Working in Groups

According to Champoux (2011), a group is a set of individuals interdependently working towards a common goal. Hellriegel & Slocum (2011) further added that a group must be small enough for individual to communicate person to person with other members. Decision making is one routine task a group has to undertake. According to Nelson et al. (2012), members in a group can influence and encourage one another, share their knowledge and expertise, which will produce better decision. However, Champoux, (2011) argue that group may require more time to complete the task due to time taken to ‘settle down’ by members.
Forming is one of the 5 stages of group development where members self-introduce and discuss on how to work on the task given (Champoux, 2011). As all of our group members are holding a full-time job, there is little communication or interaction between members. As mention by Champoux (2011), social interaction is one of the factors that affect cohesive group formation. Coming from a different background and unfamiliar with each other characteristics, members are courteous towards one another and are not projective in their feelings and thoughts (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). Similarities may help in group cohesiveness as people get along with others that have similar experience. An example of this can been seen in informal group. Informal group are formed by self interest and usually members have similar values (Mcshane, Olekalns, Travaglione, 2011). Diversity increases ambiguity complexity and miscommunication (Langton, Robbins, 2006). As a result, our group took a longer time in defining our task and goal.
However, (Mcshane, Olekalns, Travaglione, 2011) argue that diversity of members produce different insights to situations and thus produce better solutions. Through mutual understanding, cohesion group can still be form. Trust is referred as ‘positive expectations one person has toward another person or group in situation involving risk’ (Mcshane,

References: Langton, N. & Robbins, S. P., 2006. Organizational Behaviour: Concepts, Controversies, Applications. 4th Canadian edition, Pearson Education. Nelson, D. L., Quick, J. C., Wright, S. & Adams, C., 2012. ORGB: Asia Pacific Edition. 1st edition. , Cengage Learning, South Melbourne Shore, Z., 2008, Blunder: Why Smart People Make Bad Decision, Bloomsbury USA, USA Hellriegel, D. & Slocum Jr., J. W., 2011. Organizational Behavior. 13th edition, South-Western Cengage Learning, USA McShane, S. Olekalns, M. and Travaglione, T. 2010, Organisational Behaviour on the Pacific Rim, 3rd edition, McGraw-Hill, Sydney Champoux, J.E. 2011, Organizational Behavior : Integrating Individuals, Groups, and Organizations, 4th edition., Routledge, New York Bartol, K., Tein, M., Mattews, G., Sharma, B., 2008, Management: A Pacific Rim Focus, 5th edition, McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd, Australia