Week 11

"Group Dynamics and Teamwork"

This week we talked about groups which are made up of two or more freely interacting individuals who have a common goal or purpose. It is a very essential for managers to have a working understanding of group dynamics, afterall they are the baseic building blocks of any organization.

Building mature groups was broken down to a six step process, where during the first three stages (orientation, conflict and challenge, and cohesion) power and authority problems are resolved. groups are faced with the obstcle of uncertainty over interpersonal relations during the last three stages (delusion, disillusion, and acceptance).

Among group work, many different aspects can work against the group's effectiveness, but we did discuss an important aspect that was Organizations politics, which is usually associated with larger organizations, but could also happen in any organization. Political tactics such as posturizing, empire building, coolecting and using social UOU's, creating power and loyalty cliques, and destructive competions need to kept on check if the organization is to be effective.

Among all aspects of group work, the chapter listed Trust, as a key ingredient of effective teamwork, which is actually very low in the American workplace today.

Managers can build trust in an organization or group by creating an environment of better communication among workers, in addition to support, respect, fairness, and competence within the company.

When group members trust one another, there will be a morea active exachange of information, more interpesonal influence, and better results overall which is the pretty much the goal of any company.