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PART 3: Group Behaviour: The Basics
What groups are, how they develop, and what makes them tick
Nobody works completely alone. Even a freelancer deals with clients, and an MBA student cannot escape group assignments. That is why organisations study groups: a group is more than a bunch of individuals sitting together. Once people join a group, they start behaving differently. They follow unwritten rules, take up roles and care about their position. This part explains how that happens.
3.1 Introduction to Group Behaviour
A group is two or more people who interact, influence one another and share a purpose, interest or relationship. Group behaviour is the way people think, feel, communicate and act as members of a group.
Characteristics of groups
- Two or more members.
- Interaction and mutual influence.
- A shared purpose or interest.
- Roles and expectations.
- Rules or norms that guide behaviour.
- A sense of membership or identity.
Why do people join groups?
- Security: there is strength in numbers; members feel less alone against threats.
- Status: being in a respected group gives recognition.
- Self-esteem: belonging makes people feel valued.
- Affiliation: groups satisfy social needs and friendships.
- Power: a group can achieve influence that one person cannot.
- Goal achievement: some tasks simply need more than one person.
Types of groups
| Type | Meaning | Example |
| Formal group | Officially created by the organisation to perform assigned duties. | A quality-improvement committee. |
| Command group | People who report to the same manager. | A department team. |
| Task group | People brought together to complete a particular assignment. | A team designing a new product. |
| Informal group | Develops naturally through friendship or shared interests. | Colleagues who regularly have lunch together. |
| Interest group | People who come together around a shared concern. | Employees requesting better transport facilities. |
| Friendship group | People connected by personal liking or social relationships. | Colleagues who spend time together outside work. |
Benefits of groups: they help complete complex work, share knowledge, generate ideas, offer social support and improve coordination. Problems: conflict, peer pressure, slow decisions, unequal workload, groupthink and social loafing.
3.2 Group versus Team
People use “group” and “team” as if they mean the same, but they do not. A group may only share information, while a team coordinates different skills to deliver a joint result. Think of people waiting at a bus stop (a collection of individuals), a class of students attending a lecture (a group) and a cricket side chasing a target (a team).
| Basis | Group | Team |
| Meaning | People who interact or share a purpose. | People coordinating skills and effort for a common work goal. |
| Purpose | May be individual or shared. | Usually a clearly shared goal. |
| Accountability | Often mainly individual. | Individual and mutual accountability. |
| Skills | Members may have similar skills. | Members often have complementary skills. |
| Coordination | May be limited. | Usually close coordination. |
| Output | May be separate contributions. | Often a joint result. |
| Example | Employees attending an information meeting. | Employees jointly designing and launching a product. |
A team can be understood as a specialised form of group, but not every group works as a team. Teams are discussed in detail in Part 4.
3.3 Group Formation and Development
Bruce Tuckman proposed that groups typically pass through stages as they mature. He first described four stages in 1965 (forming, storming, norming, performing) and added adjourning in 1977. Real groups do not always follow a perfect straight line; a new member or a new task can send a group back to an earlier stage.
| Stage | What happens? | Manager’s role |
| Forming | Members meet, feel polite but uncertain, and learn about the purpose, roles and expectations. | Explain goals, duties and rules. |
| Storming | Differences surface: arguments about ideas, responsibilities or leadership. | Listen fairly, clarify roles, manage conflict. |
| Norming | Shared rules, trust and cooperation develop. | Encourage participation, reinforce good practices. |
| Performing | The group works effectively towards its goals. | Provide resources, remove obstacles, allow independence. |
| Adjourning | A temporary group completes its task and separates or moves to new work. | Review results, recognise contributions, close the project. |
Example: a college project group
Forming: five students meet and are overly polite. Storming: two argue about who should present, and one feels ignored. Norming: they agree on deadlines and a shared folder. Performing: work flows without constant reminders. Adjourning: after submission, the group dissolves.
Punctuated equilibrium: another view
Connie Gersick (1988) observed that many project groups do not move smoothly. They begin with a direction, make slow progress, then hit a sudden burst of change at about the midpoint of their time limit, and rush to finish. This explains why so many teams wake up and work hardest near the deadline.
Virtual groups pass through the same stages, but they need clear communication rules and deliberate relationship-building because members do not meet face to face.
Why it matters: the model helps managers understand why new groups need guidance, why some conflict is normal and how trust and shared norms develop over time.
3.4 Group Properties
Every group, whether a hostel committee or a board of directors, has five basic properties that shape its behaviour: roles, norms, status, size and cohesiveness.
A. Roles
A role is the set of behaviours and responsibilities expected from a person in a particular position within a group.
| Role type | Purpose | Examples |
| Task roles | Help the group complete its work. | Leader, coordinator, information seeker, recorder, evaluator. |
| Maintenance roles | Maintain relationships and cooperation. | Encourager, mediator, harmoniser, supporter. |
| Self-centred roles | Focus on personal needs and may harm group work. | Dominator, blocker, attention seeker, free rider. |
Role-related terms
- Role perception: how a person believes they should behave.
- Role expectations: how others believe the person should behave.
- Role conflict: two or more expectations clash. Example: a manager is told both to cut costs and to increase staffing.
- Role ambiguity: the person does not clearly understand duties, authority or performance standards.
- Role overload: the person has more work or responsibility than can reasonably be handled.
Managers can reduce these problems by clarifying duties, authority, deadlines and reporting relationships.
B. Norms
Norms are shared rules and expectations about acceptable behaviour. They can be written (a code of conduct) or unwritten (nobody leaves before the boss does).
- Performance norms: expected quantity and quality of work.
- Attendance norms: expectations about punctuality and presence.
- Communication norms: how members share information and respond to each other.
- Social norms: expectations about relationships and behaviour.
- Appearance norms: expectations about dress and professional presentation.
Norms support discipline and coordination, but harmful norms can encourage poor performance, exclusion or resistance to change. The famous Hawthorne studies at Western Electric showed that informal group norms, such as “do not produce too much or too little”, could influence output more strongly than management instructions or pay.
Members who break norms usually face pressure to conform: jokes, silence, being left out of the conversation or, in strong cases, exclusion from the group.
C. Status
Status is a person’s social position, rank or level of respect in a group. Formal status comes from an official position (manager, team leader). Informal status comes from expertise, experience, contribution or reputation (the senior person everyone consults, whatever their designation).
- Status clarifies authority and lets experienced members guide others.
- High-status members may dominate discussions, and low-status members may hesitate to speak.
- Excessive status gaps can stop junior members from giving honest opinions.
- Managers should invite input from everyone and judge ideas on merit, not on rank.
D. Size
Group size is the number of members. The ideal size depends on the task, skills needed and coordination requirements. Many writers suggest that around five to seven members works well for most tasks, and an odd number helps avoid deadlocks in voting.
| Small groups | Large groups |
| Communicate and coordinate more easily. | Provide more knowledge, skills and viewpoints. |
| May have fewer resources and less variety of ideas. | Face slower decisions and more coordination difficulties. |
| Workload becomes heavy if one member is absent. | Some members contribute less or feel ignored. |
Social loafing is the tendency of individuals to put in less effort when working in a group than when working alone. An early experiment by French engineer Max Ringelmann found that people pulling a rope together produced less effort per person as the group grew (the Ringelmann effect). Remedy: give each member a visible, individual responsibility and track contributions.
E. Cohesiveness
Cohesiveness is the degree to which members feel connected to the group and want to remain part of it.
| Factors that increase cohesiveness | Factors that decrease cohesiveness |
| Shared goals and values | Disagreement over goals |
| Frequent interaction | Large group size |
| Mutual respect and trust | Unpleasant past experiences |
| Group success | Competition for rewards within the group |
| Supportive leadership | Domination by one member |
| Suitable group size | Pressure from outside the group |
Advantages: cooperation, support, better communication and satisfaction. Risks: groupthink, resistance to outside ideas and pressure to agree. Cohesion alone does not guarantee results. What matters is whether the group’s norms support high performance:
| High performance norms | Low performance norms | |
| High cohesiveness | Very high productivity (members work hard together) | Low productivity (group united against management) |
| Low cohesiveness | Moderate productivity | Low to moderate productivity |
Conclusion
Roles, norms, status, size and cohesiveness together decide how a group behaves. Managers who understand these properties can guide groups towards cooperation and performance.
