GROUP
STRUCTURE
Group Structure
- refers to the underlying pattern of roles, norms, and
networks of relations among members that define
and organize the group
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Norms
● Are the emergent, consensual standards that regulate the group
members’ behavior
● Are social standards that are accepted by a substantial
proportion of the group
● Are shared rules of action
● A group’s norm regulates the group’s
activities by identifying what is normal
and what is not
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Development of Norms
● Members gradually align their behaviors until they match
certain standards , they are not even aware that their
behavior is dictated by the norms of the situation
Transmission of Norms
● Norms emerge gradually as members’ behaviors,
judgement, and beliefs align over time
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Types of Norms
Prescriptive Proscriptive Descriptive Injunctive
Norms Norms Norms Norms
- A consensual - are prohibitions - A consensual - An evaluative
standard that standard that consensual
identifies - A consensual describes how standard that
preferable, standard that people typically describes how
positively identifies act, feel, and people should
sanctioned prohibited, think in a given act, feel, and
behaviors. negatively situation. think in a given
sanctioned situation rather
behaviors. than how people
do act, feel, and
think in that
situation.
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Characteristics and Varieties of Norms
Common Features Description
Descriptive Describe how most members act, feel, and think
Consensual Shared among group members, rather than personal, individual-level beliefs
Injunctive Define which behaviors are considered “bad” or wrong and which are “good” or
acceptable
Prescriptive Set the standards for expected behavior; what should be done
Proscriptive Identify behaviors that should not be performed
Informal Describe the unwritten rules of conduct in the group
Implicit Often so taken for granted that members follow them automatically
Self-generating Emerge as members reach a consensus through reciprocal influence
Stable Once they develop, resistant to change and passed from current members to new
members
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Roles
- are the coherent sets of behaviors expected
of people in specific positions within a
group or social setting.
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Role Differentiation
- the number of roles in the
group increases, whereas the
roles themselves gradually
become more narrowly defined
and specialized
Types of Roles
RELATIONSHIP ROLE OR
TASK ROLE
SOCIOEMOTIONAL ROLE
- Any position in a group
- Any position in a group occupied by a
occupied by a member who
member who performs behaviors
performs behaviors that
that improve the nature and quality
promote completion of tasks
of interpersonal relations among
and activities, such as
members, such as showing concern
initiating structure, providing
for the feelings of others, reducing
task-related feedback, and
conflict, and enhancing feelings of
setting goals.
satisfaction and trust in the group.
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Benne and Sheat’s Typology of Roles in Groups
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Types:
Encourager: Rewards others through agreement, warmth, and
praise
Harmonizer: Mediates conflicts among group members
Compromiser: Shifts his or her own position on an issue in order to
reduce conflict in the group
Gatekeeper/expediter: Smooths communication by setting up procedures and
ensuring equal participation from members
Standard setter: Expresses or calls for discussion of standards for
evaluating the quality of the group process
Group observer/commentator: Points out the positive and negative aspects of
the group’s dynamics and calls for change if necessary
Follower: Accepts the ideas offered by others and serves as an
audience for the group
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Group Socialization Theory
(Richard Moreland and John Levine)
-Apattern of change in the relationship between an individual and a group that
begins when an individual first considers joining the group and ends when he or
she leaves it.
- This theory, recognizes that individuals are often asked to take on roles that
they would prefer to avoid.
- Newcomers must “learn their place” in the group and acquire the behaviors
required by the roles to which they have been assigned.
- Veteran group members must, in some cases, be ready to take on new roles
within the group that force them to learn new skills and seek new challenges.
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● Roles influence group members’ happiness and
wellbeing in significant ways
Role
Stress ● The demand of a role can be stressful for the
occupants of that role.
● By taking on a role in a group, individuals secure
their connection to their fellow members,
building the interdependence that is essential for
group cohesion and productivity
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Unclear expectations about the behaviors to
be performed by an individual occupying a
Role particular position within the group,
Ambiguity
Caused by a lack of clarity in the role itself, a
lack of consensus within the group
regarding the behaviors associated with the
role
The individual role taker’s uncertainty with
regard to the types of behaviors expected by
others.
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A state of tension, distress, or uncertainty caused by inconsistent
or discordant expectations associated with one’s role in the group.
INTERROLE CONFLICT A form of role conflict that occurs when
Role conflict individuals occupy multiple roles within a group and the
expectations and behaviors associated with one of their roles are
not consistent with the expectations and behaviors associated with
another of their roles.
INTRAROLE CONFLICT A form of role conflict that occurs when the
behaviors that make up a single role are incongruous, often
resulting from inconsistent expectations on the part of the person
who occupies the role and other members of the group.
PERSON–ROLE CONFLICT - the behaviors associated with a
particular role are completely congruent with the basic values,
attitudes, personality, needs, or preferences of the person who
must enact the role
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● ROLE FIT- The degree of congruence between
Role and the demands of a specific role and the attitudes,
Well-being values, skills, and other characteristics of the
individual who occupies the role.
● Uncertainty about one’s role including role
ambiguity, role conflict, and poor role fit, results
in stress and tension, and the results are rarely
positive for the group member or for the group
itself.
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Intermember Relations
- Connections among the members of a group provide the basis for the
third component of group structure
Social Network Analysis (SNA)
- A set of analysis procedures used to
describe the structure through graphic
representations and through mathematical
procedures that quantify these structures.
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Networks
Density- The degree of Degree centrality- The Betweenness- The
connectedness of group’s number of ties degree to which a
members, as indexed by between group group member’s
the number of actual ties members; the group’s position in a network is
linking members divided degree centrality is the located along a path
by the number of average of the direct between other pairs of
possible ties. connections among individuals in the
group members. network.
Outdegree- For Indegree- For Closeness- The
nonsymmetric data, nonsymmetric data, distance, in terms of
the number of ties the number of ties ties, of an individual
initiated by the received by the from all others in the
individual. individual. network.
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Status Networks
- Most groups develop a stable patterns of variations in
authority and power through the process of status
differentiation.
- In some instances, people compete with one another for
the status of groups, the resulting peeking order
determines who is dominant and who is submissive
- Group’s members perception of one another also
determines status
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STATUS DIFFERENTIATION
The gradual rise of some group members to positions of greater
authority, accompanied by decreases in the authority exercised
by other members
- It is rare that all members in a group enjoy equal amounts of
authority.
- Certain individuals acquire authority by laying claim accepted
by the other members of the group.
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Expectation-states Theory
- An explanation of status differentiation in groups which assumes that
group members allocate status to group members judged to be
competent at the task at hand and to group members who have
qualities that the members think are indicators of competence and
potential.
SPECIFIC STATUS CHARACTERISTIC DIFFUSE STATUS CHARACTERISTIC
In status characteristics In status characteristics
theory, task-specific behavioral and theory, general personal qualities such
personal characteristics that people as age, race, and ethnicity that people
consider when estimating the relative consider when estimating the relative
competency, ability, and social value of competency, ability, and social value of
themselves and others. themselves and others.
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STATUS
SOLO STATUS
GENERALIZATION
The tendency for individuals The state of being the only
known to have achieved or been
ascribed authority, respect, and
group member who is a
prestige in one context to enjoy representative of a specific
relatively higher status in other, social category in an
unrelated, contexts (e.g., a otherwise homogenous group
celebrity who exercises influence (e.g., a man in an otherwise
in a group even though this all female group).
diffuse status characteristic is not
relevant in the current group
context).
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ATTRACTION NETWORKS
- Patterns of liking/disliking, acceptance/rejection, and
inclusion/exclusion among members of a group.
- Also known as sociometric structure
- Develop through a Sociometric differentation process that orders
group members from least liked to most liked
- Sociometric differentation is the development of stronger and more
positive interpersonal ties between some members of the group,
accompanied by decreases in the quality of relations between other
members of the group
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- Attraction network tend to be, reciprocal, transitive and clustered.
- Reciprocity, or mutual liking, is a powerful tendency in most settings, it has been
documented repeatedly in a variety of groups, including football teams, police
squads, psychotherapy groups, and classroom groups. Example: Vizintin liked
Canessa, and Canessa liked Vizintin in return.
- Transitivity is the passing of a relationship from one element to the next: If
person A likes person B, and B likes C, then the structure is transitive if A likes C
as well. In the Andes group, for example, Canessa liked Mangino, Mangino liked
Vizintin, and, in confirmation of transitivity, Canessa liked Vizintin.
- Clusters, or cliques, members of cliques tend to be more similar to each other
than to the rest of the group, so as a result cliques are higher in homophily.
Members of the same racial category, for example, may join to form a coalition,
or the group may separate naturally into all-male and all-female cliques
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Balance theory
- A conceptualization advanced by Fritz Heider which assumes that
interpersonal relationships can be either balanced (integrated units
with elements that fit together without stress) or unbalanced
(inconsistent units with elements that conflict with one another).
Heider believed that unbalanced relationships create an unpleasant
tension that must be relieved by changing some element of the
system.
- It suggest that sociometric structure also tend to reach a state of
equilibrium in which likes and dislikes are balanced within a group
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Communication Networks
- Patterns of information transmission and exchange that describe who communicates
most frequently and to what extent with whom.
- A group’s communication network may parallel formally established paths, but most
groups also have an informal network that defines who speaks to whom most
frequently.
- Centralized networks are most efficient, but as Shaw ’s concept of information
saturation suggests, not if tasks are too complex and require high levels of
information exchange.
- A group’s network, including performance, effectiveness, and members’ level of
satisfaction.
- Individuals who occupy more central positions in communication networks are often
more influential. 29
Communication Networks
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