Executive Summary
This is an essay that tackles the significant concept of small groups in organizations. The paper first provides a concise discussion of what a small group is, its types, importance and the difficulties it presents in organizations. In the latter part of the essay, an in-depth examination and assessment of Ford Motor Company’s small groups are included, so as to provide concrete situations with regard to the task groups’ norms and culture, roadblocks, communication, decision making processes, and techniques for effective small group meetings.
Introduction
Organizations, regardless of origin or size, are composed of individuals who exert extensive effort to perform their work responsibilities. These human resources are likewise expected to fulfill the objectives or goals of the organization they work for. Unfortunately, since most companies are composed of several members, it is only necessary to divide the organization into smaller groups, on the basis of rational and practical foundations and criteria.
Small Groups: An Overview
Small groups are defined as a collection of three or more organizational members who regularly converse and interact with one another, so as to fulfill their responsibilities in the company they work for.
Furthermore, other researchers who define small groups give emphasis on the importance of the utilization of face-to-face communication, interdependence among members, common objectives and shared values, and the adherence to structured patterns.
Types of Small Groups
There are two types of small groups, namely formal and informal groups. Informal groups are not indicated in organizational charts and are not elements of the company’s operating blueprint. On the other hand, formal groups are officially acknowledged by the corporation and are indicated in the organizational chart, planning documents, and other important records in the company.
To be more specific, informal groups are formed through natural interactions among the members of the organization. Such individuals gather together, build on unspoken or explicit membership conditions, and sustain themselves, on the purpose of useful social and business intentions.
Conversely, the major function of formal groups is the achievement of organizational goals, such as market strategy, productivity, and the like. Furthermore, there are two types of formal groups, namely functional groups and task or project groups.
Functional groups may be permanent or quasi-permanent, and are created based on the structure of the organization. More specifically, the relationships between managers and subordinates greatly affect the formation of functional groups. Examples of functional groups are a corporation’s marketing department, top management team, maintenance employees, and the like.
On the other hand, task or project groups are formed to fulfill a specific organizational task. These teams are created to encourage communication, interaction, coordination, productivity, and innovation in the organization. Additionally, task or project groups could exist for short or long periods of time, depending on how long the organizational task is accomplished.
Importance and Disadvantage of Small Groups in Organizations
As was earlier mentioned, it is advantageous for an organization to subdivide the company into smaller groups so as to have more focused methods on the achievement of the organization’s goals or the resolution of the company’s problems. For instance, a certain company that is inclined on the distribution of numerous products for different types of consumers may encounter a dilemma with regard to the effective marketing of a specific product. To answer that specific problem, the company could assign its marketing department—a formal small group—to do the necessary steps to deal with the crisis. If needed, the company’s marketing team could then form a task or project group. Accordingly, the members of these teams would concentrate on the responsibility at hand, which is nonetheless their forte. Consequently, the dilemma would eventually be solved, without adversely affecting the whole organization in the process; productivity would then increase, while growth and success would eventually be experienced by the organization.
Unfortunately, small groups in organizations also pose disadvantages to the company. Everyday, about 11 million to 20 million meetings occur in companies in the United States (US) alone. Additionally, based from a survey from the chief marketing officers of the Fortune 1,000 organizations, these executives spend too much time for their meetings—an average of 59 hours a week, with 21 hours allotted for meetings (. In fact, according to a survey of 2,000 executives in the US at Fortune 1,000 companies, small group meetings are considered by the company officers as the greatest waste of time. As for expenses, organizations also consume billions of dollars for company-wide meetings such as strategy sessions, conferences, and retreats. Furthermore, Industry Week estimates that billion worth of human resources’ time is allotted for meetings annually.
An Examination of Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is a globally acclaimed manufacturer and distributor of automobiles in 200 markets, across six continents. This automotive company is based in Michigan, US, and consists of about 300,000 human resources and 108 plants all over the world. The organization’s core and affiliated automotive brands are Ford, Land Rover, Jaguar, Mazda, Aston Martin, Mercury, Volvo, and Lincoln.
A. Identify, label, and discuss the small groups in your organization
Currently, Ford is headed by company CEO, Alan Mulally. Since the organization is home to quite a number of employees, it is evidently subdivided into formal functional groups or departments. Concrete examples of such formal groups are Environmental and Public Policy, Compensation, Nominating and Governance, Audit, Finance, and the like; evidently, employees in these departments possess their own responsibilities.
To illustrate, human resources in the Environmental and Public Policy department are responsible for the activities that are concerned with the preservation of the environment towards the promotion of public welfare. Ford owns renewed manufacturing plants that lessen the amount of hazardous materials that the company inevitably produces, whether directly or indirectly. Furthermore, the organization launch campaigns, partnerships, establishments, extensive research, and other projects and activities that promote the conservation of the world’s air, climate, nature, wildlife, and environment in general.
Additionally, Ford also is divided into formal project or task groups that are created to tackle specific problems. For example, during the early 1980s, the corporation was faced with a dilemma in the sales of their vehicles. To address this crisis, Ford researchers created focus groups that were tasked to define the problem areas in the company. Furthermore, Ford also implemented other project groups that deal with customer relations, quality, and other issues relevant to the problem. Eventually, after extensive research conducted by the members of the task group, as well as a broad assessment of the manufacturing procedures of Ford, the company was able to successfully market its Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable.
B. Select one of the task groups and discuss these issues.
1. What are the norms of the group?
One of Ford’s task group is the Information Technology (IT) process-leadership group. This small group is intentionally formed in order to address the technological issues of the organization. Since Ford Motor Company is a corporation that constantly has to compete with other organizations in a modern and technological business environment, it has to adapt its culture and norms so that it could uphold its image to its patrons.
Since Ford Motor Company is an internationally acclaimed organization that consistently projects an image of success and innovation, it is only expected that the internal workings of the corporation’s IT group is composed of people who possess the qualities and capabilities that are necessary to uphold the organization’s semblance.
Ford’s IT task group is comprised of individuals who are perfect embodiments of the company’s goals. For instance, under the leadership of former key officials, Jacques Nasser and Bernard Mathaisel, Ford is able to design a stable working approach for the incorporation of IT into the company’s changing business. James McQuivey, senior analyst at Forrester Research Inc. once did not believe that the IT task group could make it, under the management of Nasser and Mathaisel; but because of the group’s culture of determination and perseverance, quality job was executed by the IT task group.
In addition, another norm in Ford’s small task group is its culture of openness to changes and innovation. The organization has already existed for more than a hundred years and has witnessed the both moderate and radical changes in the preference of consumers and the behavior of the society in general. Presently, the technological advancements abound in our society which is why it is necessary for the members of Ford’s IT small task group to maintain norms of ingenuity and receptiveness to technological revolutions.
2. How does the group communication when making decisions
It was earlier mentioned that when making decisions, a small group would be more efficient if face to face communication would be utilized by its members. This is precisely what Ford Motor Company does.
Normally, members of the company’s IT task group conduct regular meetings with its members. These people discuss the various issues and problems at hand that concern information technology matters that concern the organization, its employees, and the consumers. Before these individuals make any decision, they would first evaluate and assess every aspect of the situation, and the factors that could affect their decision. Then, they would consult the leaders of departments that are directly accountable for these decisions, through similar face to face assemblies.
Once decisions have been appraised and made, these are passed on to the other members of the organization, since these pronouncements are also their concern. However, instead of face to face gatherings which are done by Ford’s IT task group, the message could be conveyed to the company’s human resources through memorandums or written announcements, because face to face meetings would be time consuming for such a large number of people.
3. How do the group members deal with conflict? Focus on their communication strategy.
To deal with conflicts faced by Ford’s task team, the IT small group then identified five major segments of the corporate business so as to have focused reengineering efforts—order to delivery, design to delivery, manufacturing, services, and product design. Then, this dedicated team examined and documented every aspect of the situation. To do so, constant communication and interaction occurred between and among other groups concerned with the task at hand. For example, the IT process staff work with the operational employees to document the present processes in a certain area, to perform various advisory-consulting responsibilities, and the like.
Moreover, to avoid internal conflict, Ford’s strategy with regard to the management of its numerous task groups is to generate a four-stage business strategy model. This model consists of the organization’s mission, strategy, processes, and infrastructure, and these are reflected and reiterated at each department of the corporation.
The IT process-leadership group has its own version of the four-stage business strategy model; even other task groups under the IT department also have their own mirror model. For instance, Ford, as a corporate business, has the Mission to be a world’s foremost consumer company that offers automotive products and services. As for the IT task group, its Mission is to be the world’s leading provider of information technology services.
Another example is Ford’s Strategy, which is to be a universal trust mark that serves consumers with a set of international brands. On the other hand, the IT small task group is further subdivided into three segments, namely process and technology, solutions delivery, and technical services. These segments also have their own specific responsibilities.
Next, Ford Motor Company’s Process Model performs its operations so as to fulfill its strategy through production delivery, vehicle design, consumer services, and the like. The IT team’s process models are similar to this since the IT process leadership group is directly accountable to the aforementioned Process Model.
Finally, Ford’s corporate business model indicates that its infrastructure includes human resources, suppliers, dealers, shareholders, and so on. On the other hand, it is necessary for the IT task group to have a description of the components of its infrastructure so as to permit the business process to effectively function.
4. What are the roadblocks to effective communication?
One specific roadblock to effective communication encountered by Ford was its difficulty with the effective use of information technology; to deal with this problem, the organization employed a centralized decision making. Before, Ford had no centralized IT group, which resulted to incompatible systems, lengthy information dissemination, and a slow decision making process. To answer these difficulties, a major change in the company was initiated by the corporation’s consolidation of its systems groups towards a central organization.
Another major roadblock for Ford’s IT task group is the fact that its business is a moving target. To deal with this difficulty, another group was generated to tackle the needs for responsible IT and process leadership.
The last set of roadblocks for the IT task group may seem trivial but it could adversely contribute to the accomplishment of the small group’s goals. There are circumstances wherein the habitual meetings of the task group prove to be costly and time consuming for the company. Moreover, there are instances wherein the members of the team could not regularly come to the gatherings due to tardiness or absences. Hence, incomplete attendance in the task group hinders the necessary inclusive presence of its members, toward effective communication and creation of important decisions for the company.
5. What techniques make the meetings more productive?
One reason for unproductive and even destructive small group meetings is the lack of a concrete plan of action that would guide the members of the group towards the realization of its objectives. Ford dealt with this difficulty through the creation of an organizational model that serves as a standard for its members.
Based from this model, the process leaders of the IT task group are placed on the horizontal axis of the process leadership organizational chart, and are categorized under three headings—process and technology, solutions and delivery, and technical services. On the other hand, the process managers, program managers, and regional business coordinators are placed in the vertical axis of the organizational chart.
For further clarification, consider the succeeding example: Teri Takai is the leader of the Special Projects and Business Integration task group that deals with the integration of organizational acquisitions such as Volvo. Takai administers resolute members in the task group but the numbers of such individuals are limited. So, as necessary, Takai could borrow members from the task groups of other colleagues. Such a practice is one concrete example of how Ford Motor Company tackles hindrances to productive small group gatherings.
Moreover, to deal with the hindrance of incomplete attendance from the members of the IT task group, the team assures that the meetings are scheduled during instances wherein the employees are all available. However, if there are circumstances wherein some members could really not come to the meetings, the IT task group would assure that the majority of the members could attend and participate in important communication and decision making procedures.
Conclusion
It has been established that small groups, specifically formal small groups, pose advantages to any organization, for these encourage more effective methods and approaches for the resolution of organizational problems and dilemmas. On the other hand, small group meetings may also be disadvantageous to organizations, and this may be caused by an unprepared and unstructured guide for the fulfillment of the group’s objectives.
Ford Motor Company is one example of a reputable organization that makes use of task groups to deal with specific past and present obstacles. Its organizational culture and norms contribute greatly to the formation of capable task groups, as well as the utilization of effective communication and interaction in the decision making process. Lastly, Ford also applies useful techniques that deal with the roadblocks that the company inevitably meet, which hinder its growth and success.
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