ABSTRACT

An employee is seldom involved with all the other employees in an organisation. People who work in organisations spend most of their time in a group context. Groups can be classified according to the function they have within an organisation. Usually, two functions can be identified: administrative and executive. The idea of forming semi-autonomous or self-managing teams in organisations arose in the 1970s. The groups are a component of the structure of an organisation. Groups are formed in organisations for many purposes, such as the production of goods, the provision of services, planning, managing and coordinating activities, financial management, maintenance, marketing and the development of new products. Groups enter the performance phase when their members have reached sufficient agreement about goals, methods and how they will interact with one another. Groups can also dissolve because they are mired in conflict or because they have had so little success after a time that members give up.