Observing Organizational Behaviour: Group And Team Behaviour, Conflict And Negotiation

Group and team behaviour

Discuss about the Observationc Organizations Behaviour, Structure and Process.

Organizational behaviour is related to the observation of various individuals/groups in an organization in response to other individuals/groups taken as a whole (Bratton, et al., 2010). It is basically a study of different people and group to get an idea about their attitude towards certain circumstances. OB is important as it builds relationship between different individuals, organization and the social objective in an organization. It aims at enhancing goodwill and facilitating motivation. Promotes optimization use of resources and multidisciplinary. This report gives detailed information about two different topics of organizational behaviour, structure and processes – Group and team behaviour; and conflict and negotiation.

A group basically consists of two or more interdependent and interacting individuals who in order to achieve some particular objectives come together and work collectively (Anderson, Ones, Sinangil & Viswesvaran, 2001). The behaviour of a group is mostly stated as that course action that takes place in a group. Usually there are two types of groups that an individual can form (Zimmer, 1986).

Formal Groups: These include those types of work groups which are the organization’s creation and have designated assignments and other rooted tasks (Piderit, 2000). This group directs towards the achievement of organizational goals. Formal groups are further classified as command group and interest group.

• Command group: It is that type of group that consists of individual who has to directly report to their manager (Cummings, 2004).
• Interest group: It is that type of group which is formed by those individuals who are working together in order to achieve an objective that is specific (Guzzo & Shea, 1992).

Informal groups: the formation of this group is due to friendship or some common interest. (Ivancevich, Matteson & Konopaske, 1990). There are basically two types of informal groups.

• Task group: In this group people work together in order to finish a task or a particular job (Van Knippenberg, D, 2000).
• Friendship group: These types of group are formed due to their shared and common interests.

Team is considered to do the task in an organized way in a formatted manner and proper ways in an organization (Johns & Saks, 2005).  There are the following types of team

• Problem solving team: Mainly groups of 5-12 employees are considered to form the same department who usually have to meet at least for few hours each week in order to discuss on many matters to improve efficiency, quality and the environment in an organization.
• Self managed work team: This type of team consists of 10-15 people in a team who has the responsibility of the former supervisors.
• Cross functional teams: In this type of team employees are at the same hierarchical level but coming from different areas of work and they come together in order to accomplish the given task (Yukl, 2002).
• Virtual teams: This type of team basically uses computer technology to bring altogether the physically dispersed members for the purpose of achieving the common goal of an organization.

The team has become popular as it is a very great way to use and enhance employee talents. Teams can quickly assemble, refocus, disband and deploy. Team often facilitates involvement of the employees working in an organization. They are proved to be more flexible and more responsive to bring positive changes in the environment. They facilitate employee participation in the process of decision making. It brings an increase in the morale of the employees by generating a feeling of motivation and also democratizes an organization (Johnson, et al., 2002).

• Some tasks can only be performed only by making combined efforts by individuals who works together. Different members in a group have different skills and experience in engaging at work. This can provide a synergetic effect which can be used to solve complex problems in an organization.
• Groups facilitate companionship and builds mutual understanding. This will solve problems at work and bring more efficiency.
• They generally provide guidelines on acceptable behaviour. It brings clarification in a situation that is ambiguous.
• Group can also provide the member with protection right as the group members can collaborate in order to protect their rights and interests from threats and pressures coming from outside party.

• Purpose: In a group the members often have a feeling that the group is created for administrative purpose. To maintain control on management and to make easy removal of management layer is also the reason. Whereas, in case of a team the members realise that in order to achieve the objectives of an organization, they have to perform collectively towards the attainment of desired outcome.
• Role awareness: In a group each individual are often preoccupied with their own assigned task and has limited knowledge regarding the task assigned to other group members. Therefore, in case of team, the team members are very much aware and well versed regarding the task assigned to the other team members. This will help them achieve organizational goals collectively.
• Conflict resolution: When a conflict takes place in a group, the members are always ready to point fingers at other group members and wait for the decision taken by the manager to resolve the issues. In case of team, the team members share a good bond with each other and take their responsibility to bring collaboration rather than putting the blame on other members.
• Trust: A group consists of an element of suspicion that has a role of causing members to become more cautious about the things they do and say. A lot of time and energy is wasted in making sure not to speak stupid words that can bring negative impact on their creativity. Whereas, team there is open communication system that is responsible for building trust among the members. The views of all the members are given importance and consideration and solutions are made accordingly.

Hence, the similarities between group and team behaviour is that the leader of both aims at achieving the main purpose for which they were formed and work towards the achievement of their desired goals.

For the improvement in relations among the employees: The individuals working in team always work in coordination and bring efficiency by working together to know each other better (Valle & Witt, 2001).  This will reduce the unnecessary chances for conflicts among the members and every individual will try to give its best to provide support to the members of the team.

Importance of group work

Healthy competition among the members: In case of team work, competition is always healthy and it creates a feeling of motivation in order to give better performance as compared to other team members.

Work will never suffer or takes backseat in team: In a team when a member is not available due to some reasons, another person can manage and perform the work in the absence of the team member without affecting the work of a team in an organization.

• Communication: The main associated issue with this process in the organization is the communication with other group and team members (Piccoli, Powell & Ives, 2004). It is important to establish the most effective ways and channels of communication.
• Conflict: Another issue is related to the situation that can bring conflict as many individuals are working together and it is quite obvious that there will be variation in ideas and views of the individuals (De Dreu & Weingart, 2003).
• Power and influence: While forming a group or a team, one person is always given a position having the right to exercise power in case of making decisions. So a person holding power should be fair and honest.

An organizational conflict is that state of discord that is mainly caused due to perceived opposition in values, interests and needs between the people who are working together in an organization (Rahim, 2010). In an organization conflicts can take place in many forms.

• Conflict within the individual: This type of conflict is related to values, in which the role expected out of an individual fails to confirm with the beliefs and values held by an individual.
• Interpersonal conflict: This type of conflict is usually involved between two or more individuals, and this is considered to be the most recognized and common conflict that takes place in an organization. Such conflict may arise because of limited capital and resources.
• Conflict between individual and group: There are certain norms of operational standards and behaviour that are established in all the formal and informal groups which have to be followed by all the members working in an organization (Jehn & Mannix, 2001). This type of conflict arises when an individual wants to remain for social needs within the group but sometimes may disagree to follow the group goals and its achievement methods.
• Intergroup conflict: An organization basically works in the network of various departments, groups, sections and work teams. This type of conflicts is not deeply personal in nature as the main reason behind the conflict is the factors that are inherent in the organizational behaviour.
• Inter-organizational conflict: Conflict can occur between organizations that has some dependency upon each other in many ways (Panteli & Sockalingam, 2005). Such conflict can take place between supplier organization and buyer organization related to quality, quantity and delivery times.

• Getting employees’ attention: Conflict can help the company to attract attention of their employees. It will create a sense of focus on the mind of the employees. When employees are allowed to keep their ideas, it will definitely improve the quality of meetings.
• Improve ideas: It results into a better quality of idea that is produced by the company. When people are working in a group there is always a fear of getting involved in a conflict. Hence, to avoid such a situation people remain more alert and brings improved ideas for the conduct in an organization (Jehn & Bendersky, 2003).

Negotiation refers to the process in which there are two or more parties who exchange various goods and services and also attempts to agree upon the rate of exchange decided between the parties (Robbins, 2001). Generally negotiation has two approaches:

Distributive Bargaining: It means to divide up a fixed given amount of resources. It is basically a win-lose situation.

Integrative Bargaining: It is that type of negotiation that aims at settling one or more settlements and results into a win-win solution (Beersma & De Dreu, 2002).

• Negotiation brings long term career success for the organization: While making negotiation in relation to financial terms, it automatically brings a long term benefit to the business (Bazerman, 2000).
• Negotiation can avoid conflicts: Whenever a conflict takes place, negotiation is proved to be the best way to resolve such a situation.

• Facts: Conflicts usually takes place when individuals keep different ideas and theories related to business operations. The owners of the business can get involved in a conflict during bargaining with individuals and with other businesses. Whereas, negotiation is that process in which each individual attempts to bring a solution that can be beneficial for all the parties concerned therewith.
• Function: In case of small business they often have low negotiating positions and purchasing power. Whereas, it is not so in case of conflicts. Conflict can take place in small organization in the same way as it occurs in large organizations (Harinck, De Dreu, & Van Vianen, 2000).

Conflict and negotiation both are prevalent in case of large business organization as more individuals form a part of the company.

Both conflict and negotiation provides several options to bring resolution in case of difficult situations (Kuchar, & Yang, 2000).

In both the cases there is a chance that the process can bring an engagement by one party in unethical behaviour. This is the major drawback in both the processes.

Conclusion

The base of an organization rests on the philosophy, vision, values and goals of an organization. The final outcomes of this study highlight the quality of work and motivation brought in the organization as a result of group and team work. Conflict and negotiation is an important area that has to be studied to know the atmosphere in an organization. Some conflicts can cause harmful effects in the survival of an organization. It becomes importance to resolve such conflicts and find ways to avoid them in the near future for the smooth functioning and survival of the concerned organization. The element that describes the framework of an organization has been discussed above.

Work as a team and group behaviour in an organization often plays a very important role. Among the team members, teamwork communication is the most essential trait. We can conclude by saying that team work is considered to be more effective in an organization as compared to a group work. Conflicts can be resolved by making negotiations.

Difference between groups and teams

References

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