Work groups are typically formed to provide companionship and identification, behavioral guidelines, problem-solving help, and protection. Various factors can contribute to the cohesiveness and functioning of the work group, including the group’s status, size, personal characteristics, location, and previous successes. Work groups can significantly influence employee attitudes and job performance, a reality supervisors must recognize and be prepared to address.

At any time, an employee may be a member of a command group, a task group or cross-functional team, a friendship group, or a special-interest group.

Command and task groups are based primarily on job-related factors. Friendship and special-interest groups mainly reflect personal relationships and interests. Employees who are dissatisfied with their jobs or working conditions, or fear losing their jobs due to outsourcing or economic downturn, may be attracted to form a special-interest group, for example, a labor union. As a supervisor, you need to be aware of any hint of employee dissatisfaction that may lead to a unionizing effort. There is increasing use of customer-satisfaction teams, which may include customer and supplier representatives. Participation in each of these work groups can influence worker attitudes and productivity in different ways.

Supervisors should be sensitive to all these groups and how they impact their employee members. P-987