Running Head: RESEARCH GROUP 2 FINAL TEAM PROJECT1

Research Group 2 – Final Team Project

Diana Balos

Kayleighn Brink

Reginald Hawkins

James Loud

Jody Perry

Christina Whitley

Professor Davis / Spring B BIS 343

Arizona State University

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Final Team Project

Organizations consists of people, and are thus considered social. That’s what we should believe, but many organizations are not social because the social dimension of the organization is not reflected in their structure. The social dimension is concerned with seeing that things are getting done well and effectively in the organization. The process of getting things done involves interactions amongst employees. The success of any organization is dependent on how well the people in that organization relate and work together, as a team. Social systems and processes were not very significant historically, but times have changed. In yester year settings, the top management was responsible for all decisions and did not treat other stakeholders as partners, but as objects. Organizations in this era have realized the effect of making an organization social through reaching out to customers and interacting with them in order to provide endearing goods and services to consumers. Organizing the social dimension of a firm gives the firm a competitive advantage over other firms and fosters future innovation. This task can be achieved through building solidarity with group identity, group emotion, and group cohesiveness.

Group identity is the shared sense of togetherness and belonging to a particular group. Thompson states, “group identity is the extent to which people feel their group membership is an important part of who they are.” (2014: 105) Martinez (2016), on the other hand, cited that group identity is composed of three parts namely: cognitive definitions, emotional investments, and active relationships. Cognitive definition comprises of the formulation of a framework encompassing the group’s objectives, the work environment, and the means to achieve the set goals of the group. Active relationship is a concept devoted to fostering good relations and interactions among the members of staff. Lastly, emotional investment is the recognition of the emotions and feelings between members of the

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group. Martinez (2016) compared the relationship between a chicken and an egg to that between an individual and society. Social groups in organizations are responsible for molding the identity which aids the person to interact with others and contribute to the development of a social structure in an organization. Collective identity is portrayed through the cultures, norms, and traditions of a group. Martinez (2016) propounds that the collective identity was built on the concept of class consciousness and solidarity in a group. The identity is shared on a shared set of shared objectives, morals, and goals. Thompson stated the following, “group identity is an aspect that is present in all team members to a greater or lesser degree.” (2014: 106) The author is correct, and I’ve experienced this statement over the last three years with my current employer. In the beginning, our branch was number one in sales within our bank. We’ve now fallen to number ten, and it’s because we have a new team. We have yet to completely find our identity within the bank, and it’s going to take some time, but it’s there, just in a lesser degree. Creation of a strong group in an organization fosters success and makes the achievement of both individual and organizational goals easy.

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The other integral part of a social organization is group emotion. The moods and emotions that have an effect on a group are referred to as group emotions (Hayamizu, Mori, Mutsuo, Nishiguchi, Miyawaki, & Yamashita, 2012). These emotions may have an effect on an organization from top to bottom of its hierarchy. After all, Thompson stated it best, “group emotion is a group’s affective state that arises from the combination of its bottom-up components (e.g., the moods of particular team members) and its top-down components (e.g., the overall mood of the company).” (2014: 110) The emotions and moods of a group enable the group member to “feel, think and act” in a very different manner than they act as individuals (Hayamizu et al., 2012). There is an assurance that comes along with the emotional connection to a group that gives one confidence to act in a particular way. The norms of a group are the guiding principles dictating which emotions and feelings to be expressed in different situations. Expression of emotions and their amount are in connection with the achievement of the interests of the group. The binding force in a group present another perspective of understanding group emotion, it defines the emotion of a group being fostered by the desires of the group members to be together. Thompson stated, “group emotion serves an important role in promoting group survival.” (2014: 110) These views influence the relationship between members of a group and their view of challenges and tasks ahead of the group or organization. Group emotion has been found to improve the performance and relationships between members of an organization (Hayamizu et al., 2012). For example, previously I discussed the situation of our branch dropping in our company’s internal rankings. Sales are low because of the decrease in walk-in traffic. I feel this factor has caused increased stress amongst teammates, and created a decrease in team moral. It is important to foster positive emotions amongst people in an organization.

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The other facet of social processes in organizations is known as group cohesiveness which comes into existence when there is a bond linking members of a group. Thompson cites the following, “group cohesiveness refers to emotional attraction amongst group members.” (2014: 115) Group cohesiveness is composed of four interrelated aspects namely: emotions, task relation, the unity which is perceived and social relations (Heesen, Macdonald, Ostner, and Schülke, 2015). Psychologists have cited that the level of cohesiveness in a group is determined by teamwork, a sense of belonging and level of attraction amongst group members. There are a variety of factors that bring people together and they are responsible for cohesiveness in a group. Human beings characterized with similar characters and backgrounds for example similar race, occupation or age tend to get pulled together. The more similarities amongst team members, the more the group becomes cohesive (Heesen,. 2015). The author is correct, because when I first started my job at my current bank, I felt no cohesion with the team. Now that I have been there for a while, I feel togetherness when I am on the floor; it just took time. Studies have cited that group cohesion can translate into effective performance, whereas performance on its own can also foster cohesion in a group. It should be noted that the relationship between cohesion and performance is not similar in all groups. Cohesion in a group gives members a sense of satisfaction and thus gains optimism in their approach to things. Organizations should focus on their social dimension and foster cohesiveness in their work groups. Cohesion will give the group members the ability to be composed when faced with a difficult situation and thus ride through storms with greater certainty.

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References

Thompson, L. (2014). Making the Team: A Guide for Managers. Fifth Edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Pearson Education.

Martinez, M. (2016, July). The Glue That Holds Us Together? Emotional Activations in Collective Identity Processes in the Spanish Feminist Movements. In Third ISA Forum of Sociology (July 10-14, 2016). Isaconf.

Hayamizu, T., Mori, H., Mutsuo, S., Nishiguchi, S., Miyawaki, K., & Yamashita, N. (2012, November). Group emotion estimation using Bayesian network based on facial expression and prosodic information. In Control System, Computing and Engineering (ICCSCE), 2012 IEEE International Conference on (pp. 177-182). IEEE.

Heesen, M., Macdonald, S., Ostner, J., & Schülke, O. (2015). Ecological and Social Determinants of Group Cohesiveness and Within‐Group Spatial Position in Wild Assamese Macaques. Ethology, 121(3), 270-283.