How group dynamics and in-group bias affect leadership decisions

Group Dynamics on Leadership

Effects of Group Dynamics on leadership

Group dynamics results in In-groups and out-groups. Some intriguing behaviors emerge in groups notably; close colleagues and friends easily revolve in the 'us-versus-them' mentality. The outcome is a psychological dispute precipitated by cognitive dissonance. In the decision-making process, two distinct teams emerge. A predictable behavioral dynamic accompanies this. Quickly, those in the in-group establish their social identity as those in the majority group (us). The ones in the opposing group are labeled with a negative social identity and an out-group status (the) as they oppose the majority members. Often, the in-group holds the power advantage associated with sheer numbers thus leads a cordial discussion with the out-group under the guise of trying to understand their perspective. At the start, the arguments tend to be civil and logical but soon after the whole group devolve (Hood, 2015). Heightened emotional tensions, visible condemning behavior, and harsh personal attacks quickly overrule collegial decorum. Team members who genuinely liked each other before visibly using snide and derogatory statements when referring to one another (Thomas et al. 2013). Loud sighs and gasps are the outcomes of minority group members presenting their perspectives. The factual ground of any confrontation becomes inconsequential and easily discarded by the in-group members. Most of the time, the in-group members interrupt members of the minority group when trying to explain their position. It is followed by a slow piling of pressure on the out-group members to comply with the in-group members (Hood, 2015).

Group Coach and Authentic Leadership development

Most organizations have become well-informed buyers of coaching services and have resorted to where they can obtain the greatest bang for their buck. Group coaching can be defined as the practice of coaching in a group. Either one person or some members of the group could coach others. For instance, an expert coach could coach an entire group, or the team members might coach each other. This coaching can be done in several or even one group meetings. In addition, it could be done using telecommunications or face-to-face. Group coaching connects professionals together, making their work more effective (Thomas et al. 2013). For instance, managers of varying business lines who might not be in a team could meet, share lessons learned, and best practices, thus creating efficiencies via shared knowledge. Here, the basic theme is to help individuals cope with and adapt to the fast changing change so that the business scan develop, become agile and efficient. Authentic leadership development is by definition the extent to which a leader understands and exhibits patterns of clarity and openness in his/her behaviors towards others. Such an undertaking is possible by sharing necessary information to make decisions, disclosing personal values, accepting others' inputs and sentiments in a manner that allows followers to evaluate the morality and competence of the leader's actions. The theory of authentic leadership development stems from the critical discourse of transformation leadership based on the argument that transformational leaders require authenticity (Klenke, 2007).

Authentic Leadership Development Model

Following the doubling interest in this new area, various models of authentic leadership development have emerged in the literature. The model relates a positive organizational trust; behavior and identity theories to describe the procedures by which authentic leaders exert influence on follower behaviors notably job performance, satisfaction, and commitment. Follower results included in the design are performance; extra effort; and drawback actions such as revenues, absenteeism, and tardiness. As the self-based design of the procedures fosters authentic leadership development in a society. The design posits that a key factor leading to the authentic leadership development is the self-awareness of the leader including his or her goals, identity, emotions and values (Klenke, 2007).

The second theoretical foundation of this design is self-regulation such as internalized control, balanced information processing about the impartial collection and presentation of self-related details, genuine behavior, and relational transparency, which means that the leader shows high stages of self-disclosure, openness, and relies upon close connections. This design postulates that the leader's personal history and key trigger events serve as antecedents for authentic leadership. As good role models, these leaders illustrate integrity and dedication to primary moral principles and play a role in a beneficial business climate. Positive results for authentic leader-follower connections include increased stages of follower trust in the leader: sustainable performance and workplace well-being (Klenke, 2007).

Leadership is necessarily a Group Process

Invariably, leadership happens within the group context. It is argued that leadership is a relational property of teams meaning that we cannot have leaders in the absence of a group of followers. Similarly, we cannot have followers in the absence of leaders. Further, the function of leadership is to coordinate and achieve group objectives (Platow, Haslam, Reicher, & Steffens, 2015). The social identity theory offers a prominent approach to leadership as a group process. Leadership is distributed because all psychological team members are seen as prototypical, exerting more or less impact and even the least influential contributing to the description of the group as a whole (Thomas et al. 2013). In this sense, a group is likely to define itself regarding its goals, needs, situation, experience, ideology, and knowledge. The group's identity then takes the special meaning obtained from this interplay of perceiver variables and reality. As a result, the members or subgroup that best embodies this identity by whatever variables with attaining the force of credibility, the aura of power and the mantle of authority. As subgroups and individuals shape up, reinvent, control and define team identity or fail to do these things, leadership might change or remain stable. Leadership as a group process implies that changes in leadership rely on the changes in team identity (Platow, Haslam, Reicher, & Steffens, 2015). In simple words, leadership is conferred and not imposed. It tends to flow from the nature of the team rather than the nature of the individual leading, and it results from group identity. By defining their group identity (who are we?), the leaders can influence what the group does.

Social Influences as an Outcome of Psychological Group Membership

Psychological group membership could result in a social identity that connects individuals with others when the team becomes a substantial part of an individual's self-concept via the self-actualization process. Through the process of observing what other group members are doing, individuals can learn characteristic associated with a group (Petrova, 2015). Knowledge regarding team membership is activated by direct reminders of membership (the presence of other in-group members), being a minority, the existence of out-group members and disputes between groups. Cultural variations could affect whether persons see themselves as individuals or members of a larger group (Thomas et al. 2013).

Leadership Attributions as Outcome of Psychological Membership

Two broad leadership attributions relate to psychological group membership. First, leaders have clear goals and mission. The leader's mission describes the overall route and general goals to be achieved by the mission. Then, the leader must narrow these broad goals into more precise tasks; the team will be working on these specific goals. For instance, while an organization's mission may demand the development of a new product in the next one year. A precise goal for the group could be to work towards the completion of one aspect of the product within the next six months. Conflict is the second attribution. Effective leaders address task dispute productively and curb personalized disputes. Conflict is the result of tension experienced by two people or teams following perceived differences. In teams, there exist two types of conflicts. Task conflict is defined as the disagreement about the jobs to be done. It includes issues like the application of procedures, allocation of resources and implementation of policies. Person conflict is the existence of identity-centered issues whereby a group or personal beliefs and values come to the forefront. Typically, this personalized dispute is characterized by animosity, annoyance and tension among group members (Nahartyo, & Utami, 2014).

Leadership and Different Power in Large Social Groups

Leaders are responsible for moving group members toward completing their goals using numerous motivational strategies. A leader may draw on or possess any of the following powers to varying degrees. Competent leaders must not have all these types of powers. Instead, effective leaders understand how to draw on others' who are better at exercising a type of power in a given scenario (Petrova, 2015).

Legitimate power -- the title of leadership is attached to legitimate power. This power tends to flow from the officially acknowledged status, title or position of the member. However, it must be understood that even when a member is given the position or title of power, it does not imply that the group members will recognize or respect this power. Regardless of the title, a leader must earn the ability to offer leadership (Thomas et al. 2013).

Information power -- this power derives from an individual's ability to access data that comes through informal channels, as well-established social media platforms. This course demonstrated that information networks are a vital component of a team's structure and can affect a team's access to various sources. When a team member has the "know-how," s/he possesses information power. Though the knowledge might be unofficial, it could help the team get things done and solve problems. People can develop information power by constantly interacting with others, building interpersonal relations and making connections (Nahartyo, & Utami, 2014).

Coercive and reward power -- these are the final two types of power and are related. Reward power derives from the ability of a team member to offer a positive incentive for a compliance-gaining tactic. On the other hand, coercive power accrues from the ability of a team member to offer a negative incentive (Thomas et al. 2013). These powers could be challenging for group leaders and other members to manage because their application may result in interpersonal disputes. Any group member can use reward power given that s/he gives another member positive feedback on an idea, a pat on the back or an appreciation card for hard work. Due to limited resources, most group leaders are frustrated by their inability to offer worthwhile tangible rewards to members like raises, bonuses and prizes. Besides, the application of reward power might look paternalistic or corny, arousing accusations of jealousy or favoritism among team members who do not receive a reward (Aritz & Walker, 2014).

Leadership Styles

Style of leadership is the way and strategy of offering direction, encouraging individuals and implementing plans. There are many leadership designs from which to pick one but depends on the situation of the company. However, not everything new is excellent and not everything old is bad. Different types are required for different circumstances, but leaders should know when to use a particular strategy. Management techniques determine leader's leadership design.

Autocratic Leadership - This is a strategy where supervisors maintain as much power and decision-making power as possible, which means all the authority has been maintained only by the supervisors (Thomas et al. 2013). As such, in this strategy, supervisors do not seek advice from employees and employees are bound to follow instructions without asking questions. This strategy is a set of punishment and rewards. This design is good when any new worker comes into an organization and when the company does not know what projects to do and what techniques should be followed. There is very short time for decision-making. In this design, there is no trust in workers and management does not even pay attention to workers inputs (Petrova, 2015).

Bureaucratic Leadership - This design is followed by certain standards or rules that have been set already. In this fashion, everything is done accordingly for the utmost protection and precision. This design of management is seen a situation on the job where perilous and specific techniques are necessary to ensure protection. The bureaucratic leadership's best illustrations in the workplace are construction work. This design is most useful when employees are executing the routine projects repeatedly. This design is useful where employees need to understand particular requirements and techniques. This design should not be used when worker's habits cannot be modified (Nahartyo, & Utami, 2014).