6.1 – Elements of Group Structure
Roles
Bill Gates is perhaps best known as the principal founder of Microsoft. He was the CEO, then the chairman, a board member, and now a technical advisor to the current CEO. He is also the husband of Melinda Gates, the father of their three children, the head of their foundation, and a media influencer. A role is a set of expected behavior patterns attributed to someone occupying a given position in a social unit. Within a role, there are:
- Role identity: the certain actions and attitudes that are consistent with a particular role.
- Role perception: our own view of how we ourselves are supposed to act in a given situation. We engage in certain types of performance based on how we feel we’re supposed to act.
- Role expectations: how others believe one should act in a given situation
- Role conflict: conflict arises when the duties of one role conflict with the duties of another role.
case study: BILL GATES
Let’s look at this through the lens of a day in the life of Bill Gates. First, let’s look at him in the role of fundraiser. When he’s looking for corporate donations to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, he may visit the CEOs of other successful corporations. He may shake hands, have some lunches, and get some commitments for money from these CEOs. That’s role identity. The actions and attitudes that are consistent with a fundraiser.
Bill Gates may choose to wear a suit and tie when he visits these CEOs looking for donations. He may use “corporate speak” that’s familiar to them. He may purchase the lunch. That might be Bill Gates’ role perception. It’s the way he thinks he should behave in the fundraiser role.
Later, he and Melinda may hold a press conference where he announces to the world that they’ve funded textbooks for 250 schools across the nation. Responses include headlines of “Yay, Bill and Melinda!” People talk on Facebook about how Bill and Melinda are really helping communities. They are meeting our role expectations for them.
Finally, Bill and Melinda race out of the press conference, fight traffic to the airport, and try to get home to the violin recital of their oldest child. This is a role conflict. The duties of one of Bill’s and Melinda’s roles are in conflict with another—demands arise from both and need to be managed.
Norms
Norms are the acceptable standards of behavior within a group that are shared by the members.
When we learned about motivation, we talked a little about the Hawthorne Studies. To jog your memory, Hawthorne Electric hired researchers to do a study to determine if higher levels of light increased the production of a workgroup.
A full-scale appreciation of group behavior and its influence on workgroups was uncovered by the Hawthorne Studies in the 1930s. What was discovered was that groups established a set of behaviors. Some of these behaviors were spurred on simply because they were being observed. In other situations, the group collectively established a group no