Study Guide

• Group Decision Making
  
  • Process gains in group decision making, including:
    
    • information pooling
      
      • Combine ideas
        
    • group memory (transactive memory)
      
      • As a whole, the group can remember more information
        
    • error correction
      
      • Swiss Cheese Model
        
        • 
          
    • motivational factors.
      
      • Decision Acceptance
        
      • Commitment to implementation
        

         
         

  • Process losses in group decision making, including:
    
    • Groupthink
      
    • Majority influence
      
      • Asch Studies
        
        • (funny 70's video about people judging which line is longer)
          
    • Information blocking
      
      • Murder Mystery Example (in class activity)
        
        • 
          
    • Polarization (choice shift)
      
      • Choiceshift (groupshift)
        
        • People who meet together and already have ideas in mind make more rash decisions
          
      • Risky Shift (in domain of losses)
        
      • Conservative shift (in domain of gains)
        
      • Explanations
        
        • Information Blocking
          
        • Extreme individuals become more extreme
          
        • Extreme alternative is valued higher after discussion
          
    • motivational factors.
      
      • Diffusion of responsibility
        
      • Social loafing
        

         
         

  • The leader-participation model
    
    • 5 decision-making styles
      
      • Decide
        
      • consult individually
        
      • consult group
        
      • facilitate
        
      • Delegate
        
    • 4 decisions outcomes (leaders can affect these four areas)
      
      • Decision quality
        
        • How wise, well-reasoned, and sound the idea is
          
      • Implementation
        
        • How committed employees are to implementing the idea
          
      • Cost of decision making
        
        • How efficient (cost-wise) the decision making process is
          
        • More meetings/participative-decisions = more $ spent
          
      • Development
        
        • Employee development through decision making process
          
        • Those involved become more experienced employees
          
    • 7 contingencies (that determine when different decisions-making styles are appropriate)
      
      • Decision significance
        
        • How significant is the decision to the success of the project or organization?
          
      • Importance of commitment
        
        • How important is the team member's commitment to the decision?
          
      • leader's expertise
        
        • Does the leader (you) possess the knowledge or expertise related to this problem?
          
      • likelihood of commitment
        
        • If you were to make the decision yourself, what is the likelihood that the team would commit itself to the decision?
          
      • group's support for objectives
        
        • To what degree does the team support the organization's objectives at stake in this problem?
          
      • group expertise
        
        • Do team member's possess the knowledge or expertise related to this problem?
          
      • team competence.
        
        • Do team members have the ability to work together in solving problems?
          

         
         

  • The zone of indifference.
    
    • "the range within each individual in which he or she willingly accepts orders without consciously questioning authority"
      
    • Relates to the "Likelihood of commitment" contingency
      

       
       

  • How to determine which decision-making style to use in different situations based on the leader-participation model and the process gains/losses model.
    
    • Learning: group > pooling > best > average
      
    • Problem solving
      
      • Simple: pooling > group > best > average
        
      • Quantitative/deductive: best > group > pooling > average
        
      • Complex/ambiguous: group > best > pooling > average
        
    • Brainstorming: pooling > group > best > average
      

       
       

  • 
    

     
     

     
     

• Group and Team Processes
  
  • the distinction between a group and a team
    
    • Group
      
      • A group is two or more people that purposefully and repeatedly interact over time in order to achieve goals.
        
    • Team
      
      • A team is a group characterized by high interdependence and agreed-upon common goals.
        

         
         

  • these terms:
    
    • team effectiveness
      
      • Group performance judged by
        
        • Output
          
        • Social Processes
          
        • Learning
          
    • group efficacy
      
      • A feeling that the team has the capability to successfully accomplish its task
        
    • group social identity
      
      • The perception of members as a "group" rather than as a set of unique individuals, and a shared (usually positive) image of the group
        
    • group cohesion
      
      • The degree to which members identify with the group and are motivated to remain in the group
        
      • Group cohesion increased by:
        
        • Smaller size
          
        • Success
          
        • Common threat
          
        • Exclusivity
          
        • Perceived similarity
          
        • Competition against other groups
          
    • group norms
      
      • An unwritten, often implicit rule that defines what attitudes and behaviors characterize a "good" group member versus a "bad" group member or what constitutes acceptable behavior, attitudes, and feelings
        
    • self-managed team
      
      • Team that is self directed (no supervisors or middle managers due to downsizing)
        
    • virtual team
      
      • Teams that work across space, time, and organizational boundaries with links stenghtened by webs of communication technologies
        

         
         

  • motivational issues in groups (specifically how to reduce social loafing)
    
    • Make sure that each team member's contribution is identifiable
      
    • Design tasks so they are intrinsically involving, attractive, or engaging (so they enjoy doing the work)
      
    • Assign responsibility and make the responsibility public
      

       
       

  • The distinction between group content and group process
    
    • Group Content Factors
      
      • What do groups work on, what are group goals
        
    • Process factors
      
      • Conflict
        
        • Task: conflict about group content (good)
          
        • Interpersonal: dislike between group members (bad)
          
      • Leadership
        
        • Appointed: assigned through organizational hierarchy
          
        • Emergent: informal, shared
          
      • Become familiar interpersonally (spend time)
        
      • Specialize
        
      • Share unique information (information seeking)
        
      • Promote task conflict (create norms that task conflict is OK)
        
      • Avoid too much turnover
        

       
       

  • How task conflict and interpersonal conflict affect groups
    
    • Task: conflict about group content (good)
      
    • Interpersonal: dislike between group members (bad)
      

     
     

  • The 5-stage model of group development (italicized comments are what the book recommends a "good leader" do)
    
    • Forming
      
      • Group establishment, first interactions
        
      • Clarify purpose of group, work on establishing trusting relationships
        
    • Storming
      
      • Group conflict (over roles, leadership, etc)
        
      • Focus on common vision, model constructive conflict management, and legitimize expressions of individuality that do not hinder productivity
        
    • Norming
      
      • Develop common purpose and norms (often formal rules)
        
      • Set norms, provide positive feedback, and prevent groupthink
        
    • Performing
      
      • Substantive group work
        
      • Help group run itself, foster development of group traditions, encourage group to evaluate its effectiveness.
        
    • Adjourning
      
      • Encourage the group to reflect on, learn from, and celebrate its achievements
        

       
       

  • Task and maintenance behaviors
    
    • Task process
      
      • Focuses on how groups accomplish their work
        
        • Examples-- setting agendas, figuring out time frames, generating ideas, choosing techniques for making decisions and solving problems, and testing agreement
          
      • Types of behavior relevant to a group's fulfillment of its tasks (NOT ON SLIDES-may not be needed) (page 260)
        
        • Initiating
          
        • Seeking information or opinions
          
        • Giving information or opinions
          
        • Clarifying and elaborating
          
        • Summarizing
          
        • Consensus testing
          
        • Reality testing
          
        • Orienting
          

         
         

    • Maintenance process
      
      • How groups function with regard to meeting group member's psychological and relationship needs
        
        • Examples -- Issues with leadership, membership, norms, communication, influence, conflict management, and dealing with difficult members and dysfunctional behaviors
          
      • Types of behavior needed to keep a group in good working order (NOT ON SLIDES-may not be needed):
        
        • Gatekeeping
          
        • Encouraging
          
        • Harmonizing and compromising
          
        • Standard setting and testing
          
        • Using humor
          
  • The causes of self-oriented emotional behavior and the 3 "pure types" of emotional behavior
    
    • Causes of Self-oriented emotional behavior
      
      • The problem of identity
        
        • Who am I here? How am I to present myself to others? What role should play in the group?
          
      • The problem of control and power
        
        • Who has the power in the situation? How much power, control, and influence do I have in the situation? How much do I need?
          
      • The problem of goals:
        
        • Which of my needs and goals can this group fulfill? Can any of my needs be met here? To which of the groups goals can I attach myself?
          
      • The problem of acceptance and intimacy
        
        • Am I accepted by the others? Do I accept them? Do they like me? Do I like them? How close to others do I want to become?
          
    • Types of emotional behavior that result from tension and from the attempt to resolve underlying problems:
      
      • Tender emotions
        
        • Love, sympathy, desire to help, need for affiliation with others
          
      • Tough emotions
        
        • Anger, hostility, self-assertiveness
          
      • Denial of all emotion
        
    • 3 "pure types" of emotional behavior
      
      • Friendly Helper
        
        • Acceptance of tender emotions, denial of tough emotions--"Let's not fight, lets help each other"
          
      • Tough Battler
        
        • Acceptance of tough emotions, denial of tender emotions -- "Let's fight it out!"
          
      • Logical Thinker
        
        • Denial of all emotion--Let's reason this thing out
          
  • 
    

     
     

• Dysfunctional Groups
  
  • Understand how the following issues may contribute to groups making bad (or even disastrous) decisions:
    
    • Groupthink
      
      • 'A mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members' striving for unanimity overrides their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action' (Janis, 1972).
        
      • Effects
        
        • Limited consideration of alternatives
          
        • Follows initial majority preference
          
        • Limited information sampling
          
        • Limited use of outside resources
          
        • Preference for confirmatory information
          
        • Ignore implementation difficulties
          
      • Remedies
        
        • Encourage members to discussing doubts
          
        • Leaders remain impartial
          
        • Strengthen outside ties & consider the interests of outsiders
          
        • Invite outside experts
          
        • Devil's advocate
          
        • Use subgroups
          
        • Give alternatives second chances
          
    • group cohesion
      
    • majority influence
      
    • group roles
      
      • Zimbardo Prison experiment
        
    • group authority
      
      • Milgram Experiments (Test Conductor tells subject to zap other person)
        
      • Remedies
        
        • Emphasize other roles outside the group
          
        • Question authority
          
        • Hold to individual values
          
        • Maintain ties outside the group
          
        • Whistleblowing
          

         
         

  • Understand the major remedies, including:
    
    • encouraging members to express doubts
      
    • protecting minority voice
      
    • using devil's advocates, bringing in outsiders
      
    • effective group leader behavior
      
    • emphasizing individual roles outside the group
      
    • Whistleblowing
      
      • Reporting to the government, the media, or the public acts of misconduct by organizations of which the whistleblower is a member or former member. Often the organizational misconduct has the potential for public harm.
        

         
         

  • 
    

    
     

     
     

     
     

• Organizational Culture
  
  • Define organizational culture and understand its function in organizations
    
    • Organizational Culture:
      
      • The pattern of shared assumptions, values, and beliefs that lead to certain norms of behavior
        
        • "The way we do things around here"
          

         
         

  • Define and identify subcultures and countercultures
    
    • Subculture:
      
      • Subcultures usually share the dominant culture's core values as well as other values that characterize their own department, geographic unit, etc.
        
    • Countercultures
      
      • Values are in opposition to those of the dominant culture
        

         
         

  • Know the major sources of organizational culture, including:
    
    • beliefs and assumptions of founders
      
      • Founders typically hire and retain people who think the way they do
        
    • employee's learning experiences
      
    • new beliefs and values brought into the organization by new members
      

       
       

  • Describe how internal integration strengthens and perpetuates an organizational culture
    
    • Socialization and training "teach them the ropes"
      
    • People in organization can easily recognize dominant values
      
    • People in company within the company are rewarded for acting in accordance with dominant values
      

       
       

  • Understand the distinction between strong cultures and weak cultures
    
    • Strong cultures have core values and beliefs that are intensely held, more widely shared, and more ordered
      

       
       

  • Describe how strong cultures can affect organizational performance (both positively and negatively), as well as the effect of external fit on how culture influences performance
    
    • Organized cultures result in control, alignment, and motivation…but do not yield high performance unless it is "in fit" with the environment
      
    • Pros
      
      • Clear sense of purpose
        
      • Commitment and loyalty
        
      • Pride in working for the organization
        
      • Values that serve as standards of reference for decision making
        
    • Cons
      
      • Resistance to change and conformity
        
      • Risk of becoming obsolete if company does not value learning and staying in-tune with environment
        

     
     

  • Understand the processes through which culture is transmitted to new organizational members, including:
    
    • Socialization
      
      • Systematic process by which organizations bring new members into their cultures
        
        • Hiring, "boot camps/humiliation", "work your way up the ranks", incentives/bonuses, role models
          
    • Stories
      
      • Folklore -- HP examples
        
    • Symbols
      
      • Way the office is decorated, hiring-rooms as first contact with potential employees
        
    • Jargon
      
      • Acronyms, internal language
        
    • rituals
      
      • How employees communicate and how meetings are ran
        

     
     

  • Know the primary and secondary mechanisms through which leaders create or change organizational cultures
    
    • Primary mechanisms
      
      • What leaders pay attention to, measure, and control on a regular basis
        
      • How leaders react to critical incidents and organizational crises
        
        • When the market takes a dive, are there layoffs? Reduced hours? No changes?
          
      • How leaders allocate scarce resources
        
      • Deliberate role modeling, teaching, and coaching
        
      • How leaders allocate rewards and status
        
        • How are whistleblowers treated?
          
      • How leaders recruit, select, promote, and excommunicate
        
    • Secondary mechanisms
      
      • Organizational design and structure
        
      • Systems and procedures
        
      • Rites and rituals
        
      • Design of physical space, facades, and buildings
        
      • Stories about important events and people
        
      • Formal statements of organizational philosophy, creeds, and charters
        

         
         

  • Articulate the difficulties associated with trying to change an organizational culture.
    

     
     

     
     

• Organizational Design and Structure
  
  • Define organizational design and organizational structure
    
    • Organizational Design
      
      • "The process by which organizational leaders match internal organizational structure and processes to organizational strategy and technology and external environment"
        
    • Organizational Structure
      
      • Organizational structure is the system of relationships among job tasks, roles, and responsibilities that determines the coordination of people and technologies inside organizations
        

         
         

  • Define these aspects of org. structure
    
    • Hierarchy
      
      • The distribution of formal authority in an organization
        
    • span of control
      
      • The number of subordinates that report to a manager
        
    • centralization (decentralization)
      
      • The degree to which organizational decision making is centralized at a single point in the organization.
        
    • Complexity
      
      • the number of levels (vertical) and departments or jobs (horizonal) inside an organization
        
        • 
          
    • Specialization
      
      • The degree to which organizational tasks are divided into separate jobs.
        
    • Standardization
      
      • Degree to which similar work activities are performed in a similar manner
        
    • Routineity (of technology)
      
      • The degree of task variety required of an organization's main production technology
        
    • Formalization
      
      • The degree to which formal rules and procedures govern organizational activities
        

         
         

  • Distinguish between organic and mechanistic organizations
    
    • Mechanistic
      
      • Mechanistic organizations are rigid bureaucracies with strict rules, narrowly defined tasks, top-down communication, and centralized decision making
        
        • Everyone has jobs and the work is predictable (e.g. McDonalds)
          
        • Tall hierarchy, small span of control, highly centralized, complex, highly specialized, highly standardized, highly formal
          
    • Organic
      
      • Organic organizations are flexible, decentralized networks with broadly defined tasks
        
        • Anyone talks to anyone, decentralized authority
          
        • Short hierarchy, large span of control, decentralized decision making, low standardization, low formalization
          

           
           

         
         

  • Understand the tension between differentiation and integration in organizations
    
    • Differentiation
      
      • Specialization leads to efficiency gains
        
      • But specialization can make coordination difficult
        
    • Integration
      
      • Behaviors and structures used to coordination work in differentiated organizations
        
    • The tension—both differentiation and coordination are needed, but they require different processes.
      

       
       

  • Recognize and discuss strengths and weaknesses of these structures:
    
    • Simple
      
    • Functional
      
      • 
        
      • Strengths
        
        • allows specialization & economies of scale and scope
          
        • allows standardization
          
      • Weaknesses
        
        • Difficult to coordinate across functions
          
        • slow decision making
          
        • promotes distinct subcultures and department goals
          
        • limits diversity of background
          

           
           

    • Divisional
      
      • 
        
      • Strengths
        
        • allows customization & customer focus
          
        • good coordination across functional areas
          
        • faster decisions
          
        • clear goals
          
      • Weaknesses
        
        • Expensive
          
        • poor knowledge sharing between divisions
          
        • loss of economies of scope and scale
          

     
     

    • Matrix
      
      • 
        
      • Strengths
        
        • Good knowledge sharing
          
        • quick decisions possible
          
        • allows for extreme customization
          
      • Weaknesses
        
        • Unclear authority structure
          
        • conflicting demands
          
        • reduced employee motivation (in many cases)
          

           
           

    • Horizontal
      
      • 
        
      • Strengths
        
        • Very quick decisions
          
        • low management costs
          
        • increased employee motivation
          
        • customer focus
          
      • Weaknesses
        
        • Poor inter-team coordination
          
        • difficult for new employees
          

           
           

    • Network
      
      • 
        
      • Strengths
        
        • Focus only on core competencies
          
        • low management (& start up) costs
          
        • rapid change possible
          
      • Weaknesses
        
        • Low control over partners
          
        • constant renegotiation
          
        • difficult where specialized inputs are needed
          

           
           

    • Boundaryless
      

     
     

  • Suggest appropriate structures for organizations based on the following contingencies
    
    • Size
      
    • Strategy
      
      • low-cost, first-to-market, quality, customization
        
    • Technology
      
      • routine, non-routine, craft
        
    • 
      

	Simple	Functional	Divisional	Horizontal	Matrix	Network
Size	tiny to small	medium to large	medium to huge	small	small to medium	small to large
Strategy	all	low cost, quality	customization, quality, cross-selling	Innovation, first-to-market	innovation, customization	Low cost, first-to-market
Technology		craft, non-routine		routine		routine	non-routine	non-routine	routine

 
 

• environmental complexity and stability
  
  • 
    
• Organizational and national culture
  

   
   

• 
  

   
   

• Organizational Environments
  
  • Understand the components of an organization's task environment
    
    • Any actor with which the organization interacts various times each day (eg.bank) are part of the task environment
      
  • Define formal and informal institutions and describe how each is enforced
    
  • Articulate how the general environment impacts organizations
    
    • General Environment:
      
      • The set of broad economic, natural, technological, and social forces that impact an organization
        
    • Macroeconomic forces
      
      • Interest rates, consumer spending
        
      • Financial markets
        
    • Technological forces
      
      • New production technologies
        
      • New markets created by technological development
        
    • Demographic forces
      
      • Population, workforce changes
        
    • National culture
      
    • The natural environment
      

       
       

  • Define the Following:
    
    • resource dependence
      
    • asymmetric dependence
      
    • symbiotic interdependency
      
      • between an organization and its suppliers and customers
        
      • Outcome of one is input of other
        
    • competitive interdependency
      
      • between an organization and its competitors
        

       
       

  • Describe the factors that influence how dependent an organization is on another actor
    

     
     

  • Explain the strategies that an organization may use to respond to a new demand, including:
    
    • Avoidance
      
    • controlling demands
      
    • organizational change
      
    • buffering strategies
      
      • Avoiding dependance
        
      • Insuring supplies of important resources
        
      • Stockpiling
        
        • Manage environmental fluctuations by storing needed inputs
          
      • Leveling
        
        • Putting pressure on suppliers and customers to avoid fluctuations
          
      • Forecasting
        
        • Predicting environmental fluctuations
          
      • Diversifying
        
    • bridging strategies
      
      • Avoiding control
        
      • Creating relationships with other organizations to manage interdependency
        
      • Symbiotic interdependency
        
        • Contracting
          
        • Co-optation
          
        • Strategic Alliances
          
        • Mergers (vertical)
          
      • Competitive interdependency
        
        • Associations
          
        • Strategic Alliances with competitors
          
        • Government intervention
          
        • Cartels
          
        • Mergers (horizontal)
          

           
           

    • managing the institutional environment
      
      • Conformity
        
        • Passively conform to existing institutions
          
      • Decoupling
        
        • Give the appearance of conformity
          
      • Lobbying
        
        • Change formal institutions by appealing to regulators and legislators
          
      • Grass-roots influence
        
        • Appeal to the public, change informal institutions (and possibly formal institutions)
          

         
         

  • 
    

     
     

• Global Environment
  
  • Define Hofstede's 5 dimensions of national culture
    
    • Power distance
      
      • The extent to which people in a country view inequities in wealth, status, and physical well-being as normal and acceptable.
        
      • High power distance countries allow inequities to persist
        
      • Low power distance countries attempt to reduce inequities
        
    • Individualism
      
      • Individualism: The extent to which people in a country feel comfortable acting as individuals instead of in groups.
        
      • Individualistic cultures value personal freedom, personal achievement and competition
        
      • Collectivistic cultures value cooperation, cohesion, and group harmony
        
    • Achievement orientation
      
      • Achievement orientation is the extent to which people in a country focus on results and value performance above personal development.
        
      • Achievement oriented cultures value assertiveness, success, and competition
        
      • Nurturing oriented cultures value personal growth, quality of life, and care for the disadvantaged
        
    • Uncertainty avoidance
      
      • The extent to which people in a country feel uncomfortable with uncertainty and variation.
        
      • High uncertainty avoidance cultures value structure, social order, and conformity and may appear intolerant of diversity.
        
      • Low uncertainty avoidance cultures value diversity, and tolerate individual variation
        
    • Long-term orientation
      
      • Long-term orientation: The extent to which people in a country value distant life and work outcomes relative to proximate outcomes.
        
      • Long-term oriented cultures value thrift and persistence
        
      • Short-term oriented cultures value fulfilling social expectations and present quality of life
        

         
         

  • Understand how national culture impacts:
    
    • Personality
      
      • National individualism is positively related to individual extroversion scores
        
      • National power distance is positively related to individual conscientiousness
        
      • National achievement orientation is positively related to neuroticism
        
      • National uncertainty avoidance is positively related to neuroticism and negatively related to agreeableness
        
    • Motivation
      
      • Individual goals are better motivators in highly individualistic cultures
        
      • Inequity perceptions are more significant motivators in low power distance cultures
        
      • Cultural differences (in long-term orientation and uncertainty avoidance and achievement orientation) affect how people value different work outcomes (expectancey theory)
        
    • Decision making
      
      • People from collectivistic cultures are less subject to the fundamental attribution error.
        
      • People from collectivistic cultures are more accepting of group decisions than are people from individualistic cultures.
        
    • Group processes
      
      • People from collectivistic cultures generally feel more comfortable working in teams.
        
      • People from collectivistic cultures are less likely to free ride in group situations.
        
    • Organizational culture
      
      • An organization will have difficulty succeeding in a country whose culture is incompatible with the organization's culture.
        
      • A strong organizational culture can facilitate interactions between employees from different cultures.
        
    • organizational structure
      
      • People from high power distance cultures are especially uncomfortable working matrix organizaitons.
        
      • Global Strategies
        
        • Multinational
          
        • Multidomestic
          
        • Transnational
          

           
           

  •