Group Process, ProblemSolving, and GoalSetting

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Group Process, Problem-Solving, and Goal-Setting
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Objectives -- Week Seven

• Discuss and illustrate elements of group dynamics
  
• Examine moments when groups break down
• Explore ways to improve group functioning
• Hand back short paper assignment 1
• Hand out short paper assignment 2

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Importance of Groups in Organizations

• Achieve more than individuals alone
• More responsive
• Access multiple skills and areas of expertise
• More creative and innovative
• Groups face challenges
• Do public organizations face tougher group
  challenges than private organizations?

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Group Membership

• Why Do Individuals Join Groups? (Mancur Olson)
• Selective, Purposive, Solidary
• Issues Upon Entering A Group
• How will group accomplish tasks?
• Role or Identity
• Influence and Power
• Goals and Acceptance
• Coping Strategies During Search for Role/Niche

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Individual Roles Within Groups

• Task-related
• Creator/Innovator Promoter Summarizer
  Developer Organizer Producer Evaluator
• Team-building
• Harmonizer Gatekeeper Encourager Observer
• Managing external boundary
• Defining boundaries Translator Guard Scout
• Negative roles
• Avoider Clown Recognition Seeker

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Group Norms

• Assumptions or expectations held by the members
  of a group about what behavior is good or bad,
  appropriate or inappropriate
• Important part of organizational culture
• What happens when there is a lack of consensus on
  norms?
• Difference between explicit and implicit norms?

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Group and Leadership Issues in Consulting Teams
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Problem-Solving

• First Cycle
• Problem Formulation
• Generate Proposals
• Forecast Consequences
• Second Cycle
• Action Planning
• Action Steps
• Evaluation

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Group Decision-Making

• Decision by Apathy or Lack of Interest
• Designate Decisional Power to Formal Authority
• Decision by Minority
• Majority Rule
• Consensus
• Unanimous Consent

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Group Performance and Evaluation

• To be successful, groups must establish criteria
  for success
• Official versus operative goals
• Implications of ambiguity in goals
• Good group decision-making and evaluation
  requires effective feedback
• Heard by Listener doesnt provoke defensiveness
• Keeps Relationship Intact
• Validates Feedback Process
• Timely
• Relates to Specified Goal

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Weick on Group Collapse and Sensemaking

• Thrust people into unfamiliar roles, leave some
  key roles unfilled, make the task more ambiguous,
  discredit the role system, you put a group in a
  context where small events can spin out of
  control and the group will collapse.

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Improving Group/Organizational Resiliency

• Improvisation
• Virtual Role Systems
• Cultivate Wisdom
• Respectful Interaction
• Communication
• Superordinate Goals
• Ability to rely upon formal roles and informal
  ties

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Dropping Your Tools

• How Groups Can Typically Function
• Law of the Instrument
• Look for confirmatory data
• Assess effectiveness by outcomes
• Impact of tool-dependence or single-tool-minded
  ness is to undermine the groups ability to be
  successful over time

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Why Dont We Drop Our Tools?

• Not listening, cannot hear
• Dont trust the individual giving the commands
• No reason or justification given
• Unfamiliar with the alternatives
• Tools essence of our identity
• Instinct to retain control
• Unwillingness to admit failure

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How to Improve Work in Groups

• Improve Communication
• Improving Group Decision-making
• Assessment and Reflection
• Develop a Vision a Strategic Plan
• Team-building

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Readings to Be Completed for Next Class Period

• McKibbin coursepack
• Morgan and England coursepack
• Porter and Kramer coursepack
• Case Managing the BHA coursepack