Preface
This book is about groups in organizations. It provides a new set of theoretical perspectives about how to better understand and to design effective groups. The chapters explore determinants of work group effectiveness and strategies for designing effective groups.
Groups are exciting phenomena; they pervade our very existence. In our world of work, much of our time is spent in groups. Policy committees, coordinating committees, staff meetings, loan committees, new product committees, labor management committees, quality circles, and advisory groups are only a few of the group assignments people find themselves in in organizations. Such groups serve as mechanisms for political representation, information sharing, involvement opportunities, or as areas for handling grievances. We all have participated in and experienced the excitement, enthusiasm, and power of groups. We also have spent lots of unproductive time in groups. One simple rationale for this book is that groups are a pervasive phenomenon; they dramatically affect our lives in both positive and negative ways, and we need to learn more about groups and to understand how to make them more effective.
Another rationale for this book is that the literature on groups does not provide the intellectual guidance or models for understanding theoretically or practically how to design and maintain effective work groups. In this set of chapters, new models are presented on leadership in groups, technology and group performance, intergroup relations, and so on.
The third rationale is that there has been a renewed interest in groups in organizations. The projects on quality of work and work innovation that have emerged in the last ten years provide a unique arena for studying groups in organizations. Quality circles, labor-management participation teams, and autonomous work groups are a few examples of the types of groups that have proliferated in organizations over the past few years. Although these group mechanisms were introduced out of practical concerns for improving productivity, quality, and labor-management relations, they have provided abundant experience in the realm of designing and managing groups. Given the renewed interest in groups from the perspectives of practice and research, it seems appropriate to review where we are, note the intellectual dilemmas in understanding groups in organizations, and chart out new ways for designing and managing effective work groups.
Our strategy is to limit this book to groups in organizations. The particular focus is on performance groups—those that produce some identifiable good or service. These might range from production groups (for example, coal-mining crews) to decision-making groups (for example, loan committees). Also, our interest is in permanent as opposed to temporary groups. Permanent groups reflect the importance of historical and social context. The boundaries for this book are established to make our task manageable and to produce a focused product. Our interest in groups in organizations does not exclude acknowledging the vast body of literature on groups and selectively using that literature in the following chapters.
All of us who have contributed to this book hope it will stimulate new avenues of theoretical research and management practice. While researchers are one primary audience, we also want to influence the ways senior line and staff managers and consultants think about groups. Our strategy is to delineate the fundamental issues about groups in organizations and to reorient both the theory and the practice of managing groups in organizations.
In the first chapter, Paul S. Goodman, Elizabeth C. Ravlin, and Linda Argote explore the current status of our knowledge about performance groups in organizations. The chapters that follow the introductory one try to increase our understanding of designing effective work groups. Some of the chapters focus directly on work groups or on determinants of work group effectiveness. Others draw from other research on groups that can increase our understanding of groups in organizations.
Richard A. Guzzo, in the second chapter, examines two major lines of research about groups in organizations. The first line of research focuses on decision-making groups; the second concerns performance groups. Typically, work on decision making and that on models of group performance have been relatively independent. Guzzo's contribution links some of the ideas from the models of group performance with models of group decision making.
J. Richard Hackman and Richard E. Walton present a new theory of leadership in task-oriented groups in Chapter Three. The theory is built around three general ingredients that are critical to group performance: clear engaging direction, an enabling performance situation, and adequate material resources. The conceptualization of leadership functions is built from these three factors.
In Chapter Four, Paul S. Goodman provides a new perspective on understanding the meaning of task and technology on group performance. Limitations of current usages of task and technology are identified, and then a new interdisciplinary perspective is provided.
Richard E. Walton and J. Richard Hackman, in Chapter Five, distinguish between organizational contexts that are characterized by control and by commitment. The authors explore the differences between the types of groups and the functions of groups within these two organizational contexts. Of particular interest in this chapter is the treatment of formal and informal groups and new perspectives on the critical functions of groups within organizations.
A different level of analysis—intergroup relations—is undertaken in Chapter Six, by Jeanne M. Brett and Jorn Kjell Rognes. Although previous chapters have focused on the group as the key unit of analysis, it is clear that groups in organizations are linked together. This chapter begins by examining the nature of intergroup relations, causes of differences among groups, and ways to improve intergroup relationships.
The next three chapters are designed to provide different disciplinary views about groups. In the first five chapters we focus specifically on groups in organizations. In the next three, we wanted to step back to see how some different disciplinary perspectives might contribute to our understanding of groups. Helen B. Schwartzman provides an anthropological view of groups in organizations in Chapter Seven. She demonstrates that cultural biases can shape the way we think about work group effectiveness and shows how such biases have influenced research in this area. Schwartzman also develops some alternative methodological and theoretical ways of understanding groups.
Chapters Eight and Nine provide two different social psychology perspectives for viewing groups in organizations. Bibb Latané, in Chapter Eight, examines the relevance of a large body of literature in social psychology, to which he has contributed, that deals with phenomena such as social loafing and social facilitation. James H. Davis and Norbert L. Kerr, in Chapter Nine, focus on a distinguished body of research on group decision making, particularly on how methodology used in that research might apply to work on groups in organizations.
The final two chapters provide both reviews of and comments on critical issues about groups in organizations. In Chapter Ten, L. L. Cummings focuses on themes and “disturbing contributions” in the chapters of this book. Joseph E. McGrath, in Chapter Eleven, examines ten critical needs for the study of groups at work.
Genesis of the Book
The unique feature of this book is the caliber of contributors. Linda Argote, Jeanne M. Brett, L. L. Cummings, James H. Davis, Richard A. Guzzo, J. Richard Hackman, Norbert L. Kerr, Bibb Latané, Joseph E. McGrath, Elizabeth C. Ravlin, Jorn Kjell Rognes, Helen B. Schwartzman, and Richard E. Walton have produced significant contributions to the field.
It is important for the reader to understand the process by which this book was completed. We organized the book by “people” rather than by content. That is, we tried to identify people who have made important contributions to research on groups with particular emphasis on groups in organizations. However, we did not want the focus to be too narrow, so we also invited people who have contributed to the literature of research on groups in areas that bear on groups in organizations. We contracted with each author or team of authors for an original chapter—one that would extend our thinking about theory and practice. When the initial drafts were completed, they were circulated to all contributors. We then met at Carnegie-Mellon University for two days of intensive discussion to generate new ideas on each chapter. Tapes of the workshop discussions were given to the contributors to use in revising their chapters.
The intellectual effectiveness of the workshop format in generating new ideas was based on our work with a group of faculty members from Carnegie-Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, who served as “provocateurs” for the discussion of the chapters. The group included Linda Argote, Robert Atkin, Jack Brittain, Lance Kurke, John Levine, Daniel Levinthal, and Richard Moreland.
The major support for this endeavor came through a contract with the U.S. Bureau of Mines. The contract is part of a larger research program called the Carnegie-Mellon Coal Research Program, which is involved in investigations of absenteeism, group productivity, and safety. We appreciate the interest and support of our project officers, James Peay and Robert Peters. Marilyn Samples Hersh, the administrative assistant of the Coal Project, was responsible for all administrative aspects relevant to the workshop and completion of this book.
Paul S. Goodman
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
February 1986