WORK GROUPS

A Research Study on Work Groups

A Research Study on Work Groups

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to enlighten the ideology of work groups and their significance. Change is a constant practice in the business environment which is supported with increasing competition. The organizations nowadays prefer work groups than the individual work environments. However, there are certain scenarios where work groups are not perceived as an effective approach.

Discussion

Importance of group dynamics

Setting up a profitable business requires a set of processes and procedures that have to be followed to their fullest. Firstly the organization has to decide the basis of formation of the organization built on the basis of careful analysis of the pros and cons of pertaining to the methodology of business. Nowadays the competition has grown intense. The business practices considered effective some years before; are regarded ineffective now due to obsolescence. The organizations used to focus on their primary goal; the profit. However, the organizations not only focus on achieving their short term objective but long term goals as well (Usluata, 1997). The organizations nowadays prefer group work more than the individual jobs. It is believed by the specialists that if the job is divided in chunks, and distributed according to the specialty of the individuals would reveal best results. The group dynamics possess crucial importance in the business organizations because it allows them to merge distinct specialties to achieve a common goal.

Positive interdependence

The inter-dependence among the individuals in the group can be defined as social interdependence. This is the process in which the results of group members are affected by the actions of each other (Schullery, Gibson, 2001). Social interdependence may be differentiated from social dependence. Positive interdependence promotes interaction (i.e. individuals encouraging and facilitating each other's efforts to complete tasks in order to reach the group's goals). The interdependence between the group members is positive, when their goal attainments are positively correlated with each other. A group member perceives that he can achieve his goals if the other group members with whom they are courteously linked attain their objectives. However, the negative interdependence occurs when the goals of the group members are negatively correlated with each other.

Criticism on Validity of Group Research

There are several issues pertaining to the validity of research studies formulated to analyze groups. There are two categories of research studies: quantitative research and qualitative research. The research methodology used in analyzing the groups in qualitative research. The data collection procedure in this research is focus group in which the participants are interviewed by the researcher. In focus groups the data acquired can be manipulated by the researcher. The validity of the research is also compromised by the research design because the methodologies used by researcher affect the data acquired from respondents. Another issue pertaining to the validity of group study is the lack of secrecy. When the researchers attempt to study a group, they are in direct contact with them (Northen, Kurland, 2001). This often has a negative impact on the participants, because ...