Organisational Behaviour Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Organisational Behaviour - Essay Example An informal group is defined as an association of individuals pooled toward the objective of sharing knowledge and views. Secondly, organisational culture in a broad sense refers to the ‘character’ of an organisation. Informal Groups Generally, an informal group belongs to a work group in an organisation and it may not possess a formal structure. Despite its unorganised feature, the group members will have common interests and attitudes. To define, an informal group is not just a collection of people but indicates an internal social structure that gives emphasis on friendship relations rather than official relations (Employee motivation). Obviously organisations contain lot of informal groups. Even big issues can be easily tackled by people working together informally if they are very responsive to events. While dealing with urgent local issues, informal groups can be the best ones since they can easily recognise the actual cause of the issue. According to Bassy (2002, p.27), the idea of informal group came to light at the Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric Company in Chicago. This study was conducted by Elton Mayo, Roethlisberger, and Dickson. Functions of an informal group An informal group carries out functions both for individual workers and their employing organisation. The informal group conducts group discussions in order to come with the group’s vision, mission, and set of goal (Informal groups). After setting certain set of goals, they are broken down into short term and long term goals as this strategy assists the group to evaluate ideas and thereby add value to group performance. As Chaneta (2006) points out, the informal groups mainly functions to deal with employee issues. The most important function of an informal group is to meet the worksite security needs of its members. Every employee has the right to get satisfactory and safety worksite environment. There are certain situations when an employee is forced to work under dangerous worksite conditions. For instance, sometimes employees are compelled to work without safety equipments in a factory where there is a chance of chemical exposure. Under such circumstances, the employees ar e at higher risk of adverse worksite conditions. However, this type of issue can be effectively resolved if organisation contain active informal groups. Here, the group members discuss their problems and inform their suggestions to top management; the group power drives the management to respond to the issue immediately. Similarly, solving conflicts among the employees is another major function of informal groups. Nowadays, due to tough market competition, organisations tend to make the worksite atmosphere more strict and productive. This management policy may impose additional stress on workers and naturally it would lead to workplace conflicts. However, informal groups can more effectively deal with worksite conflicts than the management. Likewise, the informal groups serve organisational interests also. Every organisation aims at making its workers maximum productive and thereby increases the profitability. The informal groups functions to encourage its members to be innovative. Although the group’s fundamental objective is the betterment of employees, ultimately it contributes to organisational efficiency. For instance, employees’ innovative ideas may assist the organisation to reduce its cost of production or to more efficiently deal with day to day operations. Although informal groups also try