GROUPLEVEL OF ANALYSIS

Some say that psychologists do not study groups because it's too hard-whereas directorial performance researchers study groups because they have no choice. How many people in any organization truly work alone? To some extent every employee interacts with others, and more and more companies are looking to teams, self-managed or otherwise, to increase creativity and/or efficiency. At this level of analysis, organizational behavior include: organizational factors influence groups, social influences, and the group itself.

Social Influences

Most people are predisposed by other people around them. If my generation all think the job is great, I am more likely to think so too-after all, they can't all be wrong, can they? The social information processing model argues that employees adopt attitude and behaviors in response to social cues given by other people, including other employees, family, friends, and customers. Subtle comments about autonomy and job challenge have been shown to pressure motivation and approval levels of employees-so the social influence is very physically powerful. This becomes particularly important when we start look at what happens in groups.

In groups, one of the most authoritative social influences is the drive to conventionality. Most group members want to be conventional by the other people in the group, and to do this, many of us go along with group norms and decision that we would other- wise swerve with. A classic example of group pressure toward conformity is the Asch experiment, where 35 percent of people gave the wrong answer rather than disagree with the rest of their group! This social pressure to conform is important in that it can lead to containment of differences and disagreements, ensuing in collection- think-where everyone goes along with a bad decision because no one wants to disagree. Pressure to be conventional is even greater where influence figures are occupied.

Social Influences in groups are typically in the form ofnorms.Norms are satisfactory standards of behavior that are shared-and compulsory-by group member. Simple norm strength is that we all reach your destination to meetings on time. If you are late, the collection enforces its standard by preliminary without you, or by commenting on your lateness. Most norms are understood- few groups vigorously converse their norms. However, some confirmation suggests that they should do so: if only to capture and deal with the norms that push for harmony rather than allowing disagreement and conversation of alternative. Some citizens in groups seem to go touching the social authority of the group. First, there are the "social loafers," people who, because they are in a group where their individual payment cannot be deliberate, sit back and let the rest of the group do the work. The level of loafing is directly tied to answerability and in groups where it is clear to all members who are causal what, and where there is sanction for loafing, loaf is less of a difficulty.

Second, there are people who will maintain to challenge the position quo and oppose, in spite of of group weight for agreement and conventionality. These brave souls, who can eventually play a role in most important the group to a high-eminence out- come, often undergo a dire fate: they are labeled as "institutionalized deviants" and something they say is dismissed as "impending from the person who always disagrees" rather than being examine as a sensible and important comment. This institutionalization is the group's way of not dealing with the lack of consensus, and it enables the group to take an easy path.

For a manager two messages here: If you are organization a group, you need to encourage disagreement and make sure that if someone challenges the "agreed state of affairs" they are actively encouraged and not closed down; while as a crowd member, you need to make confident you don't end up an "institutionalized deviant."

How can you keep away from this fortune? First, build up your credibility with the group through contributing early on; second, be productive with your suggestion, construction where possible on other people's contributions rather than knocking them down; and third, build coalitions with other people in the group so that when you oppose, you are not unaided.

A word of watchfulness: Minorities in groups tend to be institutionalized more than other group members, so if you are the only wangle, the only woman, the only man-or the only whatever thing in your group-you will have to take extra care in organization your role for the group to be efficient.