BCOM HRM - Group Dynamics and Leadership

Bachelor of Commerce
in Human Resource Management
GROUP DYNAMICS AND LEADERSHIP
Module Guide
Copyright © 2023
MANCOSA
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Bachelor of Commerce
in Human Resource Management
GROUP DYNAMICS AND LEADERSHIP
List of Contents ....................................................................................................................................................... 1
Preface.................................................................................................................................................................... 2
Unit 1: Foundations of Individual Behaviour.......................................................................................................... 11
Unit 2: Motivation .................................................................................................................................................. 32
Unit 3: Organisational Culture ............................................................................................................................... 59
Unit 4: Groups and Teams .................................................................................................................................... 76
Unit 5 Leadership .................................................................................................................................................. 99
Unit 6: Conflict and Negotiation........................................................................................................................... 115
Answers to Revision Question ............................................................................................................................ 135
References.......................................................................................................................................................... 139
Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................................ 143
i
Group Dynamics and Leadership
List of Contents
List of Tables
Table 1.1: Individual Behaviour Framework...................................................................................................... 16
Table 1.2: Types of reinforcement and their effect on behaviour ...................................................................... 24
Table 2.1: Differentiation between process theories and content theories of motivation .................................. 38
Table 3.1: Differences between Organisational Culture and Organisational Climate ....................................... 69
Table 4.1: Differences between Groups and Teams......................................................................................... 81
Table 4.2: Example of pre-defined roles of individual members of a group ...................................................... 83
Table 4.3: Group roles for maintaining collaboration ........................................................................................ 83
Table 4.4: Differences between a loose group and effective team ................................................................... 89
Table 4.5: Critical considerations for advancing teamwork ............................................................................... 90
Table 4.6: Characteristics of high-performance teams ..................................................................................... 93
Table 5.1: Differences between a leader and a manager ............................................................................... 103
Table 6.1: Approaches to Conflict Management ............................................................................................. 125
List of Figures
Figure 1.1: Six Personality Types ..................................................................................................................... 18
Figure 1.2: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs .......................................................................................................... 38
Figure 2.1: Equity Theory: job inputs must balance with job outcomes ............................................................ 43
Figure 4.1: Schein’s Culture Triangle................................................................................................................ 67
Figure 6.1: Stages of the Conflict Resolution process .................................................................................... 127
1 MANCOSA – Bachelor of Commerce in Human Resource Management

Preface
A. Welcome
Dear Student
It is a great pleasure to welcome you to the Group Dynamics and Leadership (GDL7) module. To make sure
that you share our passion about this area of study, we encourage you to read this overview thoroughly. Refer to
it as often as you need to, since it will certainly make studying this module a lot easier. The intention of this module
is to develop both your confidence and proficiency in this module.
The field of Group Dynamics and Leadership is extremely dynamic and challenging. The learning content, activities
and self- study questions contained in this guide will therefore provide you with opportunities to explore the latest
developments in this field and help you to discover the field of Group Dynamics and Leadership as it is practiced
today.
This is a distance-learning module. Since you do not have a tutor standing next to you while you study, you need
to apply self-discipline. You will have the opportunity to collaborate with each other via social media tools. Your
study skills will include self-direction and responsibility. However, you will gain a lot from the experience! These
study skills will contribute to your life skills, which will help you to succeed in all areas of life.
We hope you enjoy the module.
MANCOSA does not own or purport to own, unless explicitly stated otherwise, any intellectual property
rights in or to multimedia used or provided in this module guide. Such multimedia is copyrighted by the
respective creators thereto and used by MANCOSA for educational purposes only. Should you wish to
use copyrighted material from this guide for purposes of your own that extend beyond fair dealing/use,
you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
MANCOSA – Bachelor of Commerce in Human Resource Management 2

B. Module Overview
The purpose of this module is to understand the changing dynamics of groups in organisations and their
contribution to organisational effectiveness as well as leadership in organisations. The field of Group Dynamics is
concerned with the forces at work or changing aspects that take place in groups which affect individual behaviour
in groups. The field is also concerned with how the individual behaviour also affects the group.
Course participants will need to understand individual behaviour, which in turn has influence in groups and teams
in an organisational setting. Interpersonal and group interaction dynamics are explored with specific reference to
conflict and negotiation. This module forms an integral part of Human Resource Management as it familiarises
learners to aspects of organisational behaviour including group and team dynamics and leadership. With an
intimate understanding of Group Dynamics and Leadership, the Human Resources Practitioner can be expected
to contribute towards the development and management of groups and teams within organisations and contribute
to an improved organisational performance.
Group Dynamics and Leadership is not uniquely confined to a specific context and is a very adaptable field that
can be applied to any management function. Human Resources Management, as a discipline mostly dealing with
the management of people and their performance, considering people as part of teams and groups is equally
important in considering them as individuals. Given than in some organisational operational practices people may
perform functions as part of teams and groups, it becomes insightful to have an understanding of the nature of
group and team behaviour as well as dynamics. Considering the role of individuals in organisations would be
incomplete without also considering their roles as part of teams and groups. Hence this module covers the entire
continuum from the individual to the group in order gain insights into the entire scope of people dynamics within
the organisation. In addition, the module also considers the organisational context within which groups and teams
operate and considers organisational climate and culture which are often influential to group and team dynamics
and performance. This module, as part of considering Group Dynamics and Leadership, will look principally into
individual behaviour; personal motivation; organisational culture; the nature of groups and teams; conflict and
negotiation as well as the issue of leadership being a key factor in the process of people management.
Learning outcomes:
The overall outcome for this section is that, on its completion, the learner should be able to have a comprehensive
overview of the field of Group Dynamics and Leadership. This overall outcome will be achieved through the
learner’s mastery of the following specific outcomes, in that the learner will be able to:
• Differentiate between the principles and application of alternate theories of leadership and
examine the appropriateness of identified leadership styles
• Discuss the role of human resource management within organisations with specific reference to
organisational behaviour

• Demonstrate knowledge of the interrelationship between human resource management, the

individual and the organisation
• Identify the differences between groups and teams
• Examine the ways in which groups and teams contribute to organisational effectiveness
• Critically analyse the influence of group dynamics on organisational performance
• Demonstrate an understanding of the principles of managing groups and teams for high
performance
• Contribute towards team and group development within an organisation
• Provide a critical evaluation of the differences between management and leadership
The module is a 15-credit module at NQF level 7.
C. Exit Level Outcomes and Associated Assessment Criteria of the Programme
Exit Level Outcomes (ELOs) Associated Assessment Criteria (AACs)
• Demonstrate the ability to make decisions • Scope and context of organisational structure, systems
and act appropriately through an and relevant policies human resource management
understanding of organisational structure, practice understood
systems and relevant policies in human
resource management practice
• Apply various methods and systems in the • Various methods and systems in the development of
development of human resource strategies human resource strategies and plans applied
and plans
• Evaluate, select and apply appropriate • Various appropriate methods, procedures or techniques
methods, procedures or techniques when of evaluated, selected and applied when effecting human
effecting human resource management resource management functions
functions
• Demonstrate an ability to develop and • Human resource management concepts, ideas and
communicate ideas and opinions in well- opinions presented in well - formed arguments using
appropriate discourse
formed arguments using appropriate
academic and professional discourse when
engaged in human resources management
contexts

• Demonstrate the ability to manage • Processes and accountability is demonstrated to manage

processes and take accountability in a processes in various contexts relating to the management
variety of contexts relating to the of human resources
management of human resources
• Demonstrate the ability to take decisions • Ethical and professional conduct regarding decision –
and act ethically and professionally; and making demonstrated
• Contribute to improving organisational • Organisational culture and climate strategies of

culture and climate organisations are analysed and evaluated to contribute to
continuous organisational development
D. Learning Outcomes and Associated Assessment Criteria of the Module
LEARNING OUTCOMES OF THE MODULE ASSOCIATED ASSESSMENT CRITERIA OF THE MODULE
• Discuss the role of human resource • Organisational behaviour and its role in the human
management within organisations with resource function is demonstrated through an integrative
specific reference to organisational discussion interlinking the two concepts
behaviour
• Demonstrate knowledge of the • The relationship between human resource management,

interrelationship between human the individual and the organisation is investigated to
resource management, the individual demonstrate knowledge that integrates the three concepts
and the organisation
• Identify the differences between groups • Group characteristics and elements as distinct from those
and teams of teams are explored to create a differentiated
understanding between teams and groups
• Examine the ways in which groups and • Knowledge of the role of groups and teams in
teams contribute to organisational organisational effectiveness is demonstrated in order
effectiveness understand the unique contributions of each in
organisational performance
• Critically analyse the influence of group • Organisational performance is critiqued to realise its
dynamics on organisational performance influence to group dynamics
• Demonstrate an understanding of the • Principles of managing groups and teams to create high
principles of managing groups and performance in an organisation are examined
teams for high performance

• Contribute towards team and group • Strategies and techniques of developing teams and
development within an organisation groups are discussed in a way that demonstrates insight
into how teams and groups can be developed
• Provide a critical evaluation of the • An understanding of management as distinct from

differences between management and leadership is demonstrated through a comparative
leadership discussion of similarities and differences between the two
concepts
• Differentiate between the principles and • Alternate theories of leadership are explored to create an
application of alternate theories of understanding of the multi-faceted nature of leadership
leadership
• Examine the appropriateness of identified • Familiarity with leadership styles is demonstrated through
leadership styles an identification of leadership styles that are appropriate in
certain situations and organisational contexts
E. Learning Outcomes of the Units

You will find the Unit Learning Outcomes on the introductory pages of each Unit in the Module Guide. The Unit
Learning Outcomes lists an overview of the areas you must demonstrate knowledge in and the practical skills you
must be able to achieve at the end of each Unit lesson in the Module Guide.
F. Notional Learning Hours
Learning time
Types of learning activities
%
Lectures/Workshops (face to face, limited or technologically mediated) 10
Tutorials: individual groups of 30 or less 0
Syndicate groups 0
Practical workplace experience (experiential learning/work-based learning etc.) 0
Independent self-study of standard texts and references (study guides, books, journal 60
articles)
Independent self-study of specially prepared materials (case studies, multi-media, etc.) 20
Other: Online 10
TOTAL 100

G. How to Use this Module

This Module Guide was compiled to help you work through your units and textbook for this module, by breaking
your studies into manageable parts. The Module Guide gives you extra theory and explanations where necessary,
and so enables you to get the most from your module.
The purpose of the Module Guide is to allow you the opportunity to integrate the theoretical concepts from the
prescribed textbook and recommended readings. We suggest that you briefly skim read through the entire guide
to get an overview of its contents. At the beginning of each Unit, you will find a list of Learning Outcomes and
Associated Assessment Criteria. This outlines the main points that you should understand when you have
completed the Unit/s. Do not attempt to read and study everything at once. Each study session should be 90
minutes without a break.
This module should be studied using the prescribed and recommended textbooks/readings and the relevant
sections of this Module Guide. You must read about the topic that you intend to study in the appropriate section
before you start reading the textbook in detail. Ensure that you make your own notes as you work through both the
textbook and this module. In the event that you do not have the prescribed and recommended textbooks/readings,
you must make use of any other source that deals with the sections in this module.
If you want to do further reading and want to obtain publications that were used as source documents when we
wrote this guide, you should look at the reference list and the bibliography at the end of the Module Guide.
H. Study Material
The study material for this module includes tutorial letters, programme handbook, this Module Guide, a list of
prescribed and recommended textbooks/readings which may be supplemented by additional readings.
I. Prescribed and Recommended Textbook/Readings

There is at least one prescribed and recommended textbooks/readings allocated for the module. The prescribed
and recommended readings/textbooks presents a tremendous amount of material in a simple, easy-to-learn format.
You should read ahead during your course. Make a point of it to re-read the learning content in your module
textbook. This will increase your retention of important concepts and skills. You may wish to read more widely than
just the Module Guide and the prescribed and recommended textbooks/readings, the Bibliography and Reference
list provides you with additional reading.

The prescribed and recommended textbooks/readings for this module are:

Prescribed Textbook
• Forsyth, D. (2019) Group Dynamics. Seventh Edition. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Recommended Reading
• Suleiman., H (2022) Teamwork: Creating a Performing Team that Will Sustain High Performance
Always. Amazon Digital Services LLC - Kdp
Journal Articles
• Nunes., Danilo & Santos., Neusa & Fukunaga, Fernando. (2020) Group Dynamics and Leadership: A
Collective Process Construction. Journal on Innovation and Sustainability Risus. 10. 27-36.
10.23925/2179-3565.2019v10i4p27-36.
• Khushk, Amir & Zengtian, Zhang & Hui, Yang & Atamba, Cynthia. (2022) Understanding Group Dynamics:
Theories, Practices, and Future Directions. Malaysian E Commerce Journal. 6. 1-08.
10.26480/mecj.01.2022.01.08.
• Oyefusi., F. (2022) Team and Group Dynamics in Organisations: Effect on Productivity and Performance.
Journal of Human Resource and Sustainability Studies, 10(1), 111–121

J. Special Features
In the Module Guide, you will find the following icons together with a description. These are designed to help you
study. It is imperative that you work through them as they also provide guidelines for examination purposes.
Special Feature Icon Explanation
The Learning Outcomes indicate aspects of the particular Unit you

LEARNING have to master.
OUTCOMES
The Associated Assessment Criteria is the evaluation of the students’

ASSOCIATED
understanding which are aligned to the outcomes. The Associated
ASSESSMENT
Assessment Criteria sets the standard for the successful
CRITERIA
demonstration of the understanding of a concept or skill.
A Think Point asks you to stop and think about an issue. Sometimes
THINK POINT you are asked to apply a concept to your own experience or to think of
an example.
You may come across Activities that ask you to carry out specific
tasks. In most cases, there are no right or wrong answers to these
ACTIVITY
activities. The purpose of the activities is to give you an opportunity to
apply what you have learned.
At this point, you should read the references supplied. If you are
READINGS unable to acquire the suggested readings, then you are welcome to
consult any current source that deals with the subject.
PRACTICAL Practical Application or Examples will be discussed to enhance
APPLICATION understanding of this module.
OR EXAMPLES
KNOWLEDGE You may come across Knowledge Check Questions at the end of each
CHECK Unit in the form of Knowledge Check Questions (KCQ’s) that will test
QUESTIONS your knowledge. You should refer to the Module Guide or your
textbook(s) for the answers.

You may come across Revision Questions that test your understanding
REVISION
of what you have learned so far. These may be attempted with the aid
QUESTIONS
of your textbooks, journal articles and Module Guide.
Case Studies are included in different sections in this Module Guide.
CASE STUDY This activity provides students with the opportunity to apply theory to
practice.
You may come across links to Videos Activities as well as instructions
VIDEO ACTIVITY on activities to attend to after watching the video.

Unit
1: Foundations of Individual Behaviour

Unit Learning Outcomes
CONTENT LIST LEARNING OUTCOMES OF THIS UNIT:
1.1. Introduction to individual behaviour • Understand the concept of individual behaviour
1.2. An Introductory Overview of • Introduce Individual behaviour in groups

Individual Behaviour in Groups
1.3. Individual Behaviour Framework • Describe individual behaviour framework
1.4. Factors Influencing Individual • Identify the factors influencing individual behaviour
Behaviour
1.5. Theories of Learning • Understand the various learning theories including

Classical Conditioning, Operant Conditioning and Social
Learning
1.6. Methods of Shaping Individual • Examine methods of shaping an individual’s behaviour in

Behaviour an organisational context
1.7. Aligning Individual Goals and the • Understand the importance of goal integration whereby
Organisational Goals individual and the organisation work towards achieving
overall organisational objectives
1.8 Summary • Summarise topic areas covered in unit

Prescribed and Recommended Textbooks/Readings

Prescribed Textbook
• Forsyth, D. (2019) Group Dynamics. Seventh Edition. Boston, MA:
Cengage Learning.
Recommended Reading
• Suleiman., H (2022) Teamwork: Creating a Performing Team that
Will Sustain High Performance Always. Amazon Digital Services
LLC - Kdp
Journal Articles
• Nunes., Danilo & Santos., Neusa & Fukunaga, Fernando. (2020)
Group Dynamics and Leadership: A Collective Process Construction.
Journal on Innovation and Sustainability Risus. 10. 27-36.
10.23925/2179-3565.2019v10i4p27-36.
• Khushk, Amir & Zengtian, Zhang & Hui, Yang & Atamba, Cynthia.
(2022) Understanding Group Dynamics: Theories, Practices, and
Future Directions. Malaysian E Commerce Journal. 6. 1-08.
10.26480/mecj.01.2022.01.08.
• Oyefusi., F. (2022) Team and Group Dynamics in Organisations:
Effect on Productivity and Performance. Journal of Human Resource
and Sustainability Studies, 10(1), 111–121

1.1. Introduction
The field of Group Dynamics comprises of the behaviours and psychological processes that occur within groups,
whether such groups are social groups or those in the workplace environment. It encompasses group processes
or sensitivities and how individual group members interact with each other as well as how the group develops and
behaves as a formation consisting of different individuals. Understanding how groups behave, including some of
the frequent challenges that they may experience, is important for human resource practitioners to be
knowledgeable in assisting managers to effectively manage groups and teams in the workplace since they play a
significant role in contributing to organisational work. It is required that human resource professionals have an
intimate understanding of the nature of groups, since they must have knowledge of some insights and strategies
on how to assist in improving group performance, communication, and cohesiveness.
This module explores groups within organisations or the workplace and their impact on an organisations’
performance. This unit will examine an individual’s role in the group, though in subsequent units, groups will be
discussed more elaborately including themes of group and team development and team effectiveness (see Unit
4). This unit will also cover individual behaviour including factors influencing individual behaviour and methods of
shaping individual behaviour. Individual goals, in relation to organisational goals, will be examined.
1.2. An Introductory Overview of Individual Behaviour in Groups

Groups are made up of individuals and therefore group behaviour will be influenced by individual behaviour.
Conversely, groups also influence individuals. For instance, Gencer (2019:225) points out how the group has a
role in directing or changing individual attitudes. Therefore, in order to fully understand group behaviour, which is
one of the major focus areas within Group Dynamics, it is important to have insights into individual behaviour.
Some of the early theorists suggest group-level analysis in which individuals are considered as constitutive
elements of groups whilst others opt for individual-level analysis focusing on the person in the group (Forsythe,
2019: 33). As Forsythe (2019:33) further explains, sociologists tended to conduct group-level analysis whilst
psychological researchers were more inclined to individual-level analysis. It could be considered that neither of the
two approaches to groups would necessarily be incorrect as it might be pragmatic to consider both individuals in
as much as there is a need to understand their behaviour when they are part of a collective unit. Groups, in a
sense, are a collection of individuals of whom each will have their own unique character attributes and behaviour.
Nonetheless, the preoccupation with either a focus on the individual or a focus towards the group as a collective
is more about social science disciplines’ focal areas of study interest.
Several factors can explain why individual behaviour is an important consideration in-group dynamics. According
to Forsythe (2019:23), when people encounter a group they tend to see individuals in the groups and not the group
itself and will even translate concepts such as teamwork into individual-level processes. Furthermore, the
individuals can influence groups in various ways.

This may include individual contributions to team or group motivation. Gencer (2019:225) alludes to research
studies that have shown how when individuals with high epistemic motivation increase within the group, the
performance of the group in terms of creativity also increases. Group researchers have been convinced that in
order to understand individuals, one must understand groups given such tendencies that people may behave
differently when they are part of a group rather than being alone (Forsythe, 2019:23). So, at both ends, whether
the focus is on the influence of individuals on groups or group influences on individuals, the focus on examining
individuals has been considered a worthwhile undertaking in the field of Group Dynamics.
Individual behaviour relates to how people respond to external or internal stimuli in their environments, typically in
the working environment, although this can be extended to other contexts such as the social environment.
Therefore, individual behaviour could be considered a result of individual characteristics and environmental
aspects, which influence behaviour. However, in a formal study of individual behaviour, a framework must be
developed, which can be used to uncover the boundaries of studying individual behaviour as a discipline. The
discussion in the next section explores some frameworks or methods of scoping the study of individual behaviour,
that social scientists have investigated.
1.3. Individual Behaviour Framework

Individual behaviour details how individuals respond to both external and internal stimuli. However, early studies
examined that individual behaviour tended to focus on the individual’s response to external stimuli. Psychological
theory and sociological studies, in the early years of venturing into individual behaviour, attempted to understand
the patterns of how individuals interact with their environments. One of the early theorists in the field of Group
Dynamics, Kurt Lewin, developed the Field Theory to explain individual behaviour. According to Field Theory,
individuals are influenced by a number of varied elements which may be genetic (inborn) or could be emerging
from an external environment. The theory describes how the individual interacts with his or her environment and
is expressed through the formula (Forsythe, 2019:35):
B = F (P, E)
The B stands for Behaviour, F-Behaviour Function, P-Person, and E-Environment around the person. The table
below represents Behaviour, the Person (individual) and the Environment. For example, a certain behaviour of an
individual such as having an erratic hyperactive behaviour as a result of drug addiction (the behaviour) may change
if the individual attends a rehabilitation institution (the environment). This would then imply that the environment in
which the individual resides at, somehow has some influence on their behaviour. Therefore, individual behaviour
cannot be studied independently and overlook the social environment which may have an impact on the same
individual behaviour examined. The framework depicts the role of the social contextual environment as having a
contributing influence on behaviour. Furthermore, even for individuals who may not be willing to change their
behaviour based on their environments, they could opt to leave the environment than change their behaviour.

Another example could be that of an employee resigning from a certain company because of certain behaviours
prevalent in that organisation that they choose not to emulate, and which may conflict with their own personal
values.
1Table 1.1: Individual Behaviour Framework
The environment The Individual Behaviours Outcomes

• Job design • Abilities and skills Problem-solving thinking Performance:
• Organisational • Family background process: • Long-term
structure • Personality Talking and listening • Short-term
• Policies and rules • Perception Observations movement Personal development
• Leadership • Attitudes Relationship with others
• Rewards and • Attribution Satisfaction
sanctions • Learning capacity
• Resources • Age
• Race and gender
Non-work related • Experience
• Family
• Leisure and hobbies
1.4. Factors Influencing Individual Behaviour

It is important for managers to understand individual behaviour since they are expected to understand their
workforce to ensure that the organisation functions effectively and efficiently. Hence, managers need to have an
in-depth understanding of what drives people to behave in certain ways, the sort of behaviour that may affect
employee productivity. Managers need to be equipped with knowledge on the understanding of human behaviour
to allow the managers to be in a better position to direct group or individual behaviours to ways the benefit their
organisation.
Individual behaviour is affected by several factors. The causes of individual behaviour may be inherited
characteristics (biological characteristics) or learned characteristics. These may in turn affect how the individual
behaves as part of a group and as part of an organisation.
1.4.1 Biological characteristics

Biological characteristics are considered to have some influence on how individuals behave. These include
personal characteristics such as age, gender, religion and race as well as any other aspects which are part of an
individuals’ genetics.

Age: According to Kondalkar (2007: 46) age has been an influential factor in productivity perceptions with more
young employees expected to be more energetic and ambitious whilst older employees are considered to have
slower speed in work, less adaptable and more conservative. However, as Kondalkar (Ibid) further states, even
though speed, agility and strength may be reduced by age, productivity is also related to attitude and behaviour of
employees irrespective of age.
Gender: Nowadays men and women are considered to be equal in terms of their abilities and skills relating to job
performance. Despite equal skills and abilities with men, women may tend to be at the receiving end of gender
biasness that could include how managers or people whom they report to allocate and evaluate their work.
Religion: Religion has been considered influential in individual behaviour (Kondalkar, 2007:46).
Physical characteristics: These may include level of stamina, height, body structure or vision etc.
1.4.2 Learned characteristics

An individual will have inherited biological characteristics, which are also referred to as learnt behaviours. These
emanate from how the individual grew up through socialisation, family influence and influences from societal
institutions such as schools.
These may include:
• Perception
• Values
• Attitude
• Personality
Perception is a result of what is perceived or viewed through the senses such as hearing, seeing and feeling
(Lewis, 2001: 276). Perception usually involves three aspects being the experiencing person or perceiver; the issue
that is being perceived whether it be an object, person or situation and context of the situation in which objects or
events are perceived (Lewis, 2001: 275).
Values can be considered as “beliefs that guide actions and judgments across a variety of situations” (Kondalkar,
2007: 51). Often people’s values will strongly influence how they perceive situations or how they embark on their
decisions. Typically, there are two types of values which are terminal values such as freedom, non-violence and
truth as well as instrumental values such as being capable or obedient (Kondalkar, 2007: 51).
Personality entails ways or patterns of how an individual understands things or behaves. Attitude, can be
expressed either positively or negatively, which will influence the demeanour in which an individual expresses their’
feelings or thoughts.

John Holland, in his Theory of Vocational Choice, classifies individuals in six personality types which would suggest
their inclinations towards a certain occupation or vocations (Nuata, 2010) as illustrated in the diagram below.
1Figure 1.1: Six Personality Types
The characteristic of the six personalities are as follows:

• Realistic Personality – These individuals have a realistic pragmatic orientation. They tend to be stable
and practical and may be found in professions such as engineering
• Investigative Personality – These are people who tend to be analytical and curious. They may be in
professions such as medicine or teaching
• Artistic Personality – They tend to be individuals who are idealistic, visionary and have a lot of
imagination. Individuals with professions in the arts or music are typical examples of such personalities
• Social Personality – These types of individuals are by nature sociable and helpful. They are a fit in
helping professions such as psychologists or social workers etc
• Enterprising Personality – These types of individuals tend to be adventurous and energetic. They fit into
professions like entrepreneurship or as consultants
• Conventional Personality – These types of individuals are practical, organised, and logical. They could
play a role in professions such as training and finance, etc
Personality types may influence how individuals choose certain professions or certain work environments.
Congruence, which is the degree of fit between an individual’s personality type and the work environment type is
theorised to be a determinant of several important outcomes, including job satisfaction, stability, and performance
(Nuata, 2010:11).

There are also other models looking at personality types and one of the contemporary ones is the Big Five
Personality trait model. The model looks at five personality traits (Soto, 2018) which are classified in terms of:
• Extraversion: the inclination to be an extrovert who enjoys socialising with others and expressing
themselves in group situations
• Agreeableness: the inclination of agreeable individuals is to have an emotional concern for others and
generally hold positive beliefs about others
• Conscientiousness: entails highly conscious individuals who prefer order and structure and who work
persistently to pursue their goals
• Neuroticism: entailing capturing differences in the frequency and intensity of negative emotions with highly
neurotic individuals being prone to anxiety and mood swings whilst emotional stable people would be
more calm and resilient
• Openness to experience: represents differences in intellectual curiosity with more open individuals
enjoying thinking and learning whist close-minded individuals having a narrow range of intellectual and
creative interests
1.4.3 Abilities
Individual abilities can be classified into two broad categories namely; physical abilities and intellectual abilities.
Physical abilities relate to how a person’s physiological capabilities to do certain tasks such as stamina, strength
or precision. Intellectual abilities relate to the individual’s intelligence or mental abilities, whether they may be
talented with analytical, reasoning or problem-solving abilities. Kondulkar (2007: 48) further divides intellectual
ability into the following skills:
• Number Aptitude: The arithmetic abilities showing speed or accuracy to count numbers
• Verbal Comprehension: The ability to understand what is heard or read including a good aptitude with
working with words
• Perceptual Speed: An ability to identify visual similarities and differences
• Inductive Reasoning: The ability is related to individual’s skill to identify
logical sequence in a problem and also solve it
• Deductive Reasoning: The ability refers to use of logic and assess the
implications of an argument
• Spatial Visualisation: An ability to imagine how an object would look if
its position in the space were changed
• Memory: It is an ability to recall past experience
Intelligence is sometimes measured using intellectual capability tests or intellectual quotient (IQ) tests during the
recruitment and selection process. However, there is some controversy in using them as a hiring tool and relying
on them to determine the potential success of an individual.

Think Point 1
HR managers are faced with recruiting people and may include a range of
criteria to select candidates such as biological (for example preference for
women candidates), abilities and learned characteristics such as values and
personality. Yet according to Ryers (et al, 2002), HR professionals often have
misconceptions about the value of using assessment tools and some of the
them are as follows:
Myth 1: Screening applicants for their values will yield better performers will
yield better performers than screening applicants for intelligence.
Myth 2: Integrity test are not useful because job candidates misrepresent
themselves on these types of tests.
Myth 3: Using selection tests creates legal problems for organisations rather
than help to solve them.
Given some of the above concerns perceptions on assessment and selection

tools, how would you, as an HR Manager, select candidates for a job in which
you have to assess their abilities and learned characteristics? Do you think that
unstructured interviews with candidates provide better information on
candidates than structured assessment or selection tools such as tests and
quizzes?
Rynes, S.L.; Colbert, A. E. & Brown, K.G. 2002. HR professionals’ beliefs about
effective human resources practices: correspondence between research and
practice, Human Resource Management, 41, pp149-174.
1.5. Theories of Learning

There are various ways in which learning is understood to occur. Given the various ways of learning, it can be
expected that researchers, learning professionals or academics will advance various theories or models through
which they understand and interpret how learning can be advanced.
The following learning theories are discussed below:

1.5.1 Classical conditioning
The Classical Conditioning Theory comes from the work of Ivan Pavlov, a Nobel prize winning psychologist whose
work focused on conducting experiments with a dog. In his experiment, Pavlov would present the dog with meat
(the meat being an unconditional stimulus). During this time, he would note the dog began to salivate in eager
response to the prospect of eating the meat (Kondalkar, 2007:72).

Then he would ring a bell (a neutral stimulus) which would not elicit any salivation from the dog initially. He would
then subsequently present the meat simultaneously with the ringing of the bell. After repeating this sequence
several times, Pavlov would also ring the bell without presenting the meat to the dog. Then dog would salivate to
the ringing of the bell alone. This led Pavlov to conclude that the dog became ‘classically conditioned’ to salivate
as a response to the stimulus (the sound of the bell) which the dog had begun to associate with the offering of the
meat (Kondalkar, 2007: 72). Pavlov’s theory then introduced a stimulus-response process to learning.
A typical stimulus-response behaviour would occur when employees pretend to be busy working when the boss is
around. The boss’ presence would then be a stimulus to the response of pretending to be working. A similar
dynamic might be worth exploring in the case of groups. The Classical Conditioning approach would consider
learning as a reflexive process in which there is some stimulus which may trigger a response. It is essentially
learning by association.
1.5.2 Operant conditioning

The Operant Conditioning theory is also a behavioural theory similar to Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning Theory. It
was developed by B.F Skinner who revised Pavlov’s theory when he regarded it has having a shortfall in explaining
complex behaviour.
Operant Conditioning reverses the stimulus-response logic of Pavlov into a response-stimulus (r-s) model of
learning whereby the response can come from many stimuli which are in the environmental context (Kondalkar,
2007:73). The conditioning in the Operant Conditioning theory is about how a voluntary behaviour may lead to a
reward to an individual. Kondalkar (2007:73), gave an example of a person who may take a long journey (response)
to the library because he knows he will be able to get a book he/she desires (stimulus) or an individual may work
hard (response) knowing that he would get a promotion (stimulus). As Kondelkar further states, if a learning
consequence is created in terms of the Operant Conditioning approach, the probability of specific forms of
behaviour increases. In terms of the theory, individuals would most likely engage in the desired behaviour if there
is something that positively reinforces such behaviour.
1.5.3 Situated learning

Situated Learning takes a social-cultural orientation towards learning. Lave and Wenger, identify situated learning
as learning that is understood to take place in an authentic context and will be relevant for problem-solving in the
workplace (Lave & Wenger, 1990:33; Wenger & Snyder, 2000). Typical avenues for situated learning is the notion
of Community of Practices (CoPs) whereby people who share a common practice organise themselves to
periodically share information or knowledge among themselves. For instance, CoPs, in line with Social Learning’s
orientation, will typically be operating in real-life authentic workplace contexts. Social Learning is a constructivist
theory, in which learning is socially constructed rather than it being a behavioural response to some stimuli as the
conditioning theories discussed earlier on suggest.

1.5.4 Cognitive Theory

Cognitive Theory as pioneered by Edward Tolman, focuses on the relation between the individual and
environmental cues and expectations. In an experimental study towards building the theory, Tolman used a rat
which was made to run in a certain critical path as part of its goal of getting food. In the experiment, Tolman put in
place certain choice points which created expectations for the rat and the rat then learned certain cognitive cues
at various such choice points which would induce it to raise its expectation to move to the next point closer to
where the food would be (Dondalkar, 2007: 74. This theory might be exemplified in organisations when certain
rewards are put in place to reward people to aim for high performance in reaching certain goals or objectives.
1.5.5 Social learning

The Social Learning Theory considers learning to take place through observation, direct experience, modelling or
by imitating others. This means the learning process, in terms of the Social Learning approach, will occur through
interacting with individuals, such as in teams and groups, among other interactions. The idea of a role model or
someone a person may look up to such as mentor is mainly intended to facilitate the social learning approach.
Hence, it is always important that management and senior staff members in an organisation become exemplary in
their behaviour, their own behaviours, may indirectly or directly influence the rest of individuals in the organisation
though they may not always be consciously aware of their behaviour being imitated by other people. However,
even as they learn in their environments, social learners may also alter what they observe to suit their
circumstances or add their prior learning to new learning.
This makes learning an interactive process whereby the individual learnings from watching the behaviour of others
and in turn also brings in their own behaviour which might be exemplary to others who are keen to model their
behaviour.
Social learning is normally associated with four processes which include attentional, retention, motor reproduction
and reinforcement processes.
Attentional processes
An attentional process occurs when individuals pay attention to the behaviour they wish to model or emulate.
Attention depends on and will be impacted by how the individual observes, such as their cognitive or mental abilities
and perceptions as well as the characteristics of the behaviour being observed.
Retention processes
The retention process is whereby the individual can reproduce the observed behaviour through retaining or
recalling important features of the behaviour they observed. The retention processes are essentially when an
individual can retain information in their memory and be able to recall as the need arises when required to behave
in a similar way that was initially observed.

Motor Reproduction Process

Motor reproduction deals with how individuals reproduce what they have learnt. When they reproduce the
behaviour they have learnt, the process of reproduction occurs. According to Kondalkar (2007:74) “if the learning
were effective then the learner would be able to display a desired (reproduction) pattern of behaviour.”
Re-enforcement Process
After the learning, the individual may be expected to display positive behaviour or even attitude if a particular
activity is rewarded or positively affirmed. Both reinforcement and punishment are influential to the individual being
able to encourage the learnt behaviour or in the case of punishment, to deter the behaviour which is not attuned
to what was the desired behaviour to be learned.
Activity 1
Creating a learning organisation
Consider how learning occurs through (i) Classical conditioning, (ii) Operant
conditioning, (iii) Cognitive theory, and (iv) Social Learning theory.
If you were tasked as a leader in an organisation to model a learning organisation,
which of the four theories would you consider relevant for adapting to the work
environment in a learning organisation?
1.6. Methods of Shaping Individual Behaviour

Managers in organisations are always exploring different ways of changing or shaping the behaviour of employees.
Shaping behaviour can be considered a process of attempting to mould individuals through guiding their learning
using a process of incremental steps (Robins & DeCenzo, 2008:234). The need to shape individual behaviour may
be prompted by several reasons among which that management may seek to ensure that employees display
desired behaviour that demonstrates the best interest of the organisation.
The preceding discussion introduces the notion of how behaviour may be learnt as discussed in the learning
theories. This is as a result of learning, whether it is observed, emulated or from prior experience, leads to change
of behaviour. In terms of the learning theories covered, the reinforcement process which is one of the elements of
the Social Learning Theory is often used in organisational environments to induce behavioural change.
Reinforcement may change behaviour when it is introduced as a deliberate intervention to try to steer an individual
closer to the desired behaviours.
There are various types of reinforcements (Robbins & DeCenzo, 2008:234) namely;
• Positive reinforcement in which praise or reward is provided such as when a task is done well
• Negative reinforcement which involves terminating or withdrawing something pleasant

• Punishment whereby an unpleasant condition will be introduced in an attempt to eliminate an undesirable

behaviour; and
• Extinction which involves eliminating any reinforcement that is maintaining a certain behaviour
The various reinforcements outlined above may take place periodically depending on how management of an
organisation wishes to rapidly shape behaviour. For instance, that could be continuous reinforcement whereby the
desired behaviour reinforced every time it is shown by an individual. There could also be intermittent reinforcement
in which reinforcement occurs frequently but not every time the desired behaviour is demonstrated. There may
also be variable interval reinforcement in which reinforcement happens at a certain average amount of time as well
as fixed ratio reinforcement whereby rewards are provided at uniform time intervals. On the other hand, variable
ratio reinforcement is when the rewards occur in unpredictable time intervals.
2Table 1.2: Types of reinforcement and their effect on behaviour

Reinforcement schedule Nature of reinforcement Effect on behaviour Example
Fixed interval Reward given at fixed time Average & irregular Weekly pay checks
intervals performance with rapid
extinction
Variable interval Reward given at variable Moderately high and stable Pop quizzes
time intervals performance with slow
extinction
Fixed ratio Reward given at fixed High and stable Piece-rate pay
amounts of outputs performance attained
quickly but also with rapid
extinction
Variable ratio Reward given at variable Very high performance Commissioned
amounts of outputs with slow extinction sales
Source: Robbins. S. 2007. Organisational Behaviour. I

The use of reinforcement processes to individuals in workplaces has been largely intended to modify behaviour.
Case Study 1
Shaping Individual Behaviour Skill
About the Skill
In today’s dynamic work environments, learning is continuous. However, this learning
shouldn’t be done in isolation or without any guidance. Most employees need to be shown
what is expected of them on the job. As a manager, you must teach your employees the
behaviours that are most critical to their jobs and the organisation’s success.
Steps in Practicing the Skill

1. Identify the critical behaviours that have a significant impact on an employee’s
performance.
2. Establish a baseline of performance.
3. Analyse contributing factors to performance and their consequences.
4. Measure the change that has occurred.
5. Reinforce desired behaviours.
Practicing the Skill

a) Imagine that your Personal Assistant handles all aspects of the jobs quite well except
on one task. You get a sense that she does not take phone messages accurately when
you are not in the office. As you are mostly out of the office as a Manager of Business
Development, you are always eager to follow-up on the messages from calls done in
your absence as among these are potential sales leads. You have identified taking
accurate messages as a high-impact behaviour for your assistant.
b) Focus on Steps 3 and 4, and devise a way to shape your Personal Assistant’s
behaviour. Identify some factors that might contribute to his or her failure to take
messages—these could range from a heavy workload to a poor understanding of the
task’s importance (you can rule out insubordination). Then develop a shaping strategy
by determining what you can change—the available technology, the task itself, the
structure of the job, or some other element of performance.
c) Now plan your intervention, a brief meeting with your assistant in which you explain the
change you expect. Recruit a friend to help you role-play your intervention. Do you
think you would succeed in a real situation
Source: adapted from Robbins, S & DeCenzo, and D. 2008. Fundamentals of Management.
Pearson Education: New Jersey.

1.7. Aligning Individual Goals to Organisational Goals

According to Alexander (2007), an individual goal would be an action that provides some benefit to the individual.
It should be expected and would be a normal tendency that individuals will act in their own self-interest even though
they form part of organisations’. Even though organisations will have their own interest and goals. Rogers (2003)
states that organisational goals assume more primary precedence than individual goals in organisational contexts.
Management’s predicament then is how can individual goals and organisational goals be integrated in a way that
still ensures the organisation succeeds in its objectives. Individual goals cannot be at variance with organisational
goals since the two can co-exist. However, should there be clear indications that individual and organisational
goals differ, this would then call for intervention strategies to integrate both of these for the organisation to progress.
It is largely at the strategic planning stages that individual and organisational goals can be identified upfront for
seamless integration towards organisational strategic plans. This then requires a process of alignment between
organisational and individual goals.
“Alignment is the optimum condition in which strategy, employees, customers and central career processes are in
line in a way that results in profit and growth.” (Kreirandish, 2014:125). As Ayers (2015:172) asserts that goal
alignment is defined as linking individual goal outcomes with organisational goal outcomes and this can be done
through linking organisational activities with those of individuals.
Amongst the models that have been advanced foster individual and organisational alignment is the Alignment
Model at the individual level and the integrative model of individual and organisational goals through ultimate
purpose.
Kreirandish (2014: 127), defines the Alignment Model at the Individual Level involves compatibility and harmony
between individual and the organisation when individuals are able to achieve their personal goals through
performing organisational duties. In order for success to be achieved, “individuals must first know what is expected
from them in order to develop the required proficiency, skill, capability, resources and support” and secondly, “know
the time limit for performing the tasks, which in turn entails the exact alignment with organisational requirements”
(Kreirandish, 2014:127).
In terms of the Integrative model of individual and organisational goals through ultimate purpose, the values or
ultimate goals of the organisation and the individual are considered the reason for the contradiction between their
goals (Kreirandish 2014: 127). In terms of the model then, the attempt should be to unify these contradicting
ultimate goals of the individual and organisation.

In order for individual and organisational goals to be aligned, there has to be some understanding as to what are
typical individual goals, although these vary in degree of importance from individual to individual. Individual goals
and interests are typically known as job security, job satisfaction, work-life balance, training and development as
well as promotion. On the other hand, organisational goals may include research and development, social
responsibility, innovation and inevitability, organisational success through growth or profitability.
Ultimately, it should be the organisational goals that take precedence. Organisations must know individual goals
to the extent that they may be able to coincide with organisational goals.
Revision Question 1
1. What factors influence individual behaviour?
2. Briefly, explain each of the learning theories and what each emphasises
in terms of learning?
3. What are the methods that can be used to shape individual behaviour in
organisational contexts?
Knowledge Check Question 1

Answers are provided at the end of the study guide.
1. Which definition best describes what individual behaviour is?
a) How individuals behave
b) A mix of responses to external and internal stimuli
c) Learnt behaviour that individuals display
d) Inherited behaviour that individuals display
2. Which statement below is the most accurate in reflecting about what Field
Theory?
a) Individuals are influenced by social factors
b) Individuals are influenced by several varied elements which may be
genetic (inborn) or could be emerging from an external environment
c) Individuals are only influenced by genetic factors
d) Individuals will be affected by various workplace circumstances in
their field of work
3. Which one of the following is not a biological characteristic?

a) Race
b) Intelligence
c) Age
d) Gender

4. When the desired behaviour is reinforced every time it is shown by an

individual can be described as …
a) A conditioned response
b) Continuous Reinforcement
c) Behaviour modification
d) Environmental learning
5. Which of the following theories came from experiments teaching dogs to

salivate in response to a ringing bell?
a) Conditioned response
b) Classical conditioning
c) Unconditioned response
d) Modification approach
6. Who of the following is associated with operant conditioning?

a) Ivan Pavlov
b) Thomas Scott
c) B.F. Skinner
d) Albert Budweiser
7. Which one of the following is about people learning through observation and
direct experience?
a) Reinforcement
b) Behaviour modification
c) Social learning
d) Participant observation
8. Both ratio and interval are types of…………….

a) Continuous reinforcement
b) Intermittent reinforcement
c) Positive reinforcement
d) Negative reinforcement
9. Which of the follow entails eliminating any reinforcement that is maintain a

behaviour?
a) Punishment
b) Positive reinforcement
c) Extinction
d) Negative reinforcement

10. Which of the following statements is true regarding the Alignment Model at
the Individual Level?
a) Involves compatibility and harmony between individual and
the organisation with individuals achieving personal goals
whilst also performing organisational duties
b) Involves individuals meeting their own goals as they have set
them
c) About how individuals’ values’ and aspirations are aligning to
the organisational culture
d) It is about certain goals and objectives that the individual
wishes to achieve in line with their own abilities and skills
1.8. Summary
This unit discussed how managers in organisations can understand individual behaviour. People are understood
as unique individuals with their own unique attributes, characters, abilities, skills and behaviour. Hence, managers
must understand individual behaviour before the collective of individuals are merged into forming part of groups.
Factors that influence individuals to behave in certain ways were explored. These may be biological characteristics
which the individual is not able to change such as age or race and also learned characteristics such as values and
perceptions, which may change. Hence, if individual behaviour can be changed, managers ought to understand
how individuals learn. The learning theories such as Classical Conditioning and Social Learning provide
frameworks to explain how individuals learn which can be beneficial to the organisation to manage teams or groups.
Once the manager is equipped with understanding factors influencing behaviour and how individuals learn as
explained by the learning theories, this provides a foundation to shape behaviour. Methods of shaping individual
behaviour were considered.
Lastly, individual goals and objectives were explored and how they must be considered and the extent to which
they may align or misalign to those of the organisation.
It is important that such a consideration be made as dysfunctional organisations can be as a result of the
disconnection between individual aspirations and organisational goals. A win-win situation is presented when both
individual and organisational goals co-exist and mutually support each other.
The unit is set to understand behaviour, a fundamental consideration to delve into group and team behaviour
issues. The next unit will focus on motivation; what motivates people to undertake work in organisational settings.
The factors that influence the motivation of the behaviour factors.

Answers to Activities
Think Point 1
These questions above are more contemplative questions regarding the dilemma faced by HR professionals when
they need to select job candidates for abilities and learnt characteristics. Whilst the unit introduces the importance
of understanding factors influencing behaviour, assessing these factors might just prove to be challenge at times.
Furthermore, often there are various testing and assessing instruments in the market which the HR professional
will be exposed to and which may have varying degrees of accuracy in making true assessments of job candidates.
Activity 1
There is a need to reflect on the three theoretical approaches to learning being Classical Conditioning, Operant
Conditioning, Cognitive Theory and Social Learning Theory. The main thrust of the question is to let you consider
the strengths and weaknesses of the each of the theories and then to consider how suitable they are as theoretical
frameworks to be considered in a working environment. Your answer must justify which one would be most suitable
for a modern organisation or workplace environment of your choice. For instance, Social Learning Theory would
apply in most organisations as we all learn from direct experience and observation, as the theory suggests. On the
other hand, the Classical Conditioning Theory, being more experimental and even mechanical, confines the
learning process to the stimulus-response approach. It would be difficult to justify that learning can only happen
when a stimulus is advanced as people learn in several ways.
The use of reinforcement processes to individuals in workplaces has been largely intended to modify behaviour.
Case Study 1
This case study encourages the application of concepts covered in this unit regarding shaping individual behaviour.
As part of the intervention you do at point (c), you will need to consider what reinforcement strategy you will consider
to induce the behaviour change. The unit covered various types of reinforcements being positive reinforcement
(in which praise or reward is provided such as when a task is done well); negative reinforcement (which involves
terminating or withdrawing something pleasant); punishment (whereby an unpleasant condition will be introduced
in an attempt to eliminate an undesirable behaviour); and extinction which involves eliminating any reinforcement
that is maintaining a certain behaviour. You will have to select the most appropriate among these types of
reinforcement and justify why it is more appropriate in trying to change the behaviour of the Personal Assistant.
For instance, you may initially adopt positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement for certain behaviours that
don’t seem to change on the part of the Personal Assistant.


Study Unit 1
1.
b) A mix of responses to external and internal stimuli
2.
b) Individuals are influenced by several varied elements which may be genetic (inborn) or could be
emerging from an external environment
3.
b) Intelligence
4.
b) Continuous Reinforcement
5.
b) Classical conditioning
6.
b) Thomas Scott
7.
c) Social learning
8.
b) Social learning
9.
c) Extinction
10.
a) Involves compatibility and harmony between individual and the organisation with individuals
achieving personal goals whilst also performing organisational duties

Unit
2: Motivation

2.1. Introduction to Motivation • Understand the concept of motivation and be introduced to

motivation as a knowledge area
2.2. Definition and Overview of Motivation • Define motivation
2.3. Types of Motivation • Describe the types of motivation approaches that can be
used to motivate employees in an organisation
2.4. Theories of Motivation • Understand the various theories of motivation
2.5. Employee Motivation Strategies • Apply strategies and interventions that can be used to
motivate employees in an organisation
2.6. Motivation in Groups and Teams • Apply methods of motivating groups
2.7. Summary • Summarise topic areas covered in unit


Prescribed Textbook
Cengage Learning.
Recommended Reading
LLC - Kdp
Journal Articles
10.23925/2179-3565.2019v10i4p27-36.
10.26480/mecj.01.2022.01.08.
and Sustainability Studies, 10(1), 111–121.

2.1. Introduction
In this study unit, the topic of Motivation is examined. Motivation is an important consideration for managers and
leaders who need to understand the factors that energise individuals and groups to increase work performance.
Human resource managers and leaders need to understand what motivates employees to perform optimally to
ensure that an organisation fulfils its objectives. This will lead to employees performing at their optimum which will
guarantee high performance.
Money has been identified to motivate others in the workplace, it may vary for some employees who are not
motivated by money and hence at times money has not necessarily led to an increase in productivity (Dobre, 2013).
Whilst money is a motivator which can stimulate people to perform better, it is not the only thing that motivates
employees. Yet often organisations may portray money as the only motivator, some employee does not share the
same view that money is the major factor that motivates them. Therefore, besides financial incentives, there are
various other ways that individuals get motivated. Motivation must be considered as per individual preferences and
there may not be one uniform aspect that motivates each individual. Hence, when looking at the topic of motivation,
there needs to be a comprehensive understanding of the various unique factors that stimulate individual motivation
understanding and consideration must be made that individuals have diverse interests and goals when they are in
their workplaces. As Nel et al (2008: 337) asserts, “People are not motivated by the same things, at the same time,
for the same reasons, or with the same intensity.” Hence this unit will explore various theories of motivation that
explain causal factors of motivation and how they are understood to impact on people.
In this unit, motivation is examined at an individual level and in the context of groups. The discussion will firstly
make an overview of motivation as an area of management studies, examining definitions of the concept, and the
types of motivation. Thereafter the focus will be on the effect of motivation on groups and teams.
2.2. Definition and Overview of Motivation

Motivation has been defined in various ways in management and human resource literature. Some definitions
approach it at the level of how motivated employees contribute productively to an organisation. Taking into
consideration the inclination to how employees assist an organisation to achieve its objectives, one definition
defines it as “the desire and willingness of employees to achieve the goals of the business” (Strydom, 2008:115).
In a definition that incorporates both individual and organisational goals, Robbins and DeCenzo (2008: 266)
consider motivation as the willingness to put high levels of effort to reach organisational goals, conditioned by an
effort to fulfil some individual need.
Another more broadly encompassing definition considers motivation as “wants, needs and other psychological
processes that energise behaviour and thereby determine its form, intensity and duration” (Forsythe, 2019:53). As
Forsythe (2019, 53-54) further states, the inner mechanisms such as habits, beliefs, feelings, wants or drives, are
the ones that prompt people to take action that fulfils organisational objectives.

The nature of motivation, given the above various definitions, is that it is something which is intentional, meaning
it emanates from personal choice and persistence of action and is also directional, which implies there is a driving
force aimed at achieving an intended goal (Nel et al, 2008:336).
Further to note that motivation may also been influenced by internal forces such as personal needs and external
forces such as organisational reward systems (Net et al, 2008:336). Hence, as will be elaborated in the next
section, there is intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation that deal with internal personal factors and external
factors respectively.
2.3. Types of Motivation

Motivation can be broadly classified into two general types of motivation. There is intrinsic motivation and extrinsic
motivation (Legault, 2016:1-2).
Intrinsic Motivation
“Intrinsic Motivation refers to engagement in behaviour that is inherently satisfying or enjoyable” (Legault, 2016:1).
Intrinsically motivated action does not dependent on any separable outcome from the behaviour itself such as
when a child may play outdoors because it is enjoyable (Legault, 2016:1 Intrinsic Motivation can be considered as
emanating from enjoying an activity or some sense of satisfaction an individual receives in doing an activity or task.
According to Legault (2016: 2), Intrinsic Motivation is dependent on the social environment, which must nurture it,
in order for it to flourish. “Thus, to the extent that the social environment uses controlling behavioural strategies
and external constraints, reinforces, and punishers, then motivation will become less intrinsic and more extrinsic –
because personal autonomy is compromised” (Legault, 2016:3). As Legault further explains, studies have shown
that when there are threats of punishment, deadlines, and surveillance, there is more likely to be an increase in
extrinsic motivation whilst intrinsic motivation gets diminished. It is important to understand that intrinsic motivation,
whilst it tends to be personal, can have positive spinoffs for the organisation. For instance, if individuals enjoy their
work, this would lead to a high quality of work and performing well, which in turn provides positive productivity
benefits for the organisation.
Extrinsic Motivation
“Extrinsic Motivation refers to performance of behaviour that is fundamentally contingent upon the attainment of
an outcome that is separable from the action itself “(Legault, 2016:1). Legault’s (2016:2) further explains, extrinsic
motivation is performed in order to attain some other outcome such as for example, when a teenager might wash
dishes at home in order to receive an allowance. Extrinsic motivation is prompted by an external factor such as a
bonus or reward for having accomplished a task. On the other hand, there may also be a negative inducement
which motivates people such as a fear for punishment when an activity is not undertaken.

At times, extrinsic motivation may be an attempt to supplement what is failing in terms of intrinsic motivation. For
instance, if people are no longer considering their work as fun, enjoyable or challenging, there will have little
motivation to do it unless incentives are availed through extrinsic motivation (Legault, 2016:2). The weakness in
extrinsic motivation is that motivators such as money or rewards can produce extrinsic motivation due to the fact
that they generate desire for the consequence of the activity but they do not produce desire to engage in the activity
for its own sake (Legault, 2016: 3). Hence, it is important that intrinsic motivation is inculcated in work environments
as much as possible. Should it not exist, an organisation is only relying on extrinsic motivation. Yet extrinsic
motivation alone may also not be enough. It may be short-lived if there is no intrinsic motivation. For example, if
an organisation no longer offers rewards or incentives, then there will be no inherent motivator for people to perform
tasks as they would be no intrinsic motivation.
Having understood broadly the main types of motivation, it is worthwhile to further know how motivation occurs in
people including the actual factors that cause motivation. To further understand such dimensions of motivation,
theoretical explanations will provide insights. In the next section, the concept of motivation is explored further
through looking at some of the theories that explain it.
Think Point 1
Evaluating the two types of motivation
Consider the two types of motivation - intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Which
of the two types of motivation would you find appealing and which would
motivate you to stay longer with an organisation that you would be working for?
What type of motivation is appealing to you?
2.4. Theories of Motivation

There are broadly two theoretical approaches to motivation. These are termed as ‘content’ approaches to
motivation and ‘process’ approaches to motivation. The content approach focuses on the ‘what’ of motivation – the
things that motivate people in pursuing activities in the organisation (Erasmus et al, 2016: 360). The ‘process’
approaches explain the ‘how’ of motivation in terms of how employee behaviour is energised, directed or
maintained (Erasmus et al, 2016: 360).
The diagram below explains the essence of the two approaches.

3Table 2.1: Differentiation between process theories and content theories of motivation
Focus Process theories Content theories
Focal emphasis • Process of goal-setting • Identifying the extent to which

• Evaluating extent of employee needs are satisfied or not
satisfaction after goals have
• Examining motivational factors that
been achieved
influence behaviour of employees
Equity theory, Expectancy theory, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Alderfer’s
Example of theories
Goal-setting theory ERG theory, Herzberg’s Two-factor theory,
McClelland’s Theory of Needs
Source: Adapted from Brevis & Vrba, 2014
2.4.1 Content Approaches

The content approaches discussed in this section are Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Alderfer’s ERG theory,
Herzberg’s Two-factor theory, and McClelland’s Theory of Needs.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Abraham Maslow is the originator of the Hierarchy of Needs Theory. Maslow’s theory identifies five levels of
needs starting with the most fundamental ones and ending with more higher-level needs (Erasmus, et al 2016:
360) as identified in the diagram below.
2Figure 1.2: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Source: Erasmus, et al 2016.
a) At a basic need level, there are physiological needs, which include the need for water and food. These
needs have to do with human survival. At the level of an organisation, people need income provided by
a salary so that they are able to afford food for their own existence.

b) Second to basic physiological needs, the next level of needs that must be satisfied would be safety and
security needs. These entail the human need to be free from any possible physical or emotional harm.
Besides the need for a secure place of shelter, job security, in the context of an organisation, also forms
part of security needs.
c) At the next level after safety and security needs are social needs. As social beings, humans have a need
to affiliate or belong or be associated with someone or a group. Such social needs may include the need
for a romantic relationship or to be part of a family or to be part of a social club or community organisation.
d) At the fourth level are self-esteem needs. These may include the individual’s sense of self-worth or self-
image. When such needs are met, the individual will have a positive self-image. However, when not
fulfilled, low self-esteem can be the result of such needs not being fulfilled. At the workplace environment,
such needs can be fulfilled when employees are recognised or complimented for adding value to the
organisation. Even official recognition such as the changing of job titles after promotion may be a self-
esteem booster for individuals.
e) At the last level are self-actualisation needs. These have to do with a sense of achieving one’s purpose
or realising one’s full potential such as having grown to a satisfactory level in one’s career. Workplace
activities that would induce self-actualisation could be training and development opportunities, exposure
to new work challenges and allowing employees to be innovative or creative.
Alderfer’s ERG theory

Alderfer’s ERG (Existence, relatedness, growth) theory to enhance Maslow’s theory. For Alderfer, there are three
core needs of existence, relatedness and growth (Erasmus et al, 2016: 361-62):
• Existence needs have more to do with material existence and are similar to Maslow’s physiological and
safety needs
• Relatedness needs are about interpersonal and relationship needs as would be similar to Maslow’s
social or affiliation needs
• Growth needs relate to the quest to make a creative or productive contribution and would be similar to
Maslow’s esteem and self-actualisation needs
The difference between Maslow’s and Alderfer’s ERG theory is that the ERG theory, unlike Maslow’s Hierarchy of
Needs, does not subscribe to a rigid hierarchy of needs whereby certain needs are satisfied before higher level
ones may be satisfied but rather that all the three needs (ERG) can be fulfilled simultaneously rather through an
incremental step-by-step process (Erasmsus, et al, 2016: 362). If one compares Maslow’s theory and that of
Alderfer, it can be uncovered that the various needs identified are similar.
This, except that Adlerfer synthesises Maslow’s five needs into the three of relatedness (both esteem and social
needs in Maslow), growth (self-actualisation) and existence (relating to physiological and security needs in
Maslow).

Herzberg’s two-factor theory

Frederick Herzberg’s motivational theory investigates two primary factors – maintenance factors and motivational
factors. The maintenance factors are essentially those factors that people consider essential for any job to be done
such as equipment, working conditions or a salary. The motivation factors, sometimes referred to as growth factors,
constitute internal motivation derived from executing tasks and external motivation emanating from receiving an
anticipated reward. In terms of the theory, if the maintenance or hygiene factors such as working conditions,
company policies and salaries are provided, there will be no dissatisfaction (Erasmus et al, 2016: 362). The
motivational factors would be those additional factors that employees may gain over and above the maintenance
factors, which if achieved, lead to higher productivity and employee commitment (Erasmus et al, 2016: 362).
Motivation factors are strong contributors to job satisfaction and may include recognition for what may have been
achieved or growth and advancement opportunities. Job enrichment, whereby certain challenging tasks may be
added to job responsibilities, would also be a motivational factor.
According to Brevis and Vrba (2016), Herzburg’s theory can carry certain recommendations for managers. For
instance, it suggests that managers should firstly eliminate issues of possible dissatisfaction from employees such
as salaries and working conditions. Thereafter, managers can then focus on aspects such as providing
opportunities for growth and achievement as well as job enrichment, which serve to motivate employees. A point
can be made on how potential employees may consider joining an organisation based on whether in addition to a
salary (as opposed to only commissioned-based earning), the organisation will also provide other basic incentives
such as medical aid or 13th cheque. Yet further to the existence of hygiene factors, potential employers may also
be looking for personal growth prospects such as promotion.
McClelland’s theory of needs

McClelland’s theory focuses on three needs being the need for achievement, need for power and need for
affiliation. These needs can be explained further (Erasmus et al, 2016: 365) as follows:
• Need for achievement (nAch) such as the need to excel or exceed a set standard
• New for power (nPow)entailing the need to have influence or control others
• New for affiliation (nAff) such as needing warm and close interpersonal relationships and being accepted
by others with whom a person interacts
In terms of its applicability in the workplace context, McClelland’s theory would explain how people with a strong
need for affiliation will attempt to foster interpersonal relations in their behaviour whilst those who have a strong
need for power will try to influence others behaviours (Nel, 2008:339).
2.4.2 Process Approaches

The process approaches to motivation focus more on how motivation occurs as a process. Among the various
process theories under focus in this discussion is Expectancy Theory, Equity Theory and Goal-setting Theory.

Expectancy Theory
Expectancy Theory, originated by Victor Vroom, focuses on how individuals want something and how likely they
think they can get it with the theory built on four assumptions (Erasmus et al, 2016: 367):
• Behaviour is as a result of the combination of forces coming from the environment and those forces
controlled by the individual
• People make decisions about their behaviour
• Different people will have different needs, goals and desires
• People with act in a certain way depending on the strength of the expectation that the action will be
followed by a given outcome and the extent to which the person desires the outcome
The essence of Expectancy Theory is that individuals will be motivated to engage in a behaviour of their own
choice to the extent that they believe that the certain behaviour will lead to a valued outcome.
The theory focuses on three central concepts of expectancy, instrumentality and valence. Expectancy is about a
person’s belief that a certain amount or level of effort will lead to a particular level of performance with factors such
as self-esteem, previous success and support from others influencing their expectancy perceptions. (Erasmus et
al, 2016:367). Expectancy entails the degree to which the individual expects that hard work (effort) will lead to good
performance or high accomplishments.
Instrumentality involves the strength of an individual’s belief that a certain performance will lead to a specific
outcome whilst valence or desirability, entails the attractiveness or anticipated satisfaction/dissatisfaction that an
individual feels towards an outcome and is determined by the individual’s perception about how much the outcome
will fulfil or interfere with their needs (Erasmus et al, 2016: 367). Instrumentality entails the perception by the
individual that if they perform well, they will be rewarded. Valence has to do with how the individual values the
rewards they may receive.
Equity theory
At the core of Equity Theory is that employees compare their efforts and rewards with those of other employees in
similar situations (Erusmus et at 2016:368). The theory is underpinned by the belief that individuals are motivated
by a desire to be treated equally in an organisation. According to the theory, if employees perceive that they are
under-rewarded, they may try to create their own ‘reverse’ equity (Brevis & Vrba, 2014: 480) by:
• Reducing their inputs through lowering performance
• Increasing their rewards by asking for a raise
• Trying to get other individuals to change inputs or rewards
• Leaving the situation

Another dimension of Equity Theory is that individuals will be comparing themselves to others at a similar level or
situation. This is done in order to assess whether equity or justice is being done to them. Some of the tendencies
regarding inequity is unequal salaries, especially when there may be salary discrepancies regarding gender with
women earning less than men. According to Equity Theory, employees’ perceptions of unequal treatment or
inequity may trigger certain responses such as asking for a raise or lowering their performance. Equity will be seen
to be achieved as perceived by the employee if they consider themselves equally treated in rewards or other
benefits, when they put in the same input in order for the same outputs to be achieved, as compared to their peers.
This would be expressed in the formula stated below:
SELF OTHER
Outcome = Outcome = Satisfaction

Input Input
To explain the ratio, construct above, Equity Theory states that employees will weigh their input into a job against
the output they receive from it such as when there are more the rewards, greater satisfaction is achieved (Madubi,
2017). Further to the theory, when employees perceive that they receive more output from their jobs than what
they would have put into them as inputs, it leads to job satisfaction (Madubi, 2017). If employees perceive an
inequity in their input-outcome ratio compared to other employees, they become demotivated. Equity Theory has
been expanded to develop the concept of organisational justice, which is about the extent to which employees
perceive that they are treated fairly at work (Erasmus, 2016:368). Organisational justice consist of three
components:
• Distributive justice in which employees perceive a fairness on how resources or rewards may be
allocated
• Procedural justice which entails the perceived fairness of processes by which organisational decisions
are made; and
• Interactional justice, which is about the quality of interpersonal treatment, usually by supervisors,
employees perceive when decisions are made and communicated or when procedures are implemented
(Erasmus, 2016:369)
The practical implications of Equity Theory and concepts of organisational justice is that management must always
treat all employees fairly and equally.
This would pertain most in circumstances such as employee selection, and how people are paid (equal pay for
equal amounts of work) and how decisions are arrived at during situations of downsizing or retrenchments. The
essence of Equity Theory is that inputs should balance with outcomes as illustrated below.

3Figure 2.1: Equity Theory: job inputs must balance with job outcomes
Source: Chapter 11, Motivating Employees. https://otn.pressbooks.pub/fundamentalsofbusiness/chapter/chapter-
11-motivating-employees/.
Goal-Setting Theory
Goal-setting Theory premises that performance of employees will improve if they strive towards attaining a certain
goal and assumptions which further characterise the theory (Erasmus, 2016:369) are as follows:
• Setting specific goals enables employees to achieve higher performance for simple tasks than complex
ones
• Employees show more commitment to achieving goals if such goals have been negotiated between
themselves as individuals with their employers
• The more difficult the goal is, the higher the level of performance will be if employees commit to the set
goals
• Goals are important in informing employees about the performance standards expected which then
enables them to channel their efforts appropriately
A further element emphasised by Goal-setting Theory is feedback as it is considered important in allowing

employees to improve on their performance and also provides certain information useful for them to adjust their
efforts and strategies for attaining goals (Erasmus, 2016:360). The feedback needs to be underpinned by certain
principles in order to effectively serve the goal-setting and achieving process.
For instance, feedback should be ideally provided immediately; focus should be on the behaviour rather than the
personality; be specific and less general. The concept of self-efficacy is also considered a central aspect of the
theory and refers to the belief of the individual in their capacity to perform certain specific tasks which enable
certain goals to be achieved (Erasmus, 2016:370).

Activity 1
Writing a motivation Strategy to address high staff turnover
A company you have just joined has been experiencing increasing staff attrition
with several resignations in the last few months before you joined. Senior
management senses that the staff is demotivated. The company hardly offers
any benefits to staff such as bonuses or medical aid. Some of the exit interviews
have shown that the resigning staff members are discouraged by lack of
growth, adverse working conditions, and poorly maintained equipment such as
computers which often break down. You have just joined the company and you
are asked to draft a Motivation Strategy as the new HR Manager. Which one
(or two) of the motivation theories would you use to provide a rationale for what
you would incorporate in your strategy to motivate employees?
2.5. Employee motivation strategies

The various theories outlined in the previous discussion could be used as anchor points to formulate motivation
strategies. Again, the choice of how an organisation motivates its employees also depends on its organisational
culture (a topic to be addressed in the following unit) through which it espouses its values, norms and the
behaviours it wants employees to exhibit. For instance, management in a particular organisation may carry the
assumptions of Expectancy Theory in which employees are understood to be motivated by their expectations on
certain outcomes emanating from their efforts. So, management may be inclined to provide certain external
measurable rewards, which are tied to achieving specific activities.
In terms of using the Equity Theory as an underpinning one to motivate employees, the emphasis could be less
about rewards per se but rather how resources are perceived to be fairly and equitable allocated. If management
implements measures to close salary discrepancies, this could improve that the motivation in an organisational
setting in which there has been perceptions that there a salary inconsistency because of gender.
On the other hand, McClelland’s Theory of Needs would be applicable such as in academic environments and may
explain why teachers achieve highly despite difficulties, as they could have set for themselves high goals and
would be driven by achieving those goals more than any other rewards (Badubi, 2017).
Of importance to stress is that the type of motivation strategy not only is dependent on the organisational
environment but also on the characteristic employee behaviours in that organisation including what typically
motivates them. Hence the application of motivation theories would have to be mindful of organisational contexts
and certain prevalent behaviours within those contexts. It stands to reason that there may be no single theory that
could address all contexts and perhaps a pragmatic approach is to use a combination of strategies based on more
than one motivation theoretical approach.

Aside from the theory-based or inspired approaches, constant feedback, training and staff engagement have been
considered as valuable motivators. According to Armah (2018) feedback, if effectively carried out such that
employees accept comments, will lead to positive results though it may also lead to negative results that demotivate
when poorly executed. Training has also been considered instrumental in heightening motivation among
employees as well as employee engagement, which when conducted properly, enables employees to be involved
in decisions that affect their work (Armah, 2018: 42). In terms of employee engagement, Armah asserts that
employees tend to be encouraged to work harder when they are involved in decisions that concern their work.
Financial rewards or money has often been considered a good motivator. Indeed, it is probably the main reason
why people may look for promotion prospects or seek further jobs to advance their careers. However, it is important
to be aware that as according to the various motivation theories outlined, that people may be driven by differing
needs and goals and money may not be an important consideration for some people more than other needs. Often
people who solely work for money may actually be the most unmotivated and alienated towards their jobs. Even
within a single organisation, there could be different motivating factors. For instance, in a study conducted among
public servants in Serbia, it was found that a high salary was considered the most important reward for middle-
manager rather than for top management, who preferred more job responsibility and doing creative tasks as their
main motivator (Selakovic, et al, 2017: 210).
Case Study 1
Identifying Needed Motivational Strategies
Sifiso Makhubela has just joined Ukhamba ICT Solutions in Durban at the start
of 2019. He previously worked at Better Connectivity ICT Solutions, based in
Cape Town, the previous year, where had been Bloemfontein, where he had
been an assistant programmer. Sifiso is excited to join the new company. He
also thinks he will enjoy staying in Durban. He also thinks the new company he
has joined will offer better career prospects and more growth than was the case
at the Cape Town-based company. He is eager to excel in her new role as a
Senior Programmer in the company. Furthermore, the new company he has
joined also has branches overseas and there could be an opportunity to be
sent to the USA or Japan on some projects. This would give her good exposure
for his career, he enthuses.
In her first week at work, Sifiso finds the atmosphere at the office a bit dull.
However, his team had been assigned a new project and there were some few
glitches with a new HR software being developed for a client company. He
thought about the problem until late in the night pondering possible solutions.

He is keen to impress his new boss, John Steinberg, and is exploring new
innovative ideas that will prove he is going to be an asset to the new company.
The next morning, he approaches John to explain his ideas. As he goes to
John’s office, he looked at him sternly and asked, “What brings you here?” He
introduces himself and explains that he wants to share ideas on how to solve
glitches in the software programme he is working on with his team members.
As he tries to explain, he notices John is pre-occupied with other office
paperwork, paying least attention to what he has to say. John tells him he is
busy with other serious matters. He is told her that his solution will be sent to
all the team members before the end of the day.
Sifiso is surprised by this behaviour. On second thoughts, he thinks it

worthwhile to at least share his ideas with his team members to get their inputs.
They also seem uninterested. This is another surprise for him. He decides to
be forthright and asks them why they were not interested. Linda, one of the
staff members, replies: “What is the point of discussing such ideas? John never
considers anything we discuss. He just provides all the solutions himself.”
This becomes quite disturbing for Sifiso to hear. Was this how it was going to
be in her company? He was to later experience in ensuing days how John had
neither the time nor any interest to mentor subordinates, let alone consider any
ideas. Sifiso turned increasingly frustrated and unmotivated at the new
company. In an environment in which the boss is presumed to know all the
answers, he was not learning anything new and felt his career was reaching a
dead-end.
1.1) What do you think were the reasons for Sifiso’s disillusionment in the
new company? Answer this question by referring to Maslow’s
Hierarchy of Needs.
1.2) What would a team leader such as John need to do to ensure that his
staff is better motivated from their current levels? What employee
motivational strategies can he use?
1.3) Which of the process theories would be applicable as part of providing
a comprehensive intervention to motivate staff at Ukhamba ICT
solutions?

2.6. Motivation in groups and teams

Motivation is not only important to consider with regard to the individual but also has a bearing in group and team
contexts. For instance, assume you are a coach of a soccer team preparing for the Soccer World Cup. You have
the task of assembling a team from various soccer clubs and inducing them to exert all their talents for the benefit
of the national team. Yet in all likelihood, there will be individuals coming from difference soccer teams with different
cultures and levels of competitiveness. Furthermore, you are also entrusted with the task of preventing some
members of the team being disheartened whilst also inspiring them to perform at their maximum best. How do you
keep the team motivated amidst differing individual capabilities of the soccer players? Such a real-world scenario
makes it an imperative to understand the nuances of motivation in teams or groups.
The task of motivating a group becomes more complex given that they are an amalgamation of individuals with
different interests, capabilities and levels of motivation. There have been some models which have tried to explain
how motivation takes place in groups. Among these, which are discussed in this section is the Kohler Group
Motivation Gain Effect, Social Compensation Effect and Social Facilitation.
Kohler Group Motivation Gain Effect

The Kohler Group Motivation Gain Effect was one of the earliest theories that explained motivation in group
situations. It was originated by the German industrial psychologist Kohler. In his studies in the 1920s, he examined
members of the Berlin rowing club in Germany and observed that a two-person group could perform a taxing
physical task such as performing standing bicep curls exercises longer than could be expected based on group
members’ individual performances at a comparable individual task (Kerr & Hertel, 2011:44). Kohler observed that
in the two-person group, once the weaker member could no longer persist with a task, the stronger member would
also be affected and would also not continue with the same shared task. On the other hand, the weaker member
would be motivated to increase their effort, pushing themselves beyond their usual performance, when performing
a task with a stronger member in an interdependent task. Further observations from Kohler was that the size of
the motivation gain was dependent on the discrepancy between task partner’s abilities with the motivation gain
being largest when the discrepancy was moderate, such as when the stronger partner was about 1.4 times stronger
than the weaker partner (Kerr & Hertel, 2011:44).
Kerr and Hertel (2011: 45), offers two explanations for how the Kohler Group Motivation Gain Effect occurs. Firstly,
there is a social comparison whereby the individual working with a more capable partner will tend to increase their
performance goals so that they at least perform equally well with the partner. Secondly, there is one associated
with an individual’s indispensability to the group whereby the individual understands the team’s outcome as
determined by their own personal contribution. It is about the individual’s consciousness that their individual
reputation in the group depends on their personal performance.

As Kerr and Hertel (2011:45), the indispensability to the group behaviour is a psychological mechanism which can
be fuelled by collectivistic motives such as increasing the group’s outcome or individual motives such as trying to
avoid social sanctions for letting the group down.
The Group Motivation Gain Effect illustrates how motivation is increased in a group. However, there should also
be an awareness that motivation can also be lost in a group context leading to demotivation. One of the concepts
to explain this is Social Loafing which is the tendency for an individual to apply less effort when they are working
in a group rather than working individually. Social loafing may occur when an individual takes advantage of a large
group and remains unidentifiable and therefore cannot be pinpointed to be accountable as an individual (Irwin et
al, 2012:3).
Social Compensation Effect

The Social Compensation Effect, the other individual in the group will work harder to compensate for a co-worker(s)
whom they expect to perform badly in the group. This approach can be seen as opposite to the Kohler Motivation
Gain approach were the weaker member of the group tries to elevate their effort higher to be on par with the group
member they consider to be more capable then themselves.
The Social Compensation Effect has been explained by several factors. The perception that there will be
inadequate performance from a fellow worker could be emanating from a general lack of trust in the reliability of
others to perform well when their contributions are pooled with those of others or from direct knowledge of co-
workers' insufficient abilities (Nwinkokpugi, 2015). Another factor is that there could be critical importance to the
group’s outcome and hence if the evaluation of the group product or outcome is important to one individual, he or
she will be motivated to avoid a poor group performance by compensation for poorly performing co-workers
(Nwinkokpugi, 2015: 240).
Nwinkokpugi (2015: 243) further suggests additional conditions in which social compensation would likely occur is
when it appears as though the individual must continue to remain in the group working collectively; when work
begins at earlier stages of the collective effort, and when the group size is relatively small.
There is a possible flaw with the Social Compensation Effect when perceptions may not be accurate. Stereotyping
of people can contribute to situations whereby individuals may formulate certain beliefs or perceptions that certain
individuals are lazy or have a poor work ethic, even when they may not have worked with them previously.

Social Facilitation
The theory of Social Facilitation was coined by Robert Zajonc in the aftermath of an experimental study conducted
in 1965. The study looked at audience effects in terms of observed behaviour in the presence of spectators and
co-action effects – how people behaviour in the presence of another person involved in the same activity.
Social Facilitation occurs when the presence of other individuals serves to enhance the individual’s performance
in their tasks. Similar to the Group Motivation Gain Effect, the Social Facilitation process adds a motivating effect
to the group’s work activities. A motivational process that suggests the presence of other people makes individuals
concerned about how others could be evaluating them, and such an apprehension serves to enhance their
performance (Forsythe, 2019:308) explains the Social Facilitation effect.
As can be discerned from the previous discussions, groups seem inherently disposed to provide motivation to
individuals who are part of groups. The mere presence of others and working with them has a stimulating effect on
individuals’ own work ethos which may rise in an effort to be on par with the rest of the team’s work effort.
In terms of the motivation theories also discussed earlier, there might be certain needs that groups also provide to
individuals. For instance, individuals may join groups to have a sense of security. This would be fulfilling the safety
and security need in terms of Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs. If they join groups to fulfil the need to belong or be
affiliated (Forsythe, 2019:64), they would be fulfilling the social belonging need also espoused in Maslow’s needs
hierarchy.
Whilst it is important to understand the inherent motivating factors in groups such as those explained by the Group
Motivation Gain Effect and Social Facilitation models, it also noteworthy to consider what motivational strategies
to introduce as interventions to rekindle motivation within groups.
In their classic work researching groups, Hoy and Miskel (1982) advance that the following steps should be pursued
to motivate people in groups:
• Allowing groups members to set goals together rather than goals being imposed on them. This follows
research that shows that people who participate in formulating their own goals become more satisfied
during performing their own tasks
• Establishing goals which are specific instead of those that are broad and unclear, serves to focus the
attention and energy of groups
• Establishing highest possible goals as the more difficult the goals, the more people will put effort in
achieving them

Jiang (2010) identifies various methods for motivating people working in teams as entailing the following:
• Objective-based team training with equal opportunities and such training should aim to make team
members aware of both their own goals and those of the organisation and serves to foster a team spirit
• Voluntarily formed team formation which empowers members and which makes teams willing to learn
from each other and share skills, information and experience
• Team-based leadership and communication system with the presence of managers as leaders able to
influence employees with close relationships fostered by communication
• Mixed-reward system which can motivating team members such as performance-based pay, team goal-
based pay and skill-based payments
Other methods of motivation alluded to by Jiang (2010) include empowerment interventions which serve to
reinforce the idea that employees and groups can achieve higher levels of productivity, quality and team member
satisfaction through delegation of some task-related decisions to the team. The motivational theories alluded to
earlier may also have applicability in groups and teams since these are also composed of individuals who have
their own needs. However, in terms of group motivation, there would be additional considerations of group-wide
dynamics that may be a factor to consider in the group environment. Whatever the tools or strategies that are
used in motivating groups and teams, it is always important to consider these as per their fit into the circumstances
occurring in the group environment at a particular point in time when these are needed.
Case Study 2
The Class Group Assignment
Ms Tertia Naidoo divides her second-year class of Innovation and
Entrepreneurship at University of KwaZulu-Natal into small groups of seven
people. Each group is expected to work together a business venture proposal
based on an innovative idea. Some students are not too happy with the idea of
working in groups. Esther Horwitz, one of the vocal students, raises a concern.
“In one the modules last year we had to work on an assignment as a group.
Yet it was only a few of us carrying the rest of the group as we were doing all
the work. Groupwork is unfair. Some people inevitably end up doing work for
the rest of the others who are too lazy and put in very minimal effort. They
merely become passengers as if they are riding on a bus whilst other team
members take on more work on their behalf,” she lamented.
“I guess those who like to piggy back on groups. They become like submarines
and become initially visible when the project standards and become unseen for
a while. They will reappear just closer to the deadline date when the work is

already done. It seems the group work allows them an opportunity to hibernate.
They will surely benefit from free marks for themselves in this exercise,” she
adds, with her face frowning in her sense of displeasure.
The comment triggers a sentiment from Linda Khumalo, who also expresses a
reluctance on group work but already consoles herself that she will have to
contend with the group project assignment.
“I find myself in such situations have to do almost all the work. I guess once
more I will have to do most of the work as I find myself often doing. In any
event, since I want a good mark, I must work hard even if it means I have to
put effort on behalf of others,” she says, with a breathing sigh expressing her
helplessness.
Despite the lecturer Ms Tertia Naidoo, assuring her that this need not be the
case, Linda insists she will just continue with her assumption and simply
condition herself that she will have to be the star player in her team. From her
own experience on varsity projects, group members cannot be trusted to put
the same or better effort that she normally does. Since the lecturer has already
prescribed that the assignment will be done in groups in any case and will not
change her approach, she has already accepted her plight that she may have
to do the bulk of the group work.
Read the above case study. Having read the various models of motivation in
groups and teams in the previous section, consider the following questions
based on the above case study.
1. Which motivation effect you have learnt would be reflected in Esther’s
statements regarding the group assignment?
2. Linda also made a comment about the nature of working in groups.
Which of the motivation effects can her statement be associated with?

Revision Question 2
1. What types of motivation can be applied in the workplace to motivate
staff?
2. Describe briefly the various theories of motivation
3. Drawing from the various theories of motivation, what strategies can be
applied to motivate employees in an organisation?

Answers provided at the back of the study guide
1. Which definition best describes Intrinsic Motivation?
a) Behavioural energy that occurs naturally to a person
b) Intentional behaviour
c) Behaviour which responds to internal stimuli
d) Engagement in behaviour that is inherently satisfying
2. How would you define what motivation is about?

a) The ability to do self-directed work without instruction or direction
and advance organisational goals
b) High work ethic owing to liking a certain profession or job and
commitment to organisational goals
c) The willingness to high levels of effort to reach organisational goals,
conditioned by an effort to fulfil some individual need.
d) An energetic and unwavering approach to work until an objective is
accomplished
3. There are two broad theoretical approaches to motivation?

a) Behavioural and process approaches
b) Content and process approaches
c) Team and individual approaches
d) Content and contextual approaches
4. Equity theory deals with:

a) Fair distribution of benefits and resources to employees irrespective
of rank
b) How employees compare their efforts and rewards with those of
others
c) Gender and race pay parity in organisations
d) Equal treatment of employees

5. Expectancy theory has to do with:

a) Employees’ expectations of rewards in the workplace
b) Management expectations about employees’ performance in
performance contracts
c) How individuals want something and how likely they think they will
get it
d) How employees expect management to behave towards them
6. The Two-Factory theory focuses on:

a) Decision-making and individual choice factors
b) Motivational and maintenance factors
c) Motivational and demotivation factors
d) Financial and non-financial needs
7. The Kohler Group Effect occurs when:

a) The surprise effect when team members encounter challenges in
their group
b) The individual working with a more capable partner will tend to
increase their performance goals so that they at least perform
equally well with the partner
c) There is a motivation loss when one group members is less
motivated
d) There is a motivation gain when the most capable members of the
group motivate less capable members.
8. Which of the following statements is true about Social Facilitation?

a) It is about how societal factors influence group processes
b) It is explained by a motivational process in which group efforts lead
to social contributions
c) It is explained by a motivational process that suggests the
presence of other people makes individuals concerned about how
others could be evaluating
d) It encapsulates how the social backgrounds of group members
influence team or group performance
9. The Social Compensation Effect is about:

a) How an individual is motivated by achieving social missions in their
job roles

b) A sense of achievement which is fulfilled when one’s job

contributes to social development
c) How team or group members seek to fulfil social investment
outputs in a group task
d) How an individual in the group will work harder to
compensate for a co-worker(s) whom they expect to perform
badly in the group
10. Extrinsic motivation is about:

a) The tendency for groups to be motivated by social external
factors
b) Performance of behaviour driven by external management
demands
c) Behaviour induced by the organisational environment
d) Performance of behaviour that is fundamentally contingent
upon the attainment of an outcome that is separable from the
action itself
Activity 1
Writing a motivation Strategy to address high staff turnover
A company you have just joined has been experience increasing staff attrition
with several resignations in the last few months before you joined. Senior
management senses a lot of demotivated staff. The company hardly offers any
benefits to staff such as bonuses or medical aid. Some of the exit interviews
have shown that the resigning staff members are discouraged by lack of
growth, adverse working conditions, and poorly maintained equipment such as
computers which often break down. You have just joined the company and
you are asked to draft a Motivation Strategy as the new HR Manager. Which
one (or two) of the motivation theories would you use to provide a rationale for
what you would incorporate in your strategy to motivate employees?
Think Point 1
Evaluating the two types of motivation
Consider the two types of motivation - intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Which
of the two types of motivation would you find appealing and which would
motivate you to stay longer for an organisation that you would be working for?
What strongly appeals to you in the type of motivation you prefer?

2.7. Summary
In this study unit, the discussion started with an introductory overview of the topic of motivation. There was a
classification of motivation into two main types – intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. It may be pragmatic in the
workplace context not to put an emphasis on one of the two but to consider how both types of motivation can be
blended in a holistic approach to motivation.
To further explore how motivation is understood to happen and what are the motivating factors, the process and
content theories of motivation were covered. The theories seek to deepen our understanding of motivation
including the underlying factors that prompt it to occur. The discussion then shifted to motivation in groups and
teams. Regarding groups and teams, there were other factors to consider that motivate people beyond that the
theories of motivation that were covered explained. In the group or team context, there extra dimension of
motivation is how people react when working with others. They can be stimulated to work harder if they consider
and hold some their fellow co-workers in high regard and may try to increase their output to match those they
consider highly capable in terms of the Kohler Motivation Gain Effect. However, in some instances they may
contribute less to the group as explained by the Social Loafing effect. In people management roles in the workplace
context, one may be faced with the need to motivate people when they are unmotivated and keep them motivated
when they are not as motivated. The theoretical understanding of motivation at an individual and team context
gives some insights. Yet again, there needs to be an understanding that groups and teams are dynamic and
complex and there will be even more other factors to consider that influence behaviour of people in organisations.
Organisational culture, which is looked at in the next study, may be one factor that also may be influential to
employee behaviour and motivation.

Think Point 1
There is no inherently right or wrong answer to this think point. It merely allows the student to reflect on whether
they have their own personal preference towards intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. This would entirely depend on
what sort of motivation drives them in their career choices. In terms of intrinsic motivation, a person may choose
an inherently satisfying or enjoyable career even though it may be low-paying. This would mean that financial
rewards are not the driving motivator in their career. On the other hand, some people are more inclined to choose
careers that provides rewards and financial incentives akin to seeking extrinsic motivation opportunities irrespective
of whether they are in any occupation, including one which they do not enjoy. This is a self-reflective opportunity
for the student to understand themselves in terms of what motivates them, and which sort of motivation has more
appeal towards their own interests.
Activity 1
The activity asks the student to select one or two motivation theories that would underpin an approach at
introducing a motivation strategy in an organisational setting. This means that the student will investigate one or
two motivation theories that are more convincing to them and which would make sense to apply their assumptions
to the workplace. For instance, if one wants to formulate a staff motivation strategy informed by Maslow’s Hierarchy
of Needs, this would be the organisational strategy will investigate providing company benefits that meet
physiological needs (medical aid, life cover), safety needs (housing allowance/subsidy), and love and belonging
(company sports club). So, a motivation strategy would than consider what staff benefits would cater for such
needs as explained in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
Case Study 1
1.1. Sifiso is disillusioned with the new company he has joined because it does not seem to fulfil his Self-
Actualisation Need in terms of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Among the self-actualisation needs Sifiso is
looking for is career growth and excel in his new job role. In order to achieve that, he wanted to introduce
new innovative ideas and thereby exert himself favourable in the new work environment. However, the new
environment does not seem to accommodate Sifiso’s personal ambitions to be innovative.
1.2. A team leader like John must avail opportunities for self-actualisation in the workplace. Among other
measures that could be introduced, being more obvious in the case study example, is to allow for staff
innovation. Furthermore, there could also be generic motivation strategies such as more staff engagement,
communication and acknowledging staff as valuable, all of which seem to be lacking in John’s organisation.
1.3. Expectancy Theory, originated by Victor Vroom, focuses on how individuals want something and how likely
they think they can get it with the theory built on four assumptions (Erasmus et al, 2016: 367). Among these
is that behaviour is as a result of the combination of forces coming from the environment and those forces
controlled by the individual.

The essence of Expectancy Theory is that individuals will be motivated to engage in a behaviour of their own
choice to the extent that they believe that the certain behaviour will lead to a valued outcome. In the company
in which Sifiso has joined, the rest of the team has almost given up on any prospect that their boss will be
open to suggest and are therefore non-committal and indifference to new suggestions.
Case Study 2
1. Esther bemoans that in group work, some group members don’t pull their weight and do enough work.
They piggyback on others’ efforts without doing their fair share. This phenomenon speaks to Social
Loafing which is the tendency for an individual to apply less effort when they are working in a group rather
than working individually. Social loafing may occur when an individual takes advantage of a large group
and remains unidentifiable and therefore cannot be pinpointed to be accountable as an individual (Irwin
et al, 2012:3).
2. Linda’s sentiments are that she finds herself in situations where she to do almost all the work when it
comes to group assignments. This relates to the Social Compensation Effect, whereby an individual in
the group will work harder to compensate for a co-worker(s) whom they expect to perform badly in the
group.

Study Unit 2
Answers in bold
1.
d) Engagement in behaviour that is inherently satisfying.
2.
c) The willingness to put in high levels of effort to reach organisational goals, conditioned by an effort
to fulfil some individual need.
3.
b) Content and process approaches
4.
b) How employees compare their efforts and rewards with those of others
5.
c) How individuals want something and how likely they think they will get it

6.
b) Motivational and maintenance factors
7.
b) The individual working with a more capable partner will tend to increase their performance goals so
that they at least perform equally well with the partner
8.
c) It is explained by a motivational process that suggests the presence of other people makes
individuals concerned about how others could be evaluating them.
9.
c) How an individual in the group will work harder to compensate for a co-worker(s) whom they expect
to perform badly in the group.
10.
d) Performance of behaviour that is fundamentally contingent upon the attainment of an outcome that
is separable from the action itself.

Unit
3: Organisational Culture

3.1. Introduction to Organisational • Understand the concept of organisational culture and be

Culture introduced to it as a knowledge area
3.2. An Overview of Organisational • Describe organisational culture

Culture
3.3. Functions of Organisational Culture • Define the role and function of organisational culture in
enhancing organisational effectiveness
3.4. Types of Organisational Culture • Identify types of organisational culture
3.5. Levels of Organisational Culture • Understand the various levels of organisational culture
3.6. Organisational Culture and • Differentiate between organisational culture and

Organisational Climate organisational climate
3.7. Organisational Culture and Groups • Outline organisational culture and groups


Prescribed Textbook
Cengage Learning.
Recommended Reading
LLC - Kdp
Journal Articles
10.23925/2179-3565.2019v10i4p27-36.
10.26480/mecj.01.2022.01.08.

3.1. Introduction
In this study unit, Organisational Culture is examined. The importance of studying organisational culture in relation
to Group Dynamics is explored. Individuals and groups may work in particular organisational environments that
have a certain corporate culture which will influence behaviour within the organisation. Consider the saying, ‘when
in Rome, do as the Romans do.’ Similarly, organisational culture can be summed up as how ‘organisations do
things.’ This implies that the contexts of where you find yourself, whether as an individual or group, has some
bearing or at least must be considered, in how you behave. An organisational culture may influence how groups
and individuals behave and think. This is because it sets ways of behaving, including defining organisational norms
and values, the organisational members are expected to adhere to. Such ways of behaving may be explicitly
endorsed in corporate mission, vision or value statements and other corporate policies and procedures. There may
also be those implicit set ways of behaviour, not defined officially, that individuals will also be expected to adhere
to and embrace having observed the predominant culture in their organisation.
In examining how an organisation’s culture is expressed among its members, groups are one of the formations
that can be observed in organisational settings. As Schein (2006:616) asserts, culture is a group phenomenon and
it may be easier to gain information from groups about organisational areas of concern and intensity of feelings
around these as well as shared assumptions about the total culture profile of the organisation. This unit looks at
the organisation culture, which is the context that is worthy to understand, in the life of groups within organisations.
An overall introductory discussion on organisational culture is the first standing point. The discussion then looks at
the function of organisational culture in the organisation – its contribution to organisational life - in an organisation.
The discussion also considers the types of organisational culture that may typically permeate the organisation and
then closely examine organisational climate in relation to organisational culture. The influence of organisational
culture is also examined in relation to groups. The discussion which follows, commences with an overview of
organisational culture.
3.2. An Overview of Organisational Culture

Organisational culture has been a complex concept to study owing the varying understandings of the term. The
concept has been described differently by various people choosing to define it. These could be in organisational
contexts, academia, research or consulting. Hence, definitions could be narrow or broader, depending on how
people choose to look at what should constitute or not constitute organisational culture. One definition looks at
“organisational culture is the pattern of shared meaning in an organisation” (Rainey, 1997). Though making sense,
such a definition maybe somewhat vague and require further probing as to what would share meaning is defined.
Specifically, again, there will be a need to know more about how the concept of ‘culture’ (what it may include or
exclude) actually entails in the organisational context. It is assumed that culture, as understood in society, has to
do with a combination of beliefs, values or norms that a particular community upholds amongst itself, then at least
the word ‘culture’ whether applied in the organisational context, should have the same attributes to its meaning.

Denison (1984), in a more precise definition, defines organisational culture refers to the set of values, beliefs, and
behaviour patterns that form the core identity of an organisation. There may be a further additions or subtractions
from this definition, but it provides some working definition when the concept of ‘organisation’ is linked to ‘culture’.
Indeed, organisational culture, though starting from issues of values, beliefs or norms that are emphasised within
an organisation, will even go beyond these and be reflected in how an organisation deals with customers,
stakeholders, the architecture or design of its premises. Organisational policies, processes and procedures may
also be an embodiment of its organisational culture as often written documents, even it in passing, will tend to
support organisational values or norms. Organisational culture then becomes overall the way things are done in a
particular organisation. These may even be espoused through the company corporate values, vision and mission
statements. Hence an organisational culture will usually be reflective of an organisation’s mission or vision
statement.
There is a useful classification advanced in Tarba (et al, 2019:485) for understanding culture is in two broad
streams of ‘hard’ culture and ‘soft’ culture. Hard culture would be visible tangible elements such as signs, company
logos, visible procedures or organisational jargon. On the other hand, as Tarba (et al, 2019:485) asserts, ‘soft’
culture would entail culture as understood through behaviour, attitudes or belief systems.
Further elucidation according to Tarba (et al, 2019:485) is that the ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ cultures will coalesce into what
could be ‘strong’ cultures and ‘weak’ cultures. The same authors explain that ‘strong’ cultures are those wherein
employees are extrinsically aligned to the ‘hard’ aspects of the corporate environment. In a ‘weak’ culture, there
may be no dominant share values that are evident (Robbins & De Cenzo, 2008: 151).
Yet more elaboration has been added over the years to organisational culture to look at not only what it constitutes
or what its content elements are but also encompassing a certain way of thinking. For instance, Zhang (2011:390)
considers organisational culture to also include the deeper faith and basic assumptions by an organisation’s
members (Zhang, 2011:390). It therefore becomes a way of not only doing things but also about thinking about
things. In terms of thinking about things, it can be noted how a certain organisation that embraces innovation and
creative thinking as elements of their organisational culture. Such emphasis would be intended to stimulate creative
thinking about approaching organisational challenges.
The other aspect of organisational culture is that most organisations would want to be seen differently from similar
organisations in their sectors or industries. Organisational culture would in a way represent the unique
characteristics of how an organisation behaves that sets it apart from other organisations. Hence, Robbins and
Judge (2011:554) view organisational culture as an element that distinguishes one organisation from another. An
organisation’s unique attributes of organisational culture may in fact be a key competitive advantage when it wants
to have distinct character in the market in which it operates.

3.3. Functions of Organisational Culture

It has been alluded somewhat in the preceding discussion about how organisational culture may be a distinct
attribute of one organisation is distinct from another. Besides differentiating organisations, organisational culture
has been considered an important element to be considered for organisation to attain their goals; attract certain
desired employees; stakeholder relationship building and creative a positive public image (Desson & Clouthier,
2010:1).
Brown (1998: 89-91) considers organisational culture as having the following functions:
• Motivation: organisational culture serves to provide a cohesive culture which employees identify with and
fosters shared beliefs among employees
• Conflict reduction: a shared common culture provides consistency in perceptions and evaluation of issues
• Coordination and control: organisational culture facilitates organisational processes of coordination and
organisation’s competitive advantage
Martins and Martins (2003:382) identify the following functions of organisational culture:
• Defining boundaries in terms of distinguishing one organisation from another
• Provides a sense of identity to organisational members
• Facilitates a commitment to something larger beyond individual interests
• Provides a control mechanism which guides attitudes and behaviours among employees
The essence of organisational culture is to create a sense of community and shared purpose among members of
an organisation. It can therefore be used to foster various common objectives the organisation wishes that its
members or employees should embrace in order to drive a single focus towards such goals or objectives. The
organisational culture then becomes a framework for guiding behaviour in the organisation.
Organisational culture has been considered one of the determinants of the success and effectiveness of an
organisation (Desson & Cloutheier, 2010:3). Its importance in determining success can be a result of its influence
in supporting or hindering organisational goals (Desson & Clouthier, 2010:3). Organisational culture tends to
permeate various organisational processes that are key to the success of organisations. An organisational culture
that is conducive to innovation will be instrumental in enabling an organisation to develop innovative products and
services, which can bring overall success to the company. When a company becomes successful, it will often have
a unique organisational culture that sets it apart from its competitors. Such an organisational culture would have
shaped how it does things – its operational habits such as a sense of innovation.
A strong organisational culture affords organisations a better chance of being successful also given its influence
in creating a competitive advantage (van Rooyen, 2017:22).

Van Rooyen (2017:12) also notes that the culture that prevails within an organisation could potentially enable or
discourage success and that organisational culture has the power to influence the job satisfaction of employees,
which in turn influences organisational performance.
Conversely, organisational culture can also play a dysfunctional role. Van Rooyen (2017:22) delineates four
dysfunctional aspects of organisational culture, which are:
• Institutionalisation whereby the organisation takes a life of its own which is separate from members;
• Barriers to diversity whereby there is a diverse workforce which adheres to core cultural values
• Barriers to change when an entrenched culture may no longer be suitable to an organisation undergoing
rapid change; and
• Barriers to mergers and acquisitions when organisations’ different respective cultures become too vastly
different to be reconciled thereby creating a barrier to a merger or acquisition event
Of essence is to understand that they be positive and negative functions of organisational culture. It is further to
worth bearing in mind that there will be additional and more diverse functional or dysfunctional roles of
organisational culture which can be examined. Further dimensions of organisational culture may also be examined
in terms of weak or strong organisational cultures and their related contributions to organisational performance.
The main nub point in this discussion is that there needs to be consciousness of the role of organisational culture
in an organisation, whatever its positive or negative contributions may be. Again, as examined in the following
discussion, there needs to be understanding of the types of organisational culture much more precisely if the
functions or dysfunctional roles of culture are to be understood.
Think Point 1
Google has been known to have a vibrant culture, which makes the company
a fun place to work in. It has a team-oriented work environment and individuals
are encouraged to participate in playful activity and creative innovation
experiments that enable the company to develop new products and services to
ensure its success.
What function(s) does organisational culture play in the workplace

approaches at Google?

3.4. Types of Organisational Culture

Sheridan (2007:42) identifies four types of organisational culture as follows:
• The power-oriented culture which emphasises the role of individuals who are power-oriented and will be
characterised by high centralisation, authority and rule orientation
• The role-oriented culture which emphasises formal rules, and roles as well as formal procedures
characteristic of bureaucracy
• The achievement-oriented culture tends to be characterised by staff members who are focuses on what
to achieve and set goals in line with fulfilling the purpose of the organisation
• The support-oriented culture which places the individual at the heart of the organisation with the
decision-making being decentralised to favour individual participation and the exertion of minimum
control
There are other type-classifications proffered by other researcher and authors depending on the what aspects of
organisational life are being focused on. For instance, another configuration of organisational culture types based
on levels of sociability and solidarity (Dhir, 2019) also classifies types as follows:
• Networked culture characterised by high sociability and low solidarity
• Mercenary culture which often has autonomous sub-cultures co-existing within the company manifested
by low sociability and high solidarity
• Fragmented culture characterised by low solidarity and low sociability and which causes cultural clashes
and dissonance between the goals of leaders and lower level employees
3.5. Levels of Organisational Culture

Schein’s levels of organisational culture
According to Schein (2004), organisational culture must be analysed and considered at the various levels at which
it transpires. These three levels, as illustrated below, are artefacts, espoused values and basic underlying
assumptions.
Artefacts constitute “visible organisational structures and processes” (Schein, 2004: 26). They are visual
indications of an organisation’s culture. Examples of such visual signs may include how offices are decorated or
laid out. Espoused values may include vision or mission statements or any corporate policies which the
organisation states which endorsed its beliefs or values. Underlying assumptions may include unconscious beliefs,
perceptions or thoughts and feelings among employees (Schein, 2004).

4Figure 4.1: Schein’s Culture Triangle

Source: https://www.tutor2u.net/business/reference/models-of-organisational-culture-schein.
Activity 1
Analyse the various levels of organisational culture in an organisation you are
familiar with or research any company whose culture you admire. Identify
evidence of the various levels of organisational culture in terms of artefacts,
espoused values and basic underlying assumptions. You may research to get
evidence of these three aspects by going through the company website for
information such as the corporate profile and consult the organisation’s annual
reports in order to understand its operational activities and stated values.
Case Study 1
CASE STUDY ON APPLE
Apple was founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak and designs and
manufactures mobile communication and media devices, computers and
portable music players.
Their headquarters are in Cupertino, CA, with other offices in various parts of
the globe. The location of their headquarters is of the upmost importance,
being centrally located in Silicon Valley. Tucked into suburban California is a
new tech landmark: Apple's $5 billion headquarters, Apple Park. The stunning
building is completely circular and features walls made from glass. Inside of
the building, which is one mile in circumference. Many flock to Cupertino,
California, about an hour south of San Francisco, every day to get a glimpse of
what some call "the spaceship."

The mission statement of the company is, “Apple designs Macs, the best
personal computers in the world, along with OS X, I Life, iWork and
professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods
and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its
revolutionary iPhone and App store, and is defining the future of mobile media
and computing devices with iPad.” Apple’s company values include:
accessibility, education, environment, inclusion and diversity, privacy, and
supplier responsibility. In terms of it value of accessibility, Apple believes that
technology should be accessible for everyone, and have made adaptions to
their products in order to make that belief a reality. The Apple Watch for
example, has fitness algorithms for wheelchair users, so instead of steps, the
Workout and Activity apps track pushes. The Switch Control on Mac lets
consumers use switches, a joystick, or other adaptive devices to control what
is on the screen. Live Listen on iPhone, lets consumers use iPhone specific
hearing aids and their iPhone to hear more clearly in loud places. Voiceover on
iPhone can describe what’s on the screen and say it aloud, and Speak Screen
on iPad can read text aloud from books, webpages, or homework assignments.
"Apple is a pretty divided mix of typical corporate red tape and politics mixed in
with start-up level urgency when the direction comes from Steve. If you have a
project that Steve is not involved in, it will take months of meetings to move
things forward. If Steve wants it done, it's done faster than anyone thinks is
humanly possible. The best way to get any cross departmental work done was
to say it’s for Steve and you'd probably have it the same day, "says one staffer.
Source: Adapted from:

https://www.businessinsider.com/what-apple-employees-say-about-the-
companys-internal-corporate-culture-2013-10?IR. and Arocha J.B. 2017.
Getting to the core: a case study on the company culture of Apple Inc. A senior
project presented to the Faculty of the Department of Experience Industry
Management, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, in
Partial Fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science.
Read the above case study and using Schein’s levels of organisational culture,
identify:
1. Artefacts
2. Espoused values
3. Underlying assumptions

3.6. Organisational Culture and Organisational Climate

Although organisational culture and organisational culture do interlink and relate, it is important to emphasise their
distinctiveness as different concepts.
Organisational climate relates to how organisational members perceive informal or formal organisational policies,
practices, procedures and routines (Schneider et al., 2011). Organisational climate entails “sets of perceptually
based descriptions of organisational features, events, and processes” (Ostroff et al, 2013:651). In other words,
organisational climate has more do to with how individuals inside the organisation perceive or view the
organisation’s various activities. Organisational climate is the realm of shared perceptions. Organisational culture,
on the other hand, consists of shared assumptions, values and beliefs that may exist in an organisational context
as has been alluded in the earlier discussion on organisational culture.
The differences between organisational culture and organisational climate are summarised illustratively in the table
that follows:
4Table 3.1: Differences between Organisational Culture and Organisational Climate
Organisational culture Organisational climate
Concerned with the evolution of social systems Concerned with the impact organisational systems
over time have on groups and individuals
Deep understanding of underlying assumptions, Greater emphasis on members’ perspectives on

individual meaning and members’ views of the observable practices and procedures that are closer to
organisation the surface of the organisation’s life
Refers to the deep structure of organisations which Rooted in the organisation’s value system presenting
is rooted in the values, beliefs and assumptions social environments in relatively static terms
held by members
Concerned with the nature of expectations Concerned with whether or not these expectations are
met
Describes how the organisation is depicted and Focuses on the employees’ perceptions of what the
what is about organisation is about
Refers to the patterns of belief, values, norms and Refers to meaningful interpretations or perceptions of
expectations shared by members of the members of an organisation
organisation
Source: Angelopulo, G & Barker, R. 2014. Integrated Organisational Communication. Juta: Landsdowne

The concepts of organisational culture and climate may also interrelate and interact along the following dimensions
(Van Rooyen, 2017: 35):
• The values and beliefs of employees which relate to an organisation’s culture are determined by their
understanding of organisational procedures, practices and policies, which emerges from the realm of
organisational climate as consisting of perceptions
• Values and beliefs make up the culture of the organisation which are cherished by its members (such as
risk-taking or quality) and the organisational climate will determine what is to be valued and believed
• Both the culture and climate represents the organisation’s ‘feel’
• A change in organisational climate will need a change in organisational culture in terms of changing what
organisational members believe
3.7. Organisational Culture and Groups

Organisational culture is a key consideration when looking into group dynamics. Individuals and group behaviour
needs to be considered in the context of what the organisational culture. In fact, one of the characteristics of
organisational culture can be a group emphasis in terms of the degree to which work activities are organised
around groups rather than individuals (Robbins & DeCenzo, 2008:151).
Further, the aspect of organisational culture as shared phenomenon means it will be observable among a group
of people who will show a certain shared tendency of behaviour. This makes the group a unit through which
organisational culture is expressed and in turn, can also be observed. Schein (2006:615-616) strongly argues that
in assessing an organisational culture, the practice of sending out culture questionnaires in culture surveys is not
adequate. Instead, understanding culture by putting together focus groups which discuss the values and shared
assumptions within the organisation would be a more effective way of assessing organisational culture. It may be
inconceivable to examining organisational culture – the symbols, rituals and habits of an organisation- without
looking at groups who are equally major role-players in organisation. As Fine and Hallett (2014: 1773),
organisational life depends on the lives of groups and with organisational actors operating in and among groups,
the groups shape both the formal, official, contours of the organisation, as well as informal, unofficial, ones.
The influence of organisational culture has been considered an instrumental driver of group cohesion (Ismail at al,
2018). Chuang (et al, 2004) discuss how organisational culture as a contextual variable influences how group
functioning.
Chuang (et al, 2004: 27) state that “since diverse groups are embedded within the umbrella of organisational
culture, organisational culture shared among members in diverse groups may reinforce or suppress group or
individual values to shape group processes.

A further dimension that should be borne in mind between the interface of organisational culture and groups is
their symbiotic relationship. As Fine and Hallett (2014: 1776) assert, tight-knit groups create culture but culture
also facilitates the establishment of those tight-knit groups. Groups can also be influential in shaping organisational
culture for other organisational members. According to Chatman and O’Reilly (2016:199), there is even potential
that norms that characterise a group, if widely shared and held strongly, can act as social control members to
shape members’ attitudes and behaviours.
Revision Question 3
1. What is organisational culture?
2. What is the function of organisational culture in an organisation?
3. What are the various levels of organisational culture?
4. What is the difference between organisational culture and organisational
climate?

Answers are provided at the end of the study guide
1. Which definition best describes organisational culture?
a) How individuals behave in an organisation
b) The set of values, beliefs, and behaviour patterns that form the core
identity of an organisation.
c) The culture make-up of an organisation
d) The system of shared meaning within an organisation determined
by the social environment
2. What is ‘hard’ culture?

a) Organisational culture that is hard to change
b) Organisational climate consisting of employees that resistance to
change
c) The unchangeable aspects of an organisation to which employees
must adhere to
d) Visible tangible elements such as signs, company logos, visible
procedures of an organisation
3. Which one of the following statements is true?

a) Organisational culture focuses on meaningful interpretations or
perceptions by employees

b) Organisational culture focuses on employees’ perceptions of what the

organisation is about
c) Organisational culture is concerned with the of social systems over
time
d) Organisational culture concerned with the impact organisational
systems have on groups and individuals
4. Which one of the following statements is false?

a) Organisational climate is concerned with the meeting of expectations
b) Organisational climate describes how the organisation is depicted and
what is about
c) Organisational climate is rooted in the organisations’ value system of
an organisation
d) Organisational climate is concerned with member’s perception on
observable practices in an organisation
5. Which one of the following is not a type of organisational culture?

a) Power-oriented culture
b) African-oriented culture
c) Role-oriented culture
d) Achievement-oriented culture
6. What are artefacts?

a) Archives on the history of organisational culture in an organisation
b) Ornaments within organisational premises used for decoration
c) Any evidence showing the existence of organisational climate
d) Visible organisational structures and processes
7. Which of the following is Shein’s model associated with?

a) Types of organisational culture
b) Levels of organisational culture
c) Consequences of organisational culture
d) Functional elements of organisational culture
8. Which one of the following statements is true?

a) Organisational culture influences group cohesion
b) 0rganisational culture influences group conflict

c) Organisation culture influences groups but not teams

d) Organisational change is a part of organisational culture
9. Which one of the following definitions of organisational climate is accurate

a) It entails the ‘temperature’ of employees on whether they are
motivated or not in doing their jobs
b) It entails assessing organisational temperature regarding whether
people in an organisation have a warm or cold demeanour
c) It is a measure of staff morale
d) It entails perceptually based descriptions of organisational features,
events, and processes
10. Which one of the following cannot be used to assess organisational

culture?
a) Culture surveys
b) Culture questionnaires
c) Customer surveys
d) Focus group feedback
3.8. Summary
In this study unit, an overview of organisational culture to understand broadly how it has been defined and the
nuances of its interpretations or how gets translated into organisational practices was undertaken. This,
understanding that the concept of organisational culture can be broadened or narrowed owing to various
understandings and definitions surround it. Hence, it may never be ascertained in a definite way as to what
constitutes the ‘best’ organisational culture given how it fluctuates and differs from organisation to organisation.
Indeed, the most appropriate organisational culture can only be one which serves its organisation in a value-added
way which influences productivity and success. Literature has contemplated that there are ‘hard’ and ‘soft’
corporate cultures or ‘weak’ or ‘strong’ cultures, which management thinking has tried to pin down. The levels of
organisational culture have been considered in the discussion of this unit. Furthermore, there was differentiation
between organisational culture and organisational climate as concepts which tend to be used interchangeably
though differing in focus. The most pertinent to bear in mind is that organisational culture is shaped by members
of the organisation, including groups and teams. In turn, organisational culture can influence individual and group
behaviour.
In studying organisational culture, it important is to understand the context in which individuals and groups have to
work under. Having studied groups in the corporate context relating to organisational culture, there is a need to
explore further the nature of groups and teams in the next unit.

Think Point 1
The student needs to revisit the various roles or functions of organisational culture and contextualise the relevant
one in terms of the excerpt provided on Google. For instance, typical functions of organisational culture include
conflict reduction as well as coordination and control. In terms of the example provided from Google, It has a team-
oriented work environment and individuals are encouraged to participate in playful activity and creative innovation
experiments, the organisational culture seems to facilitate a commitment of something larger beyond individual
interests and a motivational aspect in which organisational culture provides a shared belief among employees
regarding creativity and innovation. Students can read beyond the readings provided in the study guide and
investigate other functions of organisational culture that are at work in the Google environment.
Activity 1
The student will have to do an applied task and provide examples of artefacts, espoused values and underlying
assumptions. This will necessitate visiting company website and browsing company documents such as annual
reports to look for the three elements of organisational culture. The case study provided in this study guide provides
a typical example of what to look for in relation to the three levels of organisational culture.
Case Study 1
1. Examples of artefacts, which are the visual indications of organisational culture at Apple, include the building
design which is completely circular and features walls made out of glass which is called "the spaceship." The
building design suggests a tech-culture of innovation being modelled on the spaceship.
2. Espoused values typically entails mission statements and corporate values. In the Apple case, the mission
statement asserts that Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world and leads the digital
music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store, etc. Apple’s company values include accessibility,
education, environment, inclusion and diversity, privacy, and supplier responsibility.
3. At the level of underlying assumptions, which may be perceptions or thoughts and feelings among employees,
these would be embodied in the quote from the employee. The employee views that “Apple is a pretty divided
mix of typical corporate red tape and politics mixed in with start-up level urgency when the direction comes
from Steve.”


Study Unit 3
1.
(b) The set of values, beliefs, and behaviour patterns that form the core identity of an organisation.
2.
(d) Visible tangible elements such as signs, company logos, and visible procedures of an organisation.
3.
(a) Organisational culture focuses on meaningful interpretations or perceptions by employees.
4.
(a) Organisational climate is concerned with the meeting of expectations.
5.
(b) African-oriented culture
6.
(d) Visible organisational structures and processes.
7.
(b) Levels of organisational culture
8.
(a) Organisational culture influences group cohesion
9.
(d) It entails perceptually based descriptions of organisational features, events, and processes.
10.
(c) Customer surveys

Unit
4: Groups and Teams

4.1. Introduction • Introduce topic areas for the unit
4.2. An Overview of Groups and • Differentiate conceptually what are groups and teams
Teams
4.3. Team and Group Development • Identify the methods to develop groups and teams
4.4. Understand How to Enhance • Identify methods through which groups can contribute to
Team Effectiveness and organisational performance
Performance • Apply methods of managing groups and teams that could
enhance organisational performance

Prescribed Textbook
Cengage Learning.
Recommended Reading
LLC - Kdp
Journal Articles
10.23925/2179-3565.2019v10i4p27-36.
10.26480/mecj.01.2022.01.08.

4.1. Introduction
This study unit focuses on the nature of groups and teams. Groups are one of the major mechanisms of doing
work in an organisation. Indeed, when organisations are keen to rapidly achieve certain tasks or objectives, groups
become the primary means of organising work which can be shared and therefore quickly expedited. This study
unit acquaints the learning participant with the nature and function of groups and group processes as well as group
development stages; group motivation strategies and team performance enhancement strategies.
4.2. Overview of Groups and Teams

Groups
The most basic definition of a group is that it consists of two or more individuals. Beyond such an elementary
definition, there can be further add-ons regarding the nature of such a formation called a group. Forsythe (2011:3)
defines a group as “two or more individuals who are connected by and within social relationships.” This slight
elaboration on the definition allows us to actually ponder on the nature of the group as something interconnecting
or linking individuals through social relationships. As Forsythe (2019:4) further explains, groups are connected by
and within social relations because the relations that link members of groups are not of one type. For instance,
families linked through kinship relations whilst relations are based on task-related interdependencies in the case
of the workplace.
Hence, Forsyth (2019:5) aptly looks at a fourfold taxonomy of groups with examples of each type of group as
follows:
• Primary groups which are small groups that frequently interact with each other and have high
interdependencies such as families, close friends, or a clique of peers
• Social or secondary groups who may interact with each other over an extended period of time such
as work groups, clubs or task forces
• Collectives which drawn individuals with a common interest in something such as an event or activity
and would range from audiences, crowds, queues and social movements
• Categories which are groups of people with similar characteristics or who share a common feature
such as men, doctors, citizens in a particular country
Forsyth (2019:8-9) further delineates the characteristics of groups as entailing:

• Composition in terms of who are the individuals that constitute a group and their qualities
• Boundaries though which members are able to be part of or excluded from a group such as when there
are certain criteria placed to qualify individuals to be members of a group
• Size of the group whether it is small or large
• Interaction dynamics in terms of what do group members actually do and how their interact such as
through task interaction focused on the group’s work and the relationship interaction (socio-emotional
interaction) that influences their emotional and interpersonal bonds

• Interdependence entailing the extent to which the members are mutually dependent on each other
when an individual’s actions, outcomes or experiences may be influenced to some extent by other
people
• Structure though which the group is organised and allocated roles and tasks
• Goals to which members of the group subscribe and which motivate the purpose or existence of the
group
• Origin aspects in terms of how the group is founded or formed, planned or unplanned (emergent group)
• Unity in terms of group cohesion or solidary among its members emanating from individual
interpersonal bonds; and
• Entitativity in terms of which the group displays enough cohesiveness and qualities normally
associated with a group and whether they really exhibit groupness
It is important to consider when studying groups why people join groups. There are various explanations. They
may range from the need to satisfy a certain need, whether it is social or personal or achieving a certain task that
would not be achievable out of individual effort. Another motive may be to gain additional knowledge such as when
a group may offer a peer learning opportunity.
Social motivation for joining groups, as explained by Forsythe (2019: 100-101) may include:
• The need for affiliation as may be expressed by individuals with a strong desire to be with other people
• The need for intimacy when some individuals may feel the need to have close and warm relationships or
camaraderie
• The need for power as with some individuals who may be keen to supervise or lead other people
Think Point 1
Firstly, think of a time when you voluntarily joined a group. It can be any group.
What were your main motivating reasons for joining the group?
Secondly, read Forsythe (2019) in Chapter 4 about the various reasons which
are provide for why people join groups. Do any of these motives relate to your
own reasons why you joined the voluntary group you decided to join.
Group Dynamics
In studying groups, essentially it is about studying Group Dynamics. A definition is proffered by Forsythe (2019:18)
who defines group dynamics as influential interpersonal processes that occur in and between groups over time as
well as the scientific study of those processes.

As he further elaborates, “these processes not only determine how members relate to and engage with one
another, but they also determine the group’s inherent nature and trajectory: the actions the group takes, how it
responds to its environment and what it achieves” (Forsythe, 2019:18). Stated differently, Group Dynamics can
be considered as entailing examining behaviours and psychological processes occurring within groups (intragroup
level) or between groups (intergroup level).
Recommended Readings
Read Forsythe (2019) in Chapter from page 17-21. The author refers to various
group processes such as formative processes and influence processors. Can
you come up with you own examples of these processes mentioned from your
own experience in participating in groups, whether as part of an organisation,
a community, a social group or a sports team?
The terms Group Dynamics was coined by Kurt Lewin (1890-1947), a social psychologist, who was intent on
examining both the positive and negative forces or dynamics occurring in groups of people. The school of thought
focused on Group Dynamics is associated with Kurt Lewin general theoretical conceptions of groups as existing in
a continuous movement, change and evolution (Zoltan, 2015: 155). In terms of Lewin’s understanding, there are
three basic concepts built into the notion of Group Dynamics. This includes the ‘dynamic whole’ which has all the
interdependent elements being the entire organisation; the social self which includes the individual value systems
with other groups and the social field which contain social field which has social entities that are integrated with
each other (Zoltan, 2015:155). For Lewin, a group is part of the social field. The concept of Group Dynamics also
refers to a scientific study of groups and their dynamics: the activities, processes, operations, and changes
occurring in groups (Forsythe, 2019:21).
According to Zoltan (2015:155), there are various factors which influence group dynamics which are:
• Natural factors such as the natural environment and its physical conditions (temperature, lighting, noise)
under which group work takes place
• Technical-material environment which may consist of the space in which groups work including the room,
machines and tools available
• Socio-cultural factors such as family background, social group and living environment will have an
influence on the dynamics of work groups and productive activity in an organisation
• Specific social factors which entail formal relations established between groups within the larger unit to
which they belong such as the organisation. These may include socio-economic factors (derived from the
level of economic and financial development of an organisation), socio-professional factors (levels of
professional training and qualifications, competencies required) or socio-demographic factors (gender,
race, age, nationality)

Teams
Have made some introductory overview on groups, what then would be distinct between a group and a team.
Katzenbach and Smith (1993) suggests that groups become teams when they develop a sense of shared
commitment and strive for synergy among members. Other definitions point to the team as some distinct form of
group. Harris (1986, quoted by Stott & Walker, 1995:25) proffers the following definition:
“A team is a workgroup or unit with a common purpose through which members develop mutual relationships for
the achievement of common goals. Teamwork implies cooperative and coordinated effort by individuals working
together in the interests of their common cause. It requires sharing of talent and leadership, the playing of
multiple roles.”
In another definition of teams by Greenberg & Baron (1997: 270), a team is defined as “a group whose members
have complementary skills and are committed to a common purpose or set of performance goals for which they
hold themselves mutually accountable.”
In some instances, the notion of a group and team has been used interchangeably. There are also perspectives
from other authors who are not too picky about the interchangeable use of the terms (Kozlowski & Bell, 2001).
Forsythe (2019:340), in an attempt to clarify between the concept of group and teams, states the teams are
fundamentally groups and have the qualities of groups such as interaction among members or goals but teams
are a specific type of group which work together to pursue a shared goal.
Teams may also be classified into various types as outlined by Forsythe (2019:342), in terms of:
• Work teams
• Management teams
• Project teams
• Advisory teams
• Self-managing teams
• Cross-functional teams
5Table 4.1: Differences between Groups and Teams
Groups Teams
Individual accountability Individual and mutual accountability
Driven by organisational purpose Driven by specific team purpose
Individual work products Collective work products
Random and varied skills Complementary skills

Adapted from http://www.nickrobinson.org/teams-vs-groups/.

In looking at the nature of teams, the question as to why teams may be necessary to perform work or tasks must
be pondered.
Forsythe (2019:340) explores the rationale for working in teams when there is:
• A level of difficulty when some people are faced with difficult tasks that are beyond their individual abilities
than would otherwise be the case under the combined effort of multiple individuals
• Complexity and interdependence in tasks which may require integrated action by several people
• An important task which may have significant consequences thereby allowing individuals to be under the
cushion of a group and be able to shield themselves from liability should an outcome of a task turn out
negative
Activity 1
Let us look at a typical soccer club (you can use the example for any sports
code for that matter). Is it a group or a team? What makes it a team or a group
from your own view? Use what you have read in this study unit as well as your
own additional reading, for insights into what constitutes a team or a group as
you ponder the questions.
Nature of group work and teamwork

The essence of work in group or team settings is to achieve collaboration in the varied tasks that individuals may
be performing. At the onset of forming or structuring the group, it is important that role setting takes place.
The following could take place in as part of role-setting activities (Forsythe, 2019:165-166):
• Role differentiation: creation of roles to assist in achieving the group’s goals
• Creating of tasks roles focused on specific tasks or activities such as that of a group leader
• Creation of relationship roles undertaken by individuals expected to perform behaviours that will improve
interpersonal relations among members

The following roles listed in the table below could be some of the assigned roles when a group sets to achieve a
particular task.
6Table 4.2: Example of pre-defined roles of individual members of a group
GROUP ROLES FOR ACHIEVING A PARTICULAR

TASK
Information seeker
Fact/opinion giver
Concept definer
Idea tester/clarifier
Issue summariser
Task co-ordinator
Decision challenger
Source: Grant and Borcherds. 1998.
There may also be various group roles to assist in maintain a collaborative spirit with the group as shown in the
table that follows.
7Table 4.3: Group roles for maintaining collaboration
GROUP ROLES FOR MAINTAINING COLLABORATION
Member encourager
Conflict mediator
Tension reliever
Contribution gate-keeper
Idea supporter
Active listener
Process observer
Source: Grant and Borcherds. 1998.

Groups should be conscious that there could be discord around roles. In the group work context, there is a
phenomenon of Role Stress. This occurs when the practice and allocation of role differentiation may create
tensions among group members. The various role stresses outlined in Forsythe (2019:176-177) include:
• Role ambiguity: individual occupying a role has unclear expectations about the behaviour they need to
perform and there is lack of consensus within the group regarding behaviours associated with the role
• Role conflict: individuals may experience tension, distress or uncertainty caused by inconsistent
expectations regarding their roles in the group
• Person-role conflict: individuals may exhibit values, attitudes or personality that is not aligned to the
particular role for which they are assigned
Aside from group roles, there may also be various tasks that need to be fulfilled by a group (Forsythe, 2019: 321)
which could include:
• Additive tasks involving individual inputs added together
• Compensatory tasks involving decisions made by averaging various individual decisions
• Disjunctive tasks whereby the group selects a specific solution or product from a pool of members’
solutions or products
• Conjunctive tasks which allow group members to contribute as a collective for the task to be completed
• Discretionary tasks in which the group decides how individual inputs relate to the group product
4.3. Team and Group Development

A group or team cannot be assumed to work effectively as soon as it is formed. It requires some process of
evolution to be an effective force and this in turn requires that the group and team be supported. There is therefore
a process through which a group develops which is classified into four stages of forming, storming, norming,
performing and adjourning (Forsythe, 2019:138).
Forming stage
The forming or orientation stage is when the group has just started with its members trying to understand each
other. The members of the group form initial impressions of each other and are trying to familiarise themselves of
what the group’s purpose and goals are. The group can be considered as not essentially a full-fledged one but one
which is still at an embryonic stage as nothing more than a set of individuals. They may still be trying to exert
themselves for recognition within the group to leave an impression. At this stage, the group is still evolving though
individuals may be starting to focus on the objectives and purpose that need to be fulfilled by the group. At this
early stage, even individual roles and responsibilities are being hammered out and may not be too clear.

Storming stage
The second stage of group development is the storming or power struggle stage. It is at the storming stage where
some cracks in the group may start to show such as disputes. There may also be competition among group
members as dominant members begin to emerge whilst those who prefer not to be confrontational will cower under
the dominant ones. The group may actually show signs for intra-group conflict and disunity as individuals begin to
be hostile towards each other when various personal agendas clash. Decision-making may be severely tested
amidst group members individually clamouring for position and exerting themselves. Handled correctly, the
storming stage may in fact be a passing phase when the friction is handled correctly, and group is realigned to its
purpose and objectives.
Norming stage
The third stage, also called the cooperation and integration stage, takes a more positive turn as the group learns
to be cooperative. Even if there are misunderstandings or disputes, these are somewhat easier to handle as the
group has develop certain principles and mechanisms on how to resolve them. The setting up of norms and
practices becomes one of the mechanisms to overcome conflict and enable the group to have a sense of cohesion
at this stage. Individual members of the group may begin to accept roles and responsibility and a sense of team
spirit may start emerging. Harmony within the group also surfaces as group members learn to able to achieve
consensus on decisions.
Performing stage
The fourth stage of performing is characterised by synergy and cohesiveness. The group is essentially quite united,
and its morale is high as the group members acknowledge the unique contributions, talents and skills of each
person. The members have learnt to be interdependent and trust each other as they commit to the group’s goals
and purpose. At this stage, the group can be expected to achieve productivity as its members fully adopt their roles
and responsibilities. It is a cohesive force as the vibrant team members augment each other in areas where they
lack skills and abilities. The group energy is at its optimal and individuals have embraced a shared vision they
collectively aspire to achieve. The group has learnt to handle disagreements with a sense of maturity and these
tend to be resolved positively.
Adjourning stage
The final stage of adjourning is when the group has achieved its mission or goals. The group may therefore have
to be discontinued as whatever initiative it sorts to accomplish would have been achieved and team members
could be starting to move in different directions. However, the adjourning stage may also provide an opportunity to
reflect on the preceding stages. There is reflection and a sense of fulfilment when the objectives and purposes are
achieved.

Case Study 1
A group of researchers from various South African universities have gone back
to their offices and are beginning to work on a major research project on
economic policy commissioned by the Presidency. They start to interact and
share documents using Dropbox, and other document sharing software. It
seems things are starting well, and communication is starting to happen among
the team members.
Prof. Don Dunwoody as a project schedule based on conversations with only

Dr. John Mkhize and Dr. Anita Leya represented in the team. Ms. Samson and
Ms. Umeya are surprised to see that their inputs are not considered in the
project schedule. They speculate on the reasons why this could be happening.
Maybe it’s because they are junior researchers who are not as qualified as the
senior members of the team who have doctorate qualifications. Or is it because
they are too young and inexperienced in research? These are some of the
questions running through their minds and they try to understand why Prof.
Dunwoody has completely overlooked their contribution. They believe because
they are more junior on the team, the Professor has completely ignored their
suggestions about the timeline, which they think is too short being only three
months. They are also worried about the geographic scope of the research
study, which they think should be narrowed to five provinces instead of focusing
on seven provinces in South Africa. They had challenged Prof. Dunwoody’s
schedule, arguing that it would be impossible to meet the suggested timelines
and that the tight project schedule would be setting up the team for failure. At
the same time, Dr Mkhize and Dr Leya are also arguing amongst each other
as who should lead the database design and sampling for the project. While Dr
Mkhize acknowledges that Dr Leya has more years’ experience than she does
in research design, he only agreed to be on this project to take a leadership
role and take a lead role to further gain experience and develop his research
skills further. If he knew that Dr Leya was going to be the leader in the research
design component of the project, he would not have joined the research team.
Furthermore, Dr Leya appears to be running on his own, not keeping the others
informed about progress nor keeping his information up to date on the
document sharing site. No one really knows what she has been working on or
how much progress is being made.

Prof. Dunwoody has been avoiding intervening in the clashes hoping that the
team members would work things out among themselves. However, he knows
from experience that it is important for him to take control and direct the team
through difficulties if they arise. He convenes a virtual meeting and invites all
team members and allows the discussion to reflect and reiterate on roles and
responsibilities for the project, which were initially agreed upon in the first
research meeting. In the virtual meeting session, Prof, Dunwoody refers back
to the ground rules the team set.
During the virtual meeting session, Prof. Dunwoody referred back to the ground
rules the team set in their face-to-face meeting and worked with the team to
ensure that there was a plan in place for decision-making within the teams as
per the powers and responsibilities of cluster leaders within the research team.
In the following weeks, Prof. Dunwoody noticed that arguments and
disagreements were becoming less and when they happened, they were
quickly resolved without even his involvement. Nonetheless, he kept a close
eye on how things were progressing and held regular feedback meetings to
ensure that the team was on the right path. The working relationships seemed
to improve and Prof. Dunwoody notice that the project was beginning to run
smoothly.
Source:
1. In what phase of team development does the scenario in the case study
depict?
2. Which evidence would you refer to from the scenario, which confirms
the phase of team development you have selected?
3. Who is the team leader and what interventions were made to address
the relationship challenges that were emerging in the team?
4. Learning from the case study, what critical factors should be handled
which could go in the way of the project team not succeeding if they are
not dealt with?
4.4. Enhancing Team Effectiveness and Performance

What would constitute an effective team? According to Sheard and Kakabadse (2002:133), an effective team is
characterised by each individual member of the team adapting his behaviour to optimise his personal
contribution to the team.

Characteristics of effective teams

Robbins and DeCenzo (2008:251) have looked into what characterises effective teams and have made the
following observations:
• Clear goals: team members understand and commit to the goal and believe the goal is worthwhile to
pursue
• Unified commitment: loyalty and dedication to the team and its goal and a willing to exert lots of
energy to achieve the team goal
• Good communication: team members share and understand messages convey to members with
consistent feedback
• High mutual trust among members: team members believe in the integrity and ability of each other
• High technical and interpersonal skills: with team members being able to readjust their work skills to
fit team needs
• Effective leadership: team leaders help clarify goals and motivate the team amidst difficult situations
• Supportive climate: provision of adequate infrastructure including proper training, performance
evaluation system and an incentive programme that rewards team accomplishments
Sheard and Kakabase (2002) have also looked into the elements of effective teams and consider nine key factors
which distinguish a mere loose group from what can be considered an effective team.
These entail:
• Clearly defined goals (task defined to the team in terms of clear goals it needs to achieve)
• Priorities (the options that are chosen which are prioritised by the organisation for the team to pursue)
• Roles and responsibilities (team member tasks)
• Self-awareness (individual’s awareness of the consequences of their behaviour to team)
• Leadership (team leader role in team performance)
• Group dynamics (the team as a dynamic social system and not merely a collection of individuals)
• Communications (including verbal and non-verbal communication)
• Context (environment in which the team is working within the organisation) and
• Infrastructure (Resources and systems such as IT and HR support)
The table below illustrates how the key factors would be typically be characterised in loose group as compared to
an effective team.

8Table 4.4: Differences between a loose group and effective team
Key factor Loose group Effective team
Clearly defined goals Individuals opt out of goals not Understood by all
understood
Priorities Split loyalty of individuals to other Cohesive team alignment

groups
Roles and responsibilities Unclear with gaps and overlap Agreed and understood by
individuals
Self-awareness Individuals guarded Behaviour appropriate to team

needs
Leadership Directive Catalytic
Group dynamics Individuals guarded Social system established and

accepted
Communications Formal Open dialogue
Context Task focused Influenced but not controlled by

organisation
Infrastructure Task focused Stable support from organisational

infrastructure
Source: Sheard, A.G. & Kakabadse, A.P. 2002. From loose groups to effective teams: the nine key factors of the
team landscape, Journal of Management Development, 21(2):133-151.
Team performance and assessing team effectiveness

The framework that has often been used to assess team effectiveness is based on the logic of input-process-
output model. The model examines inputs (what is fed into the group or team setting); the process (what takes
place in the team as it works on a task) and the outputs (the production or solution as the outcome of the task)
(Forsythe, 2019:55). As Forsythe further explains, inputs may include any factors that exist in group settings
including individual member qualities such as skills; group-level factors such as group structure or cohesiveness;
and macro-level factors such as organisational norms and cultural context. These in turn will influence processes
that take place in the group (communication, planning or conflict) which in transform the inputs into the group’s
performance outputs such as products or decisions.

Given that teams tend to be task focused, a major criterion for determining their success is performance (Forsythe,
2019:365). Forsythe further argues that team productivity should not be the only output considered when
considering team effectiveness. Factors that should be considered at Forsythe further alludes to, aside from task
performance, is generating results; adaptive growth of the team as a whole and individual development of team
members.
In teams, there is a distinction between teamwork and task work, which are both critical to team performance
(Salas et al, 2014). The task work component entails doing specific task to achieve a team’s goals whilst teamwork
is more about shared behaviours such as attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions, which are necessary for achieving
the tasks (Salas et al, 2014:2).
There are some advisory pointers regarding critical considerations for enhancing teamwork suggested by Salas
(et al, 2014:17) which are delineated in the following table:
9Table 4.5: Critical considerations for advancing teamwork
Critical consideration Practical advice

Cooperation Build collective efficacy through promoting ‘early wins’ and build trust
through discussion of past experiences relevant to team goals.
Conflict Being proactive by setting expectations on how to handle conflict and
being reactive by confronting conflict when it occurs.
Coordination Self-correct through debriefs and ensure team member roles are
clear.
Communication Share unique information among members.
Coaching Use coaches to address and diagnose teamwork problems.
Composition Select individuals for a strong team orientation and compose teams
based on teamwork and task work demands.
Context Anticipate and plan for contextual teamwork challenges.
Culture Create a hybrid culture that leverages pro-team values and creates a
safe environment for voicing ideas and concerns.
Source: Salas, E, Shuffler, M, Thayer, A, Bedwell, W & Lazzara, E. 2014. Understanding and improving
teamwork in organisations: a scientifically based practical guide. Wiley Online Library.

Factors influencing team effectiveness

Brhane and Zewdie (2018:93) denote the successful attributes needed for teamwork as follows:
• Interdependence: team members draw out the person in each other in a conductive work environment
• Interpersonal skills: team members adopt honesty, trustworthiness and commitment in their ability to
discuss issues affecting the team openly
• Open communication and positive feedback: there is active listening to concerns of team’s members
• Team leadership and accountability: team members need to be accounted for their contribution to the
team and the project and effective leadership is a key ingredient for team success including shared
decision making and problem solving
• Appropriate team composition: teams should have the right number of members with appropriate mix and
diversity of tasks with the team understanding what is expected in terms of their individual contributions.;
• Flexibility: the ability of team members to be receptive to ideas of others and adopt an open attitude.
Dipboye (2018) explores the issue of team effectiveness, though using the concepts of groups and teams
interchangeably, in a comparative exploration of what makes other teams more effective than others and discusses
the following findings:
• Effective teams have members who help each other and coordinate their actions
• Effective groups are characterised by a positive affective tone rather than a negative affective tone
characteristic of less effective groups
• Groups in which members share leadership are more effective than groups in which there is relatively
little sharing
• Effective groups have members who are motivated to work hard for the group’s success
In both the findings by Brhane and Zewdie (2018:93) as well as Dipboye (2018), it becomes discernible from the
mention factors that several factors may possibly account for team effectiveness include communication, team
composition, leadership, motivation and coordination abilities.
Building high performance teams

Based on review models for developing high performance teams, Warrick (2014) provides five fundamentals for
championing efforts to improve teamwork and training people to build high-performance teams as follows:
• Providing compelling reasons to focus on teamwork and building high performance teams: understanding
what is working and not working regarding teamwork, and building an emphasis on teamwork and engage
the leaders in evaluating how well an organisation excels at teamwork such as through in-house surveys;
• Develop a systems view of teamwork: leaders must purposely develop teamwork at the top, within teams,
between teams and outside the organisation with key stakeholders that can influence organisational
success

• Develop a model of the characteristics of high performance teams: it is important to have a clear concept
of the characteristics of high performance teams before encouraging leaders to work towards building
something they do not understand
• Create a model describing the essentials for developing high performance teams: particularly when form
new teams or working with existing teams or working with on-going or temporary project teams (the
essentials of high-performance teams are elaborated on below)
• Provide tools for building high-performance teams: these include for example a team building questionnaire
to evaluate the effectiveness and realities of the team, team norms they can use to develop norms with
their team; and formal and informal meeting plans
Warrick (2014) provides six essentials of building a high-performance team as follows:

• Effective team leadership: putting in place a team leader that has knowledge, skills and commitment to
lead a team that performs above the norm
• Capable and committed team members: developing the right players in order to build a high-performance
team
• Team norms that create a high-performance culture: established norms by design by agreeing on the
norm that will shape the team culture as well as practices and behaviours of the team
• Structure the team for results: putting in place structural issues to make the team successful such as
having the right people; clarifying mission; clarifying responsibilities and agreeing on a few high impact
motivating goals
• An organised way to improve team processes: continuously working at bettering operational aspects
including improving how to improve the team and its functions as well as constant evaluation of the extent
of team effectiveness.
• An organised way to manage and improve team results: aside from evaluating and considering ways to
improve team processes, teams should also periodically evaluate and seek ways to improve team results
by tracking and periodically evaluating performance measures and goals and make adjustments

The characteristics of high-performance teams are elaborated upon in the table below.
10Table 4.6: Characteristics of high-performance teams
Structured for results • Team members that are competent, compatible, and committed to the
success of the team with strong commitment by the leader to excellence
• Clearly understood mission and goals that team members are committed to
achieving
• Clearly understood member roles and responsibilities and effective planning
procedures
• Flexibility to respond quickly to needed change
Management and • Clearly understood group norms that encourage healthy behaviour and high
improvement of group performance
processes • All team members are valued and treated with respect
• Open and candid communications
• Effective decision making and problem solving processes
• Conflicts are openly discussed and resolved constructively
• Team and individual team member strengths are fully utilised
• The team members perform as a united team but also encourage
independent thinking
Development of a high- • Team has a positive, can-do attitude that inspires excellence
performance team culture • Team is results and action oriented as well as high level of trust of the team
leader and each team member
Results-oriented meetings • Meetings have a clear purpose and agenda and are productive and results-
oriented
• Meetings are characterised by open, lively, and focused discussions and
unity once decisions are made
• At least four types of meetings are held, some simultaneously: (1)
information sharing; (2) decision-making/problem-solving; (3) team
improvement; and (4) social/developmental
• Follow-up assignments are clear and expected to be accomplished
Achievement of a high • The team is highly productive and makes high quality decisions
level of performance • Member morale and satisfaction with the team is high
• The team is successful at accomplishing realistic goals
Source: Warrick, D. 2014. What leaders can learn about teamwork and developing high performance teams from
organisation development practitioners, OD Practioner, 46(3):68-75.

Revision Question 4
1. Define groups and what makes them distinct from teams?
2. Identify the various stages of group development.
3. What are the elements that make teams effective?

1. Secondary groups are:
a) Groups who interact with each other over an extended period
b) Groups of people with similar characteristics or who share a common
feature
c) Groups that are sub-groups to main groups
d) Groups which are appointed to substitute for an initial group which has
been disbanded
2. Entitativity is about:
a) How groups display cohesiveness and exhibit groupness
b) Group solidary among members emanating from interpersonal
relationships
c) The group’s flexibility to be able to adapt to different tasks
d) Group interaction dynamics.
3. Social motivation for joining groups is about:

a) People joining socially oriented groups
b) People joining groups which fulfil a social need
c) People having for affiliation by individuals to be with other people
d) People motivated by individual social needs which they perceived will
be fulfilled by the group
4. Which of the following definitions is about group dynamics:

a) The tendency for groups to change their members frequently
b) The behavioural and operational processes occurring within groups
or between groups
c) The changing interrelationship and interactions between of groups
d) The activities, processes, operations and changes occurring in
groups

5. Which of the following is true with regard to the differences between

groups and teams:
a) Teams and groups are essentially the same thing
b) Teams can be considered as sub-groups
c) Teams are specific groups which work to pursue a shared goal
d) Teams are bigger whilst groups tend to be smaller
6. Role stress occurs when:

a) Group members are stressed about group work
b) Group members are stressed by being part of a group and want to
quit
c) Group member allocation of roles creates tensions among group
members
d) Group members are stressed by the poor work ethic of other
members of the group
7. Storming is about:
a) The group leader’s tendency to storm in meetings to the dislike of
group members
b) Brainstorming process in groups
c) The second stage of group development
d) An organisational climate issue within the group
8. Norming entails:
a) Adhering to group norms
b) Designing normative values of groups
c) Group cooperation and integration
d) Normalisation of the group
9. The I-P-O acronym stands for:

a) Initial Public Offering
b) Input Process Output
c) Initiative Performance Outcomes
d) Implementation Process Opportunity

10. Teamwork, as opposed to task work, is about:

a) Specific allocation of tasks among team members
b) Generating results
c) Shared behaviours
d) Team performance
4.5. Summary
This study unit delved into the nature of groups and teams. The types of groups and teams are varied as discussed
in the unit. For instance, there are broad classifications of groups such as primary and secondary groups.
Furthermore, there was a delineation of various motivations for people joining groups, the issue of group dynamics
and the make-up of teams as different from groups. Teams may also be classified into various types such as work
teams, advisory teams and cross-functional teams. The discussion also covered the various team development
stages starting from the forming and ending with the adjourning of groups. Finally, the issue of high-performance
teams was considered in terms of the elements that enable teams to perform at an optimal level.

Think Point 1
Chapter 4 in the prescribed book provides various rationales for why people join groups. These include people
seeking social support from groups; the need for affiliation; and the need for intimacy. There may be various other
reasons beyond what is covered in the prescribed book. The Think Point merely seeks the student to reflect on
their own motives for joining groups and then assess whether their reason is one of the reasons covered in the
reading material, whether in the prescribed book or any additional reading of their own.
Activity 1
This activity largely calls for an understanding of what constitutes a team and a group. So in answering the
question, the student must justify what would make a soccer club a team or a group in terms of their understanding
of the characteristics of teams and groups. For instance, Katzenbach and Smith (1993) suggests that groups
become teams when they develop a sense of shared commitment and strive for synergy among members. We
might argue that the soccer club is a team when it exhibits these characteristics especially when there is a shared
commitment to achieve success in sports tournament.
Case Study 1
1. The second stage of group development is the storming or power struggle stage whereby some cracks
in the group may start to show such as disputes. This is evident in the case with the tensions that are
happening including some members of the group contesting certain appointments, as would be typical
dynamics in the storming phases of group development.
2. As alluded in the case study, there are clashes, disputes, including arguments as to how the work should
be carried out. The disputes and tensions are typical in the storming phase of group development.
3. Prof. Dunwoody is the team leader and interventions included reconvening the team and inviting all team
members to clarify roles and responsibilities and confirm ground rules that the group will adhere to.
4. The student may reflect on their own insights regarding the matters arising from the case study. But key
issues in the terms of the case study is clarification of roles and responsibilities, understanding the scope
of work and constant communication and feedback.


1.
(a) Groups who interact with each other over an extended period
2.
(a) How groups display cohesiveness and exhibits groupness
3.
(c) People having need for affiliation and a strong desire to be with other people
4.
(d) The activities, processes, operations and changes occurring in groups.
5.
(c) Teams are specific groups which work to pursue a shared goal
6.
(c) Group member allocation of roles creates tensions among group members.
7.
(c) The second stage of group development
8.
(c) Group cooperation and integration
9.
(c) Initiating Performance Outcomes
10.
(c) Shared behaviours

Unit
5 Leadership

5.2. Conflict and Negotiation: An • Understand and explore the concept of leadership
Overview
5.3. Management and Leadership • Differentiate between the concept of management and
leadership
5.4. Leadership Theory • Understand the various theories of leadership and their
applicability in organisational contexts
5.5. Leading Teams and Groups • Understand how to lead teams and groups

Prescribed Textbook
Cengage Learning.
Recommended Reading
LLC - Kdp
Journal Articles
10.23925/2179-3565.2019v10i4p27-36.
10.26480/mecj.01.2022.01.08.

5.1. Introduction
The subject of leadership and management has been a subject of much discussion in this century. Online
bookseller Amazon records more than 50 000 books with the phrase ‘leadership’ in the title. The topic of leadership
is a major subject of discourse in management and social sciences as well as in various professions. The role of
leaders and managers has also gained major impetus as a subject of study in human resources management. In
terms of the focus on leadership for the purposes of the module, this unit makes an overview of the scope and
nature of leadership in the context of leading teams and groups. It does this by making a brief overview of
leadership, including defining the concept of leadership, and presenting leadership theory and styles. The focus
them moves into leading teams given the thrust of the entire module in understanding group dynamics in an
organisational environment.
5.2. Conflict and Negotiation: An Overview

It is pragmatic to understand the concept and nature of leadership as is the focus in this opening discussion. As
one of the topics that has attracted a lot of study, it can be expected that leadership as a concept will be defined
in various ways. Although a leader may be associated with a position in a higher echelon such as a managing
director or president, it would not necessarily refer to a high position. Hence, as is claimed by Strydom (2008: 98),
leadership is not a position but a process. Typically, it may be a process of influence.
Think Point 1
Various Definitions of Leadership by leadership and management
experts
“The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers” - Peter Drucker
“Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less” - John C Maxwell
“Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality - Warren Bennis
“Leadership a process of social influence, which maximises the efforts of others
towards the achievement of a goal “- Kevin Kruse
Which one of the above definitions would you agree with based on your own
experience as either a leader or a follower?
Whatever definition that may be adopted about what constitutes leadership, there is a need to also think about
followers. In other words, where there is leadership, there must be followership as well.
According to Lasenby (2016:205), there are three aspects involved in the leadership equation, which entail:
• The leader as the person who ensures that a certain goal or objective is achieved as a result of interaction
with the followers
• The followers who are following the leader, which in an organisational setting, could be employees
• The situation or context and/or circumstances where the organisation being led functions or operates

In the interactive framework of leadership, the leader as an individual possesses attributes such a certain unique
personality and personal characteristics. In terms of the followership dimension, followers have certain
expectations from their leader based on their own norms and values and indeed their own characteristics which
the leader will be confronted with as he or she interacts with those followers. The situation pertains to the
environment or context within which leadership is applied. The context or situation is often very influential in how
the leader and followers interact with each other.
5.3. Management and Leadership

The reference to the notion of leadership and management is often used interchangeably. However, they do not
mean the same thing and must be considered differently. According to Vrba (2016: 248) the management function
is broader in scope with leadership being among its various functions whereas leading entails influencing followers
for them to support the achievement of certain ideas or goals. Hence, as Vrba further explains, people can be
working as managers without being leaders as they may not have an ability to influence others. Conversely, leaders
are not necessarily managers as there could be an example of a leader of an informal group who has more
influence in the group than the manager does because of the ability to influence. The main distinctiveness is that
leadership is mostly about influencing people whereas managing has to do with handling the affairs of an
organisation through planning, controlling and organising. There is, however, some similarities between
management and leadership. As Lazenby (2016) contends, some tasks of management cannot be successfully
executed without leadership. This could be instances when an organisation is undergoing change or when
managers must influence employees to follow a new vision for an organisation. As Lazenby further explains, all
organisations need leaders to steer them towards a competitive position within the volatile business environment.
Activity 1
Definitions Of Management:
“Management is the art of knowing what you want to do and then seeing that
they do it in the best and the cheapest manner” - F W Taylor
“Management is a distinct process consisting of planning, organising, actuating
and controlling; utilising in each both science and arts, and followed in order to
accomplish pre-determined objectives” - George R. Terry
“Management is a multi-purpose organ that manages a business and manages
managers and manages workers and work” – Peter Drucker
Which one of the above definitions would you agree with as about
management? Provide own examples and your critical view as to what you
think management should be about in organisations of the 21St century.

The table below shows the behavioural attributes of leadership and management to further clarify their
distinctiveness.
11Table 5.1: Differences between a leader and a manager
SUBJECT LEADER MANAGER
SEEKS Vision Objectives
FOCUS Leading people Managing work
APPROACH Sets direction Plans detail
WANTS Achievement Results
What is right Being right

CONCERN
CREDIT Gives Takes
BLAME Takes Blames
Source: http://changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/articles/manager_leader.htm
It is not difficult to appreciate that organisations need both leadership and management. When people are referred
to as team leaders, it is often that some of their tasks will involve management responsibilities such as handling
operational affairs of teams whilst also injecting visionary leadership to direct teams towards attaining visions and
goals. In the efforts to blend or reconcile the two concepts, there has been some emerging views that the two
concepts can be reconciled and not be mutually exclusive of each other. The concept of ‘managerial leadership’
has emerged in management discourse. The perspective cite verbatim below articulates the sentiment that
leadership and management may not be that distant in terms of the functional roles that contribute in the world of
work.
“I’d suggest that they aren’t that different in terms of how they actually play out in organisations. Certain
behaviours and activities are common to the effective demonstration of both leadership and management.
The crucial difference – maybe the only difference — is the focus of the person carrying them out. Focus
more on people and you’ll demonstrate leadership, more on results and you’ll perform management; but
what you’re actually doing may not be that different.” - O’ Leary (2016)
Perhaps then if there are no major differences in management and leadership in practice, then what the workplace
really needs an element of both as encapsulated in the notion of managerial Leadership. The notion of managerial
leadership affords the workplace to benefit from both leadership and managerial attributes.

This would largely the case with teams and groups who need to do practical tasks to achieve certain goals
(managerial function) but also be guided towards a shared vision which requires a leadership role (the issue of
leading teams is dealt with in a subsequent discussion).
5.4. Leadership Theory

In this unit, there will be discussion of three clusters of leadership theories which are trait theories, behavioural
theories and contingency (or situational) theories of leadership and what could be considered as contemporary
approaches to leadership.
5.4.1 Trait theories

The trait theories tend to focus more on personal attributes or traits individuals possess as leaders. People such
as the late president of South Africa Nelson Mandela who be considered as having charisma as a trait of leadership.
In essence, the trait theories will be looking for qualities such as integrity, charisma, self-confidence or intelligence
as among the qualities are leader should possess if they are to be distinct from non-leaders.
In one of the most extensive studies on leadership traits, Edwin Ghiselli, evaluated more than 200 managers from
90 different businesses in the United States and identified the following traits as important for leadership (Manning
& Curtis, 2009:16):
• Need for achievement such as working hard to attain success
• Intelligence as characterised by good reasoning and thinking capacity
• Decisiveness such as being able to make good decisions
• Self-confidence including having a positive self-image
• Initiative – being a self-starter able to initiate activities with little supervision
• Supervisory ability entailing an ability to get things done through delegating other people
There has been some criticism of trait theory in that some of the studies looking at traits become inconclusive as
traits vary from one individual to another and some of the traits may actually develop after the person occupies a
leadership role (Vrba, 2016: 253).
5.4.2 Behavioural theories

The behavioural theories emerged in 1930s and were influenced by psychological behaviourism. Researchers in
the period were moving away from looking at traits and were investigating how leaders behave. Researchers
which were based at the University of Iowa in the United States looked behaviours which they considered indicative
of leadership style as autocratic, democratic and liassez-faire. These styles would be exhibited in behaviour
(Manning & Curtis, 2009: 19) as follows:
• Autocratic style: characterised by tight control of group activities with the leader making all the decisions
and limiting employee participation
• Democratic style: emphasising group participation and inputs from the group in relation to decisions

• Liassez-fair style: the leader leaves provides all the freedom to make decisions to employees and hardly
adopts any responsibility associated with a leader
Over the years since the 1930s, further studies looking at behavioural attributes were conducted. In 1945, Ralph
Stogdill and fellow researchers developed an assessment instrument known as the Leader Behaviour Description
Questionnaire (LBDQ) examining two leadership behaviours – initiating structure (the extent to which leaders take
action to define the relationship between themselves and employees) and showing consideration (extent to which
leaders develop trust, support and friendship with subordinates) (Manning & Curtin, 2009: 20). The attributes of
initiating structure and showing consideration then became the two most considered behavioural attributes of a
leader in terms of the study during that period.
Other further studies such as one done by the University of Michigan principally distinguished leaders into
production-oriented leaders, who tend to focus on task or technical aspects of a job and employee-centred leaders,
who display a high concern and consideration for people (Vrba, 2016: 254).
What has been a criticism against the behavioural approaches, much like the trait theories before them, is that the
behavioural theories did not seem to be successful in ascertaining consistent patterns of leadership behaviour as
well as successful performance because these could vary over different circumstances (Vrba, 2016: 254). Indeed,
looking at whether a leader is production-oriented or employee-centred may not be such a cut-and-dried, either/or
issue but rather that a leader will require both behavioural attributes especially in circumstances called for those
attributes. For instance, where activities are closely centred on production, then the emphasis would ordinarily shift
towards production-orientation such as a car manufacturing environment. Even such a production environment
does not preclude people-orientation such as safety concerns for employees a leader must still exhibit whilst
working in the production environment.
5.4.4 Contingency theories

The contingency or situational theories put more emphasis on the contexts in which leaders exercise leadership.
Contingency leadership tends to focus on the best leadership style for a given situation and considering predicting
leadership success as more complex than merely examining traits and behaviours of leaders (Vrba, 2016:254).
The prognosis in contingency theories is that nor single behaviour or trait style would be effective in all situations
and therefore leadership is dependent on further additional variables (Smit & Cronje, 2003: 289). It can also be
further asserted that the very leadership traits or behaviours are best expressed in certain situations which will
compel the leader to demonstrate them.
One of the most notable theories under the trait approaches is the Contingency Theory of Leadership of Fielder
and the Situational Leadership Model developed by Hersey and Blanchard.

Fiedler’s Contingency Theory of Leadership

The contingency model of leadership originated by Fred Fieldler contends that group performance depends on an
appropriate match between a leader’s style of interacting with employees and the degree to which the situation
allows control and influence to the leader (Robins & DeCenzo, 2008:299).
The theory is referred to as such because it suggests that a leader’s effectiveness will be contingent upon how
well their style of leadership fits with the position they hold (McGrath & Bates, 2013:38). As is further elaborated
by McGrath and Bates, Fielder argues that the most favourable situation to a leader is when:
• There is are good relationship between the leader and followers
• The level of structure in the work undertaken by followers is well defined
• There is a strong positional power of the leader who has power to punish or reward followers
Conversely the situation is unfavourable to the leader when the leader and staff relations are poor; tasks are
unstructured, and the leader’s positional power is weak. In essence, for the Contingency Theory approach, the
leader, followers and situation must align optimally in order for effective leadership to take place. If the leader is
confronted by a less than ideal situation, they must endeavour to change the situation. This suggests that it is the
unfavourable situation that should change instead of the leadership approach.
Situational Leadership Model of Hersey and Blanchard

Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard are the originators of Situational Leadership Theory. Situational Leadership
focuses on followers and considers leadership behaviour as reflecting how a leader should adjust their leadership
style in accordance with the readiness of followers (Robbins & DeCenzo, 2008:304). In essence, the leader is
expected to adjust their leadership style to reflect what followers need or their readiness, which in the context of
the theory, means the extent to which people have an ability or willingness to accomplish a specific task (Ibid).
The theory advances that a leader must provide a combination of direction and support to subordinates and
approaches that can be used (McGrath & Bates, 2013:40) include:
• Coaching entail providing high levels of direction and support
• Directing which entails adjusting to higher levels of direction and less of support
• Supporting in which more support is provided than direction
• Delegating in which both low levels of support and direction is provided
The levels of support and direction provided depend on the maturity levels of the subordinates. For instance, if the
subordinate is too immature, the leader will focus more on directing and training the individual. When the
subordinate has matured, the leader is able to delegate more thereby providing less support and direction.

5.4.5 Contemporary leadership approaches

There have been more contemporary or emerging approaches to leadership. These continue to emerge but only
charismatic leadership, visionary leadership, transactional and transformational leadership is dealt with in this
discussion.
Charismatic leadership focuses on traits such as self-confidence, ability to articulate vision and unconventional
behaviour and is considered to have a positive association with employee performance and satisfaction (Vrba,
2016:255). As Vrba further asserts, “charismatic leadership may be the most appropriate when the followers’ task
has an ideological component, perhaps explaining why charismatic leaders most often appear in politics, relation
or unusual business organisations.” (Vrba, 2016:255).
On the other hand, there is Visionary Leadership which goes beyond charisma whereby visionary leaders are able
to create a realistic, credible and attractive vision of the future and are able to explain such a vision to others (Vrba,
2016:255). Among the skills visionary leaders having the ability to express the vision through behaviour so that the
importance of the vision is reinforced throughout the organisation and are able to extend the vision to different
leadership contexts and thereby gaining commitment to the vision from organisational members regardless of
where they are located within the organisation (Robbins & DeCenzo, 2008:317).
Transformational Leadership is associated with leaders who inspired followers to transcend their own self-interests
for the sake of the organisation and tend to have a profound impact on their followers (Robins & DeCenzo,
2008:308). Further abilities of transformational leaders include being able to inspire followers to put extra effort to
achieve organisational goals, helping followers look at old problems in new ways as well as paying close attention
to the developmental needs and concerns of followers (Robbins & DeCenzo, 2008:308). Transformational leaders
are somewhat similar to charismatic leaders but the key differentiator is that transformational leaders are able to
bring about innovation and strategic change such as when organisational visions, missions and goals are revisited
or rearticulated (Brevis & Vrba, 2014).
Transactional Leadership is descriptive of leaders who guide or motivate followers towards established goals by
clarifying role and task requirements (Robbins & DeCenzo, 2008:308). Transactional leaders tend to barter or
make trade-offs with their followers and use two main strategies of:
• Constructive transactions whereby the leader offers inducements or incentives to the follower in order for
them to comply with their request and
• Corrective or coercive transactions when the leader threatens the follower if they do not cooperate or
behave in a way the leader expects (McGrath & Bates, 2013:42)
Some examples of the use of the constructive transaction would be when a leader offers a day off in compensation
for when a team has completed a task after putting in long hours.

Conversely a coercive transaction may involve the leader may create disincentives when goals are not met such
as refusing time off as a penalty for team’s not meeting set objectives or goals.
Case Study 1
Company A
Du Pont Pty Ltd. Is a thriving cement manufacturing company under the
leadership of Mr Peter Sithole. He is one of the most respected and admired
leadership in the sector. His leadership style entails Mr Sithole involving his
employees in key company decisions and he tends to decentralise decision-
making. He allows staff members to be innovative as much as possible and
considers them as entrepreneurs and leaders in their own right. He is largely
human-oriented.
Company B
John Ching leads the largest electronic manufacturing company in southern
Africa which has branches in Lesotho and Botswana. His leadership allows
error-free production as he personally monitors almost everything the company
manufactures and all the decisions are made by him. He does not believe in
allowing staff to work independently and every staff member are there to take
orders from him. At the company, workers are often under tremendous
pressure to increase their productivity and efficiency or face punishment by
having any mistakes they make deducted from their salaries. Mr Ching is highly
task-oriented and believes in allocating tasks that should be achieved as and
when he requires them to be completed.
1. What leadership style is exhibited in Company A? Justify by providing

reasons for your selection.
2. What leadership style is shown in Company B? Justify by providing
reasons for your selection.
5.5. Leading Teams and Groups

Team leadership has been considered as an important aspect of team performance (Zaccaro et al, 2011: 452).
The role of a team leader in leading teams requires an individual with competencies to lead small groups. Among
the skills they would have are effective communication skills, especially interpersonal communication skills,
coordination abilities and to some extent, a good understanding of the job function in which the team is involved.
Kozlowski and Bell (2011:47) discuss the functional role of team leaders as consisting of two major responsibilities
of developing and shaping team process as well as monitoring and managing team performance.

The team development and shaping roles, as alluded in Kozlowski and Bell (2011:47), may include:
• Developing individuals to form part of a coherent and well-integrated team
• Orientating new members joining a team
• Promoting team orientation such as creating a commitment to shared goals; and
• Creating team coherence which may include developing linked individual goals
As part of monitoring and performance management, team leader functions could include:
• Obtaining performance-related data and performance information and providing feedback
• Assessing whether the team has adequate resources to perform its work
• Take action to resolve problems
• Clarifying direction of team
• Providing coaching or process assistance to team members (Kozlowski and Bell (2001:47)
Kozlowski and Bell (2001:47) assert that it should not always be assumed that the leader will always interact
directly with the team in their role as there can also be virtual teams in there is use of advanced technologies to
link geographically dispersed teams. This would mean that in the actual daily activities, there is no physical
presence of the leader.
Two-factor model of leadership

According Forsyth (2019:268), leadership in a group context can be explained through the Two-factor Model of
Leadership which classifies leadership behaviour in groups as either performance maintenance or relationship
maintenance. Following these two aspects of emphasis (performance and relationship maintenance), the two-
factor model of leadership as explained by Forsythe (2019:269) consists of:
• Task leadership which is about how the group facilitates the achievement of goals through setting
standards, assigning responsibilities or plans activities, under guidance of the leader
• Relationship leadership which entails how interpersonal relations are managed within the group including
how the leader boosts morale, provides encouragement and support in order to enhance teamwork
Reflecting on leadership theories in the contexts of teams

In an earlier discussion, the various theories of leadership were examined. There are some studies emerging that
are looking at types of leadership in relation to teams and performance. Krishna (2011) undertook a study in the
software development sector of ICT to understand the relationship between transformational leadership and team
performance. In terms of the findings of that study, that was a positive relationship between transformational
leadership (a type of leadership in which the leaders transform and motivates followers by inducing them to
transcend their own self-interests for the sake of the organisation) and team performance. The study showed how
leadership behaviours that build trust, inspire a shared vision, encourage creativity and recognise
accomplishments, contributed positively to team performance by prompting team members to reach the extra mile
in achieving goals in the software companies that were investigated (Krishna, 2011: 155).

There is evidence of the leadership playing an influential role in team performance. Some authors in team
leadership have observed a reciprocal influence, whereby team processes also influence leader effectiveness
(Zaccoro, et al, 2001). Among other causal factors of team influence on leadership are two factors as explained by
Zaccoro and fellow authors. Firstly, when authority relationships are weakened, lower ranking individuals are likely
to contribute more readily to the identification of meaningful patterns in the organisation’s environment. Secondly,
if the top executive team is constructed with individuals of varying functional expertise, the team as a whole has
considerably more resources to develop more complex representations of the organisation’s operating
environment (Zaccoro, et al, 2001:476).
What is discernible in the team context is the leadership influence can be through the designated individual team
leader (leadership from above) in the team hierarchy but there could also be leadership (leadership from below)
through team members. This is even more so when teams become more experienced and achieve significant
levels of expertise, other members make take over more the leadership functions whilst designated leaders retain
certain responsibilities (Zaccoro et al, 2001:477). This places the leadership dynamic in team contexts that leaders
can lead whilst team members can also lead if leadership is about influence, in one of the definitions alluded to in
the opening discussion from John Maxwell.
Revision Question 5
1. What is leadership and what is management about?
2. What is the difference between behavioural and contingency theories of
leadership?
3. Describe the Two-Factor Model of leadership?

1. Which definition best describes leadership?
a) How individuals behave
b) Influencing followers
c) Managing teams
d) Controlling operations
2. Which statement below is the false?

a) Leadership is a process and not a position
b) Leadership is about planning and controlling
c) Leadership is about influence
d) Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality

3. Trait theories tend to focus more on:

a) Personal attributes individuals possess as leaders
b) Intellectual abilities possessed by leaders
c) Emotional intelligence abilities of leader
d) Interpersonal skills of leaders
4. Liassez-fair leadership style is when the leader:

e) Provides tight control of group activities
f) Provides all the freedom to make decisions to employees
g) Provides self-leadership opportunities to team members
h) Provides motivation to team leaders
5. Contingency theories of leadership put more emphasis on which aspects?

a) Leadership dynamics in teams
b) A leader’s effectiveness will be contingent upon how well their style of
leadership fits with the position they hold
c) Places in which leadership is exercised
d) Dependencies in the exercise of leadership
6. The Situational Leadership Model is about:

a) How leaders adjust leadership style in according with readiness of
followers
b) Leaders allowing followers to lead in certain situations
c) The appropriate match between a leader’s style of interacting with
employees and the degree to which the situation allows control and
influence to the leader
d) Leadership abilities demonstrated in certain circumstances
7. Transactional leadership is about:

a) Leadership that allows transacting on ideas
b) Leadership that makes trade-offs with followers
c) Leadership characterised by exchange of influence between leaders
and followers
d) Leadership that transforms ideas into practices

8. Which of the following statement is characteristic of the Two-factor Model

of Leadership?
a) Emphasises transformational and transactional leadership
b) Emphasised task leadership and relationship leadership
c) Emphasises situational and contingency leadership
d) Emphasises trait and behaviour leadership
9. Transformational leadership is about:

a) Transforming followers into future leaders
b) Inspiring followers to transcend self-interests for the sake of the
organisation
c) Personal transformation of followers
d) Leading organisational transformation
10. Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard are the originators of which leadership
theory?
a) Contingency Leadership Theory
b) Situational Leadership Model
c) Two-factor Leadership
d) Leadership Dynamics
5.6. Summary
This unit made an overview of leadership. It is inconceivable to ignore leadership in relation to groups and teams
as they will need to have a leader. Given that leadership is such as vast topic, the discussion began by navigating
the theoretical landscape of leadership to understand how leadership is understood and implemented. The
leadership theories covered are by no means the only, and it is important that the student of leadership continues
to be aware of emerging leadership perspectives and models. With the hindsight of leadership theory, the extent
to which the leadership approaches can pertain in group and team contexts can then be explored. Additional
dimension of leadership that were looked into in terms of groups and teams is task leadership and relationship
leadership, given the prominence of task-centeredness and interpersonal relationship aspects in groups.

Think Point 1
There are essentially various definitions of leadership which emphasis various aspects of leading. For instance,
the definition by Warren Bennis emphasises translating vision into reality whilst that of Kruse emphasises having
social influence. There is therefore no one definition of leadership and it depends on one’s point of emphasis.
Students are essentially asked to reflect for themselves as to what they consider leadership to be about based on
their own experience in leadership or followership roles that might have occupied in social and workplace settings.
Activity 1
Another reflective approach to answering this activity. It is all entirely up to the student as to which of the various
definitions resonate with their own experiences in the workplace. The student is also asked to contextualise the
definition they choose in terms of the current situation in contemporary organisations by providing their own
rationales and justifications.
Case Study 1
1. The leadership style demonstrated is a democratic style whereby group participation in decision-making
is advanced and appreciated
2. The demonstrated style is autocratic leadership which is characterised by the leader making all the
decisions with limited employee participation


1.
(b) Influencing followers
2.
(b) Leadership is about planning and controlling
3.
(a) Personal attributes individuals possess as leaders
4.
(b) Provides all the freedom to make decisions to employees
5.
(b) A leader’s effectiveness will be contingent upon how well their style of leadership fits with the position
they hold
6.
(a) How leaders adjust leadership style in accordance with the readiness of followers
7.
(b) Leadership that makes trade-offs with followers
8.
(b) Emphasised task leadership and relationship leadership
9.
(b) Inspiring followers to transcend self-interests for the sake of the organisation
10.
(b) Situational Leadership Model

Unit
6: Conflict and Negotiation

6.2. Conflict And Negotiation: An • Understand conflict and negotiation as a concept and
Overview knowledge area
6.3. Conflict Outcomes • Interpret the outcomes of conflict may typically entail
6.4. Roots of Conflict • Identify the typical causes of conflict in organisational

contexts
6.5. Confrontation and Escalation • Identify the various stages by which conflicts grow in
severity
6.6. Conflict Resolution and Negotiation • Apply approaches to resolve conflict through
negotiation
6.7. Dynamics of Conflicts in Groups and • Examine the dynamics of conflicts in groups and teams
Teams


Prescribed Textbook
• Forsyth, D. (2019) Group Dynamics. Seventh Edition. Boston, MA: Cengage
Learning.
Recommended Reading
• Suleiman., H (2022) Teamwork: Creating a Performing Team that Will
Sustain High Performance Always. Amazon Digital Services LLC - Kdp
Journal Articles
• Nunes., Danilo & Santos., Neusa & Fukunaga, Fernando. (2020) Group
Dynamics and Leadership: A Collective Process Construction. Journal on
Innovation and Sustainability Risus. 10. 27-36. 10.23925/2179-
3565.2019v10i4p27-36.
• Khushk, Amir & Zengtian, Zhang & Hui, Yang & Atamba, Cynthia. (2022)
Understanding Group Dynamics: Theories, Practices, and Future
Directions. Malaysian E Commerce Journal. 6. 1-08.
10.26480/mecj.01.2022.01.08.
• Oyefusi., F. (2022) Team and Group Dynamics in Organisations: Effect on
Productivity and Performance. Journal of Human Resource and
Sustainability Studies, 10(1), 111–121.

6.1. Introduction
In this study unit, the nature of conflict in groups and teams is explored. There are bound to be conflicts in society
and similarly these should be expected in groups and teams within organisational contexts. The worse results of
conflict in society are wars and other armed conflict situations. However, there may also be positive results of
conflict such as when relationships are restored and even enhanced and hopefully, people learn from these and
consider conflicts as part of growth. Even though conflict is a phenomenon that may feature in a group or team
situation, it should not be considered as a permanent feature of them.
This unit explores the nature of conflict, conflict resolution and negotiation. It takes a certain view that conflict can
be managed in certain ways and eventually be resolved. If again conflict is considered as merely an expression of
incompatible views between two parties, it should not be too difficult to resolve it amicably or peacefully. Hence,
the unit deals with processes for managing conflicts and negotiating solutions towards conflict. However, if ways
of managing and resolving conflict in group contexts should be found, there should be an understanding of how
conflict manifests itself. Hence, this unit touches on the nature and roots of conflict. After looking at how conflict
may intensify, the final discussion goes into conflict negotiation and resolution, which should ideally be the end
processes of finally putting conflict to closure.
6.2. Conflict and Negotiation: An Overview

In this section, a general overview of conflict in group and organisational contexts is undertaken. In making any
initial remarks on conflict, there needs to be a definition of conflict first as a departure point. Conflict is defined as
disagreement, discord and friction that occur when the actions or beliefs of one or more members of the group are
unacceptable to one or more of the other group members (Forsythe, 2019: 410). As can be discerned from the
definition is that there are various natures of conflict – as disagreement, discord and friction. Yet even when there
is talk about disagreement, discord and friction, these refer to various intensities of conflict. A disagreement would
be a milder version of conflict than friction. It should be accepted that disagreements within groups will be inevitable
as people will not always agree on a certain issue. Whilst this is a natural tendency in human nature, it becomes
concerning when a disagreement intensifies to level when it intensifies into an outright friction.
In unpacking the nature of conflict, it has been alluded that three will be degrees of conflict whether it be a mere
disagreement or friction. However, there are noted to be various types of conflict in literature.
There is substantive conflict in which there is a fundamental disagreement over goals that need to be pursued or
how they would be achieved. There could also be emotional conflict characterised by interpersonal difficulties
arising over feelings related to anger, fear, or resentment.

When coming to conflict within organisational contexts, Ma (et al, 2017:539) acknowledge four aspects of
organisational conflict as follows:
• Cognitive conflict which is associated with task-related clashes and differences in ideas or opinions or
arguments about work
• Affective conflict with pertains to emotional-related clashes such as annoyance, anger, fear or antipathy
• Interest-based conflict which has to do with interest-related clashes regarding inconsistent claims to
resources, rewards, power and status such as competition, discussion, communication and arguments
about personal interests
• Behavioural conflict which is associated with destructive clashes such as fistfights, interferences,
obstruction and backstabbing
It is suggested that team leaders should be aware of these various dimensions of conflict to manage conflict within
team contexts. As Ma (et al, 2017:558) proffers, affective and behavioural conflicts may be detrimental to team
innovation so team leaders seeking innovation should be aware of the detrimental effects of the two individuals.
They could therefore avoid putting two people who dislike each other in the same team in order to avoid the
conflicts.
Within the group context, there are also certain types of conflict. There will be intragroup conflict, that is, conflict
inside a group between its individual members and intergroup conflict which occurs among members of different
groups (Forsythe, 2019:411). There may also be inter-organisational conflict which occurs between competing and
highly rivalrous organisations that are usually operating in the same market space.
There are also two major perspectives on the extent to which conflict, in its effect, contributes positively or
negatively to an organisation. The functional conflict perspective (or constructive conflict) considers conflict as
supportive to the organisation when it improves organisational performance whilst the dysfunctional conflict
perspective considers conflict as having negative consequences in organisations.
Rahim (2001: &7) assert that the functional outcomes may include the fact that conflict may:
• Stimulate creativity and innovation
• Improve organisational decision-making
• Lead to synergistic solutions to common problems
• Enhance individual and group performance
• Require individuals and groups to articulate and clarify their positions

The other positive results of conflict are noted by Neil and McNulty (1994) as including:
• Reconciliation of interests of the disputing parties: satisfaction on parties involved through an integrative
agreement that benefits both parties
• A sharpened sense of identity and solidary: as the parties differentiate themselves, they also uncover
ways in which are similar and different with the similarities enhancing their sense of rapport and solidarity
• Interaction: conflict promotes interaction at interpersonal level
• Clarifying the real problem: conflicts may emerge around different perceived solutions to a problem and
as dialogue ensues, the parties may explore contrary positions and merge towards identifying the real
problem
On the other hand, dysfunctional outcomes of conflict may include (Rahim, 2001:7):
• Job stress, burnout, and dissatisfaction
• Communication between individuals and groups may be reduced
• A climate of distrust and suspicion can be developed
• Job performance may be affected negatively
• Resistance to change can increase
Further dysfunctional outcomes could include the number of parties to the conflict increasing and the number
issues in the conflict also increasing, regarding in difficulty in managing the situation or to de-escalate the conflict
(Katz & McNulty, 1994:4).
The idea that conflict is a bad or good thing for an organisation has often reflected the various schools of thought
on conflict. For the traditionalist view on conflict, which is consistent with group behaviour attitudes of the 1930s
which prevailed then, conflict was considered a bad occurrence which was harmful to an organisation and ought
to be avoided (Robbins & DeCenzo, 2008:341.) The traditionalist view was considered too simplistic in explaining
conflict and most researchers of conflict subsequently realised that conflict, at some level, was inevitable. The
human relations view was inclined towards conflict as natural and inevitable and therefore ought to be accepted.
The human relations perspective held that conflict can’t be eradicated and instead, must be channelled in ways
that benefit the organisation (Ibid).
Perspectives such as the interactionist view of conflict considered a minimal level of conflict as something that
could assist a group. The interactionist view encouraged conflict on the grounds that a harmonious and peaceful
organisation is prone to become static, apathetic and unresponsive to needs for change and innovation (Robbins
& DeCenzo, 2008:341). Hence, the perspective encouraged a minimum level of conflict just enough to prompt
organisations to be self-critical and creative (Ibid).

Think Point 1
Perspectives on conflict
Review the discussions on traditionalist, human relations and interactionist
views on conflict. Which of the three perspectives would you most agree with
regarding how conflict should be considered?
If you were tasked as a leader of an organisation to create a conflict
management framework, which one of the perspectives would you adopt to
inform your assumptions about conflict and why?
6.3. Conflict Outcomes

The possible outcomes of conflict may typically entail:
• Win-lose scenario with one party winning while another loses
• Lose-lose scenario whereby both parties lose from the conflict
• Win-win scenario whereby both parties win from the conflict
A win-lose scenario has the effect that one party would have won, typically at the expense of the other one who is
worse off after the conflict scenario. The lose-lose scenario is principally from violent conflicts where both parties
are worse off and suffer intense losses emanating from a severe conflict. The lose-lose situation is best expressed
in war situations, which could be seen as the worse form of the manifestation of conflict. Within organisational and
group contexts, the effort should as much as possible result in win-win outcomes. This is why within management
disciplines the issue of conflict management and negotiation is a studied phenomenon so as to equip organisational
leaders and role-players with the abilities to manage conflict so that it may have positive win-win outcomes.
Whilst the win-win outcome is the most ideal one, sometimes conflict may not be resolved by two parties concerned
but may need a third party. The third party such as a mediator or arbiter may try to facilitate a negotiated agreement
between the two conflicting parties. This may largely take place when there is asymmetric conflict, meaning that
the two parties may not be equal in power or influence such as when there are employer-employee relationships.
However, conflict is resolved, it is important to have an awareness of its causes since the conflict resolution effort
attempts to resolve conflict from its root causes. The roots of conflict then deserve elaboration which is undertaken
in the next section of the discussion.
6.4. Roots of Conflict

The sources or roots of conflict are an important consideration, if there is to be a process of grappling with resolving
and managing issues of conflict. According to Forsythe (2019:411), the various roots of conflict are from conflict
and competition; conflict over resources; conflict over power; task and process conflict and relationship conflict.
These are discussed briefly in turn.

Conflict and competition

Conflict can be triggered by the tension between competition and cooperation. As Forsythe (2019:411) explains,
cooperation and competition may trigger diverse motivations. Cooperation promotes sharing and collaboration,
whilst competition may promote selfishness when people in the same group are competing and striving to
outperform each other as rivals (Forsythe, 2019:412). Instead of cooperation, people in teams may even block the
progress of each other as they pursue a winning spirit that is pursued as the expense of others.
Further tensions between competition and cooperation can be expressed through what Forsythe (2019:412)
describes as the prisoner’s dilemma game whereby team participants must make either cooperative or competitive
choices or in the mixed-motive situation, a performance situation where team interaction involves both competitive
and cooperative goals.
Conflict over resources

There may be dilemmas over the sharing of resources within an organisation. Sometimes the group situation may
create a social dilemma whereby individuals must choose between maximising their personal outcomes or
advancing group outcomes (Forsythe, 2019:417). This dilemma can be seen as posed by tension between
individual interests or goals and those of the group and so the conflict can arise when individual interests
overwhelm those of the group. There may also be a social trap or commons dilemma whereby individuals seeking
personal rather than group collective goals eventually cause long-term losses to the group when there are too
many individuals pursuing selfish interests (Forsythe, 2019:418). The notion of what is considered the ‘commons’
is that the people should take a portion from a shared resource. For instance, if a group of fishermen in a community
rely on fishing resources in a river for their livelihood, they should only fish enough for their own use and not over-
exhaust the fishing resources that nature supplies. In a group organisational context, group members must ensure
that whatever resources are available for the benefit of the group are extracted responsibility. This may be a likely
scenario in situations where there is a budget allocated for the group, but certain group members might make
much bigger claims from the budget, thereby creating the commons dilemma. As Forsythe (2019:418) explains,
there is also a public goods dilemma when a member or several members of the group do not contribute any
resources to the group but may not necessarily be able to be excluded for their failure to contribute to the group.
Such individuals, as Forsythe terms them, are ‘free riders’ Another example of this tendency is when students work
on class projects as teams but certain individuals in those class assignments don’t contribute their share of tasks.
Conflict over power

Power can be an issue of contest in groups. Forsythe (2019:422), makes an example drawing on a case study of
how Steve Jobs and John Sculley, who sought the power they needed to control the US ICT company Apple with
their ensuing power struggle causing turmoil in the company. The dynamics of power in the group situation can be
expressed in instances when some individuals in the group begin to assert more authority over others when the
group tries to coordinate group member activities (Forsythe, 2019:422).

Task and process conflict

Task conflict entails disagreements among group members regarding issues related to the group’s goals whilst
process conflict (also called procedural conflict) entails disagreements over the methods the group should use to
complete its activities or tasks (Forsythe, 2019:422). Both process and task conflict may eventually lead to a
group’s demise if disagreements on processes or tasks are not resolved.
Relationship conflict
Relationship conflict may be reflected in individual hostilities and entails interpersonal discord that occurs when
group members dislike one another (Forsythe, 2019:423). Some of the causes of relationship conflicts may
emanate from personality dislikes among members. However, whilst people liking each other may foster more
cohesion among groups, mutual dislikes among group members should not necessarily lead to a breakdown in
work relations. As Forsythe (2019:424), mature people may overlook the fact they dislike each other and manage
their personal differences in order to able to work together.
Activity 1
Conflict in a political party
Select any political party in South Africa. Examine its internal conflict and what
factors would have caused it. In looking at how the conflict arouse, would it be
explained by conflict and competition; conflict over resources; conflict over
power; task and process conflict or relationship conflicts as its root cause?
Substantiate your answer from evidence you have collected about the conflict
from media reports?
6.5. Confrontation and Escalation

Whilst conflicts may eventually be contained if they are managed correctly, there are instances in which conflicts
may escalate. The issue of escalation of conflict may be caused by individuals defending their viewpoints in groups
and being more committed to their own positions (Forsythe, 2019:441)
There may be various issues such as interpersonal or psychological factors that may interfere in making conflict
controllable (Forsythe, 2019:425).
Various other factors which may cause conflict to escalate (Forsythe, 2019:440) in a group context may include:
• Other group members’ tendency to misperceive others
• Group members shifting from soft to hard tactics when conflict worsens
• Negative reciprocity, when negative actions trigger negative reaction from other group members
• Angry emotions which also stimulate anger among other members

• Formulation of coalitions or alliances whereby previously neutral group members are co-opted to be
embroiled in a conflict
However, it is always important that there should be interventions to try to contain conflict so that it does not
increase into a fully-fledged war. The issue of managing conflict so as to prevent it from worsening is the subject
of the next discussion.
6.6. Conflict Management, Resolution and Negotiation

When conflict arises, interventions may be introduced in two ways: as conflict resolution and conflict management.
Conflict resolution is about the reduction, termination or elimination of conflict whilst conflict management is about
minimising dysfunctional effects of conflict and enhancing its constructive functions (Rahim, 2001: 75-76)
especially when it can have organisational learning benefits or enhancing organisational effectiveness. The
discussion will touch on both approaches and the role of negotiation as an intervention for conflict.
Conflict management
According to Rahim (2001: 86) the conflict management process should entail firstly a diagnosis of the conflict
followed by an intervention to the conflict. Diagnosis may include understanding the underlying causes or sources
of conflict, some of which are discussed earlier on this unit.
As suggested by Rahim (2001:88), a diagnosis of conflict should entail measuring the conflict and analysing it.
Measurement activities would typically entail:
• Measuring the amount of conflict at intrapersonal, interpersonal, intragroup and intergroup levels
• Styles of handling interpersonal, intragroup and intergroup conflicts among members of the organisation
• Assess if there is any individual, group and organisational learning and effectiveness that may have been
introduced as a lateral benefit from the conflict
The analysis, emanating from the diagnosis, would then include:

• Assessing the amount and styles of handling conflict within departments or divisions
• The relationships of the amount of conflict and conflict styles to their sources
• Assessing the relationship of the amount of conflict and conflict styles to organisational learning
Rahim’s approach tends to be more technical, there are also behavioural approaches to conflict management.
Some of the approaches to conflict management may entail:
• Smoothing or accommodation whereby one party yields to the interests of the other party
• Collaboration and problem-solving is the optimal conflict outcome and results in a win-win scenario which
satisfies both parties

• Compromising involves more give-and-take bargaining where the absolute satisfaction of both parties’
needs is not critically more important than reaching some consensus
• Avoidance may involve being elusive and not committing to any action in addressing the conflict; and
• Competition and authoritative command with a tendency for a win-lose outcome as both parties have
competing interests and one set of interests may eventually win
These are synthesised in the image that follows:
12Table 6.1: Approaches to Conflict Management
Source: Conflict resolution and negotiation
The main approach to resolving conflict has been the process of negotiation. Negotiation can be considered as a
process in which two or more parties who have differences or are in conflict, must arrive at a joint decision and
come to an agreement (Robbins & DeCenzo, 2008:345).

Negotiation may be approached in two ways of distributive negotiation and integrative negotiation. Distributive
negotiation entails resolution of differences of opinion by claiming or dividing resources, making offers and
responding with counteroffers (Forsythe, 2019:431). On the other hand, as Forsythe further explains, integrative
negotiation involves resolving differences by identifying common and complementary interests and proposing
solutions that satisfy the parties concerned.
The distributive negotiation approach can be of benefit to one of the parties resulting in a win-lose situation. In
terms of integrative negotiation, “rather than trying to only maximise one’s own outcomes, integrative negotiators
search for solutions that benefit both sides (Forsythe, 2019:431).
Good negotiations in the negotiation process will aim for integrative negotiation, which would be linked to the
collaborative and problem-solving conflict outcome elucidated upon in the discussion in the preceding paragraphs.
The negotiation effort is intended to achieve a win-win outcome. The less desirable negotiation approach would
be the distributive negotiation approach where the inevitably outcome would be one party loses and the other
gains. There may be, of course, factors that will necessitate such an outcome. This is typical when there may be
few resources that need to be divided. As an example, various departments in an organisation may be competing
for budget allocations, some departments may end up with less budgets than they previously bargained for. For
instance, the operations section or department in a manufacturing company may consider themselves as more
deserving to get the lion’s share of a company budget more so than support departments such as Human
Resources, Marketing or Communications units. They would perhaps justify their appeal on the basis that their role
is core and integral to the company as they produce the actual goods the company sells. In such negotiations,
every department is typically fighting for their own interest and it may be at the expense of the other departments
who may end up getting lesser budget allocations.
There may be certain situations calling for the mixing of both distributive and integrative negotiation approaches in
negotiation settings. In such typical scenarios, the intention would be to arrive at some compromise. Assuming
there is bargaining between a vehicle salesperson and a customer. Each would typically start with seeking their
own interests. The salesperson wants to sell the car to get a good return on it in terms of profit through a high
price whilst the customer wants the car at a cheaper price. Since both would seek to achieve their own interests
(selling and buying respectively), they may see how both interests could be catered for and agree to a negotiated
price. Such a price would be reasonably better than the original price that was presented to the customer. For the
salesperson, they would at least want to achieve a good level of profit though having lowered the sales price. So,
while the initial negotiation process may have adopted a distributive approach, an integrative approach would
eventually be the preferred one that could best accommodate the different interests which eventually converge
around the buying and selling of the item.

The conflict resolution must be considered in its entirety as a process. Negotiation is merely one aspect of a conflict
resolution process. In terms of the model by Katz and McNulty (1994:12), there are four stages of the conflict
resolution processes as visually illustrated below:
5Figure 6.1: Stages of the Conflict Resolution process

Source: Katz and McNulty (1994:12)
Katz and McNulty (1994:12) explain the stages in turn as follows:
Stage 1: Awareness
This first entails reaching awareness about conflict and its negative emotional states and the awareness of the
perceived differences. For instance, the conflict may be as a result of one party wishing to fulfil their own interests
and therefore seeking to control the actions of another party by exercising power over them. The other party may
also be resisting such attempts thereby leading to the conflict situation. At this point, it is important that both parties
are aware of their clashing points or interests.
Stage 2: Self-preparation
This second stage of the conflict resolution model “accessing and maintain a resourceful state”. This would involve
taking care of your own emotional state or internal states. Given that negotiation may be an emotional affair,
emotional states need to be taken care of so that you may maintain a resourceful state through the conflict situation.

Stage 3: Conflict reduction

The third stage of conflict reduction involved reducing any increasing level of emotional energy or diffusing negative
emotions and clarifying to understand the differences between the two parties. The process may involve the parties
using reflective listening to change the negative emotional states in the conflict to states that are more amenable
to resolving disputes and differences. The process also allows the parties to clarify misunderstandings and facilitate
movement from being preoccupied with an issue from the past to get to focus forward.
Stage 4: Negotiation
The fourth step of negotiation will entail each party attempting to influence each other based on their interests.
Typical activities that would be helpful as this stage is to adopt an integrative negotiation approach and further to
identify initial positions of all parties and understanding the underlying interests. The idea of the conflict resolution
process is to assist in arriving at an amicable resolve to both the interested parties.
Activity 1
Read Forsythe (2019:435). The section of the chapter identifies a Dual
Concern Model of conflict resolution. Describe each of the following elements
of the model and use examples of your own in your brief discussion.
• Avoidance
• Yielding
• Fighting
• Cooperation
6.7. Dynamics of Conflict in Groups and Teams

In preceding discussions, the discussion looked at the nature of conflict and its roots, resolution, negotiation and
its management. The approaches already highlighted in conflict resolution and management would also pertain to
the case of groups. In terms of the various types of conflict, groups are particularly prone to relationship and task
conflict, which in most instances maybe due to the workgroup’s diversity (Ayoko & Konrad, 2012). The two types
of conflict-relationship and task conflict- may even lead to the adverse situation of affecting group performance
(Ibid).
In a study conducted in China among construction project teams, conflicts were found to emanate from factors
related to relationship characteristics of project participants and factors related to project characteristics as well as
task and process conflict (Wu at al, 2017: 699). It can therefore be expected that in team situations, task-related
and relationship conflicts are likely to ensue in teams. There is also the likelihood that types of conflict can mutate
into another form. The same case study of China construction project teams, there was evidence that task and
process conflict was being transformed into relationship conflict (Wu et al, 2017:716).

Conflict may again have other dynamics in group settings. There could be differing perceptions about the conflict
itself. There could be group conflict asymmetry, which refers to the degree to which group members have different
perceptions of how much conflict there is in groups and individual conflict asymmetry, which is when individuals in
groups perceives more or less conflict that other group members (Jehn, et al, 2012: 140). The varying perceptions
of conflict can therefore result in a misunderstanding of the severity of a conflict situation with the result that it may
take longer for the conflict to be resolved within the group situation.
Another prominent factor that has been discerned in intra-group is that they tend to draw a lot of emotion which
may be triggered by, and can generate group-level emotions (Boros et al, 2012:104). Owing to this, “effective
emotion management is therefore an important contingency factor for the interplay between task and relationship
conflict” (Ibid). Left unchecked, rising emotions in group contexts are further cause for conflicts and mutate into
another form of conflict and hence they should be swiftly managed. As Boros and Oerlemans (2012:104) contend,
“emotion management in groups reduces the emergence of relationship conflict, which is detrimental for group
effectiveness.”
It could be discerned that in the context of groups certain types of conflict may escalate to others. Emotion seems
to be a major issue that may arise in group conflict situations. Hence Forsythe (2019:441-442), also considers as
an issue that can contribute to the de-escalation of conflict in groups such as when positive rather than negative
emotions is expressed. Groups and teams might therefore be advised to inculcate emotional intelligence
interventions in group capacity or empowerment initiatives.
Case Study 1
Airline Strike
Pilots of the US-based airline company stage an international strike. They are
disappointed about the outcomes of their contract negotiations with the senior
management. Management wants to cut their salaries by 50% and reduce their
pension benefits. The pilots are up in arms and decide to ground all flights.
They carry various placards whilst there are marching towards the
headquarters of Delta Airlines. Some of the placards read “Employee sacrifices
should not enrich management”. The pilots seek a 5% increase in salary and
consider this as non-negotiable given that management recently awarded
themselves lucrative bonuses and increases.
Source: George Frey, in Robbins & DeCenzo. 2008. Fundamentals of

Management. Pearson Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

1. Read the short case study above, what type of negotiation characteristic
does it represent in terms of the two ways of negotiation – integrative
negotiation and distributive negotiation?
2. Use any clues and evidence you can find from the case study to support
your selection in the above question.
Revision Question 6
1. What are the various types of conflict?
2. What are the roots of conflict?
3. What is the difference between conflict resolution and conflict
management?

1. Cognitive conflict can be defined as:
a) Conflict associated with differences in ideas or opinions
b) Conflict associated with misunderstandings
c) Conflict associated with miscommunication
d) Conflict associated with negative statements said about others
2. Which of the following is about intragroup conflict?

a) Conflict that occurs between groups in different organisations
b) Conflict that occurs within groups
c) Conflict that happens to be about groups
d) Conflict between groups in the same organisation
3. Which of the following is a definition of functional conflict perspective?

a) A perspective considering negative implications of conflict
b) A perspective considering conflict as supportive to the organisation
c) A perspective that considers function-related conflict within groups
d) A perspective about task-related conflicts within groups and which
has to do with personal dislikes among individuals.
4. What is the prisoner’s dilemma game about?

a) An approach to resolve conflict among prisoners
b) A situation whereby team participants make either cooperative or
competitive choices

c) Conflict in which there is no escape and appears terminal which

forces team members to resign
d) Conflict situation whereby other team members are captured by
others’ interests in the conflict
5. The commons dilemma is about?

a) Common issues of clashes within groups
b) Groups finding common interest after conflict
c) Individuals seeking personal rather than group collective goals
d) Individuals torn between two individuals clashing within the group
6. Which of the following is a definition of the public goods dilemma?

a) Whereby members of the group do not contribute any resources to
the group
b) Whereby group members clash regarding the public contribution of
their team
c) The moral question related to groups using public resources
d) Groups that are tasked with provide a public good which they don’t
deliver in teams of their allocated tasks
7. Which of the following is a definition of conflict resolution?

a) About the reduction, termination or elimination of conflict
b) The minimising of dysfunctional effects of conflict
c) The ending of conflict through negotiation
d) The resolving of conflict through use of a third party
8. Which of the following is a statement about conflict management?

a) Managing the entire process of conflict from its start towards its end
b) Managing negotiation process to resolve conflicts
c) Preventing conflict through proactive steps
d) Enhancing constructive functions of conflict and minimising
destructive ones
9. Integrative negotiation is about:

a) Resolving conflict through involving a third party as a negotiator
b) Resolving differences by identifying common and complimentary
interests among parties

c) Resolution of conflict through integrating two groups into one group

and eliminating conflicting members
d) Resolution of conflict through integrated conflict management
techniques
10. Which of the following statements is true about negotiation?

a) Negotiation is one aspect of the conflict resolution process
b) Negotiation is the first step in conflict resolution
c) Negotiation must be followed by conflict reduction
d) Negotiation is the first step in conflict management
6.8. Summary
In this study unit, conflict and negotiation was under focus. It was important to consider the theme owing the
propensity for conflict to occur at some point in groups. The pragmatic orientation one should have is that it is not
something awful that should be avoided but must be rather managed. If it merely is illustrative of divergence
viewpoints or conflicting interests, there are ways to resolve them in the negotiation process. The worst form of
conflict is either violent or armed conflict as expressed in strife or wars. This would be conflict at its worst and
unmanaged state. To understand the nature of conflict to a deeper level, the various forms of conflict such as
behavioural and interest-based conflict were explored. The possible outcomes of conflict as either a win-lose, lose-
lose scenario and win-win scenario were also examined. The latter is the one result that parties in conflict should
endeavour to achieve, as the win-lose or lose-lose scenarios maybe untenable in even result in further conflict
when there are losers and no winners or when there is one winner. The roots of conflict were explored to uncover
the core issues that arise into conflict. Finally, the areas of conflict management, resolution and negotiation being
interventions and ways of handling conflict were considered.

Think Point 1
The task requires the student to be familiar with the various perspectives of conflict being the traditionalist,
human relations and interactionist views. They may then exercise their own discretion and provide justified views
on which of the perspectives they agree with using their own examples of their applicability. The second part of
the question is applied in real-world contexts as to which conflict management approach they would prefer to use
in terms of the three perspectives.
Activity 1
This is also a real-world applicable activity. Having considered the various sources of conflict, students can select
any political party and look at its internal conflict dynamics. They should examine the extent to which internal
conflict might be caused by factors such as conflict over resources, typically money or conflict over power, typically
when politicians are vying for leadership roles. The task entails students formulating their own case study on how
conflict ensues and its reasons, in terms of their own selected case reference.
Case Study 1
1. Distributive negotiation entails resolution of differences of opinion by claiming or dividing resources
2. In the case shown above, the workers want a 5% increase and seek to benefit in as much as management
also recently benefitted. They want a fair distribution of resources as is typical in distributive negotiation.


1.
(a) Conflict associated with differences in ideas or opinions
2.
(b) Conflict that occurs within groups
3.
(b) A perspective considering conflict as supportive to the organisation
4.
(b) A situation whereby team participants make either cooperative or competitive choices
5.
(c) Individuals seeking personal rather than group collective goals
6.
(a) Whereby members of the group do not contribute any resources to the group
7.
(a) About the reduction, termination or elimination of conflict
8.
(d) Enhancing constructive functions of conflict and minimising destructive ones.
9.
(b) Resolving differences by identifying common and complimentary interests among parties
10.
(a) Negotiation is one aspect of the conflict resolution process

Answers to Revision Question

Unit 1 Revision Question Answers
1. The types of motivation covered include intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation entails
inherently satisfying or enjoyable behaviour to individuals. For instance, if individuals enjoy their work,
this would lead to a high quality of work and performing well, which in turn provides positive productivity
benefits for the organisation. Extrinsic Motivation refers to performance of behaviour that is dependent
on attaining an outcome that is separable from the action itself. Extrinsic motivation is prompted by an
external factor such as a bonus or reward for having accomplished a task.
2. There are two main theoretical approaches to motivation, the content and process approaches. Within
the stream of content approaches, there is Maslow’s Hierachy of Needs, Herzberg’s Two-factor Theory,
Alderfer’s ERG Theory. The process approaches include Expectancy Theory, Goal-setting Theory and
Equity Theory. Without elaborating in-depth, students can summarise the essence of these theories and
how they consider motivation to take place.
3. The various theories of motivation in a way provide the scope in which to consider the various things that
motivate people. For instance, management in a particular organisation may carry the assumptions of
Expectancy Theory in which employees are understood to be motivated by their expectations on certain
outcomes emanating from their efforts. Maslow’s Hierachy of Needs suggests that social and basic needs
must be met first before self-actualisation needs. A range of options to motivate staff will often differ from
organisation to organisation and therefore it is important to consider what are the unique motivators for
an organisation. Aside from the theory-based or inspired approaches, generic ways of motivating staff
include providing constant feedback, training and staff engagement
Unit 2 Revision Question

1. The answer is basically the two broad types of motivation approaches that have been covered in the module.
There is Intrinsic Motivation as emanating from enjoying an activity or some sense of satisfaction an individual
receives in doing an activity or task. There is also extrinsic motivation is prompted by an external factor such
as a bonus or reward for having accomplished a task. The various ways of motivating staff will often affiliate
to these two broad approaches. When a company wishes to inculcate Intrinsic Motivation, various tactics may
entail ensuring job enrichment, career pathing, and any other intervention to ensure people do work that they
will enjoy. Extrinsic Motivation has to do with staff incentives such as having bonuses, and monetary incentive
schemes.
2. There are various theories of motivation being broadly classified into content approaches and process
approaches. The content approaches discussed were Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Alderfer’s ERG theory,

Herzberg’s Two-factor theory, and McClelland’s Theory of Needs. The process approaches include
Expectancy Theory, Goal-setting Theory and Equity Theory. Without elaborating in-depth, students can
summarise the essence of these theories and how they consider motivation to take place.
3. The various theories of motivation in a way provide the scope in which to consider the various things that
motivate people. For instance, management in a particular organisation may carry the assumptions of
Expectancy Theory in which employees are understood to be motivated by their expectations on certain
outcomes emanating from their efforts. Maslow’s Hierachy of Needs suggests that social and basic needs
must be met first before self-actualisation needs. A range of options to motivate staff will often differ from
organisation to organisation and therefore it is important to consider what are the unique motivators for an
organisation.
Aside from the theory-based or inspired approaches, generic ways of motivating staff include providing
constant feedback, training and staff engagement .
Unit 3: Revision Questions

1. Student should be mindful that there are various definitions of organisational culture. They may choose their
own preferred definition even outside the definition provided in the study guide. Denison (1984) defines
organisational culture refers to the set of values, beliefs, and behaviour patterns that form the core identity of
an organisation.
2. Brown (1998: 89-91) considers organisational culture as contributing to:

• Motivation: organisational culture serves to provide a cohesive culture which employees identify with
and fosters shared beliefs among employees
• Conflict reduction: a shared common culture provides consistency in perceptions and evaluation of
issues
• Coordination and control: organisational culture facilitates organisational processes of coordination
and organisation’s competitive advantage
Martins and Martins (2003:382) identify the following functions of organisational culture as defining
boundaries in terms of distinguishing one organisation from another, provides a sense of identity to
organisational members and facilitating a commitment to something larger beyond individual interests.
Student’s own additional research can also be summoned to provide answers to this question.
3. There are three levels of organisational culture being artefacts, espoused values and basic underlying
assumptions. Artefacts constitute “visible organisational structures and processes” (Schein, 2004: 26). They
are visual

indications of an organisation’s culture. Espoused values may include vision or mission statements or any
corporate policies which the organisation states which endorsed its beliefs or values. Underlying assumptions
may include unconscious beliefs, perceptions or thoughts and feelings among employees (Schein, 2004).
4. Student may do additional research of their own to illustrate the differences between the two concepts.
Among others, organisational culture is concerned with deep understanding of underlying assumptions,
individual meaning and members’ views of the organisation whilst organisational climate is concerned with
greater emphasis on members’ perspectives on observable practices and procedures that are closer to the
surface of the organisation’s life.
Unit 4 Revision Questions

1. There are various definitions of groups and teams beyond what has been covered in this study guide. There
has also been a comparison table provided to support the discussion. Katzenbach and Smith (1993) suggests
that groups become teams when they develop a sense of shared commitment and strive for synergy among
members. Other definitions point to the team as some distinct form of group. Harris (1986, quoted by Stott &
Walker, 1995:25) proffers the following definition:
“A team is a workgroup or unit with a common purpose through which members develop mutual relationships
for the achievement of common goals.” In another definition of teams by Greenberg & Baron (1997: 270), a
team is defined as “a group whose members have complementary skills and are committed to a common
purpose or set of performance goals for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.”
2. The various stages of group development entail stages of forming, storming, norming, performing and
adjourning (Forsythe, 2019:138).
3. There are various elements attributed to team effectiveness and include interdependence, open communication
and positive feedback, appropriate team composition and the ability of team members to be receptive to ideas
of others and adopt an open attitude. In both the findings by Brhane and Zewdie (2018:93) as well as Dipboye
(2018), it becomes discernible from the mention factors that several factors may possibly account for team
effectiveness include communication, team composition, leadership, motivation and coordination abilities.

1. The main distinctiveness is that leadership is mostly about influencing people whereas managing has to do
with handling the affairs of an organisation through planning, controlling and organising. A comparative table
is provided in the discussion that distinguishes management and leadership in various domains.
2. The behavioural theories tend to look at how leaders behave and observe leadership styles such as
autocratic, democratic and liassez-faire behavioural styles. The contingency or situational theories put more
emphasis on the contexts in which leaders exercise leadership. Contingency leadership tends to focus on

the best leadership style for a given situation and considering predicting leadership success as more complex
than merely examining traits and behaviours of leaders (Vrba, 2016:254).
3. The Two-factor Model of Leadership which classifies leadership behaviour in groups as either performance
maintenance or relationship maintenance. It consists of task leadership which is about how the group
facilitates the achievement of goals through setting standards and relationship leadership which entails how
interpersonal relations are managed within the group.

1. Cognitive conflict, Affective conflict, Interest-based conflict and Behavioural conflict
2. The various roots of conflict are from conflict and competition; conflict over resources; conflict over power;
task and process conflict and relationship conflict.
3. Conflict resolution is about the reduction, termination or elimination of conflict whilst conflict management is
about minimising dysfunctional effects of conflict and enhancing its constructive functions.

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Bachelor of Commerce

in Human Resource Management

GROUP DYNAMICS AND LEADERSHIP

List of Contents ....................................................................................................................................................... 1

Unit 1: Foundations of Individual Behaviour.......................................................................................................... 11

Unit 2: Motivation .................................................................................................................................................. 32

Unit 3: Organisational Culture ............................................................................................................................... 59

Unit 4: Groups and Teams .................................................................................................................................... 76

Unit 5 Leadership .................................................................................................................................................. 99

Unit 6: Conflict and Negotiation........................................................................................................................... 115

Answers to Revision Question ............................................................................................................................ 135

Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................................ 143

Table 1.1: Individual Behaviour Framework...................................................................................................... 16

Table 1.2: Types of reinforcement and their effect on behaviour ...................................................................... 24

Table 4.1: Differences between Groups and Teams......................................................................................... 81

Table 4.2: Example of pre-defined roles of individual members of a group ...................................................... 83

Table 4.3: Group roles for maintaining collaboration ........................................................................................ 83

Table 4.5: Critical considerations for advancing teamwork ............................................................................... 90

Table 4.6: Characteristics of high-performance teams ..................................................................................... 93

Table 5.1: Differences between a leader and a manager ............................................................................... 103

Table 6.1: Approaches to Conflict Management ............................................................................................. 125

Figure 1.1: Six Personality Types ..................................................................................................................... 18

Figure 1.2: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs .......................................................................................................... 38

Figure 4.1: Schein’s Culture Triangle................................................................................................................ 67

Figure 6.1: Stages of the Conflict Resolution process .................................................................................... 127

1 MANCOSA – Bachelor of Commerce in Human Resource Management

We hope you enjoy the module.

MANCOSA – Bachelor of Commerce in Human Resource Management 2

3 MANCOSA – Bachelor of Commerce in Human Resource Management

• Demonstrate knowledge of the interrelationship between human resource management, the

The module is a 15-credit module at NQF level 7.

C. Exit Level Outcomes and Associated Assessment Criteria of the Programme

Exit Level Outcomes (ELOs) Associated Assessment Criteria (AACs)

MANCOSA – Bachelor of Commerce in Human Resource Management 4

• Demonstrate the ability to manage • Processes and accountability is demonstrated to manage

• Contribute to improving organisational • Organisational culture and climate strategies of

D. Learning Outcomes and Associated Assessment Criteria of the Module

LEARNING OUTCOMES OF THE MODULE ASSOCIATED ASSESSMENT CRITERIA OF THE MODULE

• Demonstrate knowledge of the • The relationship between human resource management,

5 MANCOSA – Bachelor of Commerce in Human Resource Management

• Provide a critical evaluation of the • An understanding of management as distinct from

E. Learning Outcomes of the Units

F. Notional Learning Hours

Lectures/Workshops (face to face, limited or technologically mediated) 10

Tutorials: individual groups of 30 or less 0

Practical workplace experience (experiential learning/work-based learning etc.) 0

Independent self-study of specially prepared materials (case studies, multi-media, etc.) 20

MANCOSA – Bachelor of Commerce in Human Resource Management 6

G. How to Use this Module

I. Prescribed and Recommended Textbook/Readings

7 MANCOSA – Bachelor of Commerce in Human Resource Management

The prescribed and recommended textbooks/readings for this module are:

MANCOSA – Bachelor of Commerce in Human Resource Management 8

Special Feature Icon Explanation

The Learning Outcomes indicate aspects of the particular Unit you

The Associated Assessment Criteria is the evaluation of the students’

PRACTICAL Practical Application or Examples will be discussed to enhance

APPLICATION understanding of this module.

9 MANCOSA – Bachelor of Commerce in Human Resource Management

Case Studies are included in different sections in this Module Guide.