Organizational Behaviour
Organizational Behaviour
Organizational Behaviour
Krishnan Rajendran
o
OPM
Business School General Management
Course Syllabus
Organizational Behavior
Class of Full-Time March 2006
Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]
IPMI Business School Graduate Programs
The Indonesian Institute for Management Development Jakarta, Indonesia htto:llwww.ipmirnba.ac.id
II. Managing Groups
The purpose of this section is to systematically understand the forces that influence the behavior of work groups. To do so, we use a framework that is useful in analyzing such groups. In particular, this framework enables us to look at how a group's culture is important in determining productivity, satisfaction, and growth.
III. Managing Interpersonal Relationships
The cases in this module illustrate how a person's perception and behavior is influenced by assumptions and his or her self-concept.
IV. leadership and Influence
This section deals with the means through which managers can influence behavior. It covers power and leadership, and their applicability and limitations to various managerial situations.
V. Action Planning and Implementation
A theme present throughout the course is the translation of analysts into action, always a more difficult task than commonly realized. This segment specifically deals with the problems of detailed planning and implementation of management decisions.
VI. Managing Change
The last module is the important one of managing change. It will be concerned with the problems of changing organizations when improvements in effectiveness are required. We will look at organizational structures and systems, their relationship to managerial style and corporate culture and the activities necessary for successful organizational change.
2
1
SCHEDULE
MODULE I: MANAGING INDIVIDUALS
Sessions
1.
Topic Reading
Introduction to the Course (Lecture & Discussions) 1. Organizational Behavior and Management
2. Group Exercise: My Best Manager (To be done in class)
3.
Topic
Individual Attributes: Values, Attitudes and Perceptions (Lecture & Discussions)
1. Individual Attributes: Values, Attitudes and Perception
Reading
4.
Group Exercise: Crocodile River Story
5.
Motivation (Lecture & Discussions)
1. Motivation Theories
2. Understanding Individual Behavior in Organization
3. The Challenge of Commitment
4. Demand Better Results and Get Them
Hausser Food Products Company ~IOLIP L
1. Using whatever concepts, frameworks, or ideas you think are applicable, explain why the Florida sales team is withholding information about a new market opportunity from regional and corporate sales management.
2. Assume you are Brenda Cooper, and you have access to the data in the case. What actions would you take to prevent this situation from occurring elsewhere?
Topic Reading
6.
Case
Career Paper Assignment: Deadline for Outline of the paper.
MODULE n. MANAGING GROUPS
7.
Group DynamiCS (Lecture & Discussions)
1. Basic Attributes of Groups
2. Group & Inter-group Dynamics
3. A Framework for Analyzing Workgroup
TOpiC Reading
4
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Learning Objectives and Methods
The primary aim of this course is to help deepen your understanding of the behavior of people in organizational settings and to sharpen your skills for diagnosing and acting when people related problems and issues creep up in the organization.
A secondary aim is to provide some basic concepts and practical theories on organizations and behaviors. These concepts and theories should be used as guidelines only and not as the final truth.
Finally, the process of learning about and discussing the various issues will help you learn something about yourself. The course gives you a chance to review your own assumptions, skills, and styles. In this sense, you are the most important case study that this course will analyze.
To explore these issues, the course will depend mainly on the case method. Readings will be assigned to introduce concepts helpful in analyzing organizational situations. In addition, we shall try to bring life to the case situations through audiovisual materials, small group dlscussions, and class exercises.
Finally, the assignment entitled \\My Organizational Career" will help you to exercise what you have learned in the course.
The twenty sessions of the course are divided into six modules:
Managing Individuals Managing Groups
Managing Interpersonal Relationships Leadership and Influence
Action Planning and Implementation Managing Change
I. Managing Individuals
The purpose of this section is to facilitate your understanding of the behavior of individuals in work settings in terms of their attributes, namely, values, attitudes and perceptions. This section also takes you through various theories of motivation and their usefulness to the manager in understanding what drives people.
MODULE V: ACTION PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION
16. Topic Reading
Action Planning and Implementation
1. OB Note on Action Planning and Action Taking
2. Evaluating an Action Plan
Crofts Products Co. (To be distributed in class)
Case
17. Topic Case
Action Planning and Implementation Crofts Products Co. (Cont'd)
MODULE VI: MANAGING CHANGE
18. Topic Reading
Managing Change
l.The Rhetoric of Change
2. Implementing Change
3. Executing Change: Seven Key Considerations
4. Executing Change: Three Generic Strategies
Peter Browning and Continental White Cap (A) G r 0 V p 1t'
a. Identify Browning's problems
b. Create a "constituency map"
c. Develop an action plan
Peter Browning and Continental White Cap (B & C - to be distributed in class)
Managing Organizational Effectiveness Corning Glass Works (A)
1. What is your analysis of the problems fadng EDP?
2. Prepare a comprehensive plan of action and implementation for Don Rogers to follow in addressing the issues facing EDP.
Managing Organizational Effectiveness
Corning Glass Works (8) (To be distributed in class) ~ I OUf ]I Coming Glass Works (C) (To be distributed in class)
1. Critically analyze the plan of action and implementation strategy followed by Rogers. What are its strengths and weaknesses?
2. Will it succeed, or fail? Why?
3. What, if anything, should Rogers do to address the issues at the end of the case?
Case
19. Topic Case
20. Topic Case
DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING YOUR CAREER PAPER
6
Wood, J.M., ·Organl%atlonal Boh vlour. an AsIa-Pacific Porspectivo', 1998, John Wiley & Sons. _
APTER
Oro ani ational behaviour
and manag nt
PLANNING AHEAD
1 '(:Inager are people in o"gani ations who are respon ible for the performance of one or more others.
A customer you have all experienced shop or workplace that made you feel welcome and important, where the service was good, the facilitie pleasant and they had most things that you wanted, They are the orcs of place you would tcll your friend about, _ 0 doubt you have also been in shop or workplace where you were treated politely, they were clean but there wa nothing spe lal that w uld entice you back even though the were okay. Of cour e, you have al 0 been a cu t mer in hop or workplace that made you feel unwelcome, in fact where you felt that you were interfering wich something important even though the organi ations were there for ervice.
In thi book we are going to study behind the scene of organisation in order to find out what it i that makes organi auon different from one another. 1'0 do this we will tudy the people who make up an organisation, with special attention to their motivation, performance and job atisfaction, In particular, we are going to tudy the crucial role of manager. They are the people who are ultimately accountable for the performance of mo t of the others in an organl arion and whose deci ion-making hould enable an organisation to meet its performance goals. Effectiv manager clearly understand that people are the ba ic building blocks for ound organi ational performance. The challenge for modern manager i to de itn a workplace to maximi e human potential and achieve ustained high level of performance \ hile maintaining high level of employee job atisfaction and commitment.
uch complex challenges are not ea ily met. Tbi chapter introduces you to the field of organtsatlonal behaviour; an academic discipline deV01 to helping manager, employee and organl ation achieve the highe level of performance ucce .
CHoPfER I. OR(iAHISArtOHAL 8EHAVIOUR ANO "A ACEMEN!
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trengths."l he factory is de igned 0 wheelchairs can move about freely and the a sernbly line are equipped with waist-high and height-adjustable worktations to accommodate the dtfferent needs of worker .8
2. The organisation and scheduling of work is changing
The standard hours (five day£l40 hour) model of employment is being con tantly challenged with the development of a wave of new work option promoting work force flexibility. Option such as permanent part-time work, job haring, voluntary reduced work lime, flexiyear or an nual hours and Ilexiweek are all designed to introduce new way to work. Such innovative work practice are designed to match work practice to the changing needs of the diverse work force di cussed above, in order to make more effective use of the potenual skills base of thi contemporary work force.
Recently, 26 organl ation from aero the public and private sectors io Australia competed for an award given by the Australian Financial Review/ Busines Council of Australia Corporate Family Friendly Organi arion, The judge ' criteria included the degree of commitment shown by entrants towards improving work practice (including job haring and part-time and flexible working hours), meeting employees' child-care need and pr vidtng career path for women employee. Some example of the family friendly initiative promoted by the entrants are listed below?
• Biotech Au tralia offers flexible working arrangements, part-time work option and pecial family leave to employees.
• ational Mutual introduced a new eruerpri e agreement promoting workforce options including job sharing and pecial family leave for emergencies.
• Qantas offers w rk option in the form of parental leave, part-time work and pecial leave provision .
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3. Customer expectations are changing
In today' marketplace, only organi arion that are able to deliver what customer want in terms of quality, ervice and cost will pro per. This is the age of total quality manaa ment; that i , management dedicated to ensuring that an organisation and all of i members operate with a cornmitment to continuou improvement and totally meeting customer needs.
For many Western managers who have traditionally conceptualised worthwhile change as only occurring when sub tantial modification to exi ting practice occur, under tanding the Significance of this new commitment to mall- cale step of continuou improvement ha not been easy. However, the succes ful 21 t century manager will value quality a cu . tomer focus, and a commitment to continuou mall-scale improvements
and will per onaily do thtng that add value to the organi arion' ability to meet customers' need. Under a quality management approach, infor mation on ways to improve a process come from many different ource . You would not normally consider that rntstake would be a major ource of information 011 how to improve cu torner service. However, recent tudie on banking in u rralia demon trate that mi takes provide a unique opportunity for improving Cll torner ervice.
Towl quality
management 1 management that en ures that an organisation and all us members operate . with commitment 1.0 continuous improvement and co meeting customer needs completely.
CriAPTER I O~;;AHI$ATIO Al I{HAVIOUR ANO IIAhAGE14EHr
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strengths. 1 he factory i de igned so wheelchairs can move about freely and the assembly line are equipped with walst-htgh and height-adjustable worktations to accommodate the different needs of worker .8
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2. The organisation and scheduling of work is changing
The standard hours (five days/40 hour ) model of employment is being constantly challenged with the development of a wave of new work options promoting work force jle.'Cib-ilicy. Option such a permanent part-time work, job sharing, voluntary reduced work time, flexiyear or annual hour and flextweek are all designed to introduce new way to work. Such innovative work practice ate designed to match work practices to the changing needs of the diver e work force di ou ed above, in order to make more effective use of the potential kills base of thi contemporary work force.
Recently, 26 organi ations from acres the public and private ectors in Au tralia competed fran award given by the ustralian Financial Review/ Bu ines ouncil of ustralia Corporate Family Friendly Organisation. The judge' criteria included the degree of commitment hown by entrants towards improving work practice (including job haring and part-time and flexible worktns hours), meeting employees' child-care needs and providing career paths for women employees. omc examples of the family friendly initiatives promoted by the entrants are listed below"
• Biotech u tralia offer flexible working arrangements, part-tim work options and pe ial family leave to empl yee .
• ational Mutual introduced a new enterprise agreement promoting workforce options including job sharing and pecial family leave for emergencies.
• Q;lOta offers work option in the form of parental leave, part-tirne work and special leave provl ions.
3. Customer expectations are changing
In today' marketplace, ooly organi arion that ate able to deliver what cu . torner want in term of quality, ervice and co t will pro per. This is the age of total quality muong ment; [hat i , management dedicated to ensuring that an organi ation and all of its membe operate with a cornmitmenr to continuous improvement and totally meeting customer need .
For many We tern managers who have traditionally conceptuali ed worthwhile change a only occurring when ub tantial modification to exi ting practice occur, under tanding the significance of this new commitment to mall-scale steps of continuous improvement has not been ea y. However, the succe ful 21 t century manager will value quality, a customer focus, and a commitment to continuous mall- cale improvements
and will per onally do things that add value to the organl arion's ability to meet customer' need. Under a quality management approach, information on way to improve a process come from many different sources. You would not normally con ider that mistak would be a maj r ource of information on how t improve cu tomer ervice. However, recent studie on banking in Au tralta demon trate that mistakes pr vide a unique opportunity for improving cu comer crvice.
To tal qUlllit), mun:tg ment is management that en ures that an organisation and all its members operate . with commi ment to eonrinuou improvement and LO meeting customer needs completely.
p~Rr I ORG~NIS4rIONAl 8(HHIOUR ~NO THE CO~rEIIPOR~RY ENYIRONII£NI
CUSTOMER RESEARCH IN AUSTRAl ' BANKING According to recent survey done mro bank-customer relation hips in Australis. mistahes provide the foremost opportunity to demonstrate superior cu tomer service. Product knowledge and concern for the comfort of cu tomei eem to be of Ie er
ignificance. How banks deal with mistake and cu torner complaint are viewed as important opportunities for marketing communication; for 'quality time between the bank and the cu tomer Such re earch, carried out by Or Necmi Kernal Avkiran (in the Auscralian Banker). in e sence
how us that in a new age of TQM/benchmarl,ing trends, the focu i on maintaining staff-customer tru t - and not ju t on providing a basic ervice, in banking or el ewhere, 0
4. Organisations are changing
Organi ations are changing now and they will continue to change in order to urviv and pro per in a complex environment. We see organisations down izing, forming alliance , creating new tructures, going glob~ engaging in joint ventures and employing ever more sophisticate(f technologie as they attempt to deal with competitive pre ures, We ee organisations pursuing producti icy gain, empowering workers, pres ing {or innovation, and trying t adapt them elves to best fit changing limes.
By all indication the ucce ful 21 t century manager must be comfortable working in and with oraantsatlon operating in new and different way.
AUSTRALIAN MINI G COMPANIES Critical belief ha it that Au tralian cornparries cannot compete with Asian companies, through lack of discipline and re peer for hierarchy. lowever, new moves towards 'empowerment' arc proving successful, a indicated by several Au t r allan mining companies. A return to underground mining is replacing (he open-cut system; the new difference being in the introduction of serni-auronomous work team which improve productivity and make underground mining more economical. \Vorl<ets now have a ay in (he running of tasks, with muln-skllline a valued a Ct. Training i a key part of the new de ign, both for manage and other workers. The Kenmare mine (in the Bowen Basin, central Queen land) ha been 0 succe ful with thi new empowerment scheme that they now'. " exceed world best practice productivity by 30%', 1 his new trend in Australian bu ines is now extending to industries as diver e as car manufacturing and nack foods, Il
5. The design and conceptualisation of an office and a workplace is changing
The importance of the telecommunication revolution to corporate management as a key driver in organisational rc-engineering i not yet fully understood by many manager. Many cutting edge companies such a IBM, Ander en Con ultants, Chiat/Oay and Pacific Bell Telecommunications in
orth America' ippon Telephone and Telegraph (. 1'1') and Mitsubi hi in Japan are challenging OU1- under tanding of what constitutes an office or a workplace in the information age. These innovative companies have introduced work practices that use telecommunication. technology to enable
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CHAPIER l: ORCAHI$A 10NA BEHAVIOUR '.0 IIAN'O£lItNI
many of their worker to be separated in both time and pace from the central organisation which i typically located within a central bu iness district.
During the 19 0 , common terminology used to de crlbe the e new work practices included telecommuting, teleworklng, location independent work, telematie ,domineti ,and Ilexiplace. During the 1990s,
ome new conceptual! atlons of nigh technology ba ed work practice are emerging and these include the creation of satellite offices, telecottages, re orr office, neighbourhood centre, and new forms of the modern office organ! anon based on hotel ling, motclling and hot desking concepts, Collectively, the e concepts are often described as creating the 'virtual office'.
TELECOMMUTlNG IN AUSTRALIA Within Australia, telecommuting companie include Shell and Caltex (petroleum companies), Transperth, Thomas National Tran port (1' T), and the, ew ouch Wales Road and Trafflc Authorit y (RTA) (tran port related organl sarions), John Fairfax (new. paper ), McCullough Robertson (legal firm), Tel tra (telecommunications) and many other. The important point here is not the name of the specific companie but rather the diverse range of organisational background that arc currently implementing horne-ba ed telecommuting scheme within Australia and el ewhere.12
6. Managers must change too
There is no doubt about it; the direction are clear; the future i there. But in order to succeed, manager' must be willing to tep forward and make the personal and organisational change necessary to ecure it. Indeed,
orne COil ultants and authors are que tionill~ the very term manager.13 They believe that the changing nature f organi ation in the new workplace may make the term coordinator, I' perhaps coach or facihtaror; a more apt description of the role. However. regard Ie s of the term used, the message is clear. The successful 21 t century manager will have to make the behavioural and attitudinal adju tments necessary to ucceed in very dynamic times.
The attribute of the new look Australian manager for the next decade were outlined by Robertson, who noted that Australian management or the future, around 2010, will be alrno t alien [0 today's senior managers who probably would not get a managerial job in tomorrow' corporate culture. Robertson stated that:
Tomorrow's managers will come from any country or culture and experience many placements in a wide rtlllging career They will also be super men Hod women: being graduatcs, possibly postgraduates, with a global focus, able to manage in hoth regulated and deregularcd economics in an e nvlronrnent typified by rapid change, They would be urprtsed by anything morc thnn a Iimitcd term, high pressure appoinrrnent, and their position would he results drivcn.!"
Thi need for a new look manager Ior 'Wort place _000' is also advocated by Karpin who compared the profiles of the emerging senior manager as outlined in table 1.1 on page 10.IS
CHA'TER I ORCAlilSArlONAL BEHAVIOUR AND IUHAO(loI[HT
major busine grou and particularly with male politician . Dr Kuchler
ees Australian bu iness womcn playing a key role in reducing Australia' unemployment ln the future through their e. panding involvement in small business emerpri esY
Managers and organisational behaviour
Each of the examples provided ab ve are iIIustrati n of the direction of the new workplac . Managers in thi new workplace know that succes in a highly dynamic environment will come to active opportunity seeker and problem solvers. uch managers continually analy e changing ituations to identify opportunities to be explored or problem to be solved. Perhaps even more importantly the e are manager who excel at helping other people to do these same things well. There are already a lot of these managers out there, but 'Workplace 2000' will need many more of them.
In urnmary, the field of organisational behaviour helps managers both deal with and learn from their workplace experience. Manager who under tand OB are better prepared to know what to look for in work situations, to understand what they find, and to take or help other to take the required action. Thi is a proces for which phy icians are carefully trained. When 'giving a phy leal exam a doctor y .cemattcallv a ks que . tion and i quick to note where one condition ( uch as a recurrent facial
ore) may be yrnptornarlc of a problem that requires further medical attention (treatment for a mall kin cancer). In tead of ores and headache j m nager • action indicator typically deal with the performance accomplishment of peo Ie at work, their attitude and behaviours, and events that occur in the work unit, in the organisation as a whole, and even in the external environment. Good manager' are able both to recogni e the significance of these tndtcarors (for example~an inerea e in turnover among employees) and to take con structive action to improve things as a result of this in ight (such as updating benefus and incentive pay
chemes).lS Good manager add value to an organl ation. However. good managers must be able to identify, manage and modify the behaviour of other member of the organi ation if this added value from managerial activities is to be realised.
LEARNING ABOUT ORGANtSATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Learulng i . a relatively pcrmsncut change in behaviour that occurs us a result of experleucc.
Learning i a relatively permanent change in behaviour that occurs as a result of experience. Your learnin about OB may begin with thi book and an OB cour e as part of your formal education. But it can, and should, continue in the future a you benefit from actual work experiences. Indeed, your most significant learning about OB may well come with the passage of lime and as yow' career progre es. But it will do so only if you prepare well and if you are diligent in taking maximum advantage of each learning opportunity that ari e . management consultant Tom Peters say,' tuden : Remember chat (1) education i the only ticket to succe and (2) it doesn't tOP with the last certificate you pi k up. Edu atlon is the "big game" in the globally interdependent econornv'.'?
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CKA,HR 1: ORGANISAIIONAL 8£KAVIOUA AND IIANAO( ENI
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• xpcrieutial lea rni I1g i . learning that requires a personal commitment to pursue actlvcly ~11l available learning oppo tunities and co incorporate the resul into your everyday thinking and behaviour.
I'IG RE 1.1 i!:!(pcricl1tial IC;lruing in the typicnl 03 course
In many way lifelong learning is based upon experience. ut true
xpcrleutlal learning require ape onal commitment to pursue actively all learning opportunities made available to you and to incorporate the re ult Into your everyday thinking and behaviour.22 T'hi process i de cribed in figure 1.1. It inv lves an initial experience and ub equent reflection, which i followed by theory building to explain what took place. You then test the theory by experimentation at the next opportunity.
Thi book i a formal pportunity for you to learn more about OB; it also help et the tage for experiential and lifelong learning. The full variety of your course activitte will complement the book and help you to explore the experiential learning cycle shown in figure 1.1. With the guidance of your course in rructor we will offer you pecial ca e developed from bustn ' experience a qui red aero s the A ia-Paciflc region which will provide you with ome activitle to gain illtial experience in the cla room. We can even timulare your reflection and theory building by pre enting the ries and di cu ing their practical implication. However. ooner or inter you must become an active participant in the learning process. Only you can do the a rtve experimentation required to continue the learning cycle throughout your working career.
Initial experience
Personal experiences
,------_J Classroom as an •• -----..,1
organisation
IrK lass exercises.
simulations
Group project assignments
Experimentation
~eflection
Trying new behaviours in work experiences, class experiences, everyday experiences
Persona thoughts Class discussions Informal discussions "Readings
lectures
Written assignments
I
Theory building
Theories cn readings Theories from lecture
t Personal theories
IL Theories from other sou ces
HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS OF ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
Organi rational behaviour first emerged a an academic di cipline durin the late 1940 . A more in-depth sketch of the hi torical roots of OB i provided in upplernentary module A at the end of the book2J Here we should note that OB i all interdi ciplinary body of knowledge that drav on a variety of cholarly vantage points to build concepts, theories and under tandin about human behaviour in organi atlon . 08 i eclectic and it ha
trong tie to the behavioural cience, uch a p ychology, octology and
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CHArHR I ORGANISAflONAl a~H"'VIOUR A 0 'U~ACE~EHf
Iaterial resour ' arc the technology, information, physical equipment and facilities, raw material and money that arc ncoe . 'ary for a collection of people to produce orne product or scrvtec.
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Open ystem transform
human and physical resources received from their environments Into goods and services that lire then returned [0 the
environment.
rIGUI~E 1.2 110\ 1111
org:tl1i 'mion operates (IS till open system
urvive and pro per. They also need materlal re OUI'CC' including technology, information, phy leal equipment and facilirie , raw material and money. 11 of these res urce and more are necessary in order for an organi anon to ultimately produce some useful product or service.
Many OS holars believe that organ: anon can be be t under tood a open ystems char obtain human and material resource 'inputs' from their environments and transform them into product 'outputs' in the form of Hni hed goods and/or services. The outputs are then offered to the envir nment for con umption. [f everything works right, the environment accept these outputs and allow the rgunisation to obtain the resource inputs it need to continue operating in the future,
Of cour e, things can go wrong; an organl atlon' survival depend' on au fying environmental demands. When the organi ation' go d and/or ervtces are not well re eived by the environment, it will iooner or later have difficulty obtaining the resource inputs it need to operate. In the extreme case, the organi ation will be forced to go out of existence, as iIIu ' traced by the T T pan ish freight operation discussed below.
TNT UNLOADS SPANISH ARM Early in 1996 the global Australian tran 'port glanr Thomas L ational Transport (Tl T) had to offload it 10 s-rnaking Spanish operation. The pani h freight enterprise, Tr T' Expres Espana, was old by the subsidiary T] T Traco pa to an undi 'clo ed pani sh buyer. T l' wa forced to write off approximately l2.7 million on paui h goodwill and include a $27 million provision for the cost of re tructurlne the operation, During 1994 -95 the Spanish bu iness turned over a revenue of approximately $ 0 million but declared a net loss of about $20 million for the same financial year,JII
Resource inputs
Product o~tputs
Information
Consumer feedback
MANAGERS IN ORGANISATIONS
N ow that we hare an under tanding of organisations and their basic ingredient, we can peak more preci ely about what it mean to be a manager. Earlier, we identified a manager as n per 011 in an organisation who is responsible for work that i accompli hed through the performance
(, .. ,IER ,. ORCANISAIIONAL BEHAVIOUR AHO IoIANAC£MiHr
The manager's challenge
~Ianr.ger·· chilli ugc i~ the position of being both accounta Ie LO higher level supcricrs for work L1I1it results ami dependent n the efforts of subordinates and other team member' to make these rc ults possible.
FIG R~ 1.4 Accountabtllry, dependency nud performance: the mUllllgc~' challenge
ln many way, chi book i about you bee ming a value-added manager,
you think more about building your per onal managerial skills and capabilltie , remember that mo t manager imultaneously serve in at least two capacitie :. the head of one work unit and a a subordinate in another.
Thi creates what we refer to a' the IlIUIIU ler' challeuae, at the arne time that a manager i held 'accountable' by higher level uperiors for work uni re ult , the manager is dependent' on the effort of ocher to make the e results po • ible. Of cour e, in the new workplace, thi performance i defined as meeting customer expectation for high quality and service standard, Much of any manager's time i pent dealing in one way or another with the stre e and train of imultaneou ly meeting the demands of upward ace untability and downward dependency. Figure 1.4 de crtbes thi ituarion. it hows a htft upervi or being held accountable by· hi or her boss for work unit re ulr - high ta It performance, while depending on co-worker to achieve these outcome, and
imultancously trying to sari fy w rkers' demand ror good human resource maintenance,
Key results
Human esource maintenance
THE MANAGEMENT PROCESS
Management pi' C ' involves planning, org:llIising,lcaoing and COntrolling the 1I se of organisational resources co achieve high performance results.
Effective managers create opportunide for individuals and gr up [0 make high-performance contributions in organisations and to experience job
atisfaction. In part, they do this through the mauageurent proc " of planning, organi ing, leading and corurolltug/the u e of organisational re ource to achieve high-perforrnanc rc ul . The e four Iuuction of management, as hown in figure 1.5, are defined as follows.
CMAPIE. I ORC.NISArIO Al e(KAVIOU~ AHO liANAC[Ii[Hr
In re pect (0 leading, the C80 states the performance objective at the fir t task force rnecting, an wer question that ari e, and explain why the new product i 0 important to the firm. The task force head i introduced a someone in whom the CEO has complete confidence. Before leaving, the C80 encourages everyone to be enthu ia tic and to work hard [0 accomplish the set objective.
In respect to controlling, the CEO has frequent conversations with the head of the ta k force and tays informed about efforts to create the new product. Sometime the CEO attends task force meetings to ask and answer que tions with the group as a whole. When it appears that the timetable i lipping, additional personnel are a signed and the budget i increased lightly. At In t, ~\II ta It force members are present when the new model is unveiled for market te ting,
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THE NATURE OF MANAGERIAL WORK
What we know ubout manugcrtal work.
In hi clas ic book, The Nature of Mcr.na~erial Work, Henry Minrzberg offer an in-depth examination of the daily activiue of corporate chief executive .35 The following is an in ightful excerpt from Mintzberg's ob ervation regarding an executive' typical workday.
There was no brenk in the pace of activlty during office hour 1 he mail (avert <Ie
f 36 pieces per day), telephone call' (average of 10-15 per day), and meetings (average of eight) accounting for alrno t every minute (rom the moment these executives entered their offices in the morning until they departed in the evcnin '. A true break eldom occurred, Coffee was taken during meetings, and lunchtime \VlIS almo t always devoted to formal or informal meetings, When free time appeared, ever-pre ient subordinares quickly usurped it If (he e manager' wished to have a change of puce. they had two mean at their di po al - the observational tour and (he Ught dts ussions that generally preceded scheduled meetings, But these were no regularly cheduled breaks, and they were
eldom totally unrelated to the issue at hand: managing the organization ...
Mintzberg contlnu :
Why do manage . adopt this pace and workload? One major reason i the inher enrly open-ended nature of the job, The manager i re ponsible for the success of che organization. There are really no tangible mileposts where one can StOP lind say, • row my job i' finished', The engineer ftnlshes the de !gn or a en ting on a certatn day; the lawyer wins or lose a case at ome moment in time. The manager muse always keep going, never sure when he or she has succeeded, never sure when the whole organisation may come down because of orne mi . calculation.As It rc 'ull, the manager' a person with a perpetual preoccupation. The manager can never be free to forget (he job, and never has (he pleasure of knowing even temporarilg rhac there is nothing else to do.
This example points out clearly that a manager' job in any organtsation i bu and demanding. The results or ontinuing research on managerial work by Mlntzberg and other' ean be ummari ed a followsr'"
• tanagers work long hour. A working week of at lea t SO hour i typical; up to 90 hour i not unheard f. Furthermore, the length of the working week tends to increase as one advance to higher managerial levels. Head of organisations often work the longe t hour .
___j
'AR' I ORCANISAIlOHAl '£H."'OU~ A 0 'H( COH'(II'ORARY tHYIROIfIl( t
• Managers :lre bu . people. Their work is inten C and involves doing many different thing on any iven work day. The bu y day of a manager in lude at lea t 20 to 30 eparate incidents or epi-
odc during an eight·hour period for chief executives, and up to 200 at upervi ory levels. Managers are often interrupted. Their work i fragmented and varinble. Many ta It I11U t be completed quickly,
• Manager work mostly with other people, ) n fact, they
pend little time \ orking alone, Time pent with o t h e r s include working with bosses peer, ubordinate and subordlnat of their ubordinates, as well a ou idcr uch a ustorner and uppliers.
• Manager are communicators.
Much of their work i face-toface verbal communication that take place during formal and informal meeting, Higher Icvel manager pend more time in cheduled 111 erings than do lower level managers, I n general, manager p nd a lot f lime getting, giving and proc ' ing information.
Managerial activities and roles
Mint2bcrg's categories of managertal roles
The Effective MANAGER 1.1
It:N ROlESbFAN Em:ClM: MAl'AAGER lnterpersonal.rqles
Figurehead ~ s "ng and attending official ceremonie
Informational roles Monitor - seeking out relevant information.
Disseminator - sha 'ng reI 'vant information w[ffi insiders.
Spokesperson - sharing relevant information' with outsiders.
Decisional roles
Entrepreneur - seeking problems to solve and opportu ities to explore.
Disturbance handler - helping to resolve contlic s.
Resource alloca or - allocating resources to various uses.
Negotiator - negotiating with other parties.39
Prom his research, Mintzberg identified three ec of activitie in which managers engage, often 011 a daily basis. They are:
• interpel' onal role - working dire tly with other people,
• informational roles - manager exchange informauon with other people,
• deci tonal role - managers make decisions that affect other people:17
Each of the e role catcgorle i ba ed upon the manager' po ition of authority in the organisation. As de cribed in the effective manager 1.1, these three sets of activitie involve ten action role that manager n1U t be prepared to perforrn.?
Other research uggests that manager working at different level may crnpha ise somewhat different task ,40 Fir t-level managers serving a department heads, supervisor or team leaders tend to emphasi e one-onone activities with their subordina es or team member. iddle-level
CHAPrea 1 0 CAIIISAIIONAl 8£"4YIOU~ ANO IIANACEIoiENI
Managerial networks
At II level of re pon ibility, manager are concerned about repre encing their work units or team' to other - something the re earchers identify a an arnbas-
adorlal rasa. II manager mu t e tabl l h and maintain good working relationship', or networks, with a multitude of people in order to get their work done. The ability to do so i indispen able to managerial ucce . Con ider thi de cripuon in John I tter's book The Generat ManCl.gers:
f B. J. park 'mull had a good working relation hip with his four b oss e s and a elose melltOrprotege relationship with ne of them. I Ie had cordtel-to-good relations with his peer, 'orne of whom were friends and all of whom were aware 01 hi track record ... I Ie also had H good worklng relationship with many of the subordinates of hi peers (hundreds of people) based mostly on his reputation. B .. J. had a clo e and 'trong working relationship with all but one of hi . main direct reports because they respected him, because he was the bo s, aud the fact tha; he tried to treat them fairly and with respect. Outside the firm, 13 .. 1. maintained fairly strong relation hips with dozens of top people in firm' that were important clien for hi organlzatlon ... lie also had relationships with dozens of other important people in the 10<:<11 cornmunuy,'"
manager may d al more with gr up and intergroup i sues. Their attention i on planning and allocating resource, coordinati~ interdepend nt groups and managing group performance. Top-Ieve l manager or enior executive keep 'an eye on the outside'. They are concerned with monitoring the o rg a ni arion' environment so that they cay informed about important trend and developments.
The Effective MANAGER 1.2
Decision making - able use jogic and information to choose am n' , alternatives in complex situations.
leadership - able to stimulate and guide individuals or groups oward goal or task accbmplfshme:nt,
Oral communication - able to dearly and persuasively express ideas orally to individuals and groups.
Personal impac - able to crea e a good early impression; to command the attention and respect of others.
Planning and organising - able to set and keep a course of action and to allocate resources to reach goals.
Resistance to stress - able to maintain work performance while experiencing significant personal stress.
Self-objectivity - able to rears tic ally assess personal strengths and weaknesses as applied to a job.
Tolerance for uncertainty - able to maintain work performance under uncertain or unstructured conditions.
Written communication - able to clearly and persuasively express ideas in various written forms.
Network building ls regarded a a critical competence for effective management in 'Worl place 2000'.
ThchnicllI 'I ill i the ability to perform specialised tasks.
Huiunu I ill is the ability lO work well with others.
olll:eptuul I ill Is the :lhilley to analy c and solve complex problems.
Robert Katz divide the e 'entia! managerial sklll into three categories:
• te hui al I ill- the ability to perform peciali ed task,
• human kil! - the ability to work well with other people, and
• one ptual 'kill - the ability to aoaly: e and olve c mplex problerns.P
technical kill i an ability to apply peciali ed knowledge or expert! e to perform a job. This skill involves being highly proficient at u ing elect methods, processe and procedures to accompli h [ask. Examples include the work of ac ountants, engineers and sollcltors, whose technical skill are acquired through formal education. Mo t jobs have some technical kill components. Some require preparatory education, wherea other allow skill [0 be learned through appropriate work training and on-the-job experience.
Human kill i the ability to \ ork well in cooperation With others. It emerge as a pirit of trust, enthusiasm and genuine involvement in inter, per onal relationships. A person with good human kills will have a hith degree of eli-awareness and a capacity for understanding or empathi lng With the feeling of other . Thi skill i clearly e sential to the manager' 'networking' re pon ibilitie we de crtbed earlier.
The ability to analy e and olve complex problem i a conceptual skill.
All good manager ultimately have the ability to view the organ! ation or
ituaticn a a whole and to solve problems to the benefit of everyone concerned. Conceptual or analytical ability draws heavily on one's mental capacltle to identify problem and opportuniti ',to gather and interpret relevant information and to make good problem-solving dcci ion that serve the organl satlon' purpo e.
According to Katz, the relative importance of the e e sential kill varte aero levels of management. In figure 1.7, on page 2 ,technical kills are
hOWIl as being more imp rtant at lower management level .where supervisors must deal With concrete problem. Broader, more ambiguous and longer term decision dominate the manager' concern' at higher levels, where conceptual skills are more important. Human kills are con i tently important aero all managerial levels. The basics of organisational behaviour, a di cu ed in the following chapters, are useful foundations for the continued development of your managerial ski lis.
More recent re earch on managerial competency ha provided more detailed in ights into [he abilities required to function successfully as a manager, as well as clearer guideline to measure managerial ability. A competency CM be defined as ... an underlying characteri tic of a per On that lead to or cause uperior or effective performance'." In this context, a recent tudy on competencies reported that the competencie required for a human resource manager to perform effectively include the following: an attention to detail, an ability to persuade other , an ability to develop other, pattern recognition kills and effective written communication abilities.4s
Cornpetencle and kills can vary depending upon the level of management under study ( ee figure 1.7); however, the degree to which cornpetencie vary aero industry sector i the subject of con iderable debate. The definition and measurement of managerial competencies has been the subject of much recent academic debate and re earch.
C>tAP![R I, O«CAN'SH'ONAL a(HAYtOu~ AND MANAC£W£Nr
[10\ (i() \ e learn about organi 'ational behaviour? Learning about organisational behaviour involves more than just reading a textbook· Probably the best learning about OB takes full advantage of the experiential learning proce ; that i .Jearntng from experience. One of the best ourecs of experiential learning is in the workplace and on the job. Indeed, a cornmitment to lifelong learning may be a distinguishing character] tic of managers who achieve career succes _ The hi tortcal foundations of organisational behaviour include roots in the behavioural and applied behavioural science . From these beginnings, OB ha emerged a an applied discipline, taking a contingency approach and emphasising scientific method. Contingency thinking rejects the 'one best way' approach to managing; it eeks in tead to develop understandings and responses appropriate to the unique aspects of various ituatlons. As a scientific discipline, 08 i ba ed on in i~ht developed through scientific methods. All ofthi helps OB serve the real needs of practising manager . Good managers are able to under tand, predict and influence human behaviour in organ! ation . They do 0 in order (0 olve problems and take advantage of opportunities in the work serting. tudying (1Od thinking about the many insights made available in the field of 08 will help you e tabLish these important capabilities.
What are orgaui sation ,? n 'organisation' i formally defined as a collection of people working together in a division of labour tor a common purpose. A well-functioning division of labour Include integrated 'means-end' chain that link performance goal at any level as the 'mean ' to accomplishin<l performance goals at the next higher level as 'ends', As open
y terns, organisations interact with their external envir nments. They tran form human and material resource input into good and/or service that become their product output _ A succe sful organi ation provides product outputs of value to the external environment and i always able to obtain in return the resource inputs needed for continued perations.
Who are the IlIHllH6el in oreaui atious? A 'manager' is formally defined as anyone in an crgani auon to whom one or more persons directly report An effecuve manager is one who e work unit accompli hes high levels of work unit performance and good human resource maintenance. An effective manager help tndividuals, group and organt ations achieve productivity in the form of quantity and quality of work performed, with re ource utilisation considered. Thi oncept of productivity requires a commitment to both performance effectivene and performance efficiency. It al 0 requires a mastery of the 'manager's challenge' - to fulfil a higher level performance accountability while being dependent on others to do the required work
V hut i the mauag uieut PI'OC ' ? The management proce includes the action responsibilitie of planning organising, leading and controlling. The e are called the four functions of management. Planning et the duection ; organising brings together people and other re ources to do the nece ary work; leading create the enthu iasm necded to fulfil work requirement; and controlling en ures that things turn out as desired. In concept, <111 managers hould perform these functions. In practice, only the truly effective managers are diligent and killed in applying all a peers of the management proce s.
\ hat i the day-to-day uatur f mnnaeeriul w rk? [anagenal work
i characterised by long hour, inten e activity and frequent interruptions. Effective managers - tho e who achieve both high levels of ta k
'I Wood, J,M., "Organizational Behaviour: an Asla·Paclfic PllrspoClive". 1998. 'John Wiley & Sons.
Individual attribute : values attitude and p rception
PLANNING AHEAD
Thi chapter continue our treatment of individual in the new workplace by con idering the importance of value and attitudes and the way these and other factor Influence the way people perceive whar actually happen in ordani ational situation .
In thi chapter; we learn to appreciate the individuality of value and understand the COIlC pts of value congruence and incongruence. The different categories f attitudes are di tingulshed and the implication of cognition di onance on behaviour are discu ed. We examine job ansfacuon as an attitude and consider the most frequently used urveys to mea ure job san faction. Wc apply the rheorie about attitude and performance to managerial actions. The range of factor that influence the perceptual proces and the ImO\ ledge and kill of the perceptual proce s that a manager mu t exhibit are then examined.
A you read chapt r 5, keep in mind the e study question :
• What are values?
• What are attitude?
• A an auitude, what i job satisfaction.
• What i the relationship between job ausfacrion and performance?
• Ilow can we manage values and attitudes?
• What is perception and the perceptual proce s, and what are orne common perceptual distortions?
• How can we manage the perceptual proces ?
§ VALUES
Values arc global beliefs that guide actions and judgements across a variety of situancus.
PAJt t "'AHACIMe HOIYIOUAl$ tN ORCANISAtiONS
nluc can be defined as broad preferences concerning appropriate courses of action or outcomes, As uch, thcy reflect a per on's sen e of right and wrong or what 'ought' to be.' 'Equal rights for all' and 'people should be treated with re pect and dignity' are examples of value held by people. Values tend to influence arutudes and behaviour. For example, if you value equal rights for all and you go to work for an organi arion that treats its managers much better than it doe its workers, you may form the attitude that the company is an unfair place to work. On the other hand, if the company had had a more egalitarian policy, your altitude and behaviours might be more positive.
Sources and types of values
Allport's Ix value categories
Mcglino and associates' value categoric
Parents, friends, teacher and external reference group can all influence individual value. Indeed, people' value develop as a product of the learning and experience they encounter in the cultural etting in which they live. As learning and experience differ from one person to another, value differences result. Such differences are likely to be deep-seated and difficult (though not impossible) to change; many have their roots in early childhood and the way a per on was raised.2
A classification of human values was developed in the early 19305 by psychologist Gordon Allport and his associates. These value fall into six major type :3
1. Theoretical: interest in the di covery of truth through rea cuing and sy tematlc thinking,
2. Eccmcmic: interest in u efulne s and practicality, Including the accumu-
lation of wealth.
3. Aesthetic: intere t in beauty, form and artistic harmony.
4. Social: interest in people and love a a human relationship.
5. Political: intere t in gaining power and influencing other people.
6. Religious: interest in unity and in under tanding the co mos as a whole.
I once how these values differ in importance among groups, as summar-
ised in table 5.14 ~
Although thi classification had a major impact on the literature, it was not specifically designed for people in a work setting. However, a more recent value schema has been developed by Meglino and associates, which is aimed at people in the workplacef
1. Acllie'!Jemtm.t: getting things done and working hard to accomplish diffi. cult thing in life
2. Helping al1d concern for others: being concerned with other people and helping others
J. Honesty: telling the truth and doing what you feel is right
4. F'Ilirnes ; being impartial and doing what is fair for all concerned.
While the Allport framework was not developed for studying values in organisations, the ~eglino framework was developed specifically from information obtained in the workplace; the (OUT values listed above were hown to be especially important. Thu , the framework should be particularly relevant for tudying in OB. One important recent u e is described in the following section.
• Porttcituuion. in cieci ion maktne: a willin nes and desire to get involved and to exerci e individual autonomy.
• Seroice: a willingnes to erve society b)' advancing the quality of life and to demand per onal treatment and a high quality of life in ide an organl arion.
• ocial [usiice: a willingness to et a ide 'careen 111' per se and to pur ue the 'right' and socially re pon ible a pec of one' work. no just the easy ones,
We should al 0 be aware of applied research on values trends over time.
Daniel Yankclovich, for example. is known for hi informative public opinion polls conducted in Amertca.? Among American worker , Yankelovich note a movement away fr0111 valuing economic incentives, organi ational loyalty and work-related identity and toward valuing meaningful work. pursuit of lei ure and personal identity and self- fulfilment. He believes that the modern manager 111U t be able to recognise value difference and trends among people at work. For example, he reports finding higher productivity among younger vorkers who are employed in jobs that match their values and/or who are upervised by manager who hare their values,
These findings, of cour e, reinforce the discu sion of value congruence mentioned on page 139. The example there howed lack of congruence between ally and Jim, together with the potential for conflict.
It is al 0 interesting to note the values reported in table 5.2 on page 141, which arc based on a ample of American managers and human resource professtouals.l? The responding organisational speciall t were a ked to identify the work-related value they believed to be rno t important to individuals in the work force. both now and in the near future. The nine rno t popular value are listed in the table,
The value. Ii led in table 5.2 are especially important for manager
incc they provide an indication of orne key concerns of the new work force, Even though each individual worker place his or her own imp rtance on the e values and many countric have diverse work forces, thi overall character! ation i a good place for manager to tart when dealing with employee in the new workplace.
Before moving on to altitudes. we hould relnf rce OUt' polnt that values are individual preference but, as we have hown, many tend to be hared within cultures. Value are at the forefront of current managerial thinking and relate to a peers of ethical behaviour in orgarnsauous.!' Morality, hara memo profe ionalisrn and whi tleblowing are some examples of the attention being given to the need for sound ethical behaviour in the workplace. Our examples thu far have emphasised values within a national or societal culture. but you hould be aware that there is also a narrower et of shared values Within organisation. The use of value in thi context i 0 important that we devote an entire chapter - chapter 14 - to organisational culture. For now. however, you may Wish to con-
ider the emphasis that large Korean conglomerate put on matching corporate and individual values, For example, the aggressive Daewoo Group emphasise individual aggreSSiveness, progressivene s and a ense of duty,12
(;, tr~ Hofst de' four dimension of culture
'AWl I MA AGI G I DIVIDUHS III OR,AKISAIION$
a a re ult of the organl arion's location within a particular societ . On the ba is of an extension analy i f 000 re ponse to a que tionnaire
urvey of IBM employee in 66 countries, he argu d that there are four discrete dimen ion of culture that could be used [0 nod difference between countries. The four dimen ions are:
1. /ndi'Viduaiism-collecllui Ill: the extent to which people are oriented toward self-intere t vel' u the intere l of a wider group of which they are a parL
2. Uncertainty avoidance; the extent to which people eek to minimise uncertainty ver u the extent to \ hich they are' tolerant of ambiguity (e.g. ri k aversion ver u risk taking).
J. Potoer-distance: the extent to which relationship between uperior and ubordinate are di taru and formal ver u clo e and informal.
4. Masculinity-fem1'ninity; the extent to which ucce i defined· in terms of a ertiveness, challenge and ambition rather than in term of
caring and nurturing. I 0-10 ?< ~
On the basi of this research, Hof tede demonstrated that core aero the e dimension differed aero countrie although he al 0 demon trated imilarities.
As you have already learnt in chapter 3, Hofstede later added a fifth dlrnen-
ion (long-term- hort-terrn orientation) but table 5.3 i taken from Hof rede' research findings. Look at the table. Can you find your country there? Ar you surprised with the core for your country? How docs your country compare with'others?
Tnbl 5 .. Inter-country comparisons oi score' u log Hofstede's
cultural dimen ion
P wer-
ountry di t. uce judex
Argentina 49 6 6 56
Au tralia 36 S1 90 61
Au tria 11 70 55 79
Belgium 65 94 75 S4
Brazil 69 76 38 49
Canada 39 4 0 52
Chile 63 86 23 2
Colombia 67 0 13 64
Costa Rica 35 6 15 21
Denmark 18 2J 74 16
Equador 7 67 8 63
Finland 33 59 63 26
Prance 6 86 71 43
Germany (F.R.) .35 65 67 66
Great Britain J5 35 9 66
Greece 60 112 35 57
Guatemala 95 101 6 37
Hong Kong 68 29 25 57
Indonesia 7 48 14 46
India 77 40 4 56
Iran 5 59 41 43
Ireland 28 35 70 68
Israel 13 81 54 47 PARI 1 I&A'A~ING I OIVIOUAlS I~ ORQANI$AIIO S
Re sardle (the pecific altitude con idered, it i important ro
remember that an attitude, like a value, i a hypothetical eOll truer, that i , one never see , touche , or actually i olate all attitude. Rather, attitudes are inferred from the thing people ay (informally or formally) or do (their behaviour),
Components of attitudes
ot"itivc omponen of an attitude arc the beltcfsoptntons, knowledge, or information a person posse e.
Belief represent ide s. about someone Or something and the conclusiou ' people draw about them.
A(fe ,th component
lin attitude are the specific feelings regarding the personal impact of the antecedents.
Behavi 1.1 rul IIIp uent or an attitude are the uucnuon to behave in a certain way based on a person' specific feelings or attitude.
PI It , -,2 work-ret red
example or the three components of aultudes
tudy figure .2 carefully, Thl how attitude as accompanied by antecedents and re ults. The belief and alues antecedents in [he figure form the oanitlv oruponent of an attitude: the belief, opinion ,.Imowled e, or information a person po e e. B lief repre em idea about orne ne or ornething and he conclusions people draw about them; they convey :I sense of 'what i • to an individual. 'My job lack responsibility' is 8 belief
hown in the figure, ore that the belief mayor may not be accurate. Re pon ibility is Importanr' i a corre pending a peer of the cognitive component that reflects an underlying value.
The affect] e C IlIp neut of an attitude is a pecific/eelinJ,! regarding the per onal impact of the antecedent . Tbl is the actual attitude it elf,
uch as 'I do n t like my job'. The behavioural component i an intention [0 behave in a ertain way based on your pecific feeling or attitude. This intended behaviour i a result of an attitude and i a predi position to act in a pecific \ a~ uch a' 'I am going to quit my job',
Antecedents
Attitude
Beliefs and values - create - feelings ---- hat _ iJ1tended t5ehaviour
inHuence '
'My Job lacks responsibility'
'Job responsibihty is important'
'j am going to gLM ' rt)yjob'
'1 do not like my job'
In summary, the component of attitude ysternatically relate to one another a follows; 14
Beliefs and values
that
create
attitudes
behaviour
pre rsecse
Attitudes and behaviour
Look again at figure 5.2. It i essential to recognise that the link between attitudes and behaviour is tentative. An attitude re ults in incended behaviour. Thi intention mayor may not be carried out in a given circumstance. Taite a person with a favourable attitude toward union. Other things being equal, thi a tltude \ ould predict uch intentions as saying po itive thing
Cogllith dis rouau i a tate of perceived inconsistency between a person' expressed attitudes and actual behaviour.
Three ways of reducing r eliminatirl~ cognitive dtssonance
Implications of
( Pc dn er's eogntuvc
dissonance theory
Fe tlnger, a noted social psychologt t, u e the term coguitiv dis onHIIC to de crtbe a tate of inconst tency between an individual' attitudes and hi or her behavtour.'" Let us assume that you have the attitude that recycling i good for (he economy but you do not recycle. Fe tinger predict that such an inconsi tency re ults in di comfort and a desire to reduce or eliminate it. Three ways of achieving thi reduction or elimination are by:
• Chen 6b~ th« underlying Gtticu(ie. You dccide that recycling really is not very good after all.
• Chan .. ~l future behaviour. You tart recycling,
• Drroeioping oeto ways of e.'\,"Plailli7~ or ractonali ing the inconsi lellc.)t Recycling is good for the economy but you do not recycle becau e the pia tic recycling bags and procedure require more resources than are saved through recycling.
Festinger' cognitive dissonance theory offer yet another per pective on attitude as pecial attribute of people at \ ork, Among the workrelated implications of the theory are:17
1. A H:!cognicioll tna: behaviour may influence ac£icudes and that CIcci· tude may influence behaviour. onsider this work example. A per on who actually tries a new La It and likes it may change a previously held negative attitude toward the task. 'I've bad thi - job fOr everal month , therefore I mu t like it.'
2. A reco nition that octuude may decelop consi cene with a per on's . initial emotional response to a ne«v person or object. For e. ample, a pel' 011 who has a quick negative reaction to a new, long-haired, male co-worker may develop the attitude that the person is untru rworthy,
JOB SATISFACTION AS AN ATIITUDE
Job ali. faction is the degree to which individu I feel posittvely or negatively about their jobs. ~911i arioual commitment is the degree to which a per on strongly identifies with and feels a part of the o~ani arion.
J b involvement is the willingness of a per 'on to work hard lind apply effort beyond normal jon expectation .
Formally defined,joh sati fa tiou is the degree to which an individual feel positively or negatively about work. It i all emotional re ponse to one' ta ks as well as to the physical and social conditions of the workplace. As a c noepr, job ati faction al 0 indica e the degree to which the expectations in
orneone's p ychologlcal contract (a di cu ed in chapter 2) are fulfilled. Job satisfaction is likely to be higher for per on who perceive an inducemen . ontributions balance in their relationship with the employing organisation.
You should also recall from chapter 2 that job satisfaction is part of what \ e called human resource malntenance and that two closely related attitudes are 'organisational commitment' and 'job involvement. Organi ntionnl o mm itmeut refers to the degree to which a per Oil strongly identifie with and feels a pan of the organt atio n. J b inv lvemeut refers to the willingness of a person co work hard and to apply effort beyond normal job expectations. An individual who has high organ· tsational commitment i considered very loyal; an individual who is highly involved in ajob i COil idered a good corporate or organisational citizen.
Measuring job satisfaction
Job satisfaction i among the important altitudes that influence human behaviour in the workplace. Thu , OB re earchers are intere ted in accurately measuring job sati faction and understanding its consequences for people at work. On a daily basis, manager mu t be able to infer the job
~AAT 2 WAHAGIHG IHOIVIDUAlS 1M OtGA ISAIIONS
Argument performance causes satisfaction
If high level of performance cause job ali Iactton, the me age to managers is quite different. Rather than focu ing first on people's job
ati faction, attention hould be given co helping people experience high performance accompli hment . From chis outcome, job atl faction would be expected to follow. For example, a manager may carefully instruct a worker until the worker perform well. This high performance would then lead the worker to feel good about hi or her job and probably the supervi or as well.
Research indicates that an empirical relationship exi t between indio vidual performance measured at a certain time period and later job atisfaction. A basic model of this relation hip based on the work of Edward E. Lawler and Lyman Porter, i presented in figure 5.4.26 In the figure, performance accompli hment lead to rewards that, in turn, lead to satisfaction. Reward in this model are interoe-ning variables; that i ,they 'link' performance with later atisfactlon. In addition, a moderator ~ariable - perceived equity of rewards - further affects the relation hip. The moderator indicates that performance will lead to ausfacuon only if reward are perceived as equitable. If an individual feel that hi or her performance i unfairly rewarded, the performance-can - ausfacuon effect will not hold. We hall examine this model in greater depth in chapter 9.
Thi. viewpoint j important for managers to understand not because it re olve the job atisfaouon-performance controversy but becau c it high· lights the importance of rewards in the management proces . Rewards are ubject to managerial control; they are a1 0 important to the ongoing health of an individual's psychological contract with the organi ation,
1'1 It .4 mplifi d
version of the PorterLawler model of the performance-san faction relation hip
Performance accomplishment
Rewards
- (intervening variable)
Perceived eQuity
of rewards (moderator variable)
Argument: rewards cause both satisfaction and performance
This final argument in the job satisfaction-performance controversy is the mo t compelling. It uggests that a proper allocation of rewards can po iuvely influence both performance and sati faction. 1 he key word in the previous sentence is 'proper'. Re earch indicate that people who receive high reward report higher job satisfaction. But re earch also indicates that performance-contingent reuiards influence a person's work performance. In this case, the size and value of the reward varie in proportion to the level of one's performance accompli hment. Large rewards are given for
The setting
'~Rr 2 MAIUCI C 1"0 YIOUAlS III ORCANISA 10N$
sedan ; whi pering or houting will stand out from ordinary conver ation.
ery small or very Ia.rge people will tend to be perceived differently and more readily than will average- ized people. Movine object will tand Out from those not moving. The frequency of an object's advertisements can influence one' perception of it.
1 he physical, social and organisational context of the perceptual etting can al 0 influence the perceptual proces . Hearing a subordinate call hi or her bo s by a first name may be perceived quite differently when observed in an office hallway a oppo ed to at ar evening ocial reception.
The process itself
(
Attention and selection
Organisation
chema are cognitive frameworks that represent organt ed knowledge about a given concept or stimulus developed through experience.
If schema contain information about a person's own appearance, behaviour and personality.
Keeping in mind the factors and characteristics listed above, it i now in trucuve to turn to the perceptual proce S depicted in figure 5.7. The proces Itself consi of four stage : information attention or election, organisation of information, interpretation of information and retrieval of information from our memory.
Our sen es are con tantly bombarded with so much lnf rrnation that if we did not filter it., we would become incapacitated with information overload.
elective iilterin~ let in only a tiny proportion of all of the information available. Some of the selectivity comes from controlled proce ing - consciously deciding what information to pay attention to and what to ignore. In tbi case, the perceivers are aware that they are proce ing information. Think about the last lime you were at a noi y re taurant and screened out all the ounds but tho e of the person with whom you were talking.
Screening can aJso take pia e without the perceiver's con ciou av arene . For example, you may drive a car \ ithout con clou Iy thinking about the proces of driving but instead about a problem you are having with your course work. In driving the car, you were affected by information from tile world around you, such as traffic lights and other cars, but you did not pay deliberate attention to that information. Such selectivity of attention works well most of the time when you drive, but if a non-rouune event occurs, you may have an accident unle you quickly shift to controlled proce ing.
even though selective filtering takes place in the attention stage, it is till necessary to find ways to organ! e the information efficiently. chemas hclp u do this. cherna are cognitive frameworks that repre ent organt ed knowledge about a given concept or stimulus developed through expenence.i? A If cherna contain Information about a person' own appearance, behaviour, and per onality. For instance, a person with a decisivene chema will tend to perceive himself or her-
elf in term of that aspect in many circumstance, especially tho e calling for leader hip.
PART l. "'~'CI"G I~DIVIDUAL$ IN DRG'"'$A"O~S
not included in them. For example, your prototype or implicit theory about the trai compri ing a 'high-perfornung employee' may cau e you to overe timate the e trait and to undere timace other when evaluating the perf nuance of a ubordlnate whom you generally think of as good. Thus,
ou may overe umate that person' decisiveness if that were part of your hlgh-performance prototype. Indeed, there is some evidence that you are as likely to recall non-ext tent traits as you are to recall tho e that are really there. Furthermore, once formed, prototype may be difficult to change and may last for a long time:n
Common perceptual distortions
(
Stereotypes
Halo effects
Halo effect occurs when one attribute of a person or ituation is used LO develop an overall impression of the person or situati 11.
F'igure 5.7 how some common kinds of di tortlon that can make the perceptual proces inaccurate, The e are: stcreorypes/prototypes, halo effec , elective perception, projection and expectancy.
Recall that we introduced this in chapter 4. There we de cribed tereotypes as useful ways of categort ing information in order to deal with information overload. We aJ 0 showed that they can cau e inaccuracies in retrievin information. Here, we want to reiterate some further problem with tereotypes and prototypes that we must uard again t.
tereotype ob cure individual differences, They can prevent managers from gettin to know people as individual and from accurately assessing their needs, preference and abilines. ome common our e of negative
tereotypes were discu ed in chapter 4 con erning age, gender and ethnic background. There, we compared che e tereotype with re earch results an howed the error that can occur when one relic on tereotypes for deci ion malting. Here, we reiterate our previous message: Both manager and employee need to be en itive to tereotype and attempt to overcome them and recognt e that an increasingly diver c \ ork force can be a true competitive advantage.
A halo eff ct occurs when one attribute of a per on or ituatlon is used to develop an overall impression of tl e individual or ituation. Like stereotype, these distortion are particularly llkely to occur in the organtsntlou
tage of perception. Halo effects are common in our everyday Jives. When meeting a new person, for example, a trait such a a pleasant smile can lead to a posiuve first Impression of an overall warm and honest person. The result of a halo effect, however, is the ame as that a sociated with a stereo, type: individual difference are ob cured.
Halo effect are important in the performance apprai al process since they can influence a manager's evaluation of subordinate' work perfor· mance. For example, people with good attendance records tend to viewed as intelligent and respon ible; those with poor attendance are considered poor performers. Such conclusions mayor may not valid. It is the manager's job to try [0 get true impressions rather thall allowing halo cffecr (0 result in biased and erroneou evaluations.
(
Attribution theory
ttributi II th ory is the aucmpt La understand the eau e of an event, assess r ponsibility for outcome of the event and asses th personal qualities or people involved.
FIG RE 5. A schematic representa ion of the auributlon process
"~r l IIANAGING INOIYIOIIAlS I. OAGA IS.TIOMS
There i also 3 po itive ide to expectancy. P ychologt t have found that rat introduced to their handler as 'maze bright' run mazes more quickly han do rats introdu ed to their handler 3 'dumb'. lmllarly tudent ideruified to their teachers as 'intellectual bl orner' do better on achiev ment te ts than do t eir counterparts who lack such a posttive introdu tion and job trainee that are pointed out to their upervi or as having' pecial potential' typically perform better than do trainee not identified a uch. The expectan y effects in the e case argue tr ngly for manager to adopt po itive and optimistic approache to people at work, as su mm art ed in the effective manager 5.2.
Manage ial tips t 'create positive self· fulfilling prophe les for employees include:
• spend more time helping subordinates learn job skills
• give subotdinates more opportu~ities to ask Questions.
ttributi It theor is the rudy of how people attempt to (1) understand the cau es of a certain event, (2) as e rcsp nsibility for the urcorne of the event and (3) evaluate the pe onal qualities of the people involved in the event.J6 Figure S. summari e the e ential elements and proce e of this particular theory. entlally, in applying attribution theory, we lry to determine whether one' behaviour was internally or externally caused. Internal cau e are believed to be under an individual' control (you believe Lim' performance is poor ecau e he is lazy). External cause are seen as out ide a person (you believe Mariah's performance is poor because her machine i old).
Individual behaviour ~
Internal External
Attribution theory suggests that three factor influence this internal or external determination. The e are dis£incli~e1less, consen u and consis· (ell~ Dl tinctivene Con iders how con i tent a per on behaviour i across different situation. If Lim' performance i low, regardle of the machine on which he is working, we will tend to give the poor performance an internal attribution; if the poor performance i unu ual, we will tend to assign an external cause to explain it,
The manaeerlal implication i attribution theory and the earlier di cu ion can be traced bac to the fact that perceptions influence behaviour. For example. a manager who feel that subordinates are nor performing well and perceives the rea 011 to be all internal lack of effort i likely to re pond with attempts to 'motivate' the subordinate to work harder; the po ibility of changing external, ituational factors to remove job con traints and to provide better organi ational upport may be largely ignored. This over iglu could sacrifice major performance gain. It is al 0 inter ting to note chat when it came to evaluating their own behaviour, the upervisors in the earlier tudy indicated that their performance would beneftt from havin better upport, Thi implies that the supervi or ' own abilities or willingne co work hard were not felt co be at i sue. The question i why, if the upervi or only needed more support to improve rheir work performance, could nOL the arne be said for their su bordi nates?
( INFLUENCING PERCEPTIONS
Charaeteru tics of managers skilled ill managing the perception process
uceessful manager recogni e that perceptual difference are likely to exist among people in any given ituation and they are aware of the common perceptual di tortion that may arise. They under tand attribution theory and indi idual tendencie toward a self-serving bias when explaining performance Ituarlons. They are also informed about impre ion managemel1cJ9 - the sy rernatic attempt [0 behave in ways tha create and maintain de ircd irnpre ion of one elf in the eye of other. Impre sion - especially first impression - affect how other people evaluate and re pond to us. They can be influenced through such things a choice of manner, dre s, appearance and u e of verbal and nonverbal cornmuntcarton . A a re ult, good manager try co make deci ions and take action wi h a true under tanding of the work ituation a it is viewed by all person concerned. A manager who is skilled in influencing the perception proce will try to;
• have a high level of elf-awarenes
• eek information from variou ource to confirm or disconfirm personal impre ions of a decision situation
• be empathetic; that is, be able to ee a situation a it is perceived by other people
• avoid common perceptual di tortions that bi our view of people and
situation
• be aware of various klnd of chernas and [heir pes ible impact
• be aware of attribution theory and its implication
• avoid inappropriate action
• influence the perception of other people.
p"lt, 1 NoA~AGINC HDIV10UAtS 1M OROA,NI$AIIOrf.$
situation a1011<1 with an awarene s of common perceptual distortions. Seeondly, it involve an under tanding of schernas and their role in the percep. tual process as well as an understanding of attribution theory and the importance of impr ion management and of how to create and maintain de ired impression of oneself in the eyes of others. Finally, it involves an understanding of the action nece ary to facilitate the perceptual proces .
absenteeism, p.147
affective components, p. 144 attitudes, p. 143
attribution theory, p. 15 behavioural
components, p. 1 4 beliefs, p. 144
cau at attribution, p. 155 cognitive component, p.144 cognitive dissonance, p. 146 expectancy, p.157 functional absenteei m, p. 1
functional turnover, p. 14 fundamental attribution
error, p. 159 halo effect, p. 156
job involvement, p. 146 job satisfaction, p.146 organi ational
commitment, p. 146 perception, p. 152 performance, p.149 person-ln-snuauon
schema , p. 155
person schernas, ISS projection, p. 157
chernas, p. 154
script chernas, p. 155 selective perception, p: 157 eli chernas, p. 154
eli· erving bias, p. 159 turnover, p.147
values, p. 13
value congruence, p. 139
1.
three approaches to values. Select one of these approaches and show how it might operate to influence performance in your OB cia or in a project group in your cia .
2. ttitud
U ing examples different from those in your text, show how the altitudinal model in figure 5.2 might be used to explain one or more selected behaviours in your 08 cia s,
3. Job ati faction
Discuss the importance oljob atlsfacnon and some of its different facet. how how job sati faction might relate to other important OB aspects either in your class or in an organisation in which you work or of which you are a member.
4. Managing valu 'lind attitude'
DiSCUSS some key points involved in managing values and attitudes and illu trate the application of one or two of these points in an exi ting group or larger organi auon,
5. The pel' eptual proc
Discuss the perceptual process and apply it to a recent response you have made or that wa made by someone you know well. Discuss common perceptual distortions and show how two of the e applied to your use of the perceptual process.
6. i(anaging the perceptual proce
Discuss the key points involved in managing the perceptual process. As a manager, show how you would attempt to use orne of these key points [0 deal with a selected real-llfe ituatlon.
CASE 9
HAUSSER FOOD PRODUCTS COMPANY
BACKGROUND
Sleven Palesy David A. Nadler
Brenda Cooper, the southeastern regional sales manager for the Haus er Food Product (HFP) Company, expressed her concern to a researcher from a well-known eastern business chool:
I think during the past year I've begun to make some progress here, but the situation is a 101 more difficult than I thought when I first arrived. Our current methods of selling products Just are 001 adequate, and the people in the field don't seem interested in coming up with new ideas or approaches to elling,
Hausser Food Products Compan is a leading producer and marketer of infant foods in the United States. The company manufactures and markets a whole line of food for the infant market, including strained meats, vegetables. fruits, and combination dishes. The product line includes foods that are completely strained. for infants. as welJ as Iocds that are partially strained or chopped. for children 6 months of age and older. HFP has traditionall, been the leader in thi field. The company has no oilier major product lines. Its products are known for their high quality and its name i
well-known to most con umers, I
HFP owns its production and warehousing facilities. 1 s well-developed distribution network provides direct delivery of products to the arehouses and stor s of most major food chains. The smallest segment of its market is composed of a limited number of institutions for children that purchase HFP products in bulk.
HFP has had a long history in the infant food business. Traditionally the market leader, it has over the years maintained a market share of approximately 60 percent. During the 1960s. the firm experienced rapid expansion and growth. The number of
298
300 PART 3: MOTIVATION. LEADERSHIP. AND INFLUENCE
President
I
Vice-presidentmarketing
I
I
I
I
Oirectorma"'et planntng
Oirectorodv~lSlng
Oir~ctorsal.,
OirectOfmarket rese .... th
Oirectorsales promotion
I
Reg.lonal sales manager, Brend. Cooper
RegtOnal sales manager
I
I I
Othtlf diSlftCt sales mal\~~C< s
DIStrict saleS m .... r. Jty Boya.
I
Sates rtpr_"tlllves
EXHIBIT' Partial chart 01 lormal organizalion structure of Hausser FOOd Products.
company. The current president of the company, the vice-president for marketing. and three of the five marketing directors began their careers at HFP a. regional sale managers.
Brenda Cooper. the southeastern regional sales manager, is r irly typical of the kind or person placed in that position. Brenda entered an MBA program immedi-
I
CASE 9: HAUSSER FOOO PRODUCTS COMPANY 303
EXHIBIT 2 STAFF OF THE FLORIDA SALES TEAM
Years with
Name Posltlon Age HFP Educallon
Jay Boyar Ooslnet sales manager 52 30 High school
David Ben Salesperson (assistant manager) 50 30 High school
Neil Portnow Salesperson 56 36 High school
Alby Siegel Salesperson 49 18 '12 yr college
Mike Welty Salesperson 35 12 2 yr college
John Cassrs Salesperson 28 4 SA
Fred Hopenqarren Salesperson 30 3 SA What I really like is the freedom. I'm reall my own bo most of the lime. I don't have to be sitting in an office for the whole day, with some supervisor hanging over my houlder and looking at all of m work. I get to be outside, here in the car, doing what [ like to be doing-being OUt in the world. tallong to people. and malong the sale.
eil Pormow, who had been with the company longer than {he other team members,
commented on the group:
This is really a great bunch of guy to work with. I've been with ouple of different groups, but this is the best I've been together with nave and Jay for about 15 years now and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Jay is really one of us; he knows that we know how to do our job and he doesn't try to put a lot of controls on us. We go about doing the job the way we know is best and that is OK with Jay.
The guys are also good because they help you out. When 1 wa ick last ear, the all pitched in to cover my territory so that we could make our plan plus 10 percent without reporting my illness to me company. They can also be hard on someone who doesn't realize bow things work here. A few years back. when one of the young guys. Fred, came on with us, he was all fired up. He was going to sell baby food to half the mothers in Florida, personally! He didn't realize mat you have to lake your lime and not waste your effort for me company. The other guys gave him a little bit of a hard time at first-he found his orders getting lost and shipments being changed-but when be finally came to his senses, they reated him great and showed him the ropes.
Picking up on the references to "the company," the researcher asked eil to talk more about HFP as a place to work:
It's all pretty Simple; the company is out to screw the salespeople. Up in Atlanta and New York. all they are concerned about is the numbers, meeting the plan no matter what. The worst thing is if you work hard, meet the plan, and then keep going so ou can earn orne decent money. Then the go and change the plan next ear. They increase the sales quota so that you have 10 work harder just to earn the same money! It just doesn't pay to bust your ass ....
The people in Atlanta also want all kind of paperwork: sales reports, call reports, all kinds of reports. If you filled out all of the things that they want you 10 fiU out, you'd spend
--------- ------
304 PART 3: MOTIVATION. l.EADERSHIP. AND INFLUENCE
aU your time doing paperwork and no time selling, looking for new accounts, making cold calls, or any of the things that a salesperson really is supposed to do if he's going to keep on lOP of his area.
As the researcher talked with the other salespeople, he found general agreement with Neil's views on the company. AJby Siegel added:
The biggest joke they gOI going is the suggestion plan. The want us to come up with new ideas about how the company should make more money. The joke of it is, if you come up with an idea thal, for instance, makes the company a couple of hundred thousand in profit across the country. they are generous enough to give you S~OO. That's the top figure. SSOO for your idea. That amount of money is an insult ....
One thing you have to remember is that in one way or another, we're aU in this for the money. Despite what they say. it's not the greatest thing to be out on the road all of the time. staying in motels. fighting the competition. But it's worth it because I can earn more money doing this job than anything else I could do. 1 can live better than most "professionals" with all their college degrees .... Jay i pretty good about the money thing too. He makes sure that we get our bonus. year in and year out, and he keeps the people in Allants {rom taking our bonus checks away from us. He's nOI management-he's one of us. You can realJy tell it during the team meetings. Once every 2 months we all meet in Tampa and spend a day going over the accounts and talking about ideas for selling, We spend the whole day in this hotel room. working, and then we go out and spend the whole night on the town, usually drinking. Jay is one of us ... , Many is the night that I've helped carry him' back 10 the hotel.
After about 4 weeks with the team, the researcher participated in one of the bimonthly team meetings. During lunch, Jay came over to him and began 10 talk:
Listen, 1 need to talk over something with you before we stan the afternoon meeting. We trust you so we're going LO let you in on our little discovery. You may have noticed that we aren't doing so badly, and you're nght, The reason is a little finding made by Alb about 3
ears ago. He was out in one of the Stores and he noticed that a 101 or people buying our products were not mothers of young children. bUI old people! We started looking around and we began to notice that a lot of older people were buying HFP jars, We talked with some of them and it turns out that they like our !.Uff. particularly those people who have all kinds of teeth problems.
Since then we've developed a very lucrative trade with a number of the old folks's homes, and we've been able 10 sell to them through some of the supermarkets who are located in areas where there is a large older population. It's a great new piece of the market: it takes the pressure off us to make plan. and we don't even have to push II very hard to keep making plan and about 10 percent.
We've also been pretty successful in keeping Atlanta from finding out. If they knew. they'd up our plan, leaving us no time to sell, no time to develop new customers, no lime to make cold calls. or anything. This way we use this new area as a little cushion. and it helps us to stay on top of our territory. I had 10 teU ou because we'll be talking about the old people tlus afternoon. The boy seem to think you are OK. so I'm trusting you with it. I hope I'm not making a rmstake telling you this.
C~HIER 5' ... 01 YAIION IHtORlt$
MOTIVATING THE 21ST C~NTURY WORK FORCE
f {
As we move through the la t decade of the 20th century the business pres is replete with stories of organisarional restructuring and re-engtneerlug. Common to many of these news reports is the concept of downsizing, or right izing as it i sometimes called. To use one example, Tel tra announced in 1996 its plans to retrench 9000 employee, which represents a huge 12 per cent staff cut ~
A direct outcome of down izing is that all organi ational members are expected to do more with less' and in many in tances a major negative con equence of such down izing has been to create an atmo phere of uncertainty, insecurity and fear of future retrenchment. In such organisations, when performance is conditioned by fear of retrenchment, it i often very difficult to ustain hith levels of employee commitment and loyalty. As a result high and sustained levels of work motivation are often under threat.
As a direct consequence of downsizing a major challenge for managers in these organi attons in the latter part of the 20th century i to rebuild loyalty and commitment and to create a po itive organisational climate in which employees are motivated to achieve at very high level of work performance.
This challenge for the 21 ,t century manager Is examined in more detail in figure 6.1 on page 170. can be seen in figure 6.1, an individual' willingness to perform is directly related to the needs, expectations and values held by the Individual, an their link to the incentive or aspirations presented by the organisational reward system. Thi include factor such a financial remuneration and career advancemeut,
The degree of effort expended to achieve these outcomes will be dependent on:
1. the individual's willingness to perform, and commitment to these outcomes in terms of the value attached to a particular outcome
2. the individual's competency or capacity to perform the task
.3. the individual's per onal as essment of the probability of attaining a peclftc outcome.
The opportunity to perform effectively m y be restricted by a number of organl ational constraints or barriers which, if not minimised, may restrlct high levels of individual performance. Figure 6.1 how that if the outcome or goal is attained then the individual experiences a reduction in pressure or ten ion and the expended effort to achieve [he outcome is posltively reinforced through goal attainment. As a result of thi positive experience the cycle may be repeated.
On the other hand, if the outcome is frustrated after a rca enable passage of time, for example no career progression has occurred, then the individual experiences goal fru tratiou and arrive at a decislon point. The individual i presented with three alternative options;
1. exit from the organisation
2. renew attempt at goal achievement, or modify or abandon the goal
J. adopt a negative re ponse to the fru trauon experience and perform below optimum level of performance.
CONTENT AND PROCESS THEORIES
Oout lit theori offer ways to profile or analyse individuals to idemify the needs chat motivate their
behaviours,
Proce s theorie seek to understand the thought processes that take place in the minds of people and thac act to motivate their behaviour.
Research on work motivation over the last SO years can be thought of as adopting either a static or dynamic approach to explaining work motivation behaviour. The static or content models of work motivation provide a somewhat prescriptive approach to work motivation. On the other hand the more dynamic theories, often termed process theories, are more complex. The major proces theories make allowance for individual cognitive response as being a major contributor to work motivation behaviourr'
First, content theorie are primarily concerned with what it is within an individual or his or her environment that energise and ustain the person' behaviour. In other words, what specific needs or motives enerti e people? We use the terms 'needs' and 'motives' interchangeably to mean the physiological or psycbological deflclencies that one feels a compulston to reduce or eliminate. For example, if you feel very hungry (a phy lological need), you will feel a compulsion to eliminate or satisfy that need by eating. If you have a need for recognition (a psychological need), you might try to sari fy that need by acting to receive the attention of your boo .
Content theorie arc useful because they lend in ight into people's needs and help managers understand what people will and will not value as work rewards or need satisfiers. However, these theorie are sometimes critt-
ci ed as being static and descriptive. ..
Secondly, as noted above, the proee the ri offer a more dynamic alternative; they strive to provide an understanding of the cognitive processes that take place within the minds of people which act to influence their behaviour. Thus, a content theory might ugge t that security i an important need. A process theory might go further by suggesting how and why a need for security might be linked to specific rewards as well as to the specific action that might be needed on the part of the worker to achieve these rewards.
The content and process theories complement rather than compete with one another. The content theories are more direct.!y linked with job sarisfaction than with work efforts, while the proces theories are directly concerned with work effort and their performance implication. Ultimately, we develop an integrated theory that incorporates the insight of both content and process cheortes,"
CONTENT THEORIES
People have many need, and various content motivation theories help profile these needs in different ways. Four of the better known c ntent theories have been proposed by Maslow, lderfer, McClelland and Herzberg,
Each of these content theories has made a major contribution to our understanding of work motivation. Some of these theories have provided a basis for more complex theorising in later years.
CHAPH~ 6: .. OIIOATION THEORICS
Maslow: the research
Some research suggests that there i a tendency for higher-order need to increase in importance over lower-order needs as individuals move up the managerial hierarchy.s Other studie report that needs vary according to a person's career stage,6 the size of the organt 3tion/ and even geographlcal locatton.f
However, it i important to emphasi e there is no con i tent evidence that the atlsfaction of a need at one level will decrease it importance and increase the importance of the next higher need.?
To what extent doe Maslow' theory apply only to We tern culture?
Obviously, in many developing nations the satisfaction of lower-order needs such as basic ubsi tence and urvival needs consumes the entire lifetimes of many millions of individuals with little opportunity to progress to htgher-level need san faction. On the other hand, in societies where regular employment is available basic cultural values, uch as those dlscussed in chapter .3, appear to play an important role in motivating workplace behaviour, ["or example, in tho e countries high in Hof tede's uncertainty avoidance, such as Japan or Greece, security tends to motivate most employees more strongly than does elf-actualisanon. Similarly, social needs tend to dominate in councrtes that emphasise Hofstede' femininity value (e.g., Sweden, orway and Denmark). Woricers in collecttvtstoriented countrie , such as Paid tan, tend to emphasise social needs.P Finally, recent events in the former SOviet bloc countries sugge t that Mu low's lower-order needs may be dominant ill these cultures. For example, the Bulgarian workforce tends to be highly educated but to have a strong fear of the future; the 20· to JO·year· Ids are the country' chiei hope. Poland ha such extreme social problems that many of its workers tend to be struggling With lower-order need .ll In general, a person' frame of reference will determine the order of importance of his or her need , and that frame of reference I influenced by ocletal culture.l:?
Alderfer's ERG theory
ER theo r y eategorlscs needs Into existence, relateduess and growth needs.
E.-I teuce need arc de ·[rcslor physiological anti matcrtal welt-being.
Relutedu ' need are desires (or sUlisfyil\!! lntcrpcrsoual rc!.lI:ionsllip ..
Growth II ed arc desires for comluued personal gl'owth uud development.
Some theorists have tried to modify Ma low's theory to make it more flexible in term of individual behaviour. For example, Clayton Alderfer has developed the BRG theory as shown in figure 6 . .3 on page 174.
El' theor differ from Maslow's theory in hree basic respects. tJ First, the theory collapses Maslow's five need categories into three: exi teuce nee, ' relate to a person's deslre for physiological and material well-being. relatedues Heed' represent the desire for satisfying interpersonal relationships; and growth need are desire for continued personal growth and development. Second, while Maslow's theory argues that individuals progress up the hierarchy as a result of the satisfaction of lower-order needs (a atisfacriou-prcgression proce ), ERG theory includes a 'Iru trauonregression' principle, whereby an already sari Iied lower-level need can become actlva ed when a higher-level need cannot be satisfied. Thus, if a person is continually fru crated in hi or her attempts to satisfy growth needs, relatedne s need will again surface as key motivator. Third, according to M, low, a person focuses on one need at a time. In contrast, E;RG theory contends that more than one need may be activated at the same time.
CHA' E~ ,. IIOftV4110N TH(O~I(S
McClelland identified three types of acquired needs. In one case, using projective technique ,McClelland tested three executives on what they aw in a photograph of a man sitting down and looking at family photo arranged on his work desk. One executive wrote of an engineer who was daydreaming about a family outing cheduled for the next day. Another described a designer who had picked up an idea for a new gadget from remarks made by his family. The third described an engineer who was intently working on a brid~e.stre s problem that he seemed sure to solve because of his confident look.'
On the basis of these projective techniques McClelland distinguished three themes that can appear in such TAT stories. Each theme corresponds to an underlying need that he feel is important for understanding indio vidual behavtour, These needs are:
• need for achievement (nAch): the de ire [0 do something better or more efflclently, to solve problems, or to master complex tasks
• need f r affiliation (n ff): the desire to e tablish and maintain friendly and warm relations with others
• need for power (nPower): the de ire to control others, to influence their behaviour, or to be responsible for other.
McClelland' basic theory is that these three needs are acquired over time, as a result of life experiences. People are motivated by these needs, each of which can be associated with individual work preferences. The theory encourage managers to learn how to identify the pre ence of nAch, nAff and nPower in themselves and in others and to be able to create work environments that are responsive to the respective need profile.
Let's go back co the picture of the man Sitting at his desk. In terms of need for achievement, McClelland scored the stories given by the three executive as follows:
Person dreaming about family outing: n Ach e +1
Person pondering new idea for gadget: nAch :: +2
Person working on brldge-stress problem: nAch:: +4
While we have not done 0 here, to provide a more complete profile, each picture would also be scored in terms of nAff and nPower. Each executive's profile would then be evaluated in terms of its motivational implication based on the three needs in combination.
One of the most important aspects of McClelland' theorl ing is that he challenges and rejects many other p ychological theories that uggest that the need to achieve i a behavlour that is only acquired and developed during early childhood experience. Alternatively, p yohologtsts such as Erickson (1963) have upported a view that the lear~1t~ of achtevernent-motlvated behaviour can only occur during critical stages of child development; if it i not obtained, it cannot be easily learned or chleved during adult life experience. IS
McClelland's re earch contradicts this viewpoint as he maintains that the need to achieve is a behaviour which can be acquired through appropriate training in adulthood.
McClelland: the research
Three types of acquired needs I eed ( r rchieverneut (nAch) is the tie ire to do something better; solve problems or master complex casks.
Need Ior affiliatiOIl (II ff) is tbe desire to c tabllsh and maintain friendly and warm relations with ochers.
eed r r power (uPowc,·) i the desire co control other, influence chelr behaviour and be responsible (or them.
Research lends con iderable in ight into nAch in particular and includes some particularly interesting application in developing nation. For example, McClelland trained bu iness people in Kaklnda, India, to thlnk, talk and act like high achievers by having them write stories about achievement and participate in a busines game that encouraged achievement. The
tKAnER ,: ~OIlYA"OH TH(OII(S
Herzberg's two-factor theory
Moti\'lcltor-h~"'ielle theory di~tingtlishc~ between wurce . of work dissatis(action (hygicne f[lctors) and satisfaction (motivutors): it is abo
kuown ai the two-fuctor theory.
orne time ago, Frederick Herzberg began hi research on motivatlon by asl iog workers to comment on two staternents.P
1. 'Tell me about a time when you felt exceptionally good about your job.'
2. 'Tell me about a time when you felt exceptionally bad about your job.'
After analysing nearly 4000 re pon es [Q these statements, as shown in figure 6.4, Herzberg and his associate developed the two-factor theory, also known as the lIlotivator-hy liene theory. They noticed that respondents identified different thing as sources of work dissatisfaction (subsequently called'dissansfter 'or 'hygiene factors') than they did as sources of satisfaction ( ub equeutly called' ati flers' or 'motivator factor '.
Factors characterising 1844 events on the job that led to extreme dissatisfaction (dissatisfiers or hygienesl
Factors characterising 1753 events on the job that led to extreme satisfaction (satisfiers or motivators)
~
Achievemrnt
Recogniti?'n
WOlk itseV
Responsj~~ity
-- Advancement
- Growth
Compan DO'T and ,dm","".,
I Supervision
Relationship th supervisor
Work conditions All factors All factors
I Salary contributing to contributing to
job dissatisfaction job satisfaction
Relationship with peers 69 19
I I IIII!!I'" ~ Dissatisfiers/
Personal life hygienes
I 31 "~81
Relationship with subordinates ~absTlers/
motiva ors
- !%J
Status I 80 40 0 40 80
._ 1 Ratio and per cen
Security II I 50
40
30 20 10
Percentage frequency
20 30 40
Percentage freQueney
50
o
10
FIG R~: (,A I [crzhcrg'$ two-factor theory: $OUI"CCS of s<ltisf:rClioll ru d dlssntls actlou as reported ill I::? illvc.~tigmioll:. (fuJ:llltCJ from Frederick IIcl·7.her!!. 'OIlC Marc Tillie: 11011' Do \011 Motiv;lIc El\lployee~?O, 1f(1N:(lrclLJu:;""es~ Iw()lc~ Vol. 4(. (Juruurrv-Fchruury 1'>68), p. 57. COJl~right'" I\)() hy the
I'n:sidcllt IIIlt1 Fellows of [Iarvan! College. All right.:. rc$CI,\,CtJ.)
.'
I!;ffective managers have to achieve two distinct outcomes: to maximise sad faction through improving job context variables and, simultaneously, to minimi ejob dissatisfaction by improving job context variables.
Herzberg: the research and practical implications
08 scholars debate the merits of the two-factor theory.2~ While Herzberg's continuing research and that of his followers supports the theory, some researcher have used different methods and find that they are unable to confirm the theory. It is therefore criticised a being method bound; that is, it is supportable only by applying Herzberg's original methodology. This is a serious criticism since the scientific approach requires that theories be verifiable when different research methods are used.
Herzberg's theory has met with other crtrictsms, such as;
1. The original sample of cientists and engineers probably i not representative of the working population.
2. The theory doe not account for individual differences (e.g., pay will ~.
have a similar impact regardless of gender, age and other important dif· !:
Ierences).
3. The theory does not clearly define the relationship between satisfaction and motivation_25
Such criticisms may contribute to the mixed findings from re earch conducted outside the United States. For example, in New Zealand, supervision and interpersonal relationships were found to contribute significantly to
atisfaction and not merely to reducing dissatisfaction. And certain hygiene factors were cited more frequently as satisflers in Panama, LAttin Arnertca, and a number of countries other than the United States. In contrast, evidence {rom countries such as Finland tends to confirm US tesults.26 Of course, societal culture could be expected to influence these results, as it has done for other approaches to motivation.
In light of all this controversy, you maya k if the two-factor theory is of any value. We chink it is, because of the dlscipllne it adds to managerial thinking. Managers sometimes allocate considerable time, attention and other re ources to issues that Herzberg would constder hygiene factors, those prevailing in the job environment. Special office fixtures, piped-in mUSiC, fancy lounges for breaks, and high-base salarle are some illustrations. The two- factor theory sugge ts using caution and not expecting such factors co motivate employee to provide sustained levels of superior work performance.
Caution should also be exercised when negotiating hygiene factors because of what Hersberg terms 'the escalating to zero factor'. This escalating zero concept can be illustrated as follows. If you provide an employee With, say, a 10 per cent salary increase in year one and a even per cent pay increa e in year two, in the mind of the employee this may be interpreted as a three per cenc pay cut as the salary increase of year one has escalated to become the new benchmark for any future increase in the mind of the employee.
Herzberg's theory is perhaps even more useful because it is a ociated with a speciftc technique (or building atisfiers Into job content. Thi approach is called job enrichment, and we give it special attention in chapter 8.
C ~pfE. S: NOTlYAI10H THEORIES
,.
Equity theory
Equity theory is based on the phenomenon of social comparison and posits that, as people gauge the fairness of their work outcomes compared to others, felt in qulty Is a motivating state of mind.
(
Resolving felt inequities
Felt uegativ inequity exi ts when individuals feel they have reccived
relatively less than others have in proportion to
work Inputs.
Felt po itive iucquiry exl ts when Individuals feel they have received
relatlvely more than others have.
Behaviour that restore a sense of equity
people choose one action versu another in the workplace. For thi , we must turn to proces motivation theorle .Two well-known process theories are equity theory and expectancy theory.
'quity theory is based on the phenomenon of social comparison and i be t known through the writing of J. Stacy Adams." Adams argues that when people gauge the fairness of their work outcomes in comparison with others. felt inequity is a motivating stare of mind. That is, when people perceive inequity in their work, they experience a tate of cognitive dissonance or mental confusion, and they will be aroused to remove the discomfort and to restore a en e of felt equity to the ituation. Inequities exist whenever people feel that the rewards or inducements they receive for their work inputs or contributions are unequal t the rewards other people appe I' to have received ior their inputs. For the individual. the equity comparison or thought proce s that determine such feeling is:
Individual rewards Individual inputs
compared
Others' rewards Others' inputs
A felt uegativ iuequity exl ts when an individual feel that he or she has received relatively less than other have in proportion to work inputs. Felt p it ive inequity ext t when an individual feels that he or she has received relatively more than others have.
Both felt neg uve and felt positive inequity are motivating states. When either exists, the individual will likely engage in one or more of the following behaviour to restore a sense of equity.
1. Change work inputs (e.g., reduce performance efforts).
2. Change the outcomes (rewards) received (e.g., ask for a raise).
3. Leave the situation (e.g., quit).
4. Change the comparison points (e.g., compare self to a different co-worker).
5. Psychologically distort the comparisons (e.g., rationalise that the inequity is only temporary and will be re olved in the future).
6. Take actions to change the inputs or output of the comparison person (e.g., get a co-worker to accept more work).
Equity theory' predicts that people who feel either under-rewarded or over- rewarded for their work will act to restore a en e of equity.
Adams' equity theory: the research
The research of Adams and others, largely accom~lished in laboratory settings, lends tentative upport to this prediction.3~ The research indicates that people who feel overpaid (feel positive inequity) have been found to increase the quantity or quality of their work, while those who are underpaid (feel negative inequity) decrea e the quantity or quality of their work. The re earch is most conclusive in respect to felt negative inequity. It appears that people are less comfortable when they are under- rewarded than when they are over-rewarded.
CHAne. 6 1jor,VAIIOH TH£ORt£s
Extriu it! rewards are positivcly valued work outcomes rha; arc given to the Individual by some other person in the work '0 cing.
III rin 'io reward are positively valued work outcomes that are received by the individual dlrccdy us a result of task performance.
The Effectieve MANAGER 6.2
agree that expectancy theory is a u eful source of in ight into work motivation.
One of the more popular modification of Vroom' original ver ion of the theory distinguishes between extrtn ic and intrinsic rewards as tWO eparate type of pos ible wo r k outcomes.JS Extriu ie rev ard are positively valued work outcomes that are given to the individual by orne other person in the work setting. An example is pay. Worker typically do not pay themselves directly; some repre entacive of the organt ation administers the reward. In co ntrast, i u t r i u ie reward are positively valued work outcomes that are received by the individual directly as a result of task performance; they do not require the p a rt ici p at io n of another per on. A feeling of achievement after accomplishing a particularly challenging task is one example of an intrin ic rewar . The di tinction between extrin lc and intrinsic rewards is important because each type of reward demands separate attention from a manager seeking to use rewards to increase motivation. We discuss these differences more thoroughly in chapters 7 and .
It i important to remember that the expectancy theory i universal to the extent that it does not specify the types of rewards that motivate particular groups of worlters.39 Expectancy theory allow for the fact that the rewards and their link with performance are likely to be seen as quite different in various societal cultures. For example, an expatriate US manager in Japan promoted a Japane e sales repre entative to a managerial po ition. Much to the U boss's urprise, his promotion diminished the new Japanese manager's performance. The promotion eparated the new manager from hi colleague and embarrassed him. 0 Careful attention to expectancy theory could have avoided thi outcome by revealing the valence attached to promotion.
TlP$ FOR~~~ .. ;Mi'r¥:tOF
,~~~~-;:s
Some tips fo~ In .: ncing the perceived valence of wQr ~fl ames:
• Find out the cll (ently valued outcomes for eai:'h.individual
"" ,
subordinate. ~_~.
• Show how SO~lE~ 'lyail~b~ outcomes may be 1)10~~desirablesor less undesirab €!fuan the '/ork,er thinks {e.g., promotion may be available, but the employee currently does not desire it because he or she feels uncomfortable with itl.
AN INTEGRATED MODEL OF MOTIVATION
each of the theories presented in thi chapter is potentially useful for the manager. Although the equity and expectancy theorie have special strength, current thinking argue forcefully for a combined approach that develops and tests contingency-type models that point Out where and when various motivation rheorte work be t. 1 Thu , before leaving this discu ston, we hould pull the content and process theories together into one integrated model of individual performance and satisfaction.
CHA'lt~ 6 WOIIYArIO" IH(O.I(S
content theories, p. 171 equity theory, p. 183
ERG theory, p. 173 existence needs, p, 173 expectancy, p. 186 expectancy theory, p. 186 extrinsic rewards, p. 189 felt negative
inequity, p. 183 felt positive inequity, p. 1 3
growth need, p.173 higher-order needs, p. 172 hygtenes (hygiene
factors), p.178 instrumentality. p. 1 6 intrin ic rewards, p. 189 job content, p. 17
jon context, p. 178 lower-order needs, p, 172 motivators (motivator
factors), p. 17
motivator-hygiene theory. p, 177 need for achievement (nAch), p.175 need for affiliation (nAft), p. 17S
need for power
(nPower), p.17S process theories, p. 171 relatedne needs. p.173 valence, p. 186
1. 'ollteut ami proe s iuntivatiou theories
Dl cu S the key differences between the content and process approaches to motivation, and show how one theory from cach category illu trace the e differences.
Oompnruq the content tlu;!()ri "
Summari e the content theories of Maslow, Alderfer, McClelland and Herzberg in term of your current (or future) supervisor at work and show how one of the theories might apply to that work settin_g or to your life as a
tudent. DisCUSS the manager' respon ibility in term of content theories.
How many different individual need are there? Can a work outcome satisfy more than one need? What doe re earch ay about a hierarchy of needs?
£CClelland' acquired needs theory
Summarise McClelland' acquired needs theory and identify the three needs it discusses. As a student, identify which need most categorise your personality. Look ahead a few years and imagine yourself in yow' fir t job. Ba ed on the need you've described for yourself, which role do you See yourself in? Look ahead 10 years and answer the same question.
4. Herzberg' two-factor theory
Discuss the two factors identified in Herzberg' theory in terms of job context. lmaglne yourself a manager in an organisation. How would you en ure that the various factors are addre sed to en ure job satisfaction for your employees and.to motivate them to be more productive?
5. Qu tious lind au wet" 011 the content theorie
This chapter raises some specific questions and answers on the content theories. Ask some additional question of your own and provide answers based on what you've read in the chapter;
6. ~qllity theory and expectancy theory
Summarise equity and expectancy motivation rheorle and dtsou s why they are both examples of proce s, as opposed to content, theories. Show an example of how the equity dynamic has affected your behaviour as a
tudent or in a work lcuatton. What guidelines would you uggest to lecturer or manager that COLI d help them rninimi e the negative con equeucc potentially assoctated with this equity dynamic?
HBR CLASSIC
Managers can break througb tbe barriers that keep their performance expectations too low.
Demand Better Results And Get Them
by Robert H. Schaffer
One of the most dramatic, large-scale producuvity improvements I am familiar with occurred in a regulated public utility - an industry not noted foc such performance breakthroughs. In the earl y 19605, this company's productivity was about average among 20 similar companies in orth America, as both work load and work fore<: were rapidly dsing. In 1966, the trend shifted: the work load continued to rise, but the number of employees began to drop. By 1968, the company's productivity ranked among the best in Its industry, The difference between average and best performance was worth savings of more than $40 million a year - weU over one-third of its net incomc at that nrnc.
What produced this gain! either new technology nOT labor-saving machinery was a significant Iactor. 0 significant change in management took place. The company was not reorganized. Nor were programs incorporating management by objectives, organizational devclopment, maehemarical modeling, or rnanagcrncnr information systems rcsponsible for the shift. The key to the turnaround was a decision by the principal operating officer (with backing from the chief executive) that the company must and could make substantial productivity gains. Naturally, many supportive programs and activities were necessary to translate this dctcrrrunation intO results. These activities, however, would have produced little if a clear demand for improved
performance had not been placed on the company's management team.
Most orgsrueauous have the porential (or 3S '(cat - or greater - gains. Vcry lew, however, ever rcahce them, Few managers possess the capacny - or feel compelled -to establish high pcrformancc-rmprnvemcnt cxpccranons In W3)'S t.lut elicit results. Indeed, the capacuy for such demand making could c ·~c most universally underdeveloped management k.J .
Why Demands Aren't Made
Pushing for maroc gains C:JO appear very ri ky 10 managers, and these perceived nsks exert trcrnen dous lnhibnion on performance expcctanons. u the ncwly installed manager asserts that srgruncanr gains are possible, he: may threaten his predecessor and current boss and thus arouse rhcrr antagonism - by imply' ng that they h:td scrrlcd ior lcs .
Since 1960. Robert II Schaffer has beaded a Stamtord. ComItcticut. manDgt!menl COD&uJung farm thOI beat» hIS name. '1'hrou8h the AoUocIQlion of Managemem Consult<l1lt~. he also UOlnS COnsullalllJ. In 1988, Harpel Buslnt!s.< Boob publi3hed h,s book The 8ruktbrough SUJIC,(Y; U)in& shore- Term Succc es to Bwld the High-Pcrtor mancc Organizanen, For Ih" r",ssuance of tins arucle, whIch Originally appeared In HBR November-December 1974. he hes WTlllen Q rt;lto.<peC(JVt; commentary
Retrospective Commentary
In compmy aner compmy, 1 have asked lIl.1Jlagers to estimate how much more eheir orgaruUtlooS would produce if ovcrlapplIlg functIons were ehro.iJl~t· ed, If Ulllt3 bepn 10 work more in ~yne wnh each other, Lf people worked more closely to their real potential, and Lf lhey dl.!l5lp:ned Ius energy Ul polmcai bassles, self-.ggr:Ltldi:Ing behavior, useless cneetinp, and projeet3 that go nowhere. Not .urprUt.ng!y, almost everyone h.u selected the "25 to SO'l'.H and the "over 50% H eategones,
W,th all this l,ltellt potential evident, why ll~n't there been more progress tOwo.rd. D'.ceting the glob:&! compctitlve.c:hallcc.ge l:am ~ conviaeed as I w~ 17 yens >go t1ur the principal reason is that Hfew man-
_ agers possess the c~p~city - or feci compelled - to . establish high perlomu.ncc-improvemeDt e.xpecar nons in ways th3t elicit results," This capacity een-
tinues to be the most universally underdeveloped . lIl.1Jlagerial .lull.
There is DO doubt that" compawcs today are more impressed WIth the need for prnomuncc iraprovement dun thc:y wen: to 1974._They arc cukmg Va.ft mvest:ntnts tnnew toOls; DCW plants, and new eech-
. Clology. They bAve cranked up. reasswe I'rov.uns til continuous improvement, customer service, toea! quality, and eulture change that dwarf the darts of
- the 1960 and 1970 s. Semor executi ves, corporate swf groups, univenity proiesson, and consulnng firms luve throwu themselves Into the battle. The Malcolm Baldrige Nstlooal Quality Award fumJ.shes a national r2llymg pcint,
U these programs were pu; under the spotlight, however, they would. be discovered to lICTVe uequcnuy as ecaveaient escape mccharusms for =~e:s avoiding the ~&le of rlldic:ally upgrading tb= org;miu.nons'periotmllDGe.
lronic:ally, be ~tlu..,.kers~ who have w'/erlted the lot est org:r.oi.:ational effectiveness strateglcs unwitr:wgIy provide new bUS)'Worl<- CSC2PCS, By putting so much emphasis on peoce and techniques, they Ia .. e slig.ltted the importance of results. Thousands of employees = rr:uned in seven-step problem solving and Stat(slLc~1 quality control, thousands 01 m:uuge:s are "empowered", and thousands of ereative reword aad cornrnumcanons systems are In place, In the ab ence of compelling requirements fot
responses will give you a sense of herr readiness. To illusrrate, the management at a new paper publish. ing plant med to launch a cornprehensive improvement cffort. The needs were S(1 great and resiscmce
I by managers at ower levels so strong that very little was accomplished. Interviews wuh the composmg room supervisors, however, revealed that they
8
measurable improvemeru, however, little improvement occurs.
for example, reams of consultants and SOClal sciene.t3 se; up more: "" 40 ch£fcren progr= til a ~rge lIItemanoa.:a.l corpor.nOD in an effort to m.tlce it a "tOtal qualrry company," In publtcJZing tlus undertalwIg, the company proudly a.!l5Ctted that it did Dot expect stgn.if=t results unul the fourth year.
Comparues will never .crueve competitive performance levels a.s long as their exeeuuves believe thu :he right r::rauung and dcYdapment ~tlvities, ;ppl.ted with enough diligence, will eventually he rewarded wnh eae "ght beetom-line results. nut is '" siren song for all thosem,uugen ..,ho don't have the stom:ocb for
• the cecesS:lr)" person:&! mlluk 0 combiDa.d.on ofprogr= and tra.iruog em mite' the requited ape:i .
wee, sli:ill, and eonfidence. •
Contrary to the mythol()gy, ,ctong hlgh-perfor. mance imperaovcs does eoc coo.flicr witb'empower' ingpeople. Empow=ctltcomcs as people rise 10 the c:hallco.ge or tOugh demmds and, through e!ion, mee them. Liseen to twO Motorola employees esedbe th.eu expenence 00 a p!O}cct to rum OUt • produc: !or Nippon Tclei'bonemtiTeiegraph:
. "The customer =c and told us that DOthmg ex"cepe sbsoluee excellence would be, .. ccepeed, The team w~ :-cally turned on b the chal.Iengc of doing somethirtgthat w.s COD.S,d.,ed wpo$Slble. H
"People were challenged every day:Thett was a strong drive to succeed in thi program. Ir was the mose exci=g time 0 my liEe.H
'!hose oIt'C empowered people,
To create th,. :'ind of environment, ma.nsgetS we to personally uptlllDtnt with demand nWung en scme urgentlyncc:ecd IlDprovcment,like acccler:ating t!lC development 01 new product~, making farre .. c~pill.S in qu.liIY, or improving customer relaaooships.. Dcruand maltiJlg can enliven. o~cons Wltb. the ehal.ICllge of tough ,goals and the gr:t.ti.fi. c.tion th3t come) WId, success. Without an eversbarpeoin& demand ta:llework, Improvc:Ilent
, progr:ams and aerivmes ue merely diversions from the rC31 work 01 =k.JQg our corpcraucns Clore coeipenave worldWIde.
- Robert H. Scbaffer
shared' .pper managemenrs distress over the num- 0.-- , : typographical errors in news and adverrising matter. This informacion made It possible to design an irurial proicce rnobilizi.o.g upporters of change.
The more parncipanon by subordinates in dererminm,; goa ,the beuer, Managers should not, however, permu their dedication to the parucipa-
: (
.. .. ' ....
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UNOEflSTANOj G INOMDUAL BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATIO S 231
to the obtaining of other desired outcomes (such as money, which is attractive because of what it can buy). Given this model. the motivational force to behave in a certain way is greatest when:
1 The individual believes that performance at the desired level is possible (high EP expectancy)
2 The individual believe that the behavior will lead to outcomes (has a high PO expectancy)
3 Those outcomes have positive value (have high attractiveness)
Given a number of alternative behaviors (for example, 10 15. or 20 units of production per hour, or vacation versus work), the model predicts that individuals choose the behavior that has the greatest motivational force associated with it. In other words, when faced with choices of behavior. the individual goes through a process of asking questions, such as: Can I perform at that level if I try? If I perform at that level, what will happen? How do I feel about those things that will happen? The individual then decides to behave in the way that appears to have the best chance of producing positive outcomes.
Applying this model to the performances of Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Henson, we can see why Mrs. Henson has a low motivation to perform her job effectively. To begin with, she does not believe that she can perform at a high level because she lacks the necessary capabilities. Furthermore, she does not believe that good performance on the job will lead to the rewards she values. The situation for Mrs. Johnson is just the reverse. he knows she can do well if she puts forth the effort, and good performance on the job leads to feelings of self-esteem and competence.
It is important to note that the expectancy model does not predict that people always behave in the best way to obtain what they desire. It assumes that individuals make rational decisions based on their perception of the situation. but it does not assume tbat people have accura e or complete information when they make those decisions. People often stop considering alternative behaviors when they find one that is at least moderately satisfying, even though more rewarding behaviors remain to be examined. Searching is time-consuming and takes effort; thus it is not surprising that people limit their explorations. People are also limited in the amount of information they can handle at one time, and the outcomes associated with many behaviors are multitudinous; therefore, people often do not consider all the outcomes that might result from a certain behavior. Finally, as we discuss below, people see the world in terms of their past experience. This leads them to misperceive the world on many occasions.
People Perceive the Environment in Terms ot Past Experiences and Needs
Similar to most approaches to understanding behavior, the expectancy model assumes that people behave according to their perceptions of the world. It indicates that perceptions lead to beliefs about what performance is possible and what outcomes will foUow performance.
· .
.',
eXHIBIT 3
UNOERSTANOING INOIVIOUAI.. BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATIONS 235
5 Once people enact a piece of behavior and experience consequences of behavior, they have affective reactions to the event, the most common being satisfaction/ dissatisfaction. These affective reactions have implications for subsequent sequences of behavior, since they affect both perceptions and needs.
6 Capabilities, expectancie . needs. past experience, and environmental constraints are all important influences on behavior.
Exhibit 3 presents a general model of behavior in organizationalsenings that follows the concepts presented thus far.' Working from left to light in the model, motivation can be seen as the force on the individual that encourages performance in a certain manner. Thus, motivation leads to a level of effort by the individual. Effort alone, however, is not enough. Performance results from a combination of the individual's effort, level of capability'(skills and training), and constraints in the situation (broken machinery, behavior of others, and so on). As a result of performance, the individual attains certain outcomes that lead to satisfaction. As this process of performance-reward occurs, time after time, the actual events serve to provide information that influence the individual's perceptions and thus influences motivation in the future. This is particularly true in the case of the individual's expectations; these are strongly influenced by the past relationships individuals have encountered between their performance and outcomes (see the dashed line in Exhibit 3),
The baste motivation-behavior sequence,
I MOI:~tion >
I I I I I
L ~
How a company structures jo s and the larger organization will determine the extent to ).
which workers and managers will feel internally motivated. However, every person differs in the
capacity to respond to opportunities for involvement. What is not clear, is the extent to which
tbat capacity is a core characteristic, a characteristic unmodifiable by new experiences.
Fair treatment is essential if an organization is to sustain commitment. Individuals remain involved and motivated only to the extent that they believe they are being treated equitably. Though equitable treatment by itself is unlikely to produce internal motivation. One way to think about this is to recognize that agreements between tbe company and its work force are not written into a formal contract, They are an implicit psychological contract between two parties. The understanding governs issues such as pay raises, medical benefits, pensions, employment security, and career advancement. Implicit agreements are only as effective as the trust each side has that the other ide will not renege. Lack of fairness can undermine commitment when this sense is violated. Consider the effect 00 employees when a company that has implicitly promised life time employment begins to lay oIT employees.
It is worth considering the effect of a strong organizational culture on motivation and commitment. Such cultures produce peer pressure to conform to an accepted way of doing things. When that way is aligned with what the organization must do to succeed, peer pressure is a powerful controlling force. Is this external control or intern I motivation? 11 is external in the sense that a culture implicitly rewards and punishes certain types of behavior. It is internal in the sense that an employee's fit with the culture amounts to p ychological involvement with the goals and values of the group. Though controlled by social norms the employee may not experience it as control, The strong culture, when aligned with strategy. becomes a less
de-motivating form f control than rules and procedures. ,J
Control mechanism arc used in all organizations in some way. They can be very powerful in shaping behavior. Moreover, all companies need to maintain control simply to coordinute economic activity. In large organizations it is a practical way to get things done, and it requires less investment in developing management skills. Moreover, individuals differ in their cap city for internal motivation. They are capable of deceiving themselves about the amount and efficacy of their efforts.
111e control approach to management can. however, result in lower internal motivation and less personal growth and. creativity. It produces bureaucratic organizations slow to respond to external change and less concerned about customer and employee satisfaction. For all these reasons managers must be creative and deliberate in mixing control and commitment strategies.
The appropriate mix of COntrol and commitment within the organization will be a subject of debate in class. What arc the risks, costs, and benefits of each approach? ls there a tradeoff between these tWO approaches, or arc they compatible? A related issue is what levels of each cao practically be achieved in a given context.
Orgenlutlonal Doslgn Levers Impacting CommItment
An organization becomes a control or commitment oriented organization through choices managers make in four human resource management policy areas. In this section ao overview of key 'choices is provided.
4
.H
for performance? WhaL do employees really mean when they say they want to be paid for performance? These are complicated questions we will discuss in HRM.
The General Manager and Top Management Team
The policy choices discussed above have LO be made by top management; their assumptions about human motivation and their own predisposition with regard to control will shape these choices. It is unlikely that highly controlling managers will choose to organize work around self-managing teams, if left to their own devices. Thus, the extent to which tbe organization is control or commitment oriented is shaped by the top.
Management's desire to emulate best practice or improve performance may cause it to develop new policies and practices inconsistent with its underlying assumptions about managing people and with its skills to implement them, Employees are quick to see these discrepancies. Therefore, innovation in management moving the organization from control 10 commitment frequcnlly requires top managers to change long held practices. Research shows managers who can lead an organization toward the commitment model are in short supply.s A corporate change strategy towards commitment must take this into account.
Mllnaglng Chol'\98 lind Commitment
-
Just as there are two approaches to motivation in org nizing and managing, there are two approaches to mot iva lion in managing change, control, and commitment A top down change process involves external control Oller the behavior of the work force; participation elicits internal commitment to change. Some mix of each is generally utilized. One point is worth considering. however. A top down change process' unlikely to produce a high commitment organization. So nn importnnt focus of this course will he on the effect the change strategy hus on commitment.
Conclusion
What is commitment'? How do you design and change an organization to increase its level? These arc the central questions 1 in this module of HRM. This note has brought out some of_lhe basic issues, Dunng the module approach the cases with your own work experience and -your own style of management as background. 'Ibis will give you a better understanding of the answers to these questions. as well as what Corm of organization you would be comfortable working in, managing in, and building.
S. Mich cl Deer, Ru=U EisenSlal. and Octt J'lCctOC', 71", Cri/;coJ PtJ/h 10 CorpoI'Qu RCMtWJi (Uuslon. Mass~ liarvord Busin= SclJOol PrC$," (990).
7
'CHAPfER 9' BASIC ATTRIBUT(S or CROUPS
groups may be created by management to perform pecific ta k or they can emerge naturally by them elves. Manager are involved with group of many types. In this chapter, we will examine the different work group such as formal group, informal group and p ychologtcal groups. Other type of group, including committee, task force, self-managing work team and quality circles, will aI 0 be di cu ed in chapters 10 and 11. In all case , the managerial issue i the ame: how best to utilise groups as human re ources of organisation .
How DO GROUPS HELP ORGANISATIONS?
v
Why manager mu l take groups seriously
Group are good for both organi ation and their members. Group help accompli h important tasks and they help maintain a high-quality work force. Progres ive manager are finding ways to utili e group that benefit group mem er and organ! auon . The new workplace, which we introduced in chapter 2, u e group in many creative and productive ways.
Practical example of the efficacy of group can ea ily be found in many
ettings a manager increasingly recognl e the usefulne of group in organi ation . Indeed, iti well recogni ed that today' is the best time to tart taking group erlou ly. The noted scholar Harold J. Leavitt points out the following reason why no manager can forget this imple but important point.2
• Group are good for people.
• Group can help foster innovation and creativlty,
• Group ometime make better deci ion than individuals do.
• Groups can help gain commitments needed to implement decl ion.
• Groups can exert control over their member.
• Group help offset the negative effects of increa ing organi ation ize.
• Group are natural phenomena, both inside and outside organisation .
"'oups and task performance
ynergy i the creation of a whole that is greater than the urn of iLS parts.
Three performance benefits of group
Or up can help organl ation accomplish important task. In particular, group offer the potential for uergy, Thi term refer to the creation of a whole that i greater than the um of it parts. When ynergy occurs, groups accompli h more than the total of their members' individual capabilitie . Vision 9 (page 27 ) and the earlier Corning example (page 259)
how just how important group yriergy i to organisation eeklng cornpetitivenes and long-term pro perity in today' dynamic time •
Organl ations and their manager have much to gain through the effective use of groups a human resource of organisation . On the one hand, re earcb how that group often have three performance advantages over individual acting alone:
1. When the presence of an 'expert' i uncertain, group eem to make better judgement than the average individual operating alone.
2. When problem olvtng can be handled by a divi ion of labour and the harlng of information, group are typically more succes ful than individuals.
3. Becau e of their tendencie to make more ri ky decision ,groups can be more creative and innovative than individual in performing their task accompli hments.
n RE 9.1 Likert' llnklng-pin model of an org nisation as a complex network of Iruertocking groups (Source, Rensls Likert, New Patterlls oj Manogemelll. CopyrighlO J961 McGraw·Hill. Used with the penni ion of McOl'3w.HiIl Book Company.)
'AR' a , OIA AGING GROUP$ IN ORCAIIISAIiONS
in ranee, market research department), divisions (for instance, con umerproduct divi Ion) Or team (for in tance, product-a ernbly team), among other po ibilitie. uch group can vary in ize from very mall departments or teams of JUSt a few people to large divi ion employing a hundred or more people. r n all cases, however, permanent \ ork groups axe officially created to perform a pecific function on an ongotn ba i . They continue in exi renee until ad ci ion i made to change or reconfigure the organi ation for some reason.
In contrast, temporary work groups, or task groups, are created for a
pccific purpo e - to olve a specific problem or to perform a defined ta k - and typically di band once that purpose has been accornpllshed.? Good examples are the many temporary committees and task forces that are important components of any rgani ation. Indeed, today's organi ation tcnd to make more use of task f rce for special problem-solving effort. The pre ldent of a company, for example, might convene a ta k force to examine the po ibility of implementing flexible work hours for non-managerial employees. ually such temporary group appoint chairper on or heads who are hcld accountable for re ults, much as is the manager of a work unit. In the previou example, the company president would mo t likely give the head of the task force a deadline, or due date, for submitting a formal recommendation for action.
n example of the u e of a ta k force is the 'Indu try Task Force' set up by the Australian government and led by David Karpin. The ta k force inve tlgated a range of i ue and olutions pertaining to management, productivity and export improvements.
Another very popular way of using group is the 'focu group'. Such group are used in collecting data from a r presentative ample of a given target population. The u e of focus group i very popular in the energy industry. To fulfil government requirements on eu tomer-Iocused quality improvement, c mpanies su h as Energy u tralia, the Water Board and the Ga Corporation have set up di cu sion panel or groups (also referred to as focu groups). The aim i to elicit the view and experience of dome tic cu tomers f utilitie such a water, gas and electricity and determine their awarene of their rights as ClI tomer of tho e utilitle .
CH"f[~ 9: a.slc "UI8Ur(s 01 GROUPS
What is an effective group?
Effective group are groups that achieve high level of both wit performance and human resource maintenance.
An effecti e group i one that achieve high level of both task performance and human resource maintenance over time. In term of task performance, an effective group achieve it performance goal in the standard en e of timely and high-quality work result . For a permanent work group, uch as a manufacturing team, thi might mean meeting daily work targets; for a temporary group such a a new policy ta k force, thi might involve submitting a draft of a new organisational policy to the company president. In term of human resource maintenance, an effective group is one who e member are sufficiently satisfied with their ta ks, accomplishments and interpersonal relation-
hip co work well together on an ongoing basi _ For a permanent work group, this means that the mcmber work well together work day after work day; for a temporary work group, it mean that the members work well together for the duration of the as ignmcur. A clas ic li tlng of the characteristics of an effective group is found in the effective manager 9.1. For groups to be effective, managers need to be the key supp rts to help them get carted and tay focu ed, In hi book which surveys the work on 'learning in group " Jaques? identifie approache to improving group behaviour which focu primarily upon the development of the teaching
taff to enable them to direct student group _ However, there is little mention of explicit training in team skills for the students, yet, without the e kills, the tudents' effectivene in group learning will be reduced.
In practice, it is normal in the beginning for groups to add~s i ue and problem they can manage more easily. Later, the problems become more difficult to solve, and the groups may grow di inclined to change the perfect y terns they have already worked out. Thi tage of group development can be difficult to endure. Mature groups may expand or change the group membership and question well-establi hed role and proces es as new problem arise.
• All activities occur in a supportive group atmosphere.
Groups as open systems
Practically speaking, an effective group gets it job done and take good care of i member in the process. The concept i quite tralghtforward and imple. Yet, achieving work group effectivene is till a major challenge to managers group leader and group member alike. One way
the next chapter, oircu m tance dictate which form of group structure works best. Both structures may suffer, however, if they prove incompatible with the tructures that urround them in the larger organi ation. A rigid organisation tructure can con train a group that i trying to operate in a flexible manner; by the ame token, a group with a rigid tructure may encounter difficulties
working within organl anon structure that are more flexible in nature.
Nature of the group task
Like organisational setting, the nature of the ta k to be performed is an irnportant factor in group input Different task place different demands on a group. A basic rule of thumb i this: the difficulty of achieving group efieetiven increases with the degree of task cornplexiry.12 In other words, it i harder t accomplish complex tasks than simple tasks. To master complex tasks group members mu t apply and distribute their efforts more broadly than they do on simple task . They must also cooperate more to achieve de ired results. When group members are uccessful in doing 0, they usually experience high levels of atisfactlon from knowing that they are able to accomplish complex tasks.
One way to understand ta k complexity i along technical and octal lines. In term of technical demand on a group, the key issues are: How unique is the task to be accompli hed? How difficult is the task? How di persed is the information needed to accompli h the ta k? Compared to
imple tasks, complex tasks are technically more demanding. They require high performance on unique and difficult ta ks, and they require more information proces ing to make this performance po ible. In terms of
octal demand 011 a group, the key i ue relate to ego involvement and agreement on i ues of ends and mean . That i , compared to imple tas ,complex one are more ocially demanding. They are very ego involving, but they al 0 make it more difficult to reach agreement on either
the ends or the means for accompli hing them.13 To further clarify:
• Ego int.'Ol'Oemenc - refer to the degree to which members trongly and per onally identify with the group tasks. Ego-involving ta k relate to deeply rooted per onal values, affect per onal live, and/or engage personal skills.
• End agreement - refers to members' agreement on what they are trying to accompli h and the criteria for defining • ucce '. ends agreement is ea ier to achieve when the group task i clea;cut and the outcome are measurable .
•. Means agreement - refer to members' agreement on how the group hould go about performing its task. Mean agreement is easier for tasks in which one approach i clearly the best; it i much harder to attain when many alternatives exist.
Dimension of social demands on a group
General membership characteristics
The attribute of individual group member are al 0 important inpu that may affect both the way the gr up operate and what it accomplishes. The competency, demographic and psychological characteristics of the memo ber are all important. Having the right competencie available within the member hip can be a great a et to group performance. Although the e
_j
CHAPteR ~ aAS C ArrRISIIHS or GROUPS
ome htnts for potting memberhip incornpatibilitie are offered in the effective manager 9.2. William chutz, the author of the FIRO·B theory, tate the management implications this way.16
If, at the outset, we can choo e a group of people who can work together harmoniously, we hall g far toward avoiding situations where a group' efforts are wasted in interper onal conflict.
Membership homogeneity-heterogeneity
HOOlOgCllCOll g,'Oup are group whose members have similar background , interests, values, attitudes, and o on.
Ilererogcncou g.·oup are troup who e members have diverse backgrounds, interests, values, attltudes, and soon.
Groups whose member have
imilar backgrounds, intere t , values, attitudes, and so on, are called h m ogeueou group. Group who e membership is more diver e on the e dlmcnsion are called heeeroaeneou
rou p . The degree of ho rnogeneity-heterogeneiry within a group can affect its operation and results.
A group with a heterogeneous membership often has a wide variety of skills and experience
which it can bring to bear on corn- • try to have close and personal
plex problem and thus facilitate relationships with others .
task accompli hment. But the • try to act friendly with others
group may have orne difficulty • like people to act close and personal
getting diver e members to work toward him or her
together to make this possible. . .
The more heterogeneous the • n?t like people to act distantly toward
member hip, the rn ore that him or her.
manager, group leader, and/or group members must work on human resource maintenance issues.
In a more homogeneous group, the chance for harmoniou working relation hip among member are good. BlI[ the group may find that complex ta k are hard to accomplish if the limited skills and expertence of (he members are not a good match.
Although management of interper onal relation i ea y in uch groups, the group can suffer performance limitation due to a narrow range of talent . Re earch how that a tendency for homogeneity i more functional for imple group tasks,
It is particularly important, therefore, for manager to use good judgement when electing members for work groups, committee and task force to en ure that the most productive mix of people i
chosen.
• try to be the dominant group member
• not be easily led by other people.
A person with a strong need for affection ;n a group will:
CH~prtR 9: GASIC ATnl8UTES 0' caoups
ac R 9.4 Trade-offs between group size and group effectiveness
JOHN BURGESS John i the Senior Human Resource Executive at a large steel company in Australia He believe trongly in the value of groups in his divi ion. He ha exten ive experience in f rrning and encouraging group work. In his view, homogeneous groups (Ior example, tho e made up of likeminded and like-backgrounded members), rarely prove Ifective. This i because the members are too much alike. Their focus tends to turn inward, upon the ream i elf, as in .elf-appratsal and evaluation, rather than on an exterior problem or common objective or purpose. A way to avoid thi i to draw team member from aero s a broad spectrum of relevant functions. Mulufunctional teams are a popular way of organi ing product development. r n addition, hi experience tells him that when team dynamics interfere and prohibit effective communtcauon, it i an indication that team size may have become a problem. Thus, the bigger a team gets and the more complicated its communication network, the le effective the team i going to be. Thi may indicate the need to break the team up into smaller unit, each addrcs iug a specific portion of the larger objective and purpo e.
In terms of general guidelines, the following pattern in group ize can be noted. In problem- olving groups of fewer than fiv member, there are fewer people to share respou ibilitie . This typically results in more peronal discu ion an more participation by all members; In problemolvlng group of more than seven member, there tend to bc fewer opportunitie for participation. and members may be more inhibited in offering
their contribution _ There i also the pos ibility of dominatt n by aggre . lve member and tendencies for the larger group to plit into ub-groups.' Thus, it appear that tbe best size for problem-solving groups is from five to seven members. I n addition to the homogeneity-heterogeneity issue, this ize guideline is u eful for manager when they are forming committees
and task fore to olve pecific problem .
Another pect of group ize that manager should con ider when forming groups i whether the number of member i 'odd or 'even', roups with an even number of member seem more prone to sustained disagreement and conflict while working on task . One explanation is that the even number makes it harder for a dominant coalition to form or for
CKAPIER 9 ,.S •.. UU ES OF CROU'S
\ hat i 1111 'effective' group? An effective group is one that achieves both high level of task accomplishment and good human resource maintenance. That i , the members of an effective group accomplish their task goals and do a good job of maintaining po iuve working relationships with one another. Thi mean that the group can achieve the desired performance result not ju °t once or on a hort-term basis, but over the long run. A open systems, effective group are able to interact ucce sfully with their environments to ensure the availability of the re ource needed to survive and prosper. They also provide product outputs that help other group operate. When sub-goal optimisation occur, one group may achieve i goal but make it difficult for another to do the arne.
H w d gr up be orne effective? When groups are viewed as open sy tern interacting with their environments, group effectlvene involves
ucce in cran forming a variety or inputs into outputs. The foundations of group effectiveness begin with the pre ence of the right input. Group input factor et the tage for, or 'arm', the group for action. Among the inputs of special managerial ignificance is the organisational etting itself, including the available operating resources, ipatial arrangement, technologte reward and goal systems, as well as culture and structure . Other important inputs are the nature of the task, general membership characteri tics and group size. The lack of appropriate inputs may pia e limi on the ability of a group to achieve high performance and effectivene . But even the presence of the right inpu does not guarantee uc e . Highly effective group fully utilise their inputs to achieve success,
effective group , p. 2 5 formal group • p.2 1 group, p.27
heterogeneous groups, p. 291 homogeneous groups, p. 291
informal group • p. 2 3 need for affection, p. 290 need for control, p. 290 need for inclu ion, p, 290 psychological groups. p.2 4
social loaftng, p. 2 0 status, p. 292
status congruence, p. 292 sub-goal optimi ation, p. 2 6 synergy, p. 279
1. The uatur of roup
Why is the Executive Committee oi a tudent nion a group, while a 'group' of people waiting for the arne bus i not? Answer thi question in
uch a way that you clarify the formal definition of a group a stated in this chapter. Is it po tble that the people waiting together for the same bu could become a group, albeit just a temporary one? explain and defend your answer.
2. How 6roup help or alii ation
tate three reason why groups are good for organisation. Are there any reasons why group may not be good for organisation ? tate three rea ons why group are good for their members. Can a group be good for it members and bad for the organl ation? Use an example to help explain your an wer.
CHAPTER 9 &ASIC Arr~IIU'ES 0' GROUPS
(interpersonal compatibilities, membership homogeneity-heterogeneity, tatll ) and group ize.
6. Describe orne of the required and emergent behaviou of the group, as ~ ell as the activities, interactions and sentiments.
7. Is the group a elf-managing work team, quality circle or worker involvement group? Explain why the group i or is not each of the e three types of group .
Objective
1b better under tand the basic attributes of groups.
Total time
15 to 30 minute'
Procedure
The clas will hare their answers to the preparation in group of four [0 ix member or a a cl
......... HOW DOES DEMOGRAPHlC DIVER ITY AFFECT GROUP ?
Conduct a thorough library inve tigation of what has been written about diver it): i ues at the level of the 'group' - be it a committee, task Coree, or formal work unit Focu on the i sue of what difference demographic diver ity makes to the way a group operates and [0 the results it achi Yes. Prepare a written report of your findin s, including a complete bibliography of relevant reading. Your report
hould al 0 include a li t of sugg ted 'guidelines' that managers . might follow to deal be t with demographic diversity in variou group settin s.
SUJ{~cstcd reading
R. M. Belbin, Management Thom : Why They ucceed or Fail (London: Heinemann, 19 1).
. Gerard M. Blair, Scarting CO Manage: The E e71ciai kills (London: Chartwell-Bratt Ltd, 1996).
:';Iydc \i . Burleson, EJJecci1Je Meetings: The Complete Guide ( ew York: John Wiley & on, 1990).
J:dward M. Davi Russell D. Lan bury, Martaging
7bgether: COllSu/uuion and Pnrticipoci07'l in the Workplace (Melbourne: Longman, 1996).
Javtd Jaque , Leaming in Group (London: Kogan Page, 1991).
ohn R. Katzenbach and Douglas K mtrh, 'J'lte Wisdom of Thoms: CreCl£ing the H iglt Performance Organization (Boston: Harvard Business School Pres 1992).
Edward E. Lawler; III, lIigh·!n1Jol1Jemenc Management ( an FT nelsco: Jo ey-Bass, 19 6) .
Alastair Rylan, Learning Uniimiced: Practical Stracegies and Techniques/or Transformiltg Learning in the Workplace (Sydney: Business Profes tonal Publi hing,1994).
Dean W. Tjosvold and ~ary M. Tjosvold, uadi7tg the 'learn Organisation.; flow to Create an Enduring Competid~ Ad'OO1lCage (New York: Lexington Bool , 1992).
Alvin Zandec; The Purpo es 0/ Croups and Orgallization (San Francisco: Jo ey-Bass, 19 5).
CH"~1EA 10 C'OU, AND INTERGROU' DYNAMICS
Required and emergent behaviours
Requir d behaviour are tho e contributions the organisation formally requc ts from group members as II ba is for onunued affiliation and support, Emcrg nt behavi ur are those things that
group members do in addition to, rill place of, what is formally asked of th m by the organisation.
FI UR 10.] The two races of group dynamic : emergent behaviours and the inforrnal system as n 'shadow' for required behaviours and thc formal ystcm
The actual work of managing people in organisations occurs through regular encounters with large and mall group ,a well as with individual emplo ees. Under tanding group dynamics provides the manager with a wider range of u eful leadership tactics that can improve the work environment. Basically, the groups that exist at every social level are there to sari fy personal needs for affection, affiliation, recognition and elfe teem. ub-grouping seem to arise from group members' attempts to fulfil per onal needs unmet by the group a a whole. Analysing such extra-group behaviour could help the whole group realign relation hips to pursue its ta k more effectively and enhance productivity.
An initial under tanding of the process foundations of group effectivene can be found in George Homan ' classic model of group dynamics? Homan, believes that it is u eful to distingu! h among the actlvttte ,
entiments and interaction of group members. He al 0 believe that it is useful [0 examine the required and emergent forms of each. Required behaviour are those contribution the organi auon formally requests from group member as a basis for continued af illation and upport, They may include uch work-related behaviour as being punctual, treating customers with re pect, and helping co-worker .
Em I'd lit behaviour are those things that group member do in addition to, or in place of, what i formally a ked of them by the organ. i atlon. Wherea required behaviours are formally designed with the group's purpo e in mind, emergent behaviours exist purely as matters of individual or group choice. They are things people do that extend beyond formal j b requirements but help get the job d ne, uch as telephoning an absent member to make UTe he or he i informed about what happened during a group meeting. A figure 10.1 illu trate , emergent behaviour exist as a 'shadow' 'tanding be ide the required y tern.
You might think that the required behaviours in Homans's model arc de irable and functional from a managerial viewpoint, while the emergent ones are not. This i incorrect. What i important is that the behaviour pecified in the required/formal . tem and tho e found in the emergent! informal system cornplemeni one another and enhance droup effectlvene s. Indeed, the pre ence of upportive emergent behaviours is essential if
, AP (R 10 CROU' AND 'NI( GROUP DYNAM,CS
III ternctiou are communication and iruerper onal contacts that occur between ami among group members.
cntimeut . are [he feelings, attitude, beliefs, or values held by group members.
organl ations are 'legitirni ing' emergent actlvitie 0 that more people feel empowered and confident doing the extra thing that re ult in total quality ervice and customer sati faction.
It is a manager's re pon ibility to recognl e po itive behaviour and creativity in employee and channel thi appropriately. Creativity exists in everyone. It al 0 exists along a continuum, with adaptive at one end and innovative at the other; Traditionally, when creativity is required, a group u e a 'shotgun' approach, in which member produce many ideas and then top to
ee \ hlch ones fit. After deciding which tyle be t fits a problem, a manager may choo a pecific problem-solving technique to use in a group session.
lilt raction are communication and interpersonal contact that occur between and among group member. The essence of any interaction i the sending and receiving of information. Thi process occurs by oral conversation as well as in wriuen communication (letter , memo 1 igns) and nonverbal communication (Iactal ge ture , band signals, body po ture). As in the ca e of activitie , required and emergent interaction can be either po itive or negative in their influence on group functioning and effectiveness,
ntiment are the feeling, attitude, belief, or value held by group members. Sentiments may be brought into the group fr m the outside by individual group members, or they may be learned as a re ult of becoming a group member. They are e pecially ubject to emergent forces. Although it may be easy to require positive attitude toward work, uch a are pect for authority or belief in company rules and procedure, it i m re difficult to achieve these result in actual practice. Furthermore, when the goals of the emergent system upport tho e of the required t m group proc s is likely to facilitate rather than impede group cffe tivenes . This i what happen when po ltive sentiments encourage worker to engage in behaviours above and beyond formal requirements. If the sentiments tum negative, such as when a dispute ari e with management, the lack of willingne s to engage in uch behaviours can adver ely affect p rformance. In the next chapter, we will di cuss uch enumen in the form of group norms and cohesiveness.
STAGES OF GROUP DEVELOPMENT
ne way to improve the internal operation of group and to factlitate group effectivene s is to recognise.different stages of group development. Groups typically pass through different stage in their life cycles. Any given group, be it a work group, committee or ta k force, may be in II different stage of development at anyone point in time. Depending on the stage, the group may have different challenge and management needs. Importantly, member of new group often behave differently than do member of groups that have been together fOI' longer period of time. In both ca es, group effe tiveue may be influenced by how well group member and leader deal with the problem typical to each tage of development. A better understanding of group development can help you better manage both newly formed group and exi ting group _ It can al 0 help you better perform a a member of uch gr ups.
CHAP!!" 10 GROUP ONO INqROROU' OY.A'"C$
Initial integration
Initial inte ration ttl
is the third stage of group development, fit which the group really begins to comc together 11 a coordinated unit; it i sornetlme called the norming stage.
The initial inteerntion tage of gr up development, ometimes referred to a the norrning stage, i the point at which the group really begin to come together a a coordinated uniL At thi point, the interper onal probes and jockeying behaviours of the terming pha e give way to a precarious balancing of forces. I n their pleasure at the new en e of harmony, group member will mo t likely trive [0 maintain this balance. The group a a whole will try lO regulate individual behaviour coward thi end; minority viewpoints and tendencie co deviate from or co question group direction will be di couraged. Initial integration provides group members with a preIiminary en e of closenes j con equently, member will want to protect the group from disintegration. Indeed, holding the group together may become more important to ome than is uccessfully working on the group' tasks. Therefore, this rage may be mi perceived by ome group members as a stage of ultimate maturity. In fact, the ense of premature accomplishment needs to be carefully managed a a tepping stone to a higher level of group development and not an end in ttsell,
Total integration stage
Total integrnriou mgt! i the fourth stage of group development, which sees the emergence of a mature, organi ed and well-Iunctionlng group; it is also referred [0 as the performing, wgc.
Adjourning stage
l~iollmill" tage i [he fifth Lage of group development, in which member of the group di band when the job is done.
The total iut gratioll cage of group development, ornetlrne referred to as the performing stage, ees the emergence of a mature, organi ed and well-functioning group. The integration begun in the previou rage i completed during this period. The group i now able to deal with complex ta I, and to handle member hip disagree men in creative way . Group struo ture i table, and member are motivated by group goal and are generally
ath fled. The primary challenges of this tage relate largely to continued work on human re ource maintenance and task performance, but with a strong commitment to continuing improvement and elf-renewal. An effective group at this tate of development is made up f members who:
1. continue to work well together
2. understand their individual and collective responsibilities to other group and to the larger organlsarlon, and
J. are able to adapt succe fully a opportunitie and demands change over time.
A group that has achieved the level of total integration typically core high on the criteria of group maturity hown in figure )0.2 011 page 306.
A well-Integrated group is able to di band, if required, when its work is accomplished. Thu , it i orneume appropriate to addre a fifth stage, the adj uruim! tage, of group development," Thi is an especially important stage for the many temporary groups that are increasingly common in the new workplace, inc uding task forces, committee and the like. Mernber of the e group mu l be able to convene quickly, do their job on a tight chedule and then adjourn - often to work together again in the future. The willlngne of member to di band when the job i done and to work \ ell together in future respon ibilitie ,group or othcrwi e, i an important long-run test of group ucce s.
CW~PIt~ 10; OIOUP AND IN [Re"OU' DY .. lies
De ntrnlised C mmuni atiou network arc group communication networks in which 1111 members communicate directly with one another.
II Ling gr up arc groups whose members work indcpendcruly on common task"
eutrali ed communication n rwork ure group oornrnun lcauon networks in which all communication now through a central person who sc -es as the 'hub' of the network.
Count racting groups arc groups that Include the pr en c of sub troup [hat disagree on some aspect of overall group operations.
)
fol RE 10.:1 lntcraction patterns and communication networks often found in troup'
and clo e coordination j required in order to achieve desired task performance. Thl irueraction pattern re ults in a communication tructure known a a decentralised ommunicnti 11 11 t\ 01'1(.10 In thi tructure, all member of a group can communicate directly with one another.
ornetirne , these structures are al 0 referred to as all-channel or tar communication network.
Member of coueung gr UP' work independently on group tasks, The required work i divided up and then largely completed by individual working alone. Each individual's effort are coordinated by one central control point. It i typically the re ponsibility of the member erving at this point of control to en ure that individual contrtbution are combined into a final group produ L Coacting groups are common in imple ta It ituations, where the work is ea ily routinised or allocated for individual work. In a coacting group, mo t communication flows back and forth between indio vidual member and the person ervin as a control point. his create a .entrulis ad .omrnuni ation 11 twor with [he central person serving as the 'hub'Y A hown in figure 10.3, thi tructure i ometimes referred to a a wheel or chain communication network.
The pre ence of sub-group that di agree on orne aspect of overall group operation character! e ou nt ra ti ng g,' up. The ub-groups may experience i ue- pccific di agrcernen , uch as a temporary debate over the best means to achieve a goal, or the di agreements may be of longerterm duration, uch as labour management di putes, In either ca e, the interaction pattern involve a restricted communication network, in which polari ed ub-groups conte t one another' po ition and maintain ornelime antagoui tic relations. A would be expected, communication between the groups is often limited and biased. Problem of de tructive competition in intergroup dynamic (to bc cii CU ed later) are likely under
uch ircum lance .
Pattern
x
Independent ind'Mdual efforts on behalf of common task
Best at simple
tasks
Diagram
Characteristics
Interacting group
High interdependency around a common task
Best at comotex tasks .
Decentralised communication network
Coacting group
CentraHsed communication network
Counteracting group
Sub-groups 10 disagreement with one another
Slows task accomplishment
Restricted communication network
How groups make decisions
ix way groups make decisions
Edgar chein, a noted scholar and consultant, has worked exten ively with group t analyse and improve their deci Ion-making processe . He observes that group may make decl ion through any of the ix following method .13
1. Decision by lack oj re pon e - a COUT e of action i cho en by default or lack of interest,
2. Decision by authority rule - one person dominates and determines the cour e of action.
3. Decision by minority rule - a small ub-group dominate and determine the course of action.
4. Deci ion by majority rule - a vote i taken to choo e among alternative course of action.
5. Decision by consensu - not everyone \ ant to pur ue the same cour e of action, but everyone agre [0 give it a try.
6. Decision by unanimity - everyone in the group wants to pursue the same course of action.
A you read more about these alternative decision method , think how often you encounter the e methods in your own group activitie . Think, too, about the con equence resulting from each. In deci ion by lack of response, one idea after another is uggesred without any di cu ion taking place. When the group finally accepts an idea. all 0 hers have been bypassed and di carded b irnple lack of re pon e rather than by critical evaluation. In deci ion by au.thority rule, the hairper on, manager, or
orne other authority figure make a deci ion for the group. Thi can be don with or v ithout di cu ion and i v r time efficient, Whether the dectsion i a good one or a bad one, however, depend on whether or no the authority figure ha the neces ary information and on how well thi approach i accepted by other group members. In de ision by minoricj\ t\ 0 or three people are able to dominate or railroad' the group into malting a deci ion they agree \ ith. Thi is often donc by providing a ugges· tion and then forcing qui k agreement by challenging the group with staternents like 'Does anyone object? ... Let' go ahead then'.
One of the mo t common ways group make deci ion ,especially when early sign of di agreement et in, is de ision by majority rule. Here, formal voting may take place, or member may be polled to find the majority viewpoint. Thi method parallel the democratic political tern and i often II ed without awarene of it potential problem . The very proce of voting can create coalition ; that is, ome people wil1 be 'winners' and other will be 'loser 'when the final vote i tallied. Tho e ill the minority - the '10 ers' - may feel left out or discarded without having had a fair say. As a rc ult. they may be less committed to implem nting the deci ion of the 'majority' and may carry lingering resentments that \ ill impair group effecuvenes in the [uture.
Another alternative i deci ion by con en us. Formally defined, con-
ensu is a tate of affair whereby di cus ion lead to one alternative being favoured by most mcmb rs and the other members agreeing to support it. When a consensus i reached, en tho e who may have opposed the cho en course of action know hat the have been Ii tened to and have had a fair chance to influence the deci ion outcome. Consen 1I , therefore,
C"A'I£. 10: GAOJP A 0 I EACAOUP OYNAN CS
Potential assets of group decision making
Groupthink
roupthink is the tendency of member in highly cohesive groups to lose their critical evaluative capabilities.
mean, however; Among the potential benefits of group dect ion making are the following.16
• Information. More knowledge and expertise is applied to solve the problem.
• Alternativ€s. A greater number of alternative ar examined and tunnel vision' is avoided.
• Understanding. The final deci ion i better under tood by all group member.
• Acceptance. The final decision is better accepted by all group member.
• Commitment. There is more commitment among all group member to make the final deci ion work.
But there i more r group decision making than these potential benefits alone. We all knov that group can have problem making deci ion. Group members and manager alike hould recognise the following potential di ad antages of group decision makingP
• Social pre sure to con/arm. The de ire to be a good member and to go al ng With the group can lead people to conform prematurely to poor deci ion.
• Individual domination. A dominant individual may emerge and control the group's deci 'ion ; this may be particularly true of the leader who e viewpoints may dominate group discussion.
• Time r quirement . Groups are frequently lower to reach decision than ar individual a tlng alone; group can al 0 delay decl ion, while individual member 'play games' and/or 'fight' with one another.
There i another; very iubtl side to group proce which can work to a group' di advantage in deci ion-makmg ituatlon . Con ider an example from the world of bu ine .18
To enhance group cohesion and build tru t amongst hi rnployees, an enthu ia tic manager organised a \ eekend get-away trip to which he invited all of hi employee. Af er the trip was over, it became apparent that no-one had wanted to go. The e ituation occur in groups when member are not Willing to expres their true opinion on i ues. As a result, the group makes a collective decision that ts contrary to each per on' individual judgement. ot peaking out can lead to bad deci ion , half- hearted commitment and bungled project. Group member are often hesitant to
peak Out because they fear abandonment. Organisations threaten abandonment in the form of demotion, layoffs and firing.
octal psychologist Irving Jani call thi phenomenon groupthiuk: the tendency of member in highly cohesive group to 10 e their critical evaluative capabilitie .19 Jani believe that, because highly cohe ive group demand conformity, there i a tendency for their members to be orne unwilling to critici e one another's idea and ugge tion . De ire to hold the group together and to avoid unpleasant disagreements lead to an ov rempha i on concurrence and an underemphasi on reali tically apprai iog alternative COUI e of action.
Groupthink i a rational! at io n proce s that develop when team memb r begin to thinl alike, It can be en uraged by leader who do not
Techniques for improving group decision making
)
A you can see, the proce s of making decisions in any group j a complex and even delicate proce . Th take full advantage of the group a a decisionmaking resource, care must be taken to manage group dynamic in order to maximise assets and minimise liabilities.
Group dynamics must be well managed to balance individual contributions and group operations. The following equation help keep this point in rnind.21
Group Decl ion Effecuvene = Individual Contributions + Group Proces Gain - Group Proce Lo es
Over the years, social clenrists have tudied ways of maximi ing the a set of group deci ion making while minimising its Iiabilitie . A particular point of concern is with the pr cess los es that are often associated with free-flowing open group meetings, such a a committee deliberation Or a taff meeting to addre a specific problem.
The advantage, in u ing committees or groups for deci ion making or developing recommendation for a decision maker include the concept of collective wi dom or combined expertise, motivation, individual development and decision acceptance. The pitfall chat be er group or committee decision making can be roughly cia ifled a human limitations and procedural problem . Among the human limitation are the fatigue factor, dominant per onallties in the group and a lack of information. Procedural problem include procedure, the time element and lack of authority. Understanding the players and the proce i the first step in making group deci ion making more effective.
Free-flowing open group meting are settings in which the risk of social pre ure to conform, domination, time pres ures and even b~hly ernotional debates may detract from the purpose at hand. It j preci ely in such
ituations that pecial group deci ion techniques may be used to en ure that ev ryone gets a chance to participate and that the creative potential of the group is tapped to the fullest. Good example are the brainstorming, nominal group and Delphi technique .22
When a department i not operating at an acceptable or de ired level, the symptom can often be found in meeting, memoranda and other form of interaction. Many would ay that a quantifiable reduction in tru t - writing a memo to confirm a discu sion, for instance - how that people are looking out for themselve and are not at ease. Brainstorming and experiential team-building where learn complete physical event and group games and relate their experiences back to the office environment, have become increasingly popular methods of reinvigorating work teams. Once a department i old 00 the idea of changing through team-buildtng, an a e ment can be made on where the team tands in terms of its prod. uctivity and Its internal ability to function. The group then decide. on the goal it wants to accomplish in the future. By giving team experience that encourage them to raise their benchmarks, experiential programs seek to in til new expectation in member .2J If they are run on a regular ba i , experiential programs may al 0 contribute to building and/or reinforcing a 'team culture'.
CHApr[~ 10; GROUP ~HO IlIr[~o~OU' DY A~IC$
.'
fter orientation, the gr up hould be divided into clu ter of five people. The clu ter e ion hould include these divisions:
1. silent individual brain terming
2. group brain terming 3. eulng prtoriue ,and
4. reconvening as a whole group.
The facilitator's report hould be available to all participants.
LEO BURNETI ADVERTISING AGENCY Jearn of copywriter and art directors brainstorm ideas for print, radio and televi ion adverti ing. Their efforts have reated award-winning and heart-tugging adverti ing campaigns for such companie a McDonald s, Kellogg .Hallrnark and May tag.
Nominal group technique
In any group, there will be time when the opinion of member: differ so much that antagonistic argument will develop. It is hard to make deci ions under uch circum lances. There are other time when the group is 0 large that open discus ion i awkward. Again it can be hard to make decision
under such circum tan e . In uch case, another type of tructured group deci ion making may b helpful: the n rninal roup t chn lque. This technique i implemented through the f llowing procedure .24
• Generating idea. Parti ipan are given a 'nominal que tion (e.g., 'What hould be done t improve the cffectivene of this work unit?,). U ually, thi question i tated in writing a part of an indl idual workhee Partiotparu work ilently and independently to respond in writing
to the nominal que tion. They are en ouraged to Ii t as many alternative or ideas as they can come up with.
• Recording ideas. If the group i large, participants are organised into smaller groups of five to seven member. 'Y ith the assi tance of a 'recorder', participant read aloud their re ponse to the nominal queslion in round-robin fashion. The recorder write each re pon e on large new print a it is offered. critici m Or discu ion of the idea is allowed.
• CIClriJylTl~ idea . The recorder a I{ for any question that may ext t for each re pon e that has been Ii ted. Thi i again done in round-robin fashion and question are allowed for lartficatlon only. 0 evaluation i allowed. The goal i imply to make ure that everyone pre ent fully under tand each re pon e.
• Voting on idea . Participant are given blank card and a ked to rank the [OP five or even re ponse they con ider most valuable. The balloting i tallied to create a rani, ordering of each re pon e on the master li t
• Refining of idea . The last two steps are repeated a de ired to further refine [he li t in order to identify the mo t preferred respon e or er of respon es to the original n minal que tion.
The tructured nature of the nominal group and the voting procedure allow idea to be evaluat d without risking the inhibitions, ho tilitie and di tortion that may occur in an op n meeting. This make the n minal group technique very u eful in otherwi e difficult or unwieldy gr9uP decision ituations,
. 'ominul g1'OUP
te huiquc i a group decision technique that u e srructured ruJe for minim! Ing interaction
[0 faellirate dcclsion milking on potentially controversl .. .l subjects.
How to run a nominal
group
)
J
CH"f[~ 10: GAOU' "0 IH,[tCAour DYNAMICS
..
)
PI UR£ 10.4 Type'
of world low interdependencies and their impact on i lertroup relationships
oi much attention to the management of intergroup relationships i needed in pooled interdependency The groups eldom, if ever, meet and they perform their re pecuve tasks quite independently. As long a each group doe its job in accordance with organisational goal, the activities of other groups are of little con em.
What other groups do becomes more important when [here i seouential interdependency of the work flows. This mean that one group's outpu become another group's inputs. The econd group i dependent on the fir t group and cannot do its job unle the fir [group provides it with needed inputs in a timely and high-quality fa hion. Iaturally, thi type of interdependency i prone both to more contact between the groups and to more potential problem in [he intergroup relation . This creates a need for managerial attention to intergroup relations.
Thing become even more complicated when (here i reciprocal inleT'dependency in the \ ork now. In thi situation, many groups interact in input-output relation hips, much as do member of the decentrali ed cornmunicauon networks de cribed earlier in thi chapter. With frequent and varied Irueractio s among many groups in the normal day-to-day course of work, the intergroup dynamics become very omplex. They are also extremely important since a breakdown at any point will have pillover effects to other points. Manager in uch settings must be g od at helping multiple group build and maintain good working relation hip with one anothcr.
Pooled {low} interdependency
Sequential (medium) interdependency
Reciprocal (high) interdependency
The work of each group contributes to the mission of the total organisation, but is not d rectly related to that of the other group. The groups may not directly interact with each other, but are indirectly affected by each other's actions.
Outputs of one group become inputs for another group
Each group has outputs that are inputs to the other group
Structural factors and intergroup relations
Other factors may also affect intergroup dynami . The group tatu or pre tige of one group as compared to others may be quite important. Thi i particularly true in sequential Of reciprocal work-flow interdependencle when higher- tatu and lower- tatu group mu t work together. Group may also dirfer in the way they deal with time and goal . The lime orienCation of a group i ba ed on the length of time needed to obtain nece ary information and to accompli h task . When ome groups are able to
eN.'Ttl 10' CROUP AND TNl(~QAOUP O!NAloIICS
Ilow to prevcn Intergroup cornpeuuon
)
FIG RE 10.5 What happen within and between groups entaged in intergroup competition
place. Recommended ways for preventing the emergence of de tructive intergroup competition include:
• rewarding groups for their contributions to the total organisation
• avoiding win-lose competitions for important rewards
• rewarding group for giving help to one another
• stimulating frequent interaction between member of different group
• preventing group from withdrawing and becoming i elated from one another
• rotating members among different group.
Within each competing group
Members become closer knit and evidence increased group loyalty; group cohesion increases
Concern for the acccmctsbment of the group's task grows; members become more task oriented.
Group members become more willing to accept a single leader
Activities become more highly structured and or~anised
Between the competing groups
Each group views the other as an enemy.
Each group tends to develop very positive images of itself and very negative images of the other; one's own group strengths are overestimated while inose of the other are underestimated. Hostilities increase and communications decrease between the groups
When forced into interaction, group members listen only to what reinforces their original predispositions toward one another.
INTERGROUP COMPETITION
The potential disadvantage of intergroup competition are numerous.
The competition may divert energie away from the performance of irnporrant tasks, a member focu more on dealing with the other groups. Also common is the emergence of grudge, animosities, or biased and selective viewpoint of one group toward another. All of this adds up to poor intergroup coordination. Therefore, the suggestions listed above become quite important. Managers at all levels in organisations walk a thin line a they lJ'y to avoid the disadvantages of intergroup competition while still benefiting from some of its advantages.
For those managers who are succe sful v Ith intergroup dynamic, the potential advantage to intergroup competition Can be tapped. \ hen group compete with others, they may work harder, become more focused on key tasks, develop more internal cohe ion and. ati faction, or achieve a higher level of creativity in problem olvlng. When properly harne ed,
uch dynamics of intergroup competition can be strong as ets for an organi ation.
tW~PI[R 10, CROU' AND 1~f(RC~OIlP DYNAMICS
activities, p. 302 adjourning tage, p.305 brain terming, p. 316 centralised communication
netw rk, p.309
coacting group , p. 3 9 communication, p.30 consen us, p. 312 counteracting group, p.309 decentralised communication
network, p. 309 decision malting, p. 310
group. The principle of di trtbuted leadership points out that the e acuvnies can and should be provided as needed by all group members, not just by those formally de ignated a leader. In addition, member hould avoid di ruptive behaviours that interfere with group functioning.
How do group tructure them elv for communi atiou? The memo bers of groups develop different interaction patterns. Interacting group displaya high degree of member interdependency; coacting group exhibit more independence; counteracting groups involve sub-groups. In re pect to the communication that take place in the e groups, members of interacting group adopt more decentralised communication networks. The e 'all-channel', or ' tar', network work be t for more complex tasks. Mernber of coacting groups adopt more centralised communication networks, like the 'wheel', and work be t for simpler tasks.
How d group mal e de i ion ? There are everal different ways in which group can make deci ion . They include dcci i n by lack of re pon e, authority rule, minority, majority, consensus and unanimity. These methods vary from the more individual-oriented at the former extreme to the more group-orterued at the lauerThere are potcnual a ets to making decisions in more group-ortented ways. Typically, a group deci ion i ba ed on more infermarion and re ults in better member understanding and commitment The liabiliti include octal pressure to conform and greater time requirements, Technique for improving creativity in group dcci ion making including brain terming, the nominal group technique and the Delphi method.
\: hat should manager '11 \ about int I'gr up d nami ? r ntergroup dynami are [he force that operate between two or more group. Although groups are suppo ed to cooperate in organl ation ,thing don't alv ay work this way. Group can become involved in dy functional connie and cornpetition, Sometime, the origin lie in work-flow interdependencies. Other time, the origin can be traced lO differing group characteri ti . Such things as tatus, time and goal orientations, reward y tems and re ource availabilities can all make a difference in the way group work together. Managers mu t be aware f the potential for probl ms in intergroup relation and know how to deal with them, even a they recognise that ome competition can be good. The di advantages of intergroup competition can be reduced through management tratcgie to direct, train and reinforce group to pur ue cooperative in tead of purely competitive action .
Delphi technique, p. J1
di ruptive behaviours, p. 30 di tributed leader hip, p, J07 emergent behaviour , p. J01 forming tage, p.304 groupthink, p. J] 3
group dynamics, p.300 group proce ,p. 300
initial integration stage, p. JOS interacting group, p. 30 interaction , p. 303
intergroup dynami ,p. J1
maintenance activities, p.307 nominal group
technique, p. 317
required behaviour, p. 301 entimen ,p. 303
terming stage, p.304
ta 1< actlvitie , p. 307
total integration
rage, p.30S work-flow interdependency, p. 31
, '0 't $ •
A FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYZING WORK GROUPS
Michael B. McCaskey
Group are an inevitable feature of a manager's life. Much of \ hat must be accomplished in organizations happens in. through, or in spite of the permanent and temporary group that make up an organization. But being a familiar part of the landscape does not mean that groups are well-used. Groups can be a more or less effective means for auaining organizational goals. They can also be a forum for enhancing self-identity, a protection against excessive stress and uncertainty. and a home base in an oiherwi e impersonal corporation. More often, though, managers complain about the time wasted in committee meetings. the indecisiveness of the other person's work group, and the red tape of one's own group.
This note looks at groups from a managerial point of view. It focuses upon the features of group behavior important to the manager who want to understand how to manage a group for increa ed effectiveness. The note considers the factors that influence the patterns of behavior that emerge over lime in a group. and the way these patterns affect group performance. Throughout the note, the question addressed is: Whal do managers need 10 know about groups? We are concerned with what managers must now to effectively participate in. as well as lead. work groups.
In this note. work groups refers to the groups to which a manager might be assigned. either as a leader Or as a member. Wor groups then include such diverse gatherings of people as a company's sales force. workers on an assembly line, a board of directors. an ROI task force. and a division operating committee. Membership can range from three to dozens of people. maybe more. But. as will become clear later. not every named collection of people is a group.
The factors that can influence a group's behavior and performance include the people who comprise the group, the assigned task(s). the organizational constraints placed upon the group, and so on. Perhaps the best way to begin is to look at an
4
6 PART 1: MANAGING GROUPS
Kirschner had always been especially interested in new products because it was the first place he worked at Merit, Kirschner decided that before retiring. he wanted to significantly improve the new products area because strength here would help ensure the firm's continued success.
After giving the mauer considerable thought and arter brief discussions with his top managers. Kirschner decided rhar a radical change was necessary. He decided to form a group of six to eight people with diverse and possibly even unorthodox backgrounds to work full-lime on developing new products, Kirschner felt that if he could find the right people and give them II good deal of encouragement. the company would considerably strengthen its new products development. Consequently. be set about finding and hiring the kind of people who could give real impetus to new-product development at Merit. Kirschner also began looking for office space to house the proposed new group. While no office SPlice was presently available on the second or third floors. some space was available on the
fourth floor. .
CONTEX,T
Whatever actions John Kirschner lakes to improve new-product development at Merit will occur within the context of the existing organization and its wider environment. Even though he is president of the company, he does not have complete freedom. Any proposed changes must take into account the existing structure and people. the company's history and traditions, the economic and competitive climate, and many other features. If Kirschner wants to initiate a new group. background factors such as these will likely influence the size, independence. and behavior of the group.
For purposes of tudying the way a work group operates. context or background
can be conceptualized as follows:
1 The purposes for which the group was created 2 The physical selling in which the group works
3 The company: its size, the nature of its business, its location, it past history - and proposed future
4 Competitors. suppliers. and regulators
5 Political, social. economic, and legal systems
These background factors will likely influence any efforts by John Kirschner to begin a new group. For example. one can imagine that some older executives might highly value their experience on temporary task forces and therefore resist any changes in existing procedures. This does not seem to be the case so far at Merit; but if such feelings and outlooks arose, Kirschner would have to deal with them. Failing to do so would endanger the 'ability of the group to carry out its mission or to survive after John Kirschner retires.
Contextual/actors. then, are the background/actors out of which a group arises and in which a group operates. Context affects the way a group behaves, at least indirectly. and must be part of any analysis of the way a work group operates. Turning to the case, what do you notice about Merit? What features are likely to be important for how the new work group, or any other group. performs at Merit?
8 PART I: MANAGING GROUPS
D&grH and
Name Age major School BaCkground
Andrew 29 SSln MIT Systems analyst tor Mitre
Jacobson mathematics Corporation for 1 year. Founder
of a public interest research
group under the auspices of
Ralph Nader. Heavily Involved
with environmental and
consumer issues.
John 28 SA Oberlin SCulptor and paInter. Had a
O'Hara one-artis show at the
Cleveland Art Museum. Taught
art and metal sculpting In U.S.
and abroad,
Robert 28 BA in social Harvard Led two arCheological digs to
Vidreaux retations Iran. and spent 2 years wotking
at the Museum of Natural
History in ew York Cily. Has
hree patents and a variely of
Inventions in the area of water
filtration and purrliC8tion.
Susanne 27 SA;n Hollins. Yale Worked lor Davis. Marshall and
Tashman English. J.D. Polk. a law firm. lor 2 years.
speciallzlng In S.E.C. wor •
Joan 27 BAln Wellesley. Worked tor Sloan.KeHering
Waters chemistry. Harvard . Laboratories in New Vorl< Cily
MBA for 2 years in the area Of
chromosomal aberrations and
viruses. After receiving an MBA.
she wor eo in the financial
office 01 Lilly Laboratories on
long-range planning lor 1 year.
MaHhew 29 BSin Cal Tech Spent 3 years investigating the
Kiris chemistry effect of high concentrations 01
j)esttcides In tidal regions in
"oth the United States and the
Far East. Was a consultant to
the public heal to department in
both Ihe United States and
Japan.
Raynor 29 BAln Northwestern. Has had extensive polillcal
Carney political Columbia experrence; organizing a major
SCience. gubernatoriat campaign. fund
MBA raising tor the state Democratic
Party. Served as the primary
developer and contractor tor
modular low-cost housing
prorect in Maryland. F r-~'-" .
People
Task Requirements
1 0 PART 1: MANAGING GROUPS
for durable, but inexpensive, multipurpose children's furniture". The president has hired people he thinks are suited to this task. He has also set the group apart from the rest of the organization, both physically and in their reponing relationship to him. Thus, Kirschner is making decisions about what we have called the three design factors. He is trying to • fit" the design factors together in the strongest possible combination to increase their chances of success. Let us look at each design factor in tum.
First, there are the people who have been named to the . PD group. They are a diverse collection, primarily without much business experience. Since human beings are composed of a myriad of sub lie and shifting characteristics, the possibilities for categorizing them are endless. For purposes of studying work groups, however, research on group behavior and organizational design has found some characteristics more useful to focus on than others. The short list of characteristics includes:
• The skills and interests individual members of the group have.
• Individual members' styles of learning. Some people learn best by actually doing things, while others learn best by reflecting and analyzing.
• The values and assumptions individual members hold. Particularly important in a group setting are members' expectatioos about leadership.
• Individual members' preferences for variety, for definition and structure, and for individual challenge. Some people feel more comfortable with loosely structured situations, where they have a great deal of autonomy. Other people strongly prefer clarity and definition in tasks and roles.
To manage the PD group, one should consider the rich mix of people and the best way for them to work together. The company president has deliberately chosen a diverse range of skills and interests, ncluding people who have sculpted, invented, and organized campaigns. They are all young and well-educated and so may expect to work together in a more or less democratic style. Leadership may emerge slowly and is unlikely ever to be dictatorial.
It may also make a difference to the operation of the group that O'Hara and Jacobson have quite different working styles, One is exploratory and messy. and the other is systematic and neal. Jacobson and Tashman are used to a corporate way of doing things: O'Hara, the sculptor, is not, Vidreaux, who has spent time on archeological digs and inventing, may well be a maverick with regard to procedures. These dispositions and skills must be taken into account in trying to manage the group effectively.
The second major design factor that influences a group's behavior is the tasks that individuals or the group are required to perform. Once again the research on designing social systems is helpful for collapsing the wealth of possible dimensions down to a more manageable list. Task requirements can be classified according to:
12 PART I; MA AGING GROUPS
But even he mus operate within the context of company history and traditions. the economic outlook. competitors' behavior, and so on.
In a given situation. a manager will have varying degrees of control over the three
design factors. It may help to identify three levels of control:
• Those things over which a manager ha complete control
• Those things requiring help from others to change
• Those uung over which a manager has lillie or no control
In the case oi the. PD group. Kane is unlikely to have direct control over how group members are rewarded or where it report into the organizational hierarchy. But he can go to Kirschner and presumably could argue for changes in these factors with the pre ident. For a wide range of other matters. Kane and the group have considerable control. This is due to the newness of the group, Kirschner's shielding efforts, and the rela ively unspecified task in terms of required activitie and interactions. In older, well-established groups, long-embedded in a p rti ular organizational structure. the degrees of freedom about divi ion of activities. re.quired interactions. and pace of the work are often substantially less. In analyzing what a manager "should do" versus what a manager "can do" to improve wor group performance. one should keep these three levels of control firmly in mind.
By virtue of being named to the PD group. these eight people are not yet a group. Currently. they are a collection of people v ho will have to build a group. They are required to perform certain activities and interactions. such as developing a new product and reporting on their progress every other week. But beyond a few minimal requirements. the eight are free to evolve whatever pa terns of thinking and behaving seem bes to meet their needs. The emergence of the e pat erns of thinking and behaving is one of the mo t interesting and. for a manager. Irnportan aspects of group life. In r ding the next pa t of the Merit case. keep clo e track of behaviors that emerge-those activities. interactions. and rules that arc not required but which group members devise over ime. Also keep track of how these emergent activities and interactions might affect group performance.
;'Ileril Corporariom Part 3
On January 2. the etght members of the, 'PO group arrived at the Merit c.orporation. and reported 10 Kirschner's office. Kirschner had planned an Informal orientation day. He presented e ch person wuh a packet of informauon about the company. data about the products thai j lent currently manufactured. and information about compensation and f~inge benefit. Then they toured the offices and the plant with "Mr. K." as they quickly came to call him.
After lunch. which was held In a restaurant a few miles away, the group W3S introduced to Ihe executi es wirh whom they would come Into contact. Then Kirschner took them 10 the fourth !'Ioor of the building where he had rented three offices next 10 one another. He explained thai they would have one secretary who would be working directly with them and thai they could use additional upport staff. if necessary. He apologized for the condition of the offices. whrch were sparsely furnished and not air conditioned. He encouraged them to gel to know one: another. and to organize the space in any way they wished.
GROUP CULTURE
14 PART 1: MANAGI G GRO~JPS
surface potentially disruptive issues about the group's process of working together. Kane was the nominal group head, but Waters soon became a coleader, partly because sbe had the technical expertise to communicate with engineers in the production department and because of the organizational ability she bad acquired in her MBA training.
The group quickly developed some routines. Group members got into the habit of bringing their lunch and eating around the large table in the middle room. Almost daily over lunch they would brainstorm to elicit new ideas. Anyone could initiate such a session; but because they shared the middle office, Waters. Tashman. or Kiris tended to initiate. Since the physical layout brought the eight in contact with each other so easily, they interacted with each other a great deal.
Although working an g·hour day was not specifically required of the group, individuals initially tended to come in at 8:30 a.m. and leave at 4:30 p.m. However, as ideas were gradually turned into viable prcducts. they worked after hours and on weekends. After a while. some began to come in late in the mornings and work until 6 or 7 p.rn., while others preferred to come in before work hours and leave early. However, it became the norm to wor. late or on weekends if a task was left unfinished. People were almost always in the office between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.. ince it was during these hours that the brainstorming sessions and lunch tended to occur. As subgroups formed, and people tended to work together in twos or threes. tension and sometimes friction occurred.
One source of tensio!! was Carney. who preferred to work a good deal on his own. He was often in the middle of something when the other members of the group wanted to begin a brainstorming session. Carney felt that it was more important to finish what he was doing than to work with the group. He eventually missed so many sessions that the other group members kidded rum about hi antisocial behavior. When this seemed to have no effect, they began to exclude him from informal conversations. At lunch one day when Carney was absent, Vidreaux suggested that the group discuss the purpose and frequency of the sessions, and the importance of everyone being present. As a result of this discussion, group members realized that exceptions to regular attendance could be made without affecting productivity. Subsequently. Carney was included in more informal conversations. But he still remained at the edge of the group.
A similar incident occurred around the issue of work space. O'Hara was extremely untidy and could only work comfortably in the midst of clutter. Jacobson, one of his office mates. was very orderly and iound this very disturbing. Considerable antagonism developed between the two unlil Vidreaux kiddingly brought up the issue at a group session. As a result of the discussion. Jacobson agreed to change places with Kiris, who W3S indifferent to the "mess."
Pan 3 of the Merit case hows the eight members of the, 'PD group busy with the process of building a group. A in any group, individuals are finding out who they can be in the group, and what aspec s of "self' will be valued and confirmed by others. Simultaneously. each person is confirming certain aspects of others' selfpresentation and i also learning the particular social and task skills others bring to the group. The eight members are dividing the work. developing pauerns of interaction, and establishing norms for behavior. In short, they are building a group culture.
16 PART I: MANAGING GROUPS
the central values and norms of the group even more so than other group members. Leaders may be allowed some exceptions from group norms because of their high status, but in so doing they use up a certain amount of the "social capital" they ha .. e accumulated.
If, as happens in most groups. members largely conform to the group norms, the norms help regularize interactions between members. It is much easier, for example. for everyone in the, PD group to attend impromptu brainstorming sessions if everyone follows the norm of being in the office between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m, This does not mean that a manager entering a group for the first lime has to conform absolutely to iLS norms. It does mean that he or she must approach the task of pos ibly changing group norms with care and understanding of how they work.
I orms serve an impor ant function for group members in stabilizing their interacuons along predictable paths. Thus when a manager decides that some norms block group effectiveness, he or she must examine the purpose the norms serve before attempting to change them. Similarly. other features of group culture, such as roles, help give stability and predictability to the interactions of group members, and help the group attain a level of effectiveness.
Roles
Roles are the characteristic and expected social behavior of an individual. Roles may develop so that in addition to the formally appointed leader of a group. one or more informal leaders may arise as well. For example, Waters has emerged as a coleader of the group. And Carney has become a soc/pi deviant, because of his unwillingness to follow an important group norm. Carried further. a member who fails to follow several group norms in a strict group may become a social isolate. Roles such as these are often helpful in defining what the norms are in a group. At one end of the continuum, informal leaders are likely to closely adhere to group norms; at the other extreme. social isolates violate some and perhaps many of the group norms.
In the ! PD group, several roles have developed based on the special skills and interests of different members. For example, Tashman coordinates the development of cash-flow projections, and O'Hara does the artwor . We know less about roles connected to the process of how the group works. except that Kane and Waters are coleaders. Kane is a formal leader and Waters is an informal leader. Vidreaux has become another inIormalleader because he explicitly raises process issues for discussion and can bring the discussion to a successful conclusion.
People in a group develop patterns of behavior that contribute or detrac from the group's ability to achieve its social and task functions. You have probably been in a group where one person consistently tells a Joke to break tensions and reharmonize relationships. In the same group. another person often supplies technical information, while a third person typically keeps an eye on the clock and returns the group to its agenda if discussion strays too far. Behaviors Like these. of en bundled into specialized roles. are quite important to the level of effectiveness that a group achieves.
•• 1
18 PMT 1: MANAGING GAOUPS
Thus far several features of group culture have been distinguished. ItS components-emergent activities. norms, roles. rituals. stories. language. and mapping-are an ongoing, social construction of reality. Group culture is not something immediately obvious, but is the inferred change in its major outlines: over time, a group makes small modifications and adjustments. And. most imponant for managing groups. the group culture is outside the direct control of a manager. It can only be influenced by the manager's actions, example. and arrangement of the design factors discussed earlier. However, appreciation of the constructed nature oi, group culture opens new possibilities for leading and participating in groups. It separates what i easily changed from what IS nOI, and focuses attention upon what can be directly influenced by a manager and what IS more in the province of group members.
Understanding the process of forming a group culture and developing the ability to analyze it deserves a manager's attention, since group culture is closely connected to group performance. Let us return to the Merit case and see if the PD group was successful in achieving its goals.
Meril Corporation: Part 4
After the. PD group had been in operation for 6 months, Kirschner and the executive committee saw that the group had developed a variety of innovative and unique product ideas. They could also see that group members were enthusiastic about their work.
At the end of the first year, the group came out with a new product. Within 6 months, the product had won a 20 percent share of an extremely competitive market and bad been widely acclaimed tor its low manufacturing co t. durability, and consumer appeal. To celebrate, the group had lunch away from the office one Friday. and the celebration lasted all afternoon.
OUTCOMES AND FEEDBACK
Although managers sometimes mistakenly consider group productivity solely in terms of work production, the outcome of a group are actually multidimensional. We can consider the various outcomes a group produces under three headings:
• Productivity
• Satisfaction
• Individual growth
The productivity of the l'PD group was quite high. They produced a variety of new product ideas and successfully introduced a new product into a competitive marketplace They met the major purpose for ini ially establishing the group.
Beyond work produc ivity, an importan outcome for the group was the sense of satisfaction with how they operated and what they achieved. The term satisfaction is shorthand for the rich mixture of feelings that a member can experience as a result of being 3 part oi a group. These feelings can include strongly negative. as well as positive, ambivalent. and sometimes even contradictory emotion. They are pan of what fuels each member's participation or lack of it in the group. Think, for a moment, of the groups ou have especially enjoyed working in. What was character-
20 'PART 1: MANAGING GROUPS
O.siwn t.ctor'S
PlOple T:»k
rt<;u,,_11
· Skills and Interests
· Leamlng stvle · Req""od
Values. assumpt.ons aClivhie.s and
InCCfl(t'ons
· Pr,'ere«e tor - VoU.ety
v,rltty ·
Contt>tt · o'.'ty Group cul:ur. Outcomes
PurpOie • Time spall · Erne ~ent actlVllIH ProdUCllvity
Phy,iul lettIng · I nlOrdtpond.nce ilnd interaC'tJons . Sauliactloo
The company · orms . Indl.idual growth
Compotitol'1. r- t-. Ro es and ~
suppliers. soc...,' ranking
rovulators Formal · Sentimellls
Polluul. O(~anll:)t)()n · Aitual s, st()(ies. ~s.
social. language convtntion.
eeencrme. and . Structure and
legal systems formal reporting Map
L-..- relatioruhips
Control and
me,suttment syst~ms
A tw~rd sYStems
Rwuitment and
Sllee tton systtms
t EXHIBIT 2 Model tor analyzing a work group.
model. Group behavior is a complex and subtle phenomenon in which everything, to some degree. is interconnected. But since it is more useful to concentrate upon the typical patterns of interaction. arrows are used to describe only the most important relationships,
It i important to note that the whole system is alive and moving. Changes in any part of the model can eventually lead to changes throughout the model. For example. when the economy hits a severe downturn a change in a ,",.:,ntextual factor). top management may decide to layoff people. Some oi these will be members of a work group. Remaining members may respond by increased emphasis on task requirements related to increasing production and lowering COSts. (Or they may go out on siri e or look (or other jobs.) In response to a downturn. organizational systems. particularly budgeting and auditing systems. are likely to be tightened. This ill interact with the group's norms about how much they should try to produce and how efficiently. It may well alter pauerns of interaction and give new prominence to those members of the group who have speci I skills for dealing with the crisis. All the changes and adjustments percolate through the system. resulting in altered outcomes-perhaps higher productivity. higher or lower satisfaction, or a mixture of other feelings. The outcomes are multidimensional and have feedback effects upon the group culture and upon design {actors.
'.'
22 PAAT
MANAGI G GROVPS
..
uncomfortable and changed to a more traditional business auire. Within a few weeks, the patterns of interaction that had proven successful as well as personally satisfying to individual members had fallen into disuse. Since group members could no longer easily enter and leave each other's offices and since they had no place to hold brainstorming sessions. their sense of what they "ought" to do on a given day became vague. Certain individuals, especially Carney, were more discomforted than others. Carney began 10 issue "wor ring papers" on what the competition was likely to do and on social issues. neither of which was seen as particularly relevant to the work of the group. Soon he was ostracized from the group. Since there was no comfortable and accessible place 10 have lunch together. people began to go out to restaurants in subgroups. It soon became the exception rather than the rule for the group to meet informally. Individuals began to Ieel increasingly dissatisfied with their job and felt surrounded by people .... 11h different per onal values. At the same time, the old roles seemed quite inappropriate in the new environment. During.an infrequent group lunch at a nearby restaurant, numerous complaints were voiced, ranging from feelings of inadequacy 10 a sense of boredom. to dissatisfaction with the rigid work hours .
Within 2 months, O'Hara left Merit to be married and to live on the West Coast.
Tashman and Carney also left. Kane suggested recruiting new people bur Donaldson decided that It would be best 10 disband the group. assigning the remaining individuals to regular departments, and reinstituting the task force system that had earlier been used Cor new-product development. Three months later, every member of the group had resigned except for Kane.
On one oi his rare visits to the office. Kirschner asked Kane what bad gone wrong. Kane was reluctant to describe what he thought Donaldson's effect had been. So he told Kirschner that it was difficult to maintain a creative group over a long time and that most members had personal reasons for leaving. Kirschner seemed to accept the explanation. and did not pursue the matter further.
Donaldson looked at the PD group and saw reduced outcomes. in his eyes, the absence of a new product in 2 months was cause for trying to change the group. He reached for action levers, changing the physical location and work schedule of the group without careful consideration of group culture and its operation. Un now. ingly, he disrupted the culture that group members had devised to fit their diverse personaliues to the task Kirschner had given them. The map. norms, and roles the group had established broke down. Carney and others became uncertain about what to do. Their previous excitement, satisfaction, and sense of purpose turned to confusion and hostility. The group as a social sy tern floundered and became a collection of individuals once again. Several people quit and eventually the group was disbanded.
Donaldson used a deficient model of how groups operate. His actions seriously weakened and then broke the links between design and culture. and between culture and outcome. He implicitly linked those things he could directly control, such as work schedule. reponing relationships, and physical selling, to group performance. He seemed unaware of the intervening role played by group culture and of how outcomes were multiple in nature. Use of a model that overlooked irnportant features of how a group operates led him to make a number of ill-conceived changes.
One of the aims of presenting a managerial model of group behavior is to focus attention on the intelligent selection of action levers. The process can be summarized as follows:
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. 24 PART 1: MANAGING GROUPS
managerial action should be taken only after a careful analysis of how the culture of the group will be affected and what the consequences will be for the group. As Donaldson discovered, it is a mistake to be concerned solely with productivity outcomes while ignoring emotional and individual growth outcomes. To improve work group performance, one must understand the multiple causes of group behavior. This model provides a practical starting point for acquiring such an understanding.
)
tions were enduring, built upon common activities and shared ideas about what was and what was not legitimate behavior in the department. His description of the pattern of th se associations is diagramed in Exhibit 6.
The Sarto group, named after Tony Sarto who was its most respected member and the arbiter between th other members. was the largest group in the department. Except for Loui Pa trici , AI Bartolo, and Frank Bonz.ani (who spelled each other during break periods), the group Invariably ate lunch together on the fire escape near aisle 1. On tho e Saturdays and Sundays when overtime work was required. the Sarto group operated as a team, regardless of wee day work assignments, to get overtime work completed as quickly as po ible. (Few department members not affiliated with either th Sar 0 or the Clark groups worked on we kends.) Off the job, Sarto group members often joined in parties or weekend trips, with Sarto's summer house being a frequent rendezvous.
Sarto's group was made up entirely of men, and it was also the most cohesive one in the departm nt in term of its organized punch-in and punch-out system. Since the men were regularly scheduled to work from 7:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. wee. days. and since alJ supervisors left at ;:00 P.M., it was possibl almost every day to finish a day's work by 5:30 P.~t. and leave the plant. ..,,'hat is more, if one man stayed until 7 o'clock, he could punch the nrne cards of a number of men and help th m gain free time without pay loss. (This system operated on wee ends also, at which time supervisors were only present, if at all, (fV short periods.) In Sarto's group the duty of staying late rotated, SO that no one did so more t:',," once a week. In addition, the group would punch in a member if he was unavoidably delayed. Such a practice never occurred without prior notice from the man who e pect d to be late, however, and never if the tardiness was expec ed to go beyond 8:00 A.M., the start of the day for the foreman.
Sarto explained the logic behind the system to Kirk:
You know that our hourly pay rate is quite low, compared to other companies. What makes this the best place to wor is the f eling of s curity you ge . 0 on ever gets laid off in this department. With all the hours in the wee ,all the company ever has to do is shorten th wor week when orders
fall off. We have to tighten our belts, but we can all get along. When things are going well, as they are now, the company is only interested in getting out the work. It doesn't help to get it out faster than it's really needed-so we go home a little early whenever we can. Of course, some guys abuse this sort of thing-like fierman-but others work even harder, and it averages out.
Whenever an extra order has to be pushed through, naturally ( work until 7:00 P.M. So do a lot of the others. I believe that if [ stay until my WOrk is caught up and my equipm nt is in good shape, that's all the company wants of me. They I ave us alon and expect us to produce-and we do.
When Kirk asked Sarto if he would not rather work shorter hours at higher pay in a union shop (Slade employee were not organized), he just laughed and said: "It wouldn't come close to an even trade."
The members of Sarto's group were explicit about what constituted a fair day's work. Customarily, th y cited Herman Schell, Kir 's work partner and the foreman's brother, as a man who consistently produced below that level. Kirk received an informal orientation from Herman during his first days or. the job. As Herman put it:
I've worked at this job for a good many years, and I exp ct to stay here a good many more. You're just starting out, and you don't now which end is up yet. We spend a lot of time in here; and no matter how hard we work, the pile of work never goes down. There's alway more to ta e its place. And I think you've found out by now that this isn't light work. You can wear yourself out fast if you're not smart. Look at Pearson up in aisl 4. There's a kid who's just going to burn himself out. He won't last long. If h thinks he's going to get somewhere working like that, h 's nuts. They'll give him all the work he can take. He makes it tough on everybody els and on himself, too.
Kirk reported furth r on his observations of the department:
As nearly as I could tell, two things seemed to determine whether or not Sarto's group or any others came in for weekend work on Saturday or Sunday. It s emed usually to be caused by rush orders that were received late in the week, although I
3
•
Mor than this, Herman took no responsibility for breaking in his assigned h lpers as they first entered the d partment or thereafter, He had had four helpers in the space of little more than a year. Each had asked for a transfer to another department, pubbdy citing the work as cause, privately blaming Herman. Tony was the one who taught me the ropes wh n I first entered the department.
The men who congregated around Harry Oar tended to talk like and copy the behavior of the Sarto group, though they never approached the degree of inventive skill Or the amount of h Ipmg activities that Tony's group did. They sought outside social contact with the Sarto group, and several times a year th two groups w nt out on-the-town together. Clark's group did maintain a high level of performance in th volume of work it tumed out.
The remainder of the people in the department stayed pretty much to themselves or associated In pairs or triplets. 'one of these people were as inventive, as helpful. or as productive as Sarto's or Clark's groups, but most of them gave verbal support to the same values as hose groups held.
The distmcbon betw en the two organized groups and the rest of the d parrment was dearest in the punching-out routine.
The women could not wor past 3: 1'.101.,
so they were not involved. Malone and Lacey, Partridge and Swan, and Martin, La Forte, and Mensch arranged within their small group for punch outs, or they remained beyond 5:00 I'.M. and slept or read when th y finished their work. Perkins and Pierce went home when the foreman did. Herman Schell, Susi. and Mah r had no punch-out organizanon to rei on. Susi and Maher invariably stayed in the department until 7:00 P.M. Herman was reported to have established an arrangem nt with Partridge whereby the latter punched Hennan out for a fee. Such .rx: was unthinkable from the point 0 view of Sarto's group. EVIdently, it did not occur often because Herman usually went 10 sleep behind piles of wor when hi brother left or, parricularly dunng the fishing season, punched himself out arly. He constantly railed against the dishon sty of other men m the department, y I urged me 10 punch him out on several "emergency occasions."
Just before I left the Slade Company to retum to school after 14 months on the lob, I had a casual conversation wlth Mr. Porter, the production manager, and h a ed me how I had enjoyed my experience with the organization. During the conversation, 1 learned thai he new of the punch-out system in the Planng Department. W:lilt's more, he told me, he was wondering if he ought 10 "blow the lid off h whole mess."
)
)
)
s
)
)
..
Exhibit 2
Plating Aoom Layout
s hi ppill9
7
JIIe $/_ C4trtpM1y
Exhibit 5
) Plating Room Personnel
Compony Dept. ProdlUlIDity
MIInl~1 5<"",,,ty 5<n"'''hj POIJ EduGI",on Fo""I .. 1 St.1I
LOOlllon Nomt Agt SI"lu, (yn.' (yn.) IS/Srr) (Yr$·) Rtlolion9"p' R.>IIn'
Aisle I Tony Sarto 30 m 13 13 S1.50 12 Louis Patricio uncle 10
Pete Facelli, cousin
Pete l'acelli 26 m 8 8 1.30 12 Louis Patricio uncle 9
Tony Sarto. COUSIn
Joe lambi 31 m 5 5 1.20 10 9
Aisle 2 He=an Schell -IS s 26 26 1.45 8 Oil", Schell, broth r 3
Philip Kirk 23 m 1 0.90 16 na"
AI Ie 3 Dom Pantaleoni 31 m 10 10 1.30 9 9
Sal Malett.1 32 m 12 12 1.30 II 8
(_ Aisle 4 Bob Pearson 22 -I 4 1.15 12 fal her in tool 10
and die dept.
AIsle 5 Char Malone 44 m 22 8 1.25 8 4
John Lacey 41 $ 9 5 1.20 9 brother in paint "
dept.
Aisle 6 Jim Martin 30 s 7 7 1.25 12 7
BiU :-'1 nsch 41 m 6 2 1.10 8 7
Tank 1 Henry l<IFQrte 38 m 14 6 1.25 12 5
TolJ\ks 2 &. 3 Ralph Parker 25 s 7 7 1,20 12 7
Ed H rding 27 5 8 1.20 12 7
) Ceorse Flood 22 5 5 1.15 12 6
Harry Clark 29 m 8 8 1.20 12 8
Tom Bond 25 s 6 6 1.20 12 7
Tank 4 Frank Bonzani 27 m 9 9 1.25 12 9
AI Bartolo 24 m 6 6 1.25 12 8
Tank 5 Louis Patrici 47 14 1-1 1.45 14 Tony Sarto. nephew 10
Pete Pacelli, nephew
Rack Assembly 10 women JO-4O 9m. Is 100av,) 100av,) 1.05 8(av,) 6 with husbAnds 7(av.)
in company
Rack Majnt!!nanc~ Will Partridge 57 m 14 2 1.20 8 -I
Uoyd Swan 62 m 3 3 1.10 8 4
Degreaslng Da\~ 4S s 1.05 12 6
MilCe Maher 41 m 4 4 1.05 8 5
.olishing Russ Perkins 49 m 12 2 1.20 12 7
Foreman Otto Schell 56 m 35 35 na 12 Herman Schell. 8
brother
Oerk Bill Pierce 32 m 10 4 1.15 12 7
Chemist Frank Rutl ge 24 5 2 2 na 14 5
~ On. pot~ntUl sale 011 (bottom) to 10 (top), u evalu.ted by tht workers in the dt~rt"'.nt
b. Kirk wu the source 01 dot. tor this c .... and, os such. h. was in 0 bto.SO<I position to report .CC'Ur.lely perceptions about
huruelE. 9