Group Types

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Groups can take many forms. The most common among them are called primary groups—long-lasting groups that form around the relationships that mean the most to their members. Your family constitutes one primary group to which you belong; your friends are another.

In addition to primary groups, there are groups defined by their specific functions (for instance, support groups, study groups, and social groups). However, any one of these groups can perform multiple functions. Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), for example, is primarily a support group—a set of individuals who come together to address personal problems while benefiting from the support of others with similar issues. But AA is also a social group, as membership in the group offers opportunities to form relationships with others. And finally, as a group with a specific mission—to help members manage their struggles with alcohol and addiction—AA is also a problem-solving group.

While all groups are to a degree social, some are more task oriented than others. Study groups, for example, are formed for the specific purpose of helping students prepare for exams. Perhaps the most task-oriented and goal-driven type of group is the team—a group that works together to carry out a project or to compete against other teams. Sports teams are obvious examples, but teams are also common in large organizations or as subsets of other groups: an Army unit might select a few members to form a reconnaissance team; a community group might nominate a team of individuals to take charge of its annual fundraiser.

One of the more noteworthy and common types of groups in today’s organizations is the self-directed work team, a group of skilled workers who take responsibility for producing high-quality finished work (Douglas, 2002). In self-directed work teams, members bring complementary skills and experiences that enable the team to accomplish more than any individual member could achieve independently (Katzenbach & Smith, 1993).

In self-directed work teams, many typical management functions are completely controlled by the team members. For example, members arrange their own schedules, buy their own equipment, and set their own standards for productivity, quality, and costs. They conduct their own peer evaluations, bring in new members, and coordinate future plans with management. The theory is that when people have more control over their work, they have a more positive attitude and are more committed to the group.

Perhaps the most dramatic impact of self-directed teams is the improved performance and behavior of employees throughout the organization. In enterprises characterized by self-directed teams, the environment is marked by cooperation rather than competition.

Of course, the lessons of self-directed work teams extend far beyond work situations. Collaborative software programs (most commonly known as open-source pages or wikis) allow many individuals to collaborate on a written project, creating, editing, and linking content and reviewing the work of others.