Leadership and group

A group is a collection of individuals who have
regular contact and frequent interaction,
mutual influence, common feeling of
camaderie, and who work together to achieve
a common set of goals.

Jarlath F. Benson identifies a list of attributes:
• A set of people engage in frequent
interactions
• They identify with one another.
• They are defined by others as a group.
• They share beliefs, values, and norms about
areas of common interest.
• They come together to work on common tasks
and for agreed purposes.

Groups are intended and organic. They are not
some random experience and as a result they
have three crucial characteristics:
• There are parts
• There is relationship between the parts
• There is an organizing principle

Forces impacting upon group processes and
dynamics.
• Group interaction
• Group interdependence
• Group structure
• Group goals
• Group cohesion (and entitativity)

There are four types of groups
1. Primary and secondary
2. Formal and informal

Primary and secondary groups:
• Primary groups are formed on the basis of
social characteristics and individual
perceptions.
• Each person is able to communicate with
others. A primary group is natural and has a
spirit of comradeship, friendship and loyalty.

Secondary groups are formed and developed
with a formal structure, wherein one member
is the leader and the others are followers.
Committees, trade unions and other such
groups come under secondary groups. A
secondary group develops on the basis of the
exchange theory.

1. A Formal group is created within an
organization to complete a specific role or
task.
This may be to oversea a launch of a
particular product or service.

Formal groups may take the form of command
groups, task groups, and functional groups.
COMMAND GROUPS.
Command groups are specified by the
organizational chart and often consist of a
supervisor and the subordinates that report to
that supervisor

TASK GROUPS.
Members are brought together
to accomplish a narrow range of
goals within a specified time
period.
The organization appoints
members and assigns the goals
and tasks to be accomplished.

Other common task groups are ad hoc
committees, project groups, and standing
committees
Ad hoc committees are temporary groups
created to resolve a specific complaint or
develop a process.

Project groups are similar to ad hoc
committees and normally disband after the
group completes the assigned task.
Standing committees are more permanent
than ad hoc committees and project groups.

FUNCTIONAL GROUPS.
A functional group is created by the
organization to accomplish specific goals
within an unspecified time frame.
Functional groups remain in existence after
achievement of current goals and objectives.

Informal are small groups that share interests,
knowledge, and activities for the purpose of
meeting mutual needs.

INTEREST GROUPS.
Theodore Newcomb's Balance Theory:
According to this theory, persons are attracted to one
another on the basis of similar attitudes toward commonly
relevant objects and goals.
Once the relationship is formed, a balance is maintained
between the attraction and the common attitudes.
If an imbalance occurs, there is an attempt to restore the
balance, and if the balance cannot be restored, the
relationship dissolves.

REFERENCE GROUPS.
A reference group is a type of group
that people use to evaluate
themselves.
The main purposes of reference
groups are social validation and social
comparison

Social validation allows individuals to justify
their attitudes and values while social
comparison helps individuals evaluate their
own actions by comparing themselves to
others.
By comparing themselves with other
members, individuals are able to assess
whether their behavior is acceptable and
whether their attitudes and values are right or
wrong.

GROUP ROLES
In formal groups, roles are usually
predetermined and assigned to members.
Each role will have specific responsibilities and
duties.
Emergent roles that develop naturally to meet
the needs of the groups.
These emergent roles will often replace the
assigned roles as individuals begin to express
themselves and become more assertive.

Group roles can then be classified into work
roles, maintenance roles, and blocking roles.
Work roles are task-oriented activities that
involve accomplishing the group's goals. They
involve a variety of specific roles such as
initiator, informer, clarifier, summarizer, and
reality tester

1. The initiator defines problems, proposes
action, and suggests procedures.
2. The informer role involves finding facts and
giving advice or opinions.

Clarifiers will interpret ideas,
define terms, and clarify issues for
the group.
Summarizers restate suggestions,
offer decisions, and come to
conclusions for the group.
Finally, reality testers analyze ideas
and test the ideas in real situations.

Maintenance roles are social-emotional
activities that help members maintain their
involvement in the group and raise their personal
commitment to the group.
The maintenance roles are harmonizer,
gatekeeper, consensus tester, encourager, and
compromiser.
The harmonizer will reduce tension in the group,
reconcile differences, and explore opportunities.

Gatekeepers often keep communication
channels open and make suggestions that
encourage participation.
The consensus tester will ask if the group is
nearing a decision and test possible
conclusions.
Encouragers are friendly, warm, and
responsive to other group members
The compromiser role involves modifying
decisions, offering compromises, and
admitting errors.

Blocking roles are activities that disrupt the group.
They make take the form of dominating discussions, verbally
attacking other group members, and distracting the group
with trivial information or unnecessary humor.
Often times the blocking behavior may not be intended as
negative

Sometimes a member may share a joke in order
to break the tension, or may question a decision
in order to force group members to rethink the
issue.
The blocking roles are aggressor, blocker,
dominator, comedian, and avoidance behavior.

The aggressor criticizes members' values and
makes jokes in a sarcastic or semi-concealed
manner.
Blockers will stubbornly resist the group's
ideas, disagree with group members for
personal reasons, and will have hidden
agendas.
The dominator role attempts to control
conversations by patronizing others

Comedians often abandon the group even
though they may physically still be a part.
They are attention-getters in ways that are not
relevant to the accomplishment of the group's
objectives.
The last blocking role, avoidance behavior,
involves pursuing goals not related to the
group and changing the subject to avoid
commitment to the group.

Role ambiguity concerns the discrepancy between
the sent role and the received role.
Supervisors, directors, or other group leaders
often send (assign) roles to group members in
formal groups.
This confusion may occur because the members do
not have specific job descriptions or because the
instructions regarding the task were not clear.
Group members who experience ambiguity often
have feelings of frustration and dissatisfaction,
which ultimately lead to turnover.

Role conflict occurs when there is
inconsistency between the perceived role and
role behavior.
Interrole conflict occurs when there is conflict
between the different roles that people have.

Some examples of types of groups include the following:
• Peer group A peer group is a group with members of
approximately the same age, social status, and interests.
Generally, people are relatively equal in terms of power
when they interact with peers.
• Clique A group of people that have many of the same
interests & commonly found in a High School/College
setting; most of the time they have a name & rules for
themselves.
• Club A club is a group, which usually requires one to apply
to become a member. Such clubs may be dedicated to
particular activities: sporting clubs, for example.
• Household All individuals who live in the same home.
anglophone culture may include various models of
household, including the family, blended families, share
housing, and group homes.

• Community A community is a group of people with a
commonality or sometimes a complex net of
overlapping commonalities, often–but not always–in
proximity with one another with some degree of
continuity over time.
• Franchise An organization which runs several instances
of a business in many locations.
• Gang A gang is usually an urban group that gathers in a
particular area. It is a group of people that often hang
around each other. They can be like some clubs, but
much less formal.
• They are usually known in many countries to cause
social unrest and also have negative influence on the
members and may be a target for the law enforcers in
case of any social vices

• Mob A mob is usually a group of people that has taken
the law into their own hands. Mobs are usually groups
which gather temporarily for a particular reason.
• Posse A posse was originally found in English common
law. It is generally obsolete, and survives only in
America, where it is the law enforcement equivalent of
summoning the militia for military purposes. However,
it can also refer to a street group.
• Squad This is usually a small group, of around 3 to 15
people, who work as a team to accomplish their goals.
• Dyad This is a social group with two members. Social
interaction in a dyad is typically more intense than in
larger groups because neither member shares the
other's attention with anyone else.[

• Triad This is a social group with three members, which
contains three relationships, each uniting two of the
three people. A triad is more stable than a dyad
because one member can act as a mediator should the
relationship between the other two become strained.[
• Team similar to a squad, though a team may contain
many more members. A team works in a similar way to
a squad.
• In-group It is a social group toward which a member
feels respect and loyalty. It is a group that an individual
identifies in positive direction.
• Out-group It is a social group toward which a person
feels a sense of competition or opposition.t is a group
that an individual identifies in negative direction

LEADERSHIP
The skills, attitudes, orientations and ideas
associated with groups are learnt,
predominantly, through experiencing group
life. They can also be enhanced by the
intervention of skilled leaders and facilitators.
Leadership is "organizing a group of people to
achieve a common goal". The leader may or
may not have any formal authority

Great Man Theory
Born to lead:
Great leaders are born with the necessary
internal characteristics such as charisma,
confidence, intelligence, and social skills.
Capacity for leadership is inherent
Portray great leaders as heroic, mythic and
destined to rise to leadership when needed.

2. Trait Theory:
People inherit certain qualities and traits that
make them better suited to leadership.
Trait theories identify particular personality or
behavioral characteristics shared by leaders.
For example, traits like extraversion, self-
confidence, and courage are all traits that
could potentially be linked to great leaders.

3. Contingency Theories
No leadership style is best in all situations.
Particular variables related to the
environment that might determine which
particular style of leadership is best suited for
the situation.
Success depends upon a number of variables,
leadership style, qualities of the followers and
aspects of the situation.

4. Situational Theory:
Situational theories propose that leaders
choose the best course of action based upon
situational variables

5. Behavioral Theories
Behavioral theories of leadership are based
upon the belief that great leaders are made,
not born.
Focus on the actions of leaders not on mental
qualities or internal states.
People can learn to become leaders through
teaching and observation.

6. Participative Theories
Participative leadership theories suggest that
the ideal leadership style is one that takes the
input of others into account.
Encourage participation and contributions
from group members
Group members feel more relevant and
committed to the decision-making process.

7. Management Theory
Management theories, also known
as transactional theories, focus on the role of
supervision, organization and group
performance.
These theories base leadership on a system of
rewards and punishments

8. Relationship Theories
Relationship theories, also known as
transformational theories, focus upon the
connections formed between leaders and
followers.
Focus on the performance of group members,
but also want each person to fulfill his or her
potential.
Have high ethical and moral standards.

Transactional and transformational theories
According to Eric Berne
The transactional leader is given power to
perform certain tasks and reward or punish for
the team's performance.
Power is given to the leader to evaluate,
correct, and train subordinates when
productivity is not up to the desired level, and
reward effectiveness when expected outcome
is reached

The transformational leader motivates its team
to be effective and efficient. Communication is
the base for goal achievement focusing the
group on the final desired outcome or goal
attainment.
The leadership motivated excellence leader
develops interpersonal strategic alliances

Narcissistic leadership is a common form of
leadership. The narcissism may be healthy or
destructive although there is a continuum
between the two.
Narcissistic leadership is driven by unyielding
arrogance, self-absorption, and a personal
egotistic need for power and admiration.

Toxic leadership
A toxic leader is someone who has
responsibility over a group of people or an
organization, and who abuses the leader-
follower relationship by leaving the group or
organization in a worse-off condition than
when he/she first found them.

The managerial grid model (1964) is a
behavioral leadership model developed by
Robert R. Blake and Jane Mouton.
This model originally identified five different
leadership styles based on the concern for
people and the concern for production.

Grid theory breaks behavior down into seven
key elements:
• Initiative Taking action, driving and supporting
Inquiry Questioning, researching and verifying
understanding
• Advocacy Expressing convictions and
championing ideas
• Decision making Evaluating resources, choices
and consequences

• Conflict resolution Confronting and resolving
disagreements
• Resilience Dealing with problems, setbacks
and failures
• Critique Delivering objective, candid feedback

The model is represented as a grid with
concern for production as the x-axis and
concern for people as the y-axis; each axis
ranges from 1 (Low) to 9 (High). The resulting
leadership styles are as follows:

The indifferent (previously called
impoverished) style (1,1): evade and elude.
In this style, managers have low concern for
both people and production.
Managers use this style to preserve job and
job seniority, protecting themselves by
avoiding getting into trouble.

The accommodating (previously, country club)
style (1,9): yield and comply. This style has a
high concern for people and a low concern for
production.
The resulting atmosphere is usually friendly,
but not necessarily very productive.

• The dictatorial (previously, produce or perish)
style (9,1): control and dominate. With a high
concern for production, and a low concern for
people, managers using this style find
employee needs unimportant; they provide
their employees with money and expect
performance in return

The status quo (previously, middle-of-the-
road) style (5,5): balance and compromise.
By giving some concern to both people and
production, managers who use this style hope
to achieve suitable performance but doing so
gives away a bit of each concern so that
neither production nor people needs are met.

The status quo (previously, middle-of-the-road)
style (5,5): balance and compromise.
By giving some concern to both people and
production, managers who use this style hope
to achieve suitable performance but doing so
gives away a bit of each concern so that
neither production nor people needs are met.

The sound (previously, team style) (9,9):
contribute and commit. In this style, high
concern is paid both to people and
production.
The opportunistic style: exploit and manipulate.
Individuals using this style, which was added
to the grid theory before 1999, do not have a
fixed location on the grid. They adopt
whichever behaviour offers the greatest
personal benefit.

The paternalistic style: prescribe and guide.
This style was added to the grid theory before
1999. Managers using this style praise and
support, but discourage challenges to their
thinking.

Leadership and group

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