Answer to Question #175066 in Management for Kartik Sharma

Question

List four groups to which you belong. Identify each as formal or informal. Describe the reasons of formation of each group. Why did you join each group? Why might others have decided to join each group? List the norms of these groups and the ways they are enforced.

Answer 1

Whereas formal groups are established by organizations to achieve some specific objectives, informal groups are formed by the members of such groups by themselves. They emerge naturally, in response to the common interests of organizational members.

Within the group categories of formal and informal, there are sub-classifications:

Command group. 

This is a formal group, determined by the organization’s hierarchal chart and composed of the individuals that report to a particular manager. For instance, the manager of training has a command group of his employees, the training group.

Task group. 

This is also a type of formal group, and the term is used to describe those groups that have been brought together to complete a task. This does not mean, though, that it’s just a group of people reporting to a single supervisor. The training group, used in the last example, is not the same as the task group that provides onboarding training for a new employee. The training department might provide the outline for how a new employee is brought into the company, but an onboarding task group would include that employee’s manager, an IT manager who equips the new employee with a computer and phone, and so on.

Interest group. 

An interest group is usually informal, and is a group of people who band together to attain a specific objective with which each member is concerned. Within an organization, this might be a group of people who come together to demand better working conditions or a better employee evaluation process. Outside of an organization, this term is frequently used in political situations to describe groups that give a point of view a voice. This includes groups like the National Rifle Association, the AFL-CIO and the NAACP.

Friendship group.

These are groups of people who have come together because they share common ideals, common interests or other similarities, like age or ethnic background.