The Significance of Understanding Group Dynamics in the Business World - Essay Example

Significance of Group Dynamics in the Business World No: Significance of Group Dynamics in the BusinessWorld Introduction Traditional concept of business operation has become irrelevant to the 21st century business environment. Independent entrepreneurship has given way to rather broad and collaborated knowledge sharing and outsourcing. Although individual skills are of great significance, today organizational achievement comparatively depends on the collective efforts or teamwork. Hence, it is highly important to understand group dynamics in the current business environment. Coordinated group activity is the significant facet of modern business world. Group dynamics is important to inculcate teamwork skills among individuals. This paper tends to discuss the significance of understanding group dynamics in the business world. It also researches how teamwork and interdependence would enhance organizational cohesiveness and its implications in business world. Significance of interdependence To illustrate, today technology is the most inevitable factor in the rapid changing business world. Web-based technology helps organizations to be more productive by aligning their workforce, information, and resources. Individual efforts alone can not attain the intended goals on proposed time. As new business organizations are rather decentralized in their structure, incorporated information sharing and problem solving have become essential. Therefore, members require specialized training in group dynamics and team building because various factors like diverse personalities, departmental politics, and dispute over leadership might challenge team’ effectiveness (Ackerson W., 1990, p.23). Moreover, teams are the part of an organization’s quality improvement program. Therefore, positive interdependence is essential to achieve mutual goals. Organizations can easily cut down time lag in communication by maintaining positive interdependence. As compared to individual managers, a team can better research the effectiveness of current strategies and identify the weakness if any. However, it is said that research about groups is not always valid and relevant. The validity of the research depends on various factors including the potentiality of members involved, depth of material evaluation, reliability of information collected etc. Groups versus Individuals Groups are believed to have more potential than individuals in problem solving. It helps organizations to compress time by effective interaction between the group members. Strategy designed by group is more reliable; and is less likely to flaw as it is the result of negotiation, bargaining and compromise between many individuals. Group can better foresee future challenges and focus on the overall development of the firm; whereas individual decision might be influenced by emerging situations and various other personal interests. Individual assignments not only consume more time but also raise operation cost. Moreover, decisions taken by individuals may also cause resistance and instability in the organization. In the same way, group work will enhance the knowledge and work experience of the members. One can learn new things and skills from others and can get better assistance to complete the task. Shared responsibility is another major advantage of group work. Since members of the group have equal responsibility, work related stress is comparatively less in group assignments. In addition, group dynamics increases the creativity of an organization’s human resource. It makes participants more responsible and teaches them healthy interaction. Furthermore, individual assignment is always subjected to increased stress and responsibility. The quality of the individual work is also limited to the range of one’s knowledge and skill. Obviously success of an organization is highly dependent on the method of its operation. Although group work is highly important, entrepreneurs can not ignore the importance of individual tasks at workplace. Regardless of the numerous advantages, there are certain flaws associated with group work. For instance, lack of specific responsibility would make individuals idle. The success of group activity depends on the efficiency of leadership. If leader is not creative enough, individuals will hesitate to take initiative. Therefore, integration of both methods would be appropriate to meet business goals. Importance of Group Cohesiveness A group is consisted of individuals with different perspectives, knowledge, experience, interests, and outlook. Therefore, conflicts of opinion might occur frequently. However, a successful group will utilize all these disparities into building positive interdependence and decision making. Consistency of leadership and well defined objectives would align members for attaining the mutual goal. This essential quality of harmony can be called cohesiveness. A cohesive group will have a sense of unity that will help them attain the common goals. This feeling of unity will be an individual experience as well as an experience for the group as a whole. “Cohesion is the degree to which members of a group are attracted to one another and to group membership. Members of the cohesive groups have a strong desire to stay in the group” (Tosi H L., Mero N P., & Rizzo J R, 2000, p.254). However, it does not mean that every member of the group will have the same interest to the program. The factors that forces members to stay connected might vary. Despite the varying interests, members of groups usually stay united; and that presumably leads to the accomplishment of the task. What can enhance cohesion in a group is one of the major concerns of every management. As it has been stated by Cress et. al., (2005, p.55), individuals must first experience a sense of belonging to the group; and they must trust that others would do the work regardless of the normal ups and downs. In order to make the group more cohesive and responsible, it should be given well defined goals. Moreover, members should be given enough chances to interact, perhaps by introducing various activities that would promote interpersonal relationship. Social influence on Decision Making An organization’s strategic formulation is always subjected to various social commitments. Managers’ decision should justify the core values of the organization. Moreover, entrepreneurs should ensure that their decisions always ensure legal compliance. Social commitment forces organizations to ensure the overall wellbeing of their employees, operators, shareholders and other benefactors. In other words, a company has to operate its HR functions with a socially responsible manner. It has to comply with legal as well as moral obligations in selection, training, retention, promotion, and termination. On the other hand, there should be close supervision over the individuals’ acceptance of proposals. Leader should analyze the relevance of the various proposals to the group as a whole. Individuals should be encouraged to undertake only assignments that can par with their capabilities. In the same way, members must not ignore the code of ethics of their organization while accepting new proposals. It should be both morally and legally right to undertake them. If any member is identified of taking unfair proposals, the leader or other members of the group have to discourage him by convincing of the adverse effects. Group members should be informed of the ethical parameters in which they should perform their assignments. It will help them assume what the expected behavior for the organization is. Significance of Leadership Successful completion of every endeavor depends on well assigned goals and efficiently organized human efforts. Certain assignments require long term planning and endurance. Short term accomplishments also require rather intensive actions and immediate strategies. Under both situations, a leader has pivotal role and responsibility to accomplish the intended mission. Time taken for the completion task may not actually indicate the significance of the particular action. In contrast, what makes an attempt extraordinary is the pain, relentless efforts, perseverance and training of group members. An ideal leader should have the ability to foresee the obstacles; and he/she would encourage group to design appropriate strategies to meet the possible challenges. However, a good plan does not necessarily produce definite result. Hence, the caliber of the leader who bears the responsibility to align the members is highly important. Leader should follow the principles of the group while being flexible enough to motivate other individuals to perform their responsibilities within the allotted time. Moreover, he should be good at identifying the potential candidates because it would make role division rather easy. Deploying the right person at the right position proves the practical knowledge of a leader. He would closely examine every activity of the members to ensure their compliance with the discipline of the group. He would also collect feedback from every source to assess the progress of the mission. To fulfill the venture he would motivate the members by interacting with them. “Shared team leadership is the process in which the leadership function is dramatically transferred within the team. It will promote internal adaptability” (Pearce & Conger, 2003, p.104). It means that leader should be flexible enough to implement strategic changes and role substitution if necessary. In other words, other than the mere goal accomplishment, members’ enthusiastic participation must be the leader’s initial concern. Leader has to keep his objectives and methods transparent enough so that he can easily get his task completed with his companions’ active support. Leadership can either be an assigned post or a voluntary initiative. Members’ level of participation and performance vary according to their abilities, knowledge, experience, and interests on particular tasks. People with remarkable enthusiasm and leadership quality obviously influence the whole group. Individuals with such qualities emerge to be leaders. However, members’ perception on leadership is exceedingly significant in a group. Although no group will have unanimous opinion about their leader’s qualities, leader should be potential enough to satisfy the average expectations of the members. If the leader fails to be enthusiastic enough, he can not inculcate positive energy into his colleagues. Leader has to be a good listener and has to consider the suggestions of every member. Teams versus Groups Although the terms ‘team’ and ‘group’ are used interchangeably, they differ from each other in structure and nature. To illustrate, all groups do not necessarily form teams; whereas all teams will have the features of groups. Until the members of the group find themselves to be helpful to each other, they can not develop into a team. Team is rather a group of trained individuals assigned for specific goals. Team members maintain comparatively better interaction and interpersonal relationship between each other. Working with teams necessitates a thorough understanding of the organizational psychology. Leadership is all about inspiring and motivating other members in the team. The members of an effective team will constantly motivate, inspire and support each other to accomplish the common goal. Furthermore, one who leads the team will employ motivation theories in managing the other members. Almost everything that happens in a team depends on communication. If communication is not effective in a team, it has no more the features of a team. In order to maintain team stability, there should be effective group activities, structural changes and healthy interactions within the organization. According to Tindall (1995, p.240), the major features of a group are as follows; 1). Members of a group are only for administrative purposes and work independently. 2) They lack focus on the overall goal. 3) They consider themselves as hired faculties and act according to instructions. The writer also states that team members have the feeling of ownership and contribute to the team by deploying their skills and knowledge (Tindall J A., 1995, p.240). Therefore, teamwork is more relevant when problems those are too large or too specific for a group of individuals to solve. For instance, a branch of an insurance company consists of various groups of financial advisors and staff. However, policy marketing could only be done by the effective work of a team of individuals who are trained under some responsible officers. Conclusion Regardless of the size and structure of business, entrepreneurs must be aware of the significance of group dynamics. As the success of modern organization is highly dependant on effective communication and interaction, individuals with excellent teamwork skills are highly required. In order to enhance organizational cohesiveness and to understand the different views of team members, a leader must be well acquainted with the effects of group dynamics. Moreover, only an individual with better understanding and training will be aware of the numerous tactics that can influence his team. Training has become exceedingly important to modern business entrepreneurs. One must be aware of the latest trends and techniques of administration in order to operate a sustainable business team. An efficient leader will demonstrate outstanding negotiating skills to resolve disputes and conflict of interest between the members. It is under such effective leadership, a group develops into a team of outstanding professionalism. References Cress C M., Collier P J. & Reitenauer (2005). Learning Through Servicing: A Student Guidebook for Service-learning Across the Disciplines. Stylus Publising. Eckerson W. (1990). Network World, vol.7, (40). Pearce & Conger (Eds.). (2003). Shared Leadership: reframing the hows and whys of leadership. SAGE. Tosi H L., Mero N P., & Rizzo (2000). Managing Organizational Behavior. Edn 4. Wiley-Blackwell. Tindall (1995). Peer Programs: an in-depth look at peer helping. Taylor& Francis. Read More