Formal and informal groups in an organization. Formal and informal groups in management They are formal and informal

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It is human nature to communicate with other people. In many cases, such communication is casual and short-term. However, if two or more people spend enough time communicating with each other, they begin to become psychologically aware of what others think of them, what others expect of them. It makes people in a certain way change their behavior, thereby confirming the existence of social relationships based on group characteristics.

Each of us belongs to many groups at the same time (family, relatives, friends, work team, sports team, etc.).

A group is two or more individuals who interact with each other in such a way that each individual influences the others and is simultaneously influenced by the other individuals.

An organization of any size is made up of a number of formal and informal groups.

Groups created at the will of management to organize a production, commercial or other process are called formal groups.

There are three main types of formal groups in an organization: management groups, working (production, task) groups and committees (commissions, councils).

Team group leader consists of a manager and his direct subordinates, who in turn can also be managers (president of the company, his deputies, heads of departments, etc.).

Working (task group) usually consists of individuals working together on the same task. Although they have general manager, these groups differ from the command group in that they have much more independence in planning and carrying out their work.

Committees are created to fill gaps in organizational structures to solve problems that are not within the competence of any of the departments and to perform special functions. There are permanent and special (temporary) committees (policy development, planning group, employee grievance review, salary review, etc.).

The main functions of formal groups (teams) are to perform specific tasks and achieve certain goals.

The following factors influence the effectiveness of a formal group:

group size. As a group increases in size, communication among its members becomes more complex and it becomes more difficult to reach agreement on issues related to the activities of the group and the accomplishment of its tasks, and the tendency for groups to informally divide into subgroups increases (an ideal group should consist of 3-9 people );

Group members. It is advisable for a group to consist of dissimilar individuals, as this promises greater effectiveness than if group members have similar points of view;

group norms - designed to tell group members what kind of behavior and what kind of work is expected of them. Group norms include: pride in the organization; achievements of goals; profitability; collective work; planning; control; professional training personnel; innovations; relationship with the customer; protection of integrity, etc.;

Cohesion is a measure of the attraction of group members to each other and to the group. Management can find an opportunity to increase the positive effect of cohesion by periodically holding meetings to discuss current problems, new projects and priorities in the future. Potential negative consequence a high degree of cohesion is group like-mindedness;

group like-mindedness – This is the tendency to suppress the views of an individual on some phenomenon in order not to disturb the harmony of the group. As a result, the problem is solved with less efficiency, since the entire necessary information and alternative solutions are not discussed or evaluated;

conflict. Although active exchange of views is beneficial, it can also lead to intra-group disputes and other manifestations of open conflict, which are always detrimental;

the status of group members can be determined by a number of factors (seniority in the official hierarchy, job title, location of the office, education, social talents, awareness and accumulated experience). Group members whose status is high enough are able to exert more influence on group decisions than group members with low status;

roles of group members. For a group to function effectively, its members must behave in ways that promote group goals and social interaction. There are two main types of roles to create a well-functioning group:

target roles imply the ability to select group tasks and carry them out (initiating activities, searching for information, collecting opinions, providing information, expressing opinions, elaborating proposals, coordinating, summarizing);

Supporting roles imply behavior that contributes to the maintenance and activation of the life and activities of the group (encouragement, ensuring participation, establishing criteria, performance, expressing the feelings of the group). Most American managers perform goal roles, while Japanese managers perform goal and support roles.

The most effective group is considered to be one whose size corresponds to its tasks, which includes people with dissimilar character traits, whose norms contribute to achieving the goals of the organization and creating a spirit of collectivism, where healthy level conflict, good performance of both goal and support roles and where having high status group members do not dominate.

Effective management of each formal group within an organization is critical to achieving the organization's goals.

Informal groups- These are spontaneously emerging groups of people who regularly interact to achieve a specific goal. Informal organizations have much in common with formal organizations. They have their own hierarchy, leaders, norms and tasks.

The difference is that a formal organization is created according to a pre-thought-out plan, while an informal organization is most likely a spontaneous reaction to unsatisfactory individual needs.

The reasons for joining informal organizations are that belonging to informal groups can provide people with psychological benefits that are no less important than the wages they receive: a sense of belonging, mutual assistance, mutual protection, close communication and mutual interest

Informal organizations create a number of problems:

decrease in the efficiency of the enterprise;

spreading false rumors and resisting progressive change.

At the same time, if group norms exceed formal norms, informal organizations can bring benefits (commitment to the enterprise, high team spirit and higher productivity).

People usually know why they join formal organizations (to achieve common goals, rewards, prestige, etc.). People also have reasons for joining informal groups, but they are often not aware of them. The most important reasons joining a group: a sense of belonging, mutual assistance, protection of common interests, close communication (sympathy) and interest.

Each informal group has its own leader. In this case, his age, job position, professional competence, responsiveness, even the location of the workplace, etc. usually matter.

The development of informal organizations and the reasons why people join them contribute to the development of characteristics in these organizations that make them both similar and different from formal organizations. It is important that leaders understand that informal groups interact with formal groups.

One of the biggest difficulties preventing the effective management of informal groups is the initially low opinion of managers about them. Some managers believe that the very emergence of an informal organization is the result of effective management. But that's not true. There are informal groups in any organization. This is as natural as the desire of friends to be friends, communicate, and interact.

The effectiveness of a formal organization is strongly influenced by the following characteristics of informal organizations:

social control - establishing and strengthening norms - group standards of acceptable and unacceptable behavior (clothing, acceptable types of work, behavior). Social control exercised by an informal organization can influence and guide the achievement of the goals of a formal organization. It can also influence opinions about managers and the fairness of their decisions;

resistance to change - will arise whenever group members perceive change as a threat to the continued existence of their group as such, their common experience, the satisfaction of social needs, common interests or positive emotions. Management can reduce this resistance by allowing and encouraging subordinates to participate in decision making;

Informal leaders have two primary functions: to help the group achieve its goals and to support and strengthen its existence. Sometimes these functions are performed by different people.

Some informal groups may behave unproductively (spread false rumors, hold back the necessary modernization of production, etc.). Therefore, one of the biggest and most common difficulties that hinders the effective management of informal groups is the initially low opinion of managers about them. By failing to find ways to effectively engage with informal organizations, or by trying to suppress them, managers often miss out on potential benefits. In any case, regardless of whether the informal organization is harmful or useful, it exists and must be taken into account. Even if the management destroys some informal group, another group will certainly arise in its place, which may have a deliberately negative attitude towards the management.

An informal organization can help a formal organization achieve its goals. To do this, managers need to:

1. Recognize the existence of an informal organization, work with it and not threaten its existence;

2. Listen to the opinions of members and leaders of informal groups. Know who the leader of the informal group is and work with him, encouraging those who do not interfere, but contribute to achieving the goals of the organization; a leader is a person who is “followed” (consulted, listened to, considered) without connection with his position in the organization; The leader usually influences creatively, but there are also negative leaders (pushing for a decrease in labor productivity, etc.).

3. Before taking any action, it is necessary to calculate their possible negative impact on informal organization;

4. Allow the informal group to participate in decision making to reduce resistance to change on its part;

5. Providing accurate information quickly, thereby preventing the spread of rumors.

Thus, the task of a manager in this aspect is not to fight informal groups, but to acquire the skills to manage them in order to skillfully direct the efforts of not only formal, but also informal groups to achieve the goals of the organization.

Each person simultaneously belongs to many groups. To one we belong enough short term(excursion group, army, technical school). Having achieved the goal, such groups disintegrate. Others, on the contrary, accompany us all our lives (family, family, friends) and have a great influence on him.

In management theory, groups are distributed, which are the basis of any team, into formal and informal.

Formal groups - these are groups that arise on the initiative of the administration and are included in a certain division in organizational structure And staffing table enterprises. Exist Various types formal groups:

1. A group of managers (team) - consists of the head of the enterprise (its division) and direct deputies and assistant managers.

2. Functional group - combines the head and specialists of a functional unit (department, bureau, service) who implement general function management and have similar professional goals and interests.

3. Production group - consists of a manager and workers engaged in performing a certain type of work at the lower level of management (link, team, section). Group members work together on one task, the incentive is the end result, and the differences between them are associated with the distribution of types of work between group members depending on the qualifications of the workers.

4. A committee is a group within an enterprise to which authority is delegated by senior management to carry out any project or task. The main difference between a committee and other formal structures is group decision-making, which is sometimes the most effective means solving complex problems and achieving goals.

Formal groups arise at the will of management and are therefore conservative to a certain extent, since they often depend on the personality of the leader and the people who work in this group. But as soon as they arise, they immediately become a social environment in which people begin to interact with each other according to different laws, creating informal groups.

Informal groups - These are freely formed small social groups of people who enter into constant interaction to achieve personal goals.

Informal groups are created not by management through orders and formal resolutions, but by members of the organization, depending on their mutual sympathies, common interests, identical affections, and so on. These groups exist in all organizations, although they are not reflected in the organizational charts. Informal groups have their own unwritten rules and norms of behavior; people know well who is in their informal group and who is not. In informal groups, a certain distribution of roles and positions develops; these groups have an explicitly or implicitly expressed leader. In many cases, an informal group may have its member's influence equal or greater than the formal structure.

Informal groups usually form spontaneously within formal groups, with which they have much in common, namely:

Have certain organization- hierarchy, leader and tasks;

They have certain unwritten rules - norms;

They have a certain process of formation - stages;

They have certain varieties - types of informal groups according to the degree of maturity.

The reasons for the formation of informal groups can be different: the desire to belong to a certain social group and have certain social contacts; the opportunity to receive help from colleagues in the team; the desire to know about what is happening around, to use informal communication channels; the desire to be closer to those you like.

There are significant differences between formal and informal groups both in the purpose for which they are created and in the forms of influence of their leaders on other group members (Table 13.1).

Table 13.1

The main differences between a formal and informal group

Experts divide the process of formation of informal groups into five stages, as a result of which five various types informal groups that differ from each other in the degree of maturity of relationships:

/ Stage- spontaneous associations of people who unconsciously react to any events;

Stage II- the emergence of more conscious emotions in case of successful previous actions;

Stage III- an organized association for a joint fight against an external threat, the emergence of a leader;

IV stage - in the presence of positive factors - the emergence of a desire to establish oneself in the struggle and continue joint activities, the emergence of hierarchies;

V stage - unification to solve long-term goals, the emergence of norms.

There are informal groups in every organization, and a serious aspect of a manager’s activity is the need to understand the importance of the existence of these groups and their management.

One of the first scientists to pay attention to these issues was the group theorist George Homans, who created a model called the Homans model (Fig. 13.1).

Rice. 13.1. Homans model

The essence of this model is that in the process of joint activity people enter into interactions, which in turn contribute to the manifestation of feelings - positive and negative emotions towards each other and towards the leader. These emotions influence how people will carry out their activities and lead to an increase or decrease in their effectiveness. That is why, you should remember some negative and positive phenomena that an organization may encounter in the process of managing informal groups (Table 13.2).

Table 13.2

Negative and positive aspects of the existence of informal groups

Informal relationships among team members are inevitable, since their activities and interests cannot exist only within the framework of formal (approved) structures, positions, functions and procedures. In addition, informal relationships are necessary, since without them the formal structure, in a certain sense, loses its effectiveness.

The optimal state of the team is in which formal and informal groups coincide as much as possible. This coincidence of formal and informal structures ensures team cohesion and increases productivity.

Due to inconsistency of structures, when the leader does not have authority in the team, and group norms and rules differ from collective ones, a struggle may arise in the organization between formal and informal structures, which hinders effective activity and the process of achieving organizational goals.

Today's theorists believe that informal groups can help a formal organization achieve its goals. For this it is desirable:

1. Recognize the existence of informal groups and work with them.

2. Listen to the opinions of members and leaders of informal groups.

3. Before starting any actions, calculate their possible negative impact to an informal organization.

4. Allow the informal group to participate in decision making.

5. Providing accurate information quickly, thereby preventing the spread of rumors.

So, one of the most important tasks of a leader is to bring together formal and informal structures, positive orientations of informal groups and the fight against negative manifestations a team.

Signs of joint activity

Cooperative activity

Topic 5. Group behavior in an organization

All organizations achieve their goals through the collaboration of employees.

1. The presence of a single goal for all participants involved in this activity. This allows these people to form a community.

2. The presence of a single collective motive .

3. The necessary distribution of the activity process into separate functionally related actions, operations and their distribution between participants. This leads to the creation of a certain formal structure at the enterprise.

4. Strict coordination, coordination of the implementation of certain actions (implies the presence of a specific program) .

5. The presence of a single end result achieved through joint efforts.

6. Unified spatio-temporal functioning of participants .

Participation in joint activities leads to the formation of groups as specific subjects of activity.

The behavior of people in a group differs in its characteristics from the behavior of people as individuals. Therefore, to effectively manage the behavior of people in an organization, it is necessary to understand the psychological foundations of group behavior and the processes that occur in groups.

Group - a relatively isolated association of people interacting, interdependent and mutually influencing each other, created to achieve specific goals, coordinating joint activities and considering themselves as part of the whole.

Every organization has a formal and informal structure, and corresponding formal and informal groups.

Formal groups - groups created on the initiative from above, usually by higher management, to perform specific tasks related to the goals of the organization. Features formal group:

¨ clearly defined composition and structure, including organizational norms

¨ common tasks (goals) for the group

¨ strict definition and distribution of roles

¨ unambiguous definition of the statuses, rights and responsibilities of group members

The identification of formal groups is based on the expediency of the social division of labor.

The following are distinguished: types of formal groups:

Ÿ Team(subordinate), or administrative, group, or group of the leader

Ÿ Working, or operational group

Ÿ Committee

Informal groups arise as a consequence of individual effort and develop on the basis of common interests and sympathies, and not on the basis of deliberate design. These are natural groupings of people in work situation created to meet social needs.

Informal groups in the organization are divided into:

v Interest groups - group members unite to achieve a specific goal that is not related to the goals of the organization.

v Groups based on friendship, likes, and common interests.

Functions of informal groups in an organization:

¨ Satisfying the need for group affiliation, recognition, respect and identification

¨ Implementation of common social and material interests (joint innovation, generating additional income, resolving dacha issues, organizing tourist trips, etc.)

¨ Protection from excessive pressure from the organization, excessive intensification of work, increasing production standards, etc.

¨ Receiving and transmitting necessary or interesting information.

¨ Facilitating communications and establishing mutual assistance in solving both organizational and personal problems.

¨ Preservation and cultivation of common cultural, social, national, religious and other values.

¨ Creating a favorable environment for activity and psychological comfort, overcoming alienation, fear, gaining confidence and calmness

¨ Adaptation and integration of new and young employees