group concentrates more on the performance of jobs and not on the individuals performing the jobs.
4. The authority and responsibility assigned to each job have to be adhered to by the job holders. Based on the concept of authority and responsibility, people are placed in hierarchy and their status is determined accordingly. 
5. Coordination among members and their control are well specified through processes, procedures, rules etc. 

2. Informal Work Groups 

Informal work groups emerge naturally in organization because organizational members perceive that membership in a group will help them achieve their goals or meet their needs. In other words, informal groups are created in the organization because of operation of social and psychological forces operating at the workplace. Members create such group for their own satisfaction and their working is not regulated by the general framework of organizational rules and regulations. 

The different between formal group and informal group can be better understood with the help of the following table.

Basis	Formal Groups	Informal Groups
Origin	The formal groups are created deliberately and consciously by the framers of the organization.	Informal organization are created because of the operation of socio-psychological forces at the work place, that is people while working together develop certain liking and disliking for other and interact on a way not prescribed by the framers of the organization.
Purpose	Formal groups are deliberate creations; they are created for achieving the legitimate objectives of the organization.	Informal groups are created by organizational members for their social and psychological satisfaction. Thus, they serve the purpose of organizational members which formal groups are not able to satisfy.
Nature of Group	The formal groups are stable and may continue for a long period. Their membership is specified through organizational process. There may be many standing groups in the organizations.	Informal groups are quite unstable in nature. Since their formation and functioning depend upon the value systems, general liking and disliking and other personality features of its members concerned. They may disappear very quickly because of the change in the membership or they may cause to be attractive for the members and the members may from alternative group.
Members of Group	The number of formal groups is decided to serve the organizational purpose. This depends upon the organizing pattern.	A large number of informal groups may also be found in the organization. However, an individual may become member of several informal groups. Therefore, there is overlapping of membership.
Communication	Communication is prescribed in the formal groups. It is normally through chain of command to which people refer as formal channel of communication.	In the informal group, the communications pass through informal channels. This informal channel may be in any form.
Authority	The members of formal groups derive authority through the formal source that is through the process of delegation and re-delegation. Thus, authority flows from the higher to lower levels.	In the informal groups, all members are equal. However, some may command more authority by their personal qualities.
Existence	Normally formal group does not arise because of informal group.	Informal group emerges while working in a formal group.
Relationship	Superior-subordinate relationship	Personal and social relationship
Leadership	Based on formal authority and position	No bounds, operates in different directions
Boundaries	Operates within set boundaries	No boundaries, operates in different directions.

You may also like:

• The Dynamics of Inter-Groups Conflict
• Reasons of Awareness of Information Groups
• Different Stages of Group Development
• The Processes of Group and Types of Groups
• Group Dynamics
• Inter-Group Conflicts
• Group Decision Making Processes
• Structure of Group
• Nature and Significance of Informal Group in an Organization
• Group Dynamics: A Social Process
• Concept of Group and Reasons for Forming and Joining Group

Group Structure

Every group has structure, which shape the behavior of members and makes explain and predict the large portion of individual behavior within the group and performance of the group.

A group structure includes following variables.
1. Formal Leadership: Almost every groups has a formal leader e.g. manager, supervisor/ foreman.

2. Roles: Roles deal with what people do. As set of expected behavior pattern attributed to someone occupying a given position in asocial unit. People have the ability to shift roles rapidly when they recognize that the situation and its demand clearly require major changes.

• Role Identity: These are certain attitudes and actual behavior consistent with a role and they create role identity.
• Role Perception: An individual's view of how he is supposed to act in a given situations.
• Role Expectations: How others believe a person should act in a given situation.

3. Norms: The norms are accepted standard of behavior shared by group members. It tells, what should or should not do by group members. Every group has established their norms. But norms differ from group to group. Norms influence the behavior of group members. They are 'ought' of behavior.

4. Authority: Group is formed to achieve a particular objective. In a group, that is a leader and follower. Leader is an entitled to decision, while the follower has to follow the decision. Thus the power to make decision into action is known as authority.

Concept of Group and Reasons for Forming and Joining Groups

Concept of Group

Group is a collection of two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent who have come together to achieve particulars common objectives. A group is, thus, an aggregation of people who interact with each other, are aware of one another, have a common objective, and perceive themselves to be a group. Now, a group may be defined as a collection of people who have a common purpose or objectives, interact with each other to accomplish the group objectives are aware of one another and perceive themselves to be part of group.

In other words, a group is the largest set of two or more individuals who are jointly characterized by a network of relevant communications and a shared sense of collective identity .Similarly, a group is a collection of two or more people who have a common goal or interest and interact with each other to accomplish their objective. Work groups use roles, rules, and norms to control members's behavior and they use several socialization tactics to turn newcomers into effective group members. Groups contribute to organizational effectiveness.

Similarly, a group is defined as two or more individuals, interacting and interdependent, who have come together to achieve particular objectives. A group is any number of people who;

• Have a common purpose or objective,
• Interact with each other to accomplish (or obtain) their objectives
• Are aware of one another.
• Perceive themselves to be part of the group.

Some of the experts have been defined the term group as follows:

"If two or more individuals are together briefly, but interact and influence one another, they constitute, if only for a time, a real group." – Kilenberg

"A group can be defined as two or more people, interacting and interdependent who come together to achieve particular goals." – Stephen Robbins

"By a small group is meant a size varying from 4 to 12 members, who usually have face to face relations, over a period of time and who consider themselves as differentiated from others, either implicitly or explicitly." – Chowdhry and Kakar

"A group is an assemblage or aggregation of persons considered as being related in same way or united by common ties or interest-class, race or occupation." – Kast and Rosenzweig

From the above definitions, a group can be defined as a collection of individuals working in face-to-face relationships to share information and resource for a task to be achieved. A group whose members work intensely with each other to achieve a specific, common goal or objective is known as Team.

More collection people cannot constitute a group. For example, a crowd in front of a shop in the market watching India vs. Australia one-day cricket match on stadium will not be called as group because people do not interact with one another, do not know one another and also do not share a common purpose.

Features of Group

The following are the basic features of a group:

1. Interaction

Interaction among group members is sine quo none of a group. A regular exchange of facts, news, views and feelings through face-to-face interactions, gestures or writings is the most essential features of the group. As a matter of fact, a group is a natural outcome of interactions among people and which later provides a forum for the people.

2. A small Aggregation of Persons

A group involves at least two persons, but group which consist of only a small number of members will not feel socially and psychologically satisfied.

3. Common Interest

People having common interests, common goals, common ideology, common phenomenon / interests, problems, friendship, same philosophy etc. is essential to attract and keep the group members together. This commonness provides them a basis for continuous interactions and relations.

4. Perceived Collective Identity

A recognized collective identity as a group is the most distinguishing feature of a group, which makes it different from a casual aggregation of individuals or from the other recognized groups. Each member of the group must perceive that he belongs to the group and recognize others who are the members of that group. Mutual awareness and collective identity are, therefore, essential ingredients of a group.

Functions of Groups

Functions of a Group

1. Representation

The group through its leader or spokesman represents the ideology and thinking of the group before other groups or before the management. It is also a means of communication.

2. Teaching

The group teaches to its members how to do work, how to behave and how to get things done. It helps in improving performance in the job.

3. Fight for Common Cause

The group, as a collectives of its members, fights for the common interests against the management or other groups.

4. Orientation

The group socializes the members in the organization by telling them work norms, work climate, social and formal relations, group members and their status and roles and infuses a sense of belonging.

5. Creation of Social Life

The group creates social life. In the absence of informal groups, the atmosphere of the organization would be boring and miserable.

6. Collective Thinking

The group encourages discussion, interaction and exchange of news and views among the members. It helps them in collective thinking and group decision. Diversities are resolved and consensus is achieved before arriving at a decision.

Reason of People Forming and Joining Group

People form and become members of group for a variety of different reasons. They are as follows:

1. Safety and security needs

Groups provide protection to their members from outside pressures. That is why workers join trade unions to feel safe and secure. This holds true at all walks of life. Even in the nursery class, when the teacher asks the small kids who broke the toy, he seldom gets an answer. What happens is all kids keep mum or quiet. Although young, they protected their member by not disclosing any kid's name of pointing out any one in group.

2. Relatedness or Belongingness needs

People being social belong belonging to or relating to groups satisfies a numbers of their social needs. In every organization, there are many persons who are very isolated or who prefer to be absent from work most of the times. Studies shows, such phenomena occur more where people are unable to belong to groups.

3. Esteem needs

When member of a group does some good piece of work, gets a praise from other. This is turn, bring a sense of recognition to the group member, on the one hand, and also a sense of fulfillment of one's need for growth towards higher achievement of work and better career prospects, on the other side.

4. Power

One of the appealing aspects of groups is that they represent power and also offer power to their members. Workers enjoy much greater power by joining groups than they do as individuals. This is because of at least two reasons: 

(i) There is strength in numbers, and 

(ii) United we stand, divide we fall.

5. Identity

As a member of a group, an individual gets identity who am I? Practices, we understand ourselves through the behavior of other towards us. For example, when others praise us, we feel we are great, if other laugh at us, we see ourselves as funny ones.

You may also like:

• The Dynamics of Inter-Groups Conflict
• Reasons of Awareness of Information Groups
• Different Stages of Group Development
• The Processes of Group
• Group Dynamics
• Inter-Group Conflicts
• Group Decision Making Processes
• Structure of Group
• Nature and Significance of Informal Group in an Organization

Role of Informal Groups in Organizations

Group may be defined as a social phenomenon in which two or more persons decide to interact with one another, share common ideology and perceive themselves as a group. Both formal and informal groups exist in organizations. Formal groups are collection of employees who are made to work together by the organization to get the job done smoothly and efficiently. Informal groups, on the other hand are groups that emerge or randomly get formed due to the formal group member's interactions with each other, and there by develop common interacts. In the other words, informal groups are not formally organized in the work system to get the job done, but randomly develop on their own at the work place because of common interests and mutual linking among the members of the formal group. Informal groups in modern organization are important as they play vital roles. Some of the roles played by informal groups can be as following:

• Informal group are controlled by their norms and values, so the behavior of employees could be positive.
• Informal groups sometime lead to innovation and creativity regarding to job complexity and difficulties or for new product and services.
• Informal groups are controlled by their norms and values, so the behavior of employees could be positive.
• Informal groups help in communicating new changes easily and effectively.
• Informal group by their social interaction can create the better image of company.
• Informal group creates the warm relationship between superior and subordinates. Plus, it helps in establishing cultural interaction for the issues created in organization.
• Informal group can solve the formal problems of organization even in off-the-job time.
• Informal groups inform, suggest and help the organization determining employee's salary, motivation and job satisfaction.
• Informal groups lead special effort on job result and help in adoption of organizational change.

Self-managed Work Team

Self-managed work team is the group of employee who take on the responsibilities of the supervisor. The group performs all things by themselves. They make planning and scheduling of the work. Typically, self-managed teams are group of 10-15 employees who perform related or interdependent jobs. They select their own members and evaluate each other's performance. It increases productivity and satisfaction. However, the effectiveness of self-managed teams is situationally dependent. They have reduced the importance of supervisor position. Due to this reason, many companies in US, Europe, Japan are putting to their effort to developed self-managed team in their organizations. These teams are oneself-managed. No need to manage them from the upper level.

Merit: Members report high job satisfaction
Demerit: Higher absenteeism and turnover rates, don't seem to work well while downsizing.

Major Issues in Managing Work Teams

1. How does team facilitate the adoption of TQM (Total Quality Management)? The TQM requires encouragement to employee by management to share ideas and implement improvements. Team provides the vehicle for employees to share ideas and to implement improvement. The issue is how to make the work teams effective for quality problem solving, especially in terms of size, ability, resources, mobilization etc.

2. What is the importance of workforce diversity on team performance?
The strongest case for diversity on work teams is when these teams are engaged in problem-solving and decision-making tasks. Diverse groups have more difficulty in working together and solving problem but this dissipate with time.

3. Increasing team effectiveness
An important issue is how to increase and maintain team effectiveness. For this, the following things should be taken into considerations. 

• Prepare member to deal with the problem of maturity- remind them that they are not unique.
• Offer refresher training
• Offer advanced training
• Encourage team to treat their development as a constant learning experience.

Introduction of Quality Circle in an organization

Introduction of Quality Circle in an organization Like any organizational change, QC being a new concept is most likely be opposed by the employees. Therefore, QC should be introduced with great concern and precaution as discussed below:

1. Publicizing the Idea of QC: Implementation of QC is just like an organizational change programme. Hence, like an organizational change programme, the workers need to be convinced about the need for and significance of QC from the point of view of the organization and the workers. Participation in QC being voluntary, its publicity among the workers is necessary. To begin with, management can also arrange for initial training to some workers who want to form quality circles. 
2. Constitution of Quality Circles: Workers doing similar type of work are drawn voluntarily to constitute quality circles. The membership of a QC should be limited to ten to twelve members.
3. Initial Problem Solving: The members of the QC should discuss the problem a threadbare and prepare a list of alternative solutions. Each alternative solution should be evaluated and final solution should be arrived at on the basis of consensus.
4. Presentation and Approval of Suggestions: The final solution arrived at should be presented to the management either in oral or in written form. The management may evaluate the solution by forming a committee for this purpose. The committee may also meet the members of the quality circle for clarifications. Presentation of solutions to the management helps improve the communication between management and workers and reflects management's interest to the members of QC.
5. Implementation: Once the suggestion/ solution is approved by the management, the same is being put into practice in a particular workplace. Quality circles may be organized gradually for other workplaces or departments also. Thus, following this process, the entire organization can have quality circles.

Group Dynamics: A Social Process

The social process by which people interact face to face in small group is called group dynamics. The word 'dynamics' comes from the Greek word meaning 'force', hence group dynamics refers to the study of forces operating within a group. Two important historical landmarks in our understanding of small groups are the research of Elton mayo and his associates in the 1920s and 1930s and the experiments in the 1930s of Kurt Lewin, the founder of the group dynamics movement. Mayo showed that workers tend to establish informal groups that affect job satisfaction and effectiveness. Lewin showed that different kinds of leadership produced different responses in groups. 

Groups have properties of their own that are different from the properties of the individuals who make up the group. The special properties of groups are illustrated by a simple lesson in mathematics. Suppose we say 'one plus one equals three' 1+1=3. In the world of mathematics that is a logical error. But in the world of group dynamics, it is entirely rational to say 'one plus one equals three'. In a group, there is no such thing as only two people, for no two people can be considered without including their relationship, and that relationship is the third element in the equation.

Thus, 'group dynamics' refers to the nature and extent of dynamism in a group, i.e. the capacity of a group to adopt new ideas and to change itself with times and circumstances. Similarly, group dynamics is concerned with the interaction of individual face-to-face relationship. It indicates the capacity of a group to react to a change. It has been found by social scientists that a change is normally resisted by a group and acceptance of change is largely as soon as group function rather than individual matter. A change becomes easier and effective if the group as a whole accepts it. A dynamic group accepts the change more readily because it has the capacity of moving with the times. Groups facilitate the co-operation, mutual understanding, companionship, supportive relations and friendship. Work groups also provide security for the individual member from pressure from other groups. 

There are some definitions given by different experts which are as follows: 

"Group dynamics is asocial process by which people interacts face in small group." – John W Newtorm & Keith Devis 

"The term 'group dynamics' refers to the complex of forces that determine group formation, its size and structure, conflict and change, cohesiveness, interaction and behavior." - Kurt Lewin 

"Group dynamic refers to the study of the interaction of the members of a group." – Kelly 

From the above definitions, group dynamics is a social process by which people interact face-to-face in small groups. It is the study of the forces operating within a group. Group dynamics is the study of the social processes by which people interact with each other in a group and influence the behavior of each other. Similarly, group dynamics encompasses the dynamics of interaction patterns within the group, the subtle and the non-subtle pressures exerted by group members, the manner in which decisions of all these will enable managers to manage groups effectively leading to organizational effectiveness.

Developed and Enforcement of Group Norms 

Group norm is standard of behavior. In other words, groups norm is a rule that tells the individual how to behave in a particular group. Thus, group norms identify the standards against which the behaviors of group members know what they should or should not do. Norms could be formal or could be informal. 

According to Schein, there are pivotal and relevant group norms while the pivotal norms are confirmed by every member of the group, the relevant norms are desirable to be confirmed by the members. With increase in the size of the group, the acceptability of norms tends to lessen. Small deviation of norms is allowed. However in case of extreme deviation, the deviator get punished. For example, when the union is on strike, if its member attending to work are punished by being boycotted by the group. Hence, norms serve as the basis for behavior of group members. They predict and control the behavior of member in groups.

You may also like:

• The Dynamics of Inter-Groups Conflict
• Reasons of Awareness of Information Groups
• Different Stages of Group Development
• The Processes of Group
• Group Dynamics
• Inter-Group Conflicts
• Group Decision Making Processes
• Structure of Group
• Nature and Significance of Informal Group in an Organization

Stages of Group Development

Group formation is not the spontaneous task or event. This takes a series of stages. Bruce Tuckman has provided us with what has become the staple of group dynamics, the 'Five Stages of Group Development' – forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. These phases are not always sequential, teams cycle through the different phases throughout their lives, missing out on a stage and reappearing later but all the stages are essential as well as important.

Different researches have reported different stages of group development. For example, Bernard M. Bass and Edward C. Ryterband report that groups typically develop through a four stage process: 

1. Mutual acceptance 
2. Communication and decision making 
3. Motivation and productivity 
4. Control and organization 

However, the most widely accepted five stages of group development are ones as reported by B.W. Tauchman and M.A. Jensen. These are:

Stages of Group Development

1. Forming Stages

The first stage for almost every group is an orientation stage. This stage is marked by a great deal of caution, confusion, courtesy and uncertainty about the group's purpose, structure, and leadership. The formal leader exerts a great influence in structuring the group and shaping member expectations. This stage is complete when members of the group have begun to think of themselves as part of a group. This is simply bringing together of a group of individuals. Those who are willing to join the group introduce each others. They may contain number of queries, confusion and uncertainties.

2. Storming Stage

This stage is characteristics by conflict, confrontation, concern and criticism. Struggles for individual power and influences are common. In case, the conflict becomes extremely intense and dysfunctional; the group may dissolve or continue as an ineffective group that advances to higher levels of group maturity. Group also experiences many changes in membership expectations interpersonal problems of group goals and individual's goals. There may be conflict regarding leadership authority and control. The group will be stronger with these things after the negotiation on the confronting matters. After negotiation, members start accepting the group norms and values.

3. Norming Stage

This is the stage in which close relationship among the members develop. The group evinces cohesiveness. The group now assumes to certain identify and camaraderie. The member of the group start co-operation and develop harmonious relationship among the group members. Group members begin to resolve differences and clarify the purpose of the group and the roles of group members. Their satisfaction level increases as they become familiar with the other members. They begin to learn more about the purpose of the team and the ways to work together. This stage completes after accepting a common set of expectation consisting of an acceptable way of doing things.

4. Performing Stage

This is the highest level of group maturity. This stage is marked teamwork, interdependence in personal relations, problem solving, role clarity and task accomplishment. This stage is highly task oriented and there is unity in the group. The group gains its identity, group morale is high and group loyalty is intense and becomes productive. All group members devote their effort for group output. Group goals will be generally satisfied in this stage. In this stage, conflict is identified and resolved through group discussion. The members of the group are aware of group's processes and the extent of their own involvement in the group. 

5. Adjourning Stage

This stage is recognized as end of group i.e. completing every task and the group will be automatically adjourned. Groups are adjourned for two reasons. First the group has completed its task. Second, the members decide to disband and close the group with sentimental feeling. A planned conclusion usually includes recognition for participation and achievement and opportunities for the members to say personal goodbyes. Some of them get satisfied whether some of other gets frustrated. This stage becomes background for the formulation of new group. As all member know to each other clearly, so some of them form new group. With the formal dissolution of the group formally, this stage will be end.

All the stages mentioned above can be better explained and differentiated on the following lines.

Stages	Member's Behavior	Characteristic of Group	Task Performance
Forming	Eager, anxious, gather impressions and data about the similarities and differences among members, keep things simple and avoid any controversies.	Uncertain about the group's purpose, structure and leadership.	Work output is low, focused on defining the goals and tasks.
Storming	Confront the differences, feel angry or frustrated, and resent formal leadership, lot of competition and hostilities.	Argument, conflict and a dip in morale	Clarify all misunderstandings
Norming	Less dissatisfied and a feeling of belongingness to the group	Leadership is shared, cliques dissolve and levels of trust increase in the group	Issues are resolved, group norms develop, such as setting of group policies, procedures and values
Performing	Interdependence in personal relations, tendency to get involved in and problem solving	The group gains its identity, group morale is high and group loyalty is intense	Highly productive
Adjourning	Upset and depressed	Disengagement from relationships	Termination of task

You may also like:

• The Dynamics of Inter-Groups Conflict
• Reasons of Awareness of Information Groups
• Different Stages of Group Development
• The Processes of Group
• Group Dynamics
• Inter-Group Conflicts
• Group Decision Making Processes
• Structure of Group
• Nature and Significance of Informal Group in an Organization

Reasons of Awareness of Information Groups

Manager should be aware of informal groups in regards to both positive and negative aspects. The rational manager should always focus on negative side than positive because negative aspects of informal groups are more danger and create problems to entire organization. The following points clear negative aspects of informal groups.

• Informal group can have unfair views to the management.
• Unnecessary politics may arise in organization.
• Informal groups may end at any time.
• Informal group may not have best leadership to energizes and synergize the work efficiency.
• Informal groups can create the ethical confusion in organization as views are interacted to produce contrast views.
• Informal group sometimes is translated in organizational activities.

Element of Group Cohesiveness

Group cohesion means the degree to which the group members are attracted to each other and remain within the group. It is usually reflected by its resiliency to disruption by outside forces. Group cohesion develops out of the activities, interactions, and sentiments of the members.

The element or factors affecting group cohesion are as follows:

1. Group Size: One of the important and necessary conditions for the existence of the group is that members interact and communicative with each other. If the group is so large that members do not get to know each others, there is little likelihood that the group will be high in cohesiveness. This is a logical assumption that would be made by those who understand the difficulties of communicating in large groups. Research studies have found that inverse relationship does not exist between the size of the group and the group cohesive. As the size of a group increases, its cohesiveness decreases. 
2. Member Similarity: The degree of cohesiveness will be high when group members are similar in age, backgrounds and values. In other words, homogeneous groups will be more cohesive than heterogeneous group. It is because of more trust and less conflict among the group members with homogeneous character.
3. Member Interaction: When member interact frequently, there tends to be more group of cohesive because they got chance to share ideas and views in order to avoid the situation of misunderstanding and conflict.
4. Groups Success: a successful group tends to be more cohesive than a group of repetitive failure records. Group members of the succession group believe that, because of their successive records in the past, they will remain successful in the future too.

Informal Group: Nature and Significance of Informal Groups in Organization

Informal groups are neither formally structure nor organizationally determined. It is based on personal interaction, sentiments and social activities. The membership is voluntary participation. Its primary focus is person. It has members with common objective or similar need for social affiliation and friendship. It quickly adapts to environmental changes but resists to change within the group. 

An informal group arises voluntarily and spontaneously and they generally satisfy the social needs of the members of the group. Each informal group has its own informal leader who is elected among the member of the group not on the basis of authority he possesses in the formal group but on the basis of age, seniority, technical knowledge, respect etc. So authority is to be earned from members of the group. Authority in the informal group is given to the person and not to the position. As soon as the members repose their confidence on him, he will no more be the leader of the group.

Nature of Informal Groups

The informal group refers to the people in group association at work, but these associations are not specified in the blueprint of the formal organization. In other words, informal refers to the natural grouping of people on the basis of some similarities in an organization. Informal group is also called as informal organization which is created because of the limitation of formal one. It refers to group or association at work but these associations are not particularly specified in the organization.

Informal groups are important in our organizational settings. Such groups are formed on the basis of personal relations and interest on the group members. With the help of informal group, people try to fulfill their relatedness needs. The nature of informal groups can be classified as follows:

1. Friendship Group

This kind of group involves close personalities as friends or relatives who are well known to each other beforehand. Mostly, these groups are found in pairs and are useful in spreading influence and information. In other words, in the work place, employees, because of some common characteristics such as age, ethnic background, political sentiment, interest in sport or to desire to drink tea often from a friendship group. These groups often extend their interaction and communication to support the job activities.

2. Interest Group

This type of group consists of the members who join together to achieve such objective as an equitable pension payment. Members of these groups have the same hobby, same professional backgrounds and same educational backgrounds. The members of the interest group may or may not be members of the same command or task group. The membership patterns of interest and friendship groups are not tightly controlled by the organization. However, managerial actions such as layout of work area, allowing workers to take coffee breaks at a specified time and demanding a certain level of productivity influence the interaction and communication patterns of employees, causing individuals to affiliate with each other so that interest and friendship groups emerge.

3. Cliques

These groups consist of collegues and associates who normally observe certain norms and standards. They are closely intimate to each other. The number of members tends to be smaller say fix or six. The object of this type of group is to provide recognition to each other and exchange information of mutual interest.

Significance of Informal Groups in Organization

Informal groups are quite significant because these affect the working of an organization and its members. However, these effects produce both functional and dysfunctional consequences. On the other hand, informal groups benefit both their members and organization as a whole. Some other significance or the functions of informal group are as follows:

1. To fulfill the communication gaps

Informal group acts to fill up the communication gaps of its members, in order to meet the communication needs of its members. It develops systems and channels of communication. Such systems and channels cut across the hierarchical and departmental boundaries and transmit information much quickly.

2. To preserve group integrity

The informal group perpetuates cultural values which the group holds as importance. This function helps to preserve the group integrity. People who work together naturally adopt common points of view that everyone is expected to share. The individuals become wedded to the group as a result of constant association and socializing process. In fact, the basic reason in the creation of informal organization is the group value which every member pursues.

3. To provide social satisfaction

Informal group provides social satisfaction by providing status, recognition and further opportunity to relate to others. Many jobs which appear superficially dull and routine are made more interesting by the individual ingenuity. Management defines a rigid series of job requirements but work-groups provide a setting which spurs an individual to modify the job situation more to his own liking. Thus, the job becomes more interesting and satisfying.

4. To solve the work problems

Informal group helps in solving the work problems of members. They carry out their tasks effectively through the help of other members, group-decisions and sharing job knowledge. The group's solution to problems may differ from what management expects and it may be even more effective because red-tape is eliminated; short – cuts are evolved; informal channel of communication is evolved to cut across departmental boundaries. In fact, where the technology imposes extreme interdependence and precise and instant coordination is required, the organization depends on the group to control and specify the individual's contribution to the total effort. All this contributes to the effective performance of work.

5. To establish and maintain norms of behavior

Informal groups establish and maintain norms of behavior which differentiate between good and bad conduct, between legitimate and illegitimate activities and between moral and immoral acts. Abstract concepts, such as honesty, loyalty, co-operation, self – sacrifice etc. do not convey an immediate meaning except as they are used in operative situations involving informal groups. Larger groups particularly in professional pursuits, often maintain ethical standards designed to further the goals of the overall membership. However, all group standards are not consistent with the objectives of the larger organizations. Many times, groups do urge their members to produce less than they might otherwise accomplish or do try to reject new assignment, or do show their resistance to a change.

6. To protect members from outside pressure

Groups help protect their members from outside pressure. Probably the most important group standards are those that protect the groups against real or imagined outside dangers, particularly from upper management. Dynamic organizations have a tendency to introduce change in work methods and routines at a faster rate that individuals can adjust to them. The place at which these changes are introduced can be materially altered by a determined work group.

Not only is the formal group important in effective performance of the job. But equally important of informal group in organization because of the following reasons:

1. Compensation for the low capacity manager's ability

Manager may not be capable in all the fields. In same, he may snag the ability. Especially, in planning and other decision making his snags i.e. low capacity can be compensated by his subordinates informally, if he has the good relationship with the informal group.

2. Useful channel of communication

Communication through informal group is faster than formal. Any information through the channel of informal groups spreads quickly. Thus, the informal group proves to be very useful channel for effective communication.

3. Compel managers to plan and act cautiously

Informal groups induce the manager to plan and act cautiously because of weak plan and action is always undermined by the groups.

4. Provides sense of belongingness and security

Informal group provides satisfaction and stability of work team to attain a sense of belongingness and security. A new employee will remain an isolate until the group accepts him as a member. When the new comer will be accepted as a group member, he attains a sense of belongingness and security.

5. Greater performance and supervision

Informal groups help get the jobs done or control performance. If the manager feels that his work team is cooperating him, he has less need for checking frequently and confidently delegate and decentralize the work. The informal group support leads in general supervision instead of close supervision, which enhances the productivity of the employees later on.

6. Reduced frustration and allied employee

Informal groups are the safety value for the frustration and allied employee because if any employee feels irritation with his superior's behavior, he can talk it to his group members and can dissipate his unpleasant feelings. 

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