Toward Phenomenology of Groups and Group Membership: Volume 4

The paper briefly reviews the philosophical bases for an empirical approach to social science that is particularly suited to groups research. I present an eclectic approach to Husserls phenomenology as modified by Heideggers phenomenology of human being and Merleau-Pontys emphasis on perception. I argue that their work provides an honest episutemological base for empirical research on groups. A method developed by the Duquesne school of phenomenological psychology is presented and applied in a field study of a work team providing a high tech service in the telecommunications industry. Written protocols supplied by group members and interview data are carefully described and then interpreted for their relevance to a research understanding of group process. The results emphasise the importance of task requirements, timing of group member entry and interactions with non-group members as important aspects of group process.

Why are some management teams more strongly oriented toward learning than others? The dominant notion in the learning literature is that teams will seek to learn when their outcomes do not live up to their aspirations. In this paper we argue that this perspective overlooks important factors in the social context of a management team that can promote or inhibit an orientation toward learning. In-depth analysis of qualitative and quantitative data obtained from four business unit management teams in a Fortune 100 consumer products company supports this thesis. Specifically, we find that a teams learning orientation is fostered by: (1) an emphasis on ends over means combined with clarity around ends, (2) team norms that tolerate mistakes of commission but sanction mistakes of omission, (3) a sense of uniqueness combined with a strong sense of team efficacy, and (4) cross-boundary interaction facilitated by experientially-broad boundary spanners. These findings both confirm as well as extend theoretical and empirical work on the factors that activate learning and innovation.

A full understanding of organizational and group effectiveness must take into the account the causes and contexts that exacerbate and reduce tension between groups, and the individual psychological mechanisms involved. This chapter attempts to analyze intergroup behavior through a phenomenological lens: examining how people perceive groups, their own and others, and how these perceptions shape subsequent behavior. Two individually based processes, categorization and egocentrism, and two group-based processes, competition over scarce recourses and strivings for positive social identities, allow intergroup hostilities and biases to flourish. Two strategies for reducing intergroup tension, both of which involve transforming representations of the out-group, are discussed. One is a group-based strategy, which involves structurally altering the relationship between groups by increasing their interdependence. The other strategy, perspective-taking, is individually based. Perspective-taking increases out-group evaluations, decreases stereotyping, and decreases the selection of expectancy-consistent information, all through activation and application of the self-concept. Because many intergroup biases are rooted in individual psychological processes, such as categorization and egocentrism, it is suggested that strategies designed to reduce intergroup tensions that build off these biases might be particularly effective. Implications of intergroup conflict and perspective-taking for organizations are discussed.

A comparison of two motivations for engaging in work organizations suggests that people are motivated by both the resources they receive from their organizations and by the role that the organization plays in creating and sustaining a favorable view of ones status. Status issues are especially central as motivators of voluntary behavior within the organization.

Many organizations have moved to adopt high performance work designs in an effort to enhance organizational flexibility while increasing efficiency, output, and product quality. As a result, the use of voluntary organization-sponsored teams such as task forces, project teams and quality improvement teams has become increasingly common. Relatively little research, however, has examined the process through which the membership of such groups is assembled. Even less is understood about the factors that encourage greater employee participation in these types of teams. Relying on social exchange theory, social identity theory, and the diversity literature, we explore the group creation process from the individual as perspective. Specifically, we explore the factors that motivate an individual to join a particular team. Propositions relating the influence of group and relational attributes to member-initiated team selection are then developed that further expand our understanding of the effects of group attractiveness, social categorization, relational demography and network processes on group creation. In closing, we discuss the implications of our model for managers and suggest some directions for future research.

This paper reviews the effects of familiarity on the group process. Previously, familiarity has been defined as interpersonal knowledge of another individual. Familiarity is a dyadic construct, based on the relationship between two individuals. We consider familiarity from a phenomenological perspective, exploring how the experience of the individual affects the group and how the group affects the individuals experience. We believe that part of this experience is based on knowledge, but we propose that the experience of familiarity is also made up of affective and behavioral components. In order to gain a better understanding of familiarity, we gathered data from groups that worked on a semester long project. It was found that individuals rely on affect as well as cognition when determining familiarity. Positive, negative, and neutral affect all had interesting implications for the group. Individuals who know and like one another are more likely to engage in positive, team-building behaviors than those who do not know or like one another. It was also found that dyadic relationships can directly impact the group. Dyadic relationships that are positive create an open, friendly environment for other group members while dyadic relationships that are negative create tension and conflict in the group.

Transnational teams (TNTs) - teams whose members are geographically spread across at least two co-ntries - are often plag-ed with s-bstantial member differences. These incl-de the different time zones members work in, their different c-lt-ral c-stoms and norms, and the different native lang-ages they speak. The res-lting interpersonal and task -ncertainty increase the need for member sense-making. Beca-se tr-st is the l-bricant for obtaining collaborative team performance, in this chapter we develop a concept-al model of tr-st-related sense-making in TNTs. That is, we identify factors that may infl-ence the extent to which TNT members sense that they can tr-st each other, and as a res-lt, wish to give the TNT their f-ll collaborative potential (despite the local demands also competing for their time). Importantly, we identify distinctive characteristics of TNTs that seem likely to complicate, even aggravate, the tr-st-related sense-making process described in o-r literat-re review on dyadic-relationships or domestic teams. Drawing from the tr-st and social dilemma literat-res, as well as o-r own research on TNTs, we offer interventions that may be -sed by the leader of the TNT to co-nteract the tr-st-red-cing properties of a TNT. We advocate the -se of “-niversal partic-larism” in TNTs. In so doing, we highlight the importance of eliminating the tendency to ass-me that “one size fits all” when managing people from a variety of c-lt-res. We ill-strate that the c-lt-ral val-es of “-niversalism” and “partic--larism” can co-exist. We concl-de the chapter by noting how the concept-al framework b-ilds -pon and extends prior models of tr-st and teamwork.

This paper draws from research on the phenomenology of how people experience time to examine how groups internally synchronize their work. We begin by reviewing the current paradigm on group temporal alignment, derived from biological and physical principles of entrainment. We argue that despite its many strengths, the greatest weakness of entrainment-based approaches is that they overlook the experience of the individual group member. Instead, we suggest that pace alignment in work groups stems from the individual-level tendency to prefer the experience of feeling in-pace to that of feeling out-of-pace with other members. We label this the in-synch preference, and assert that it is a core construct for understanding temporal performance in work groups. We then use this construct to examine: (a) the mechanisms that facilitate and motivate intra-group synchronization (i.e. getting in-pace) and (b) the role of pace-aligned coalitions and attributional processing in maintaining synchronization (i.e. staying in-pace).

This chapter considers the previous contributions to this volume from two perspectives. First, I discuss how the chapters contribute to the under-standing of groups and group membership in terms of McGrath's (1986) prescriptions for research on groups. Second, I compare the chapters to the characteristics of sense-making studies outlined by Weick (1995). While this volume leaves many issues for further investigation, this volume makes important contributions to the study of groups from a phenomenological point of view.