The terms ‘dynamics’ comes from the Greek work ‘force’. Group dynamics is an area in behaviour sciences which studies the nature of functioning of groups of people and forces operating for utilizing this knowledge in developing groups in work organizations. There are three related terms, the meaning of which we should be clear. These are Crowd, Group and Team. A Crowd is assembly of number of persons. We find a crowd of people in the market places, on the road and in cinema houses. They do not share any mutual understanding and pursue no set or common goals. They are strangers to each other and each enjoy in his or her own way. The group comprises of a number of people and shares the feelings of togetherness and a common goal. The members of family is an example of a group. Group is a higher level of social organisation than crowd. The Team is a still a higher level of social organization than Group. In teams members show willingness to work together in accordance with a common plan. They work interdependently and in a mutually supportive fashion. When persons work in teams, the efforts of the team are several times more than the efforts the individuals would put in, if they were to work independently, just as the symphony of an orchestra is not the collection of sounds from different instruments. Tremendous amount of human energy is released and canalised through productive ways, when people work in teams.

The group dynamics principles can be applied in many organizational actions such as developing effective work groups (work teams), effective administration of committees, participatory forums, developing skill in conducting/running meetings and so on.
These aspects other than development of effective work teams have been dealt with elsewhere. This paper addresses to the nature and characteristics of work teams and methods of transforming work works groups into work team or team development.
In modern organizations whether they are business or industrial concerns, service organizations or government departments, organizational output largely constitutes the sum total of individual efforts put in a coordinated and orchestrated manner. It is a result of the work of employees at all levels in unison, in other words it depends upon team efforts of organizational members. In District Administration, the District Magistrate/ Commissioner/collector and senior Officers in charge of field offices of departments and directorates are expected to work as a team, and the district Magistrate/Commissioner /Collector, being the main coordinator is expected to be the team leader Knowledge of group dynamics and its applications are essential for managers and Administrators, who are to get best out of people.

Characteristics of the Team

The following are some of the distinctive characteristics of the team:-

- The members perceive common stake both in success and failure in the attainment of organisational results.

- They display high levels of motivation (enthusiasm and energy for work) Members are fired with enthusiasm, inspiration and energy, both physical and mental.

- They develop clarity in understanding roles and role relationships.

- The team exerts control over its members and focuses attention on its goals.

- The participants are more creative or original in their work. They contribute new or original and practical ideas necessary for organizational survival in a competitive market.

- The members show readiness for risk taking. In other words, they undertake tasks, the outcome of which is not totally predictable, to break new grounds. This entrepreneurial behaviour is opposite to their tendency to work in a routine way and resist any new ways how ever promising they may be and maintain ‘status quo’. People who like to maintain ‘status quo’ are referred to as ‘deadwood’ in management literature.

- Members show attitude of co-operation, mutual trust and openness in relationships rather than jealousy, rivalry, animosity and hostility. They also show readiness to offer and receive help and guidance as a normal practice and not in the sense of obliging and being obliged. They do not play games against each other and waste their time and energy, on the other hand, they maintain authentic relationships based on good will, mutual respect and appreciation of each other’s capabilities and to mutual advantages.

- Members feel that they are ‘in’ the team. All members are considered equal irrespective of their hierarchical levels and skills. The team provides each person a sense of identity, self worth, acceptance and belonging.

- Members give helpful and constructive suggestions, advice and criticism (giving positive feed back) and accept suggestions and criticism without being offended (or being in defensive) for self improvement.

- There is better co-ordination of activities of individuals and groups leading to smooth flow of work. Administrative delays are more exceptions than rule. Work goes on with promptness and accuracy.

- The team focuses its attention on achievement of goals/targets/concrete results, and regulations are seen as helpful to achieve them rather than using them as an excuse for red tapism (official delay), nepotism, corruption and being pre-occupied with rules and regulations. Each person does not carry out the work in the narrow sense of his part of the work, on the other hand, he works with the awareness and appreciation of how his work affects the work of others in the long chain necessary for the completion of task or prompt disposal of a case in the case of administrative organizations.

- The team takes a ‘pro-active’ stance rather than a ‘reactive stance’ in the sense, the members anticipate the situation and act, and takes initiative. This is in contrast to delaying action, acting under pressure and taking things as they come. For instance, public administration whose actions are preceded by their understanding of the needs of the public are said to be acting pro-actively. Extreme case of reactive approach is referred to by the terms such as ‘fire fighting’ and ‘crisis management’. Pro-active thinking is crucial for today’s organizations functioning in a turbulent environment in which a lost opportunity is lost for ever.

- The power a team generates is several times more than the power of individual, when they work as individuals. In other words, just like ‘atomic power’ the energy output of a group of people is much more than the energy inputs of individual members. This phenomenon of increase in energy or energy surplus is referred to as ‘synergistic effect’.

“This behaviour (team spirit) relates to the extent to which superiors allow their subordinates to work as a team, and encourage the groups to take initiative in working, planning, controlling and monitoring, to develop sense of reciprocal dependence and to arrive at decisions through group consensus. This style is in contrast to direct individual supervision”.
Organizational Conditions Under Which work Teams Develop
Work teams are not formed simply because the employees are brought together with in a authority-accountability relationship. In other words, although we entrust an activity or a set of activities to a group of people, they seldom work as teams. Top management should deliberately attempt to develop teams. Team development can be used as an approach to improve employee motivation and work relationships and in turn productivity. An understanding of the conditions which facilitate the development and nurturing of the team may be of immense value to the management.

The following are some of the conditions conducive for team functioning.

1. Clarity of RolesThe members should be clear about their roles, role expectations and role relationships. Roles include description of duties, responsibilities, and standards of performance (or goals to be achieved). Role expectations are the knowledge of what people in a group expect from each other in discharging their duties properly. Such interlinking is seen at three levels. Viz., at the level of individual tasks, at the level of units or sections and at the organizational level. Though these linkages are present, the employees who work together may not be aware of such linkages. Employees at all levels should understand and should work with the awareness of such linkages, if team work were go succeed. The role expectations of different members of the work group including superiors, sub-ordinates and peers should be made clear to all employees. The members should be encouraged to identify themselves with the group goals (the goal of work group, unit, section, department etc.) in other words, each one should be encouraged to see beyond the boundaries of his tasks. In the words of Pattern, an American management expert, ‘managers must learn that team building requires the members to extend themselves to one another and take an attitude towards their jobs that is not narrow and specialised’. The late Nitish De, who was one of the known Indian management scholars, called this orientation as “Department Myopia”.

2. Inter – personal Relations and Feed backThe leader should encourage interaction between the members, the sprit of give and take, mutual help and guidance, being open and authentic in their reactions, giving helpful and constructive suggestions and guidance (giving feedback) and receiving comments without being offended and for correction and self-improvement. He should himself display those behaviours with reference to the group he is supervising. The acts of soliciting and giving help are to be projected as a normal practice. Generally, asking for help and being open to other’s ideas are perceived as weaknesses. Similarly, the giver of help perceives himself as superior to those being helped. When there is a sense of mutual dependence, giving and receiving help tend to be quite natural and a two way process. Giving feedback directly to people if possible will be more effective than supplying control data and information through Department Heads, Quality Control Departments, and Accounts Department. Recognizing this fact, some organizations leave the shop floor operator to do quality check. Some of them also involve the employees in gathering control data and operating quality control systems. Today, with the introduction of computers, the quality control data can be made available directly to the employees. It is better to discuss the quality control aspects in a group rather than doing it at the individual employee levels.

3. Participative or Group LeadershipParticipative style of leadership, as opposed to tight control and close supervision is conductive to team functioning. The leader who adopts a participative or group style of leadership acts as a catalyst and encourages the members to take initiative, plan, conduct and monitor the group tasks. He maintains order in the working of the group to the extent that the members attention is focused on the results to be achieved. He encourages the members to assume overall responsibility for achieving results rather than creating unhealthy competition among the subordinates by making each competing with one another and by constantly comparing them with each another.
When a person is constantly belittled by comparing him with other, he starts doubting his worth. He develops a poor self-concept or low self-esteem, and loses confidence and personal push. He may develop rivalry towards those with whom he is compared. Rivalry is the feeling of hostility towards the person with whom he is compared and the tendency to tarnish his image or put him in disadvantage, by unethical ways or make his life in the organization unpleasant or difficult. Encouraging employees to vie with one another (divide and rule) is the strategy some unworthy superiors adopt in controlling people. With this practice, though the superior is able to manage people in the short run, it is only a false sense of control. It brings more problems than solutions. In our socio-cultural setting, this strategy leads to a host of other intractable problems. Our employees come from a society which is stratified according to caste, class, religion, region and so on. This divides and rule policy leads to formation of several political and power groups within the organizations. The aggrieved can always fan the caste and regional sentiments of people to mobilize mass support and solidarity and can always elevate their grievances as expressions of class and ideological conflict.
A participative leader not only influences the members of his group but is also influenced by them. He will not take the view that instructions should always flow from him by virtue of his being the leader of the group. He allows the members different degrees of participation matching with their capabilities, needs and growth potentialities and their need for guidance and supervision. The members are also inspired to set higher goals than previously attained, every time till the upper limits of their capabilities are touched. He encourages them to compete with themselves or beat their previous records rather than breaking each other’s records. He also provides the required infra-structural facilities and other resources.

4. Equitable TreatmentThere is need to consider every member of the team as ‘equal’ and ‘valuable’ as any other member, irrespective of the fact whether they are in high positions or in low positions or whether they are highly skilled specialists or low skilled rank and file, whether they belong to officer’s Cadre or Class IV category. This is the management principle which Gandhiji called ‘dignity of labour’ He called the people who are engaged in the so called ‘menial jobs’ as “Harijanas” (the sons of God). Similarly a more respectable term used for sweepers is ‘Safayee Wala’. Of course, just a change in terminology makes no sense, unless it is supported by change in attitudes.
Just as the strength of the chain lies in its weakest link, so also the strength of an organization depends upon the participation of all the members. Social distance and status differences divide people, just as social equality and acceptance and recognition of contributions unite them into a team. When all the employees, irrespective of what work they do, feel what they do is important and that they inspired to show workmanship, they also feel that they are ‘worthy’ individuals – a great feelings!

5. Uniformity in the standard of Knowledge and SkillsAll members should posses uniformly high standard of competence even if they posses skills in divergent fields. No member should fall far back compared to any other members. Continuous training and development help achieve the uniformity of standard. For this, there is need to develop a training and development culture throughout the organization.
Generally, employees may view training in two ways. Thy might think that only those whom the management judges as below the ‘mark’ are sent for retraining. Thus training acquires a negative connotation. In the case of training and seminar programmes arranged in five star Hotels, the executives may perceive it as a privilege to get sponsored to such programmes. In either case, the attitude towards training is a far from what it should be. Employees should be encouraged to look upon training as ever increasing opportunities for sharing higher responsibilities and for becoming what one is capable of becoming.

6. Rewarding Both Individual and TeamExcellence Organisation should encourage and reward both individual and group excellence, or individual excellence within the context of group excellence rather than just driving individuals. Some of the criteria for group excellence are co-operation, sharing each other’s knowledge and experience, sharing the objectives of the group etc. Except in the case of Research and Development setting, where the originality of the individual is of prime concern, group awards are preferable to individual awards.

7. Competition with CompetitorsThe organizations should encourage its employees to compete with other outside organizations, who are their competitors and discourage them to compete with one another, one section with another, one department with another and so on: as it is done in ‘Zero defect’ competitions and other internal competitions. In such competitions, more than positive competitive spirit, negative rivalry is expressed. Again, the pay offs of such campaigns will also be short lived.
The employees of one organisation can be put in healthy competition with its competitor by giving them comparative picture of the company performance, market share, customer value of its producers etc., This approach should promote motivation and team work.

8. Freedom of Expression Teamspirit develops when members are given opportunity to express their opinions and ideas freely and frankly and are encouraged to work through, resolve conflicts and reach consensus. Suppressing (sweeping under the rug) or smoothening over of the conflicts leads to emotional build up in individuals and groups and these express in the form of hostility, rivalry, belittling, anxiety, tension and prejudices.

In summary the knowledge of group dynamics can be helpful to the Management in developing productive work groups, effective administration of committees and developing skills in running meetings. There are a number of characteristic which differentiates a team from a group or collection of individuals. In teams members perceive common goals, feel common stakes display high amount of energy and motivation and sense of co-ordination, make use of their best abilities and supplement each other’s efforts. Teams do not develop automatically, so, the management must try to build and maintain teams by creating proper conditions in the organisation. Management should adopt team approach to management, as it has tremendous positive effect on productivity, employee morale and industrial relations.

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