ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
LECTURE 4: Individuals in groups & Teamworking
Who I am?
Self concept: the set of perceptions that we have about ourselves. How do we see ourselves.
Indeed, the way we see ourselves influences also how the group sees us.
Joining a group lowers our self-awareness and increases our group awareness
Social identity: that part of the self-concept which comes from our membership of groups and
which contributes to our self-esteem. It is based on our individual characteristics, as well as on
our belonging to a group.
Social categorization: classifying the people we meet, on the basis of how similar or different
they are, from the way that we see ourselves.
Self categorization: perceiving ourselves as sharing the same social identity as other category
members, and behaving in ways consistent with that category stereotype. We compare the
group we are in with the rest of groups. “We” vs “them”.
Self esteem: that part of the self which is concerned with how we evaluate ourselves. For
instance, if we are part of a privileged group, this gives us high self-esteem.
Individual and groups:
Groups do influence individuals. This is called compliance. Example: being member of a cult
affects your behaviour.
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, Later studies also found that this phenomenon also happens in the opposite direction:
individuals can also impact the organization/group. This is called conversion. Example: the film
of 12 angry men, where a unique jurist convinces 11 of them with its opinion about a crime.
But conversion is not that usual as compliance.
Groups influencing individuals:
Social influence: the presence of others influences our attitudes and behaviours. When we are
in a group or we do something in the presence of people, it affects our behaviour. This
phenomenon has two dimensions:
- Social facilitation: when we are working on something and we have people around us,
if we are good at that work, we will perform better with that people around.
- Social inhibition: if we work on a task that is difficult for us or if we are not good it in,
people around us cause our performance level to decrease. Typical case that when you
do one task alone you do it well, but not when you are in front of some people. This
can happen because we change our behaviour to meet the demands of the
environment surrounding us (the people around may have certain expectations from
us, or we feel pressure as we have to demonstrate certain skills (for getting a job, for
instance), etc.).
Synergy: the outcome of interactions in a group. When we interact in a group, the outcome of
our interaction is the synergy.
- It can be positive (Positive synergy): the final produced outcome will be greater than
the sum of what can be achieved individually. This is important in teams that are cross-
functional or cross-organizational because members of those have different type of
knowledge and skills and this enhances the knowledge of the whole group. 2+2=5, and
not 4.
o Positive synergy is linked to Social compensation: individuals work harder
when in a group, for instance, because the performance of the group is
important to them. This is why they have to compensate the work of those not
doing so much. In other words, if I want a good grade in the group assignment,
and one of the team members is not working at all, I will have to work harder
in order to compensate his laziness. This is social compensation.
- It can be negative (Negative synergy): 2+2=3, not 4 or 5. Teams can experience
conflicts, not good management, etc. What may happen is that they perform even
worse than if they would have performed individually.
2
LECTURE 4: Individuals in groups & Teamworking
Who I am?
Self concept: the set of perceptions that we have about ourselves. How do we see ourselves.
Indeed, the way we see ourselves influences also how the group sees us.
Joining a group lowers our self-awareness and increases our group awareness
Social identity: that part of the self-concept which comes from our membership of groups and
which contributes to our self-esteem. It is based on our individual characteristics, as well as on
our belonging to a group.
Social categorization: classifying the people we meet, on the basis of how similar or different
they are, from the way that we see ourselves.
Self categorization: perceiving ourselves as sharing the same social identity as other category
members, and behaving in ways consistent with that category stereotype. We compare the
group we are in with the rest of groups. “We” vs “them”.
Self esteem: that part of the self which is concerned with how we evaluate ourselves. For
instance, if we are part of a privileged group, this gives us high self-esteem.
Individual and groups:
Groups do influence individuals. This is called compliance. Example: being member of a cult
affects your behaviour.
1
, Later studies also found that this phenomenon also happens in the opposite direction:
individuals can also impact the organization/group. This is called conversion. Example: the film
of 12 angry men, where a unique jurist convinces 11 of them with its opinion about a crime.
But conversion is not that usual as compliance.
Groups influencing individuals:
Social influence: the presence of others influences our attitudes and behaviours. When we are
in a group or we do something in the presence of people, it affects our behaviour. This
phenomenon has two dimensions:
- Social facilitation: when we are working on something and we have people around us,
if we are good at that work, we will perform better with that people around.
- Social inhibition: if we work on a task that is difficult for us or if we are not good it in,
people around us cause our performance level to decrease. Typical case that when you
do one task alone you do it well, but not when you are in front of some people. This
can happen because we change our behaviour to meet the demands of the
environment surrounding us (the people around may have certain expectations from
us, or we feel pressure as we have to demonstrate certain skills (for getting a job, for
instance), etc.).
Synergy: the outcome of interactions in a group. When we interact in a group, the outcome of
our interaction is the synergy.
- It can be positive (Positive synergy): the final produced outcome will be greater than
the sum of what can be achieved individually. This is important in teams that are cross-
functional or cross-organizational because members of those have different type of
knowledge and skills and this enhances the knowledge of the whole group. 2+2=5, and
not 4.
o Positive synergy is linked to Social compensation: individuals work harder
when in a group, for instance, because the performance of the group is
important to them. This is why they have to compensate the work of those not
doing so much. In other words, if I want a good grade in the group assignment,
and one of the team members is not working at all, I will have to work harder
in order to compensate his laziness. This is social compensation.
- It can be negative (Negative synergy): 2+2=3, not 4 or 5. Teams can experience
conflicts, not good management, etc. What may happen is that they perform even
worse than if they would have performed individually.
2
