Although the “teams” at Ken Private Limited are actually large organizational units, many of the principles of group dynamics and teamwork still apply. How do the concepts of group development, norms, diversity, and cohesiveness apply to the case?

Answer:

A group can be defined as two or more interacting and interdependent individuals who come together to achieve particular objectives. Sharma decided to split the activities of the production and technology development between the Philippines office and the Indian office. It was the first time that the company had adopted this kind of an arrangement to execute a project. The Indian team was given the responsibility of developing a technological platform and transferring it to the Filipino team, whereas the latter was given the task of content processing and production using the newly developed technical platform. In this case, the groups were relatively large but still the concepts of group development, norms, diversity, and cohesiveness apply to the case.

Leaders and trainers have observed that many groups develop through a series of stages over time. Each stage presents the members with a series of challenges they must master to achieve during the next stage. These stages are forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. In this case, the two teams started forming when the task was divided for the first time by Sharma. This was the phase of forming. During the storming stage, conflict often emerges. Confrontation and criticism occur as members determine whether they will go along with the way the group is developing, and when the Filipino and Indian team was blaming each other for their work is the storming stage. The norming happened when the Indian engineering team fixed all the errors and they started working. The performing phase happened when they finished the two years, though the target was not met and the client was not satisfied. The phase of adjourning did not happen in this case because the task was not finished at the time.

Group norms are the informal guidelines of behavior and a code of conduct that provides some order and conformity to group activities and operations. These norms and rules usually develop gradually and informally as group members learn preform what behaviors are necessary for the group to function effectively. The formation of group norms was evident when the project manager gave the responsibility for technological aspects to the Indian team while the content for processing was given to the Filipino team.

Group diversity has a strong impact on interaction patterns. More diverse groups have a more difficult time communicating effectively and becoming cohesive. This is really visible in the Ken's case. Because this group was so diverse, they took too much time in forming,

storming, and norming. But the good part of diversity also applies in this case. Diverse groups sometimes perform better on certain tasks. For example, diversity in educational backgrounds and functional specialty in this case (engineering vs product processing) can lead to team creativity and innovation. This is because there is a wider variety of ideas would be considered in such if the energy of the both teams were directed in the correct manner.

Group cohesiveness is a critical emergent property of groups. Cohesive groups are those that are especially attractive to their members. Because of this attractiveness, members are especially desirous of staying in the group and tend to describe the group in favorable terms. This concept can be seen with the Filipino team as they were segregated into five departments: Production Planning and Control (PPC), Initial  Process Imaging (IPI), Document Control and Distribution (DCD), Non-Production Staff (NPS) and Quality Assurance (QA). Group cohesiveness can also be seen in the way they loved working with each other, when Sharma called the meeting with the Filipino team and how they stood, and the way they stood with each other. On the other hand, group cohesiveness was missing from team Filipino and team India. Cohesiveness is a relative, rather than absolute, property of groups. While some groups are more cohesive than others, there is no objective line between cohesive and non-cohesive groups. Thus, we will use the adjective cohesive to refer to groups that are more attractive than average