Group
Introduction
The purpose of describing group process is to familiarize you through the processes in which individuals interact with each other when they came together. The importance of a group is always felt whenever we are playing our role in our day to day social life. We use the word group for various activities such as games, political party, team for performing a task, committee members to decide about a programme, membership of a royal group or member of the underprivileged group. We are born as an individual and we become members of various groups in course of our socialization as adults. For fulfillment of our job’s we do become members of groups.
Characteristics of a group
Group is also identified as sharing common characteristics such as religious groups, caste groups, community groups of businessman, sportsman and so on. Whenever there is scope for interaction among individual members they may be called a group. In addition to this social psychologists also add additional features of a group which may be loyalty, belongingness, attractions trust among the members of a group. How same person behaves differently when he is member of a group and when he is not the member of a group. For example the same student behaves in a disciplined manner in a classroom or library and his behavior is quite different when he is in hostel, playground or cafeteria with his friends. Each member of a group influences the behavior of other members in a group. There are marked differences in the performance of an individual if he is alone and when he is together with other individuals. For example, same sportsman playing at village level when given chance to interact with an international level group may raise his standard to compete with the members of international group member’s performance level. Leaders also play an important role affecting the behavior of its group members. If leader of a group is that of positive attitude its group members will also like to perform to the best of their potential and it leaders are prejudiced the members may feel demotivated to work. Sometimes group opinion is more effective to change the judgement of individuals because they think that my opinion conforms what most others think about an issue. In many problem-solving situations it is found that individual find solutions to their problems by interacting different members of the group. Even at times of grief the individual members feel relieved by sharing their emotional distress with other group members. Thus through the process of communication and interaction new ideas emerge which ultimately become binding property of a group.
Togetherness
The togetherness situation is different from group situation. For example, when various individuals like the pensioners go to the bank or the treasury on the last day of the month to collect their pension, they are just in the together situation. But they meet each other month after month they may gradually form into a group. They may have interactions with each other which may lead to some kind of social norms and possibly also some kind of status relationship. It may be possible that when a new man joins the other members may have a different attitude towards him and probably after a few meetings, the new man may be assimilated and may feel that he belongs to that group. In course of repeated interaction over a time period among individuals with common motives or problems, togetherness situation become group situation. The appearance of a group is marked by the formation of structure and a set of norms. Thus a group include persons who share some norms and interrelated social roles. It is also possible that when togetherness is seized with a task will lead to suggestions and counter-suggestions so that certain social norms will develop and also certain status differentiation and finally to some group actions. Status also stabilises in a group in the course of interaction over a period of time. Those members who contribute effectively towards the goals of the group emerge as frontrunners in the group. Thus from a situation where there is no status difference gradually through the process of interaction the individual or individuals who are very active by their words and deeds assume the leadership status. On the other hand those individual or individuals who are quiet participant in a group assume bottom position. For example, if you join a school and if you participate actively in all the school activities the teachers and principal of your school would want your presence at every important function of the school. And in due course of time you may be rewarded with a position of captain or student representative of your school.
In text questions:
(i) Why people join groups
(ii) Describe important features of a group
(iii) Describe important social groups in our context
(iv) Does group affects our performance
(v) Describe the similarities and differences between togetherness and the group.
Group Dynamics
The behavior of a person influences the behavior of other persons in the group. This process of influencing each other’s behavior pattern in a group is called group dynamics. This process of group dynamics is affected by factors of individual personality, social situation and cultural tradition.
Cohesiveness
At the time of external threat people have a tendency to fight unitedly to ward off the common threat. During war times this feeling of togetherness soars because of common threat perceived by many others. For example, when terrorists attacked Mumbai on 26/11/2008 the whole of Mumbai stood united forgetting their regional, linguistic and community differences.
Co-operation: A super-ordinate goal is one that necessitates cooperative efforts – a goal that overrides people’s differences from one another. Suppose you are not on talking terms with your friends with your friends in college but it is being attacked by an outsider you would automatically come forward to safeguard him from the enemy forgetting your differences with him. Initially if he is observed that effects of competition for power and position exists in a group. Gradually this bitterness of intergroup rivalry increases with competition but finally if these warring groups are introduced with a superordinate goal they come together and become united. For instance in villages if two communities have been fighting on many issues but in case of a flood however they may work unitedly to get rid of the menace.
Mob/Crowd
This is certainly an important form of collectivity. But it is different than a group because members of a crowd or mob may have dissimilar background and they somehow converge to a common situation for sometime. Crowd’s behavior is largely guided by emotions, irrationality a diminished sense of irrationality and a sense of anonymity. Mob behavior reflects the impact of suggestion, imitation and sympathy. Mob behavior is due to operation of various factors some of which depend upon the characteristics of the situation and the behavior pattern of a particular collectivity presents at a point of time. Sometimes members of a protesting people can be converted into aggressive group. For instance when people are protesting over electricity cut in their area or police inaction in a case may turn suddenly violent to vent out their frustration in the form of blocking the road or indulging in violence.
Types of Mob
Mob can be also of four types. The first is “causal crowd” which is a lived loosely organised collectivity that may be motivated by the attraction of the moment. The second is “conventionalized crowd” the activities of which are directed by conventional rules or expectations. Examples include the collection of people in a religious festival, the spectators at a football match or a cricket match. The third is the “action crowd” which is an aggressive crowd and acts towards a definite goal. Finally there is the “expressive crowd” which has no clear defined goal. It is a group of people that collect together to celebrate an event.
Conformity
It is important to understand the concept of conformity while describing group processes. Conformity is in fact getting affected by how others act and to change our own behavior by changing our belief influenced by others. Conformity can be of two types. Sometimes we conform to others without believing it. This type of outward conformity is called compliance. If our compliance is to an explicit command or acting in accord with a direct – it is called obedience. The sincere inward conformity when we are genuinely convinced is called acceptance. For instance millions suggest morning walk is useful for health and we start doing so.
Intext questions
(i) What is the process of group dynamics?
(ii) Describe cohesiveness, co-operation and conformity.
(iii) How mob behavior is different from group behavior?
Is human life possible without a group?
Can we satisfy our needs expectations, emotions, challenges, crises, accomplish goals without being members of a group. The answer to these questions is simple no. We cannot progress on our path of life if we are not members of certain groups. Early in our childhood we need the support of a family, later on we move to schools where we get the support of various social, academic and professional groups to do better in our lives. An individual becomes the member of various groups and it may be social, political, academic, religious, ethnic sports, music, linguistic, professional, cultural and economic to pursue and satisfy his or her expectation and goals. It is almost impossible to think of a person who is not a member of a group of his or her choice. If you are a social or political worker or even scholar you need a group to pursue your ideology with people at large. We cannot grow in an isolated individualistic existence.
Difference of “us” and “them”
This lesson will help you understand different aspects of group life. Difference between “us” and “them” play the role of motivator and at times lead to faulty generalizations or stereotypes and prejudices towards the members of other groups. It is important to note that mere collection of people is not enough. People together standing on a bus station, railway platform or cricket stadium people not interacting with each other do not form a group. Sometimes watching the cricket match some people may perceive themselves as “us” in contrast with “them” who root for the other team. Thus group phenomena may emerge even during minimal interaction situations and social influence emerges strongly in interacting group situations.
Group is defined as two or more people interacting and influencing one another group is also defined as two or more persons interacting with one another having common goal and a feeling that they belong to a particular group. Besides this loyalty, trust among each other, and a definite structure are some of the important properties of a group. The people in a group share common norm’s and value’s and their role’s are interrelated to each other.
Intext questions
(i) Is human life possible without being members of groups
(ii) Describe important differences of “us” and “them”
Group’s effect on performance
The effect of a group on performance can be negative or positive. There are some important concepts that can help us understand the effect of becoming member’s of groups.
Social Facilitation
We are affected by the mere presence of another person? Mere presence means that people are not competing with each other and they are present as a passive audience or co-actors. Does our normal activities of eating, playing are affected by mere presence of others? In our daily life we can notice such differences in our behavior. If we are sitting at home and some guest suddenly arrives at our home we start arranging things in our house at proper places and we also become somewhat conscious of our dress and other things. Several others examples in this direction conform to this view. It is found that cyclict or Joggers in a park times are faster when racing or moving together than doing alone against the clock. It has also been found that social arousal facilitates performance.
Crowding
Crowding reflects the presence of many others and people do response to other’s presence. Even a supportive audience effect’s our performance negatively on challenging tasks. Having mom and dad at your first stage show likely won’t boost your performance. The effect of other people increases with number. Being in crowd also intensifies positive or negative emotional reaction. It has been found that crowding hampered performance only on complex task, such as solving difficult anagrams. Crowding enhances arousal, which facilitates the dominant responses. Why are we aroused in the presence of others? Experiments’ suggest that arousal stems partly from evaluation apprehension and partly from distraction: A conflict between paying attention to others and concentrating on the task.
Social loafting performance of a person is negatively affected in a group situation. Social loafting is the tendency of the people in a group to exert less efforts towards a common goal. When they are individually accountable contrary to common notion “in unity there is strength” group members are actually less motivated when reward is equally divided and the task is less challenging, appealing or involving. But people in group loaf less when the task is appealing and member’s are identified with the group.
Intext questions
(i) What do you mean by social facilitation?
(ii) Why our behavior is affected by crowd?
(iii) What is social loafting?
Doing in a group what we would not be doing alone: Social facilitation experiment’s show that people are aroused in a group. Social loafting experiment’s show that responsibility, diffused responsibility and arousal is combined people loose restrains of their individual living. Socially destructive acts of stone pelting, group vandalism, looting, torching trains or public transport vehicles may result. These irrational or immoral behavior patterns are exhibited which is provoked by the power of a group. In these type of situations people act apparently without their normal conscience. What are the factor that creates such type of psychological state among group members?
Group size: The bigger the group size the more its members lose self-awareness and in an aroused state are more likely to commit mob atrocities of looting, burning or lynching. An aroused mob enables its members to believe they will not be persecuted, they perceive the action as that of groups.
Group Polarization
Group discussion produces enhancement of member’s pre-existing tendencies, a strengthening of member’s average tendency. This is called group polarization. Group polarization occurs because group discussion elicits a pooling of ideas most of which favor the dominant viewpoint. Active participation in discussion produces more attitude change than does passive listening. The more group members repeat an idea the more they rehearse and validate them. In everyday life people associate mostly with others whose attitudes are similar to their own. Overtime, initial differences among groups of college student’s become accentuated. For example if student’s at a college are of two categories hostellers and day-scholars had has initial differences, the gap is likely to grow during college years. This results partly from group member’s reinforcing shared inclinations.
Also it is human nature to want to evaluate our opinions and abilities, something we can do so by comparing our view with others.
Group think
When do group influences hinder smart decisions:
Blunders are lived by the tendency of decision making groups to suppress dissent in the interest of group harmony. Group think takes place when an available cohesive group remain isolated from dissenting viewpoints presence of a directive leader who signals what decision he or she favors also contributes to it. The group think phenomenon occurs due to illusion of invulnerability, unquestioned belief in the groups morality, rationalization and conformity pressure.
Intext questions
(i) Why it is better to work in a group?
(ii) Which factors influence our group work?
(iii) What is the harmful effect of group polarization?
Groups are of various types. One major categorization is of formal and informal groups.
Formal and Informal Groups
Groups that are established for a specific purpose are called formal groups. This type of group is usually formed to meet clearly defined goals. The examples of formal groups include student projects groups, committees, boards or commissions.
Informal groups on the other hand form naturally out of interaction among individuals overtime. It is important to understand that informal groups may emerge out of formal groups with members having similar ideas, values beliefs and social needs. For instance xerox photocopiers, Indian National Congress, Rotary Club started as small informal groups but with time became formal groups. Spontaneous interaction of likeminded people aimed towards achieving a common goal may give rise to the formation of informal groups. Whenever certain people find difficulty in their way to achieve something which they may not achieve by being members of formal groups they are motivated to became members of informal groups. Membership of any group depends on many things. Some of the important factors include importance common motive, socio-economic background cultural aspiration poverty deprivation and job security. Internal factor of attitude similarity and external factors of situation and leadership characteristics also play an important role in the formation of groups. In Indian society caste of people is also important in deciding group membership. Sometimes crises situation also leads to the formation of groups in which similar interest groups on the basis of their perceived threats join hands to face the situation.
(i) Explain the differences between formal and informal groups
(ii) What are factors that motivates us to become members of a group?
Group Development
Newly formed groups have different behaviors than groups that have been together for sometime. This is because a group progresses through a number of stages of development just as we progress from infancy into adulthood. Groups posses through the following distinct stages: forming, storming, initial integration and performing stage.
Forming Stage
When a group is formed, a number of issues are decided. Before joining a group, people ask various questions. Who can become a member? What are the roles once has to play as members? What the group can offer me? How can I contribute to the group? These are the uncertainties that comes to the mind of a person while becoming member of a group. In the first stage the group defines its behavior for the members and finalise the goals of the group.
Storming Stage
In this stage members feel comfortable to express their feelings. Differences in attitude, needs and goal setting are widely noticed at this stage. Internal and external demands create conflicts among the members. If conflicts are ignored, members will develop bitterness and that may damage the groups ability to perform.
Initial Integration Stage
The members in this stage develop an initial sense of closeness and belonging. By this stage the rules are finalised the way group members will operate. The members in this stage start co-operating to each other.
Performing Stage
In this stage group start functioning as an effective unit. By this stage group members learn well as to how to get along with each other. The roles of members are decided and the leadership issues are settled by now. The group start achieving its goals. Most of the members at this stage are satisfied with the group.
Summary
Two or more persons interacting for sometime having common goal constitute a group. Group is a necessity to fulfill our individual needs and expectations. Being together as a member of a group our behaviors are affected. Positive and negative aspects of our behavior are affected by the mere presence of others. Importance of group processes can be understood with the help of factors like competitiveness, cohesiveness and co-operation that lead to enhanced performance and productivity. Group processes like social loafing, groupthink and destructive mob-behaviour may lead to negative outcomes.
Group processes help to understand the unity and disunity effect of group behavior at village, caste and community levels. Intergroup rivalry can be minimized by identifying and strengthening group-cohesiveness factors. This concept can be used to minimise rival factors of animosity, bitterness and hate at the time of communal, racial and caste related conflicts. At the organizational level also productivity can be immensely improved by strengthening the group diversity and its energy to a syncgistic level.
Terminal Questions
(1) Define group
(2) Describe various advantages of being a group member
(3) Describe various disadvantages of a group
(4) What is group dynamics?
(5) Describe various features of mob-behavior
(6) What is group conformity?
(7) Describe various stages of group development
Answers
Ans. 1. Two or more persons interacting for sometime having common goal constitute a group. There are various types of groups such as political, social and academic groups.
Ans. 2. People join groups to satisfy their individual needs and expectations. Every job can’t be done individually and people join groups to get the support of others to do their job more happily. By becoming the member of a group even difficult job’s became easier with the cooperation of other members. The energy level and productivity of a person is improve by becoming members of a group. They also get the trust of each other and loyalty of group members motivates them to do something to achieve group goals.
Ans. 3. Some of the effect of group on performance may be negative. Social loafting is one such process in which some of the group members exert less effort when they are active in achieving a common goal. In case of group polarization group members despite having different opinion may favor the dominant viewpoint. Somewhat similar concept of groupthink also hinders innovative ideas in the interest of protecting group harmony.
Ans. 4. The process of influencing each other’s behavior pattern on a group is called group dynamics. Cohesiveness, co-operation, status, identity, norms, role-playing are some of the factors that is a product of group dynamics. Group dynamics tries to explain the role of individual, social and cultural factors in the operation of groups. Group goals become unity factors for the group member’s performance. Intergroup rivalry is also explained with the help of group dynamics factors. How status, leadership and group identity affects the functioning of group members is also a part of group dynamics process.
Ans. 5. It is different from group and its members may have different background. The behavior of a mob is largely guided by emotions and irrationality. Mob behavior is also guided by situational factors. Mob behavior may turn into aggressive results as well.
Ans. 6. Conformity is a process that describes how our behaviour and belief is influenced by others. Conformity is of two types: outward conformity and inward conformity. In outward conformity we simply act in accordance to others but not necessarily believing it. Inward conformity means we genuinely act and believe what others suggest.
Ans. 7. A group passes through four distinct stages of development. First stage is called forming stage is called forming stage in which group defines the behaviour for its members and decide about the goals of the group. Second stage is called storming stage in which group members express their differences. Third stage is called initial integration stage in which group members get close to each other. Finally the fourth stage is called performing stage in which group start functioning as an effective unit.
Leadership
Introduction
We often hear the expression “the youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow.” But the characteristics of ideal leader is difficult to define. Leaders of various walk’s of our life are publicised every day. The images of leader’s of sports, politics, cinema, business are brought to our notice through mass-media. There are different type of success stories behind every successful leader and there is no single accepted quality of becoming successful leader. The socio-cultural tradition, political and economic situation are some of the important determinants of leadership. In our day to day life also we assume that success – whether in the family, business, school, country or the military is often attributed to the quality of leadership. In today’s work environment, the melting away of national and geographical boundaries via computerisation and internet have created more need for global leadership. The importance to lead in and adapt in diverse environment has become more important in today’s context. Leadership has been defined over the years by psychologists, sociologists and political scientists. Leadership is defined as ability to influence others to achieve certain goals. A good leader can influence the behaviour, attitude and performance of its followers. Different studies and theories of leadership have found following common features of leadership:
· Leadership is a process.
· Leadership deals with how to influence others by ideas.
· Leadership is part of group dynamics.
· Leadership is based on interdependence.
· Leadership is a system of mutual influence between leaders and followers.
Qualities of a Leader
If Gandhi was an example of social leader, Bill Gates is an example of professional leader and Buddha, Christ Gurunanak are example’s of religious leaders. Initiative and dominance are important factors of the leadership process. Whether Hitler, Stalin, Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose in all the cases leaders are heard and accepted by a sizeable number of the people. The followers of such leaders involve communication and authority of such leaders is accepted by them.
There is also a contradiction that qualities alone is not the criteria of good leadership. If honesty, moralistic principles, hard-work, trust are the guiding factors of leadership then why people with dictatorial, aggressive and even in some cases people with anti-social antecedents become very popular in their socio-political constituency and it becomes difficult to question their authority in their respective area. Again an unrealistic theory of leadership is taught in management schools that only literate and trained persons becomes leaders but in many cases people occupy enormous leadership position without having graduated from any formal training to become leaders. Thus it is interesting to note that the qualities required to be a successful leader varies from place to place, culture to culture, and situation to situation. There are leaders of specialized fields by their abilities of their field such as Sachin Tendulkar in cricket, Ratan Tata in business, Abinav Bindra in shooting but their popularity is mostly profession centric and beyond that they are not recognized as mass leaders. Thus successful leadership of a particular field and the leadership of the mass social spectrum are different things. The main psychological attributes of a leader are as follows:
· Goal-directed behaviour to his/her followers.
· Being aware of the abilities of their followers.
· Should have good communication skills both verbal and non-verbal
· Accepting personal responsibilities and setting examples.
· He should have the abilities to read the situation.
· He should be a good planner, visionary and trustworthy to his followers.
The characteristics mentioned above is not an exclusive list and some new behaviour traits may also be an important factor of leadership behaviour.
Theories of Leadership
There are many theories of leadership and important among them are the following:
Born theory of leadership
Early view of leadership theories describes that leader are born. According to this theory certain people are born with the traits of leadership and they have inherent properties to become a leader. There is something special about certain people that makes them great leaders.
Trait theory
This approach attempts to predict which personal characteristics result in effective leadership. For being a leader certain important traits are as follows:
· Belief in oneself (self-confidence) along with openness to the ideas of others.
· A passion for the job energy and drive that set an example for others.
· Love of people – acceptance of others.
· Maturity and responsibility.
· Desire to achieve goals.
Behaviour theory
Most behavioural theories suggest that successful leaders exhibit two types of behaviour, task centered relations and employee-centered relations. Task centered relations are those that relate to the quality and the quantity of work: employee-centered relations are based on meeting the personal needs of the staff.
Situational Theory: The impact of situational variables is important in effective leadership. The effectiveness of a particular style of leadership behaviour depends on the situation. As situation changes different style’s become appropriate.
Path-Goal Theory: Path-goal theory focuses on how leaders influence follower expectations. According to it leader behaviour is acceptable when followers view it as a source of satisfaction or paying the way to future satisfaction. The four styles of leadership identified by path-goal theory are as follows:
(i) Directive style providing guidance to followers about what should be done and how to do it.
(ii) Supportive style: The supportive leader is primarily concerned with establishing interpersonal relations with the followers.
(iii) The participative style: This type of leader believes that follower participation improves the quality of decisions.
(iv) Achievement oriented style: This leader sets challenging goals for followers. Minimal supervision is required with this style of leadership.
Charismatic Leadership Theory: Chrismatic leadership focusses on the interpersonal transaction between leaders and followers. Leaders are engaged in behaviours that maintain a quality interaction between themselves and followers. The underlying characteristics of charismatic leaders are as follows:
· offer an unusual or far-out vision of reality.
· make sacrifices or take risks to further their vision.
· use unconventional methods to achieve their goals.
· communicate with supreme confidence.
Charismatic leadership transforms followers by creating changes in their goals, values, needs, belief and aspirations. They accomplish this transformation by appealing to followers self. Concepts namely their values and personal identity.
Summary
The topic of leadership attracts many kinds of people. But human’s are so complex that we have a number of theories describing leadership. Born theory of leadership suggests that certain people are born to became leaders but this has view has become outdated. According to trait theory there are certain characteristics physical, social and psychological that one needs to become a leader. The situational theory prescribes that we should understand traits and behaviour not in isolation, but in the context of a situation. Charismatic theory proposes a visionary approach and use of unconventional methods in achieving goals. Leadership is one of the most talked about topic even in our day to day life and a better understanding of this topic will be of great use in our practical and professional life.
Questions
(i) Describe leadership.
(ii) Describe different theories of leadership.
(iii) Describe psychological attributes of leadership.
(iv) How would you go about demonstrating leadership if you were the new chief?
Ans. 1. Leadership is based on the ability to influence others to achieve goals. Leadership has been defined from various perspectives. Earlier view of leadership proposed the born theory of leadership. But now this theory has become outdated. Trait theory emphasises certain traits of an individual make him/her a leader. Trait theory include social skills, intelligence, mature personality, responsibility and initiative as important characteristics of leadership. Behaviour theory of leadership describes the what and how of a leader. On the other hand, situational theory describes leadership on the basis of situation the leader becomes successful or not.
Ans. 2. There are many theories of leadership but important among them are as follows:
(a) Great man or born theory of leadership
(b) Trait theory of leadership
(c) Behaviour theory of leadership
(d) Situational theory of leadership
(e) Charismatic theory of leadership
Ans. 3. Important psychological attributes of leadership are as follows:
(i) good communicator
(ii) high degree of self-confidence
(iii) Optimist
(iv) Good in decision making
(v) Desire to achieve goal
(vi) An ability to work well with others
Ans. 4. If I had the opportunity to be the new chief I will undertake my job in the following manner.
First I would like to meet my follow followers and make them feel that I am very much part of your people. All my decisions will be in consultation with my team members. I will instill a sense of belongingness and responsibility to each member. I will invite the ideas and my behaviour will be goal directed. I will motivate my team members to perform as a te
