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Group Structure

Cohesiveness

Chart showing the relationship between performance norms and cohesiveness.

Figure 1.

Cohesiveness is the degree to which group members enjoy collaborating with the other members of the group and are motivated to stay in the group.

Cohesiveness is related to a group's productivity. In fact, the higher the cohesiveness, the more there's a chance of low productivity, if norms are not established well. If the group established solid, productive performance norms and their cohesiveness is high, then their productivity will ultimately be high. If the group did not establish those performance norms and their cohesiveness is high, then their productivity is doomed to be low. Think about a group of high school friends getting together after school to work on a project. If they have a good set of rules and tasks divided amongst them, they'll get the project done and enjoy the work. And, without those norms, they will end up eating Hot Pockets and playing video games until it's time to go home for dinner.

Figure 1 shows the relationship between performance norms and cohesiveness. In the workplace, there are ways to increase cohesiveness within a group.

A group leader can:

  • shrink the size of the group to encourage its members get to know each other and can interact with each other.
  • increase the time the group spends together, and even increase the status of the group by making it seem difficult to gain entry to it.
  • help the group come to agreement around its goals.
  • reward the entire group when those goals are achieved, rather than the individuals who made the biggest contributions to it.
  • stimulate competition with other groups.
  • isolate the group physically.

All of these actions can build the all-important cohesiveness that impacts productivity.

Now that we fully understand what a group is and what its dynamics are, shall we go build one to work on a project? Or . . . wait. Are we better off letting one individual person tackle that particular task? We'll next talk about making the choice between assigning an individual to work on a project, versus assigning a group.