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What is Group Cohesiveness?

Cohesiveness refers to the bonding of group members and their desire to remain part of the group. Many factors influence the amount of group cohesiveness. Generally speaking, the more difficult it is to obtain group membership the more cohesive the group.

Groups also tend to become cohesive when they are in intense competition with other groups or face a serious external threat to survival. Smaller groups and those who spend considerable time together also tend to be more cohesive.

Cohesiveness in work groups has many positive effects, including worker satisfaction, low turnover and absenteeism, and higher productivity. However, highly cohesive groups may be harmful to organizational performance if their goals are misaligned with organizational goals.

Cohesiveness groups are often powerful and their members act united whenever the group faces threat from external threats.

Features of Group Cohesiveness

The following are the features of group cohesiveness:

1. The members share the group goals and norms and have common interests and backgrounds.
   
   
2. The number of members is small.
   
   
3. The members interact among themselves quite frequently and interpersonal communication is very effective.
   
   
4. Group loyalty among the members is high because the group enjoys high status.
   
   
5. The members stand themselves glued to the group as they feel that their needs would be satisfied by the group.
   
   
6. The group has a history of past success.

The group develops maturity and becomes cohesive or interconnected with the passage of time. Cohesiveness in a group is achieved when the group appears to be very attractive to its group members.

In such type of cohesiveness, individuals value their group membership and have a very strong enthusiasm and motivation to remain members of the group.

Group cohesiveness can be described as the attractiveness of a group to its members. A highly cohesive group appeals a lot to its members. The cohesiveness of a group plays an important role in the performance and effectiveness of the group.

Factors Affecting Group Cohesiveness

There are a large number of factors that influence the cohesiveness level of a group. Those important factors affecting group cohesiveness can be broadly categorized into five types. They are:

1. Size of Group
2. Homogeneous Character of Group Members
3. Success of Group
4. Competition with Other Groups
5. Exclusiveness

Size of Group

As we know the fact that small family is more cohesive or interconnected and so is the group. The smaller the group, the more will be cohesiveness and more will be their satisfaction. The larger group will deliver dissatisfaction to its members and will have cohesiveness.

In large groups, it is normally observed that only a few members of the groups try to dominate everything such as suggestion, opinion, and routine functioning.

It does not give other members the opportunity to be part of this decision-making process. So, large groups are more prone to conflict, members develop incompatibility with each other than small or medium size groups in terms of cohesiveness.

Homogeneous Character of Group Members

The greater amount of similarity felt by group members with each other’s helps in building bonds of faith, trust, and satisfaction among them. It enhances communication among group members.

The group can be considered to be most cohesive when its members are more homogenous in terms of age, sex, education, marital status, etc.

The members also share certain attitudes, values, experiences, and other characteristics that are common to each other. Groups whose members have different interests and backgrounds are often less effective in promoting their interests.

Success of Group

The success of the group makes it cohesive. A sense of realization is developed among group members to avoid differences in accomplishing group goals. The groups become s attractive to their members when the groups become successful in achieving their goals. This further enhances cohesiveness in the group.

Competition with Other Groups

Group cohesiveness is increased in the organization when competition between groups increases. The growing competition among groups in an organization motivates members of each group to come together to achieve group goals.

This is the one basic reason why organizations promote group cohesiveness by having work groups competition in the organization between /among groups over sales target, zero defect production, minimization of wastages; etc. The recognition of group names and publicizing gives them encouragement and also encourages healthy competition. It maintains good quality and maintains extraordinary working levels among the groups.

Exclusiveness

Group exclusiveness states the status of the group in the organization. It implies to the superiority and selectiveness of a group that it possesses to appoint its members. It is also the extent to which an outsider looks up to its ground members.

It also provides special rights and privileges to its group members. The cohesive group members become more active participants in the group activities. It also increases the level of communication within the group. The cohesive group members share a common goal and develop high group loyalty and unite together to fight out any threat. The flow of information is very fast in the cohesive work group.

Importance of Group Cohesiveness

There are many benefits to group cohesiveness. Here are just four general importance of group cohesiveness:

1. The communication within the group is much more extensive. In other words, people who like each other communicate better and more frequently with each other.
   
   
2. Groups that are more cohesive have positive interactions with one another. People are friendlier and there is an increased feeling of the group as a whole. As a result, the group acts as a whole, not as individuals.
   
   
3. A group that has a high level of group cohesiveness is much more successful in achieving its goal. The feeling of togetherness in the group motivates members to achieve the desired goal and their efforts increase.
   
   
4. The members in groups that are cohesive are much more satisfied with that group. As a result, they are more willing to stay in the group longer and often recommend the group to others.

FAQs About the Group Cohesiveness