Answer to Question #193080 in Psychology for Eoghan Hallissey

Question

1.      Your friend Amy has recently moved to a new organisation where she’s now the manager of 30 people. Up until now, the organisation has been split into 5 teams of 6 people each. Amy thinks it would be more efficient to have 2 teams of 15 people each. She also thinks that it’d be no harm to chop and change a bit as a way of making her mark as the new manager. Based on your study of the social identity approach to organisations, what would you advise Amy to do?

Answer 1

First of all, I would advise her to go slow on her proposed new changes, especially given that she is new to the company. It may backfire and cause her more harm than good. She should rather start by analyzing critically the performance of the present groups and dynamics and be able to identify the strengths and weaknesses so far. After that, she should discuss her findings with the teams and suggest her new changes while at the same time allow them to give their input. That way, her new changes would be well received when everyone feels that they feel part of the new changes.