Chapter 9: Foundations of Group Behavior

Question 1

group

Answer 1

two or more people trying to achieve a common goal

Question 2

formal group

Answer 2

a designated work group defined by an organization’s structure

Question 3

informal group

Answer 3

a group that is neither formally structured nor organizationally determined, such a group appears in response to the need for social contact

Question 4

social identity theory

Answer 4

proposed that people have emotional reactions to the failure or success of their group because their self-esteem gets tied to whatever happens to the group

Question 5

how might people define themselves?

Answer 5

the city you live in, the team you are on, your profession, your religious background, your ethnicity, and your gender

Question 6

how do our social identities help us?

Answer 6

help us understand who we are and where we fit in with other people; research indicates they bring us better health and lower levels of depression because we become less likely to attribute negative situations to internal or insurmountable reasons

Question 7

ingroup favoritism

Answer 7

perspective in which we see members of our ingroup as better than other people, and people not in our group as all the same.

people with low agreeableness show higher levels of ingroup favoritism

Question 8

outgroup

Answer 8

the inverse or an in-group, which can mean everyone outside the group

Question 9

social identity threat

Answer 9

individuals believe they will be personally negatively evaluated due to their association with a devalued group, and they may lose confidence and performance effectiveness

Question 10

punctuated equilibrium model (PEM)

Answer 10

a set of phases that temporary groups go through that involves transitions between inertia and activity

Question 11

first stage of PEM

Answer 11

group decided their general direction and a framework for behavioral patterns and assumptions through which the group will approach its project emerges

Question 12

second stage of PEM

Answer 12

the groups last meeting is characterized by a final burst of activity to finish its work.

Question 13

role

Answer 13

a set of expected behavior patterns attributed to someone occupying a given position in a social unit. different groups impose different role requirements on individuals

Question 14

role perception

Answer 14

our view of how we’re supposed to act in a given situation is a role perception. we get these stimuli from all around us - for example, friends, books, filsm and television, as when we form an impression of politicions from House of Cards

Question 15

role expectation

Answer 15

how other believe a person should act in a given situation

Question 16

psychological contract

Answer 16

an unwritten agreement that sets out what a manager expects from an employee, and vice versa

perceptions of psychological contracts vary across cultures

Question 17

role conflict

Answer 17

a situation in which an individual is cronfronted by divergent role expectations

Question 18

interrole conflict

Answer 18

a situation in which the expectations of an individual’s different, separate groups are in opposition

Question 19

norms

Answer 19

acceptable standards of behavior within a group that are shared by the group’s members

Question 20

conformity

Answer 20

the adjustment of one’s behavior to align wit the nroms of the group

Question 21

reference groups

Answer 21

important groups to which individuals belong or hope to belong and with whose norms individuals are likely to conform

Question 22

deviant workplace behavior

Answer 22

voluntary behavior that violates significant organizational norms and, in doing so, threatens well-being of the organization or its members.

Question 23

what is important to know about a work group?

Answer 23

they can become characteized by positive or negative attributes

Question 24

status

Answer 24

socially defined position and rank given to groups or group members by others

Question 25

status characteristics theory

Answer 25

a theory stating that differences in status charactersistics create status hierarchies within groups

Question 26

what determines status?

Answer 26

1) the power a person wields over others
2) a person’s ability to contribute to a group’s goals
3) an individual’s personal characteristics

Question 27

group size

Answer 27

group size can affect the group dynamics, but it depends on what dependent variable you’re analyzing. If you’re fact-finding, more people will be better for the group

Question 28

social loafing

Answer 28

the tendency for individuals to expend less effort when working collectively than when working individually.

This is not consistent with collectivist cultures

Question 29

ways to prevent social loafing

Answer 29

set group goals, so the group has a common purpose to strive toward

2) increase intergroup competition, which focuses on the shared group outcome
3) engage in peer evaluations
4) select members who have high motivation and prefer to work in groups
5) base group rewards in part by each member’s unique contributions

Question 30

cohesiveness

Answer 30

the degree to which a group member is attracted to each other and are motivated to stay in the group

Question 31

diversity

Answer 31

the extent to which members of a group are similar to, or different from, one another

diversity appears to increase group conflict at first. although differences can lead to conflict, they also provide an opportunity to solve problems in a unique way s

Question 32

faultlines

Answer 32

the perceived divisions that split groups into two or more subgroups based on individual differences such as sex, age, race, work experience, and education

Question 33

strengths of group decision-making

Answer 33

groups generate more complete information and knowledge. By aggregating the resources of several individuals, groups bring more input as well as heterogeneity into the decision process. they offer increased diversity of views

Question 34

weaknesses of group decision-making

Answer 34

group decisions are time-consuming because groups typically take more time to reach a solution. there are conformity pressures. the desire by group members to be accepted and considered an asset to the group can squash any overt disagreement

Question 35

effectiveness and efficiency

Answer 35

groups are more creative and accurate and accepting

groups are less efficient

Question 36

groupthink

Answer 36

a phenomenon in which the norm for consensus overrides the realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action

not all groups are affected by groupthink - mostly those with a very clear group identity

Question 37

groupshift

Answer 37

describes the way group members tend to exaggerate their initial positions when discussing a given set of alternatives to arrive at a solution.

Question 38

interacting groups

Answer 38

typical groups in which members interact with each other face-to-face

Question 39

brainstorming

Answer 39

an idea-generation process that specifically encourages any and all alternatives while witholding any criticism of those alternatives

Question 40

nominal group technique

Answer 40

a group decision making method in which individual members meet face-to-face to pool their judgements in a systematic but independent fashion