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Group Norms
Group norms are standards of behavior that are accepted and shared by a group’s members. Groups develop norms to indicate acceptable ways of interacting. Norms create expectations, set standards, and reflect the collective values of the team members. Once formed, norms are not easily changed.
Some common workplace norms include:
Timeliness (e.g., deadlines, consequences for not delivering on commitments, attendance and punctuality at meetings, etc.)
Work effort and performance (e.g., how hard to work, quality standards, etc.)
Communication (e.g., when and how communication should take place)
Consideration (e.g., (e.g., smoking, swearing, etc.)
Dress (e.g., what’s acceptable to wear to work)
Loyalty (e.g., whether individuals work late and/or on weekends, etc.)
How Norms Emerge
Groups can create norms through discussions among team members (Links to an external site.). Often, during the forming phase of team development, members will have conversations about standards of behavior for the group. By doing so, teams can identify and develop norms that support their collaboration and productivity.
Both establishing and maintaining norms are indicators of a team's maturity, made possible only when members have developed working relationships. Effective norms can develop on their own, especially if team members have prior experience working on successful teams. However, without explicit direction, dysfunctional norms, such as aversion to new ideas or conflict avoidance, may take hold.
Norms vs. Rules
Norms are different than rules. Rules require or prohibit behavior and are typically issued by someone with the authority to direct others to comply and to impose consequences if they do not. People might agree or disagree with a rule, but they generally are not free to ignore them. In contrast, norms are sets of expectations, not edicts. Group members themselves agree upon and reinforce norms through how they behave with each other. The clearer and more explicit the norms (especially if they are written down), the more effective they are at influencing team members' behavior.
Benefits of Norms
Through the process of developing shared norms of behavior, group members begin to hold each other accountable for contributions to the group. As demonstrated in the following video, group members may point out when someone violates a norm to help keep the group's performance on track.
To the extent that team members can rely on norms to shape behavior, the team may experience less uncertainty and more efficiency in how work gets done. For example, a norm about what constitutes timely completion of tasks may help focus individual efforts. Because people act in accordance with norms, their behavior can become predictable and provide stability to the team.
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Group Roles
Like your teamwork skills, expect your role on a team to develop over time. Also remember that, both as a student and as a member of the workforce, you’ll be a member of a team more often than a leader (a subject that we’ll take up in the next section). Team members, however, can have as much impact on a team’s success as its leaders. The key is the quality of the contributions they make in performing nonleadership roles (Whetten & Cameron, 2007).
What, exactly, are those roles? At this point, you’ve probably concluded that every team faces two basic challenges:
Accomplishing its assigned task
Maintaining or improving group cohesiveness
Whether you affect the team’s work positively or negatively depends on the extent to which you help it or hinder it in meeting these two challenges (Whetten & Cameron, 2007). We can thus divide teamwork roles into two categories, depending on which of these two challenges each role addresses. These two categories (task-facilitating roles and relationship-building roles) are summarized in Table 8.1.
Table 8.1 Roles that Team Members Play
| Task-facilitating Roles | Example | Relationship-building Roles | Example |
| Direction giving | “Jot down a few ideas and we’ll see what everyone has come up with.” | Supporting | “Now, that’s what I mean by a practical application.” |
| Information seeking | “Does anyone know if this is the latest data we have?” | Harmonizing | “Actually, I think you’re both saying pretty much the same thing.” |
| Information giving | “Here are latest numbers from.…” | Tension relieving | “Before we go on to the next section, how many people would like a pillow?” |
| Elaborating | “I think a good example of what you’re talking about is.…” | Confronting | “How does that suggestion relate to the topic that we’re discussing?” |
| Urging | “Let’s try to finish this proposal before we adjourn.” | Energizing | “It’s been a long time since I’ve had this many laughs at a meeting in this department.” |
| Monitoring | “If you’ll take care of the first section, I’ll make sure that we have the second by next week.” | Developing | “If you need some help pulling the data together, let me know.” |
| Process analyzing | “What happened to the energy level in this room?” | Consensus building | “Do we agree on the first four points even if number five needs a little more work?” |
| Reality testing | “Can we make this work and stay within budget?” | Empathizing | “It’s not you. The numbers are confusing.” |
| Enforcing | “We’re getting off track. Let’s try to stay on topic.” | ||
| Summarizing | “Before we jump ahead, here’s what we’ve decided so far.” |
Source: Adapted from David A. Whetten and Kim S. Cameron, Developing Management Skills, 7th ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2007), 517, 519.
Task-Facilitating (Task) Roles
Task-facilitating roles (also called task roles) address challenge number one—accomplishing the team goals. As you can see from Table 8.1, such roles include not only providing information when someone else needs it but also asking for it when you need it. In addition, it includes monitoring (checking on progress) and enforcing (making sure that team decisions are carried out). Task facilitators are especially valuable when assignments aren’t clear or when progress is too slow. Moreover, every team needs people who recognize when a little task facilitation is called for.
Relationship-Building (Maintenance) Roles
When you challenge unmotivated behavior or help other team members understand their roles, you’re performing a relationship-building role (also called maintenance role) and addressing challenge number two—maintaining or improving group cohesiveness. This type of role includes just about every activity that improves team “chemistry,” from confronting to empathizing.
Bear in mind three points about this model of team-membership roles: (1) Teams are most effective when there’s a good balance between task facilitation and relationship building; (2) it’s hard for any given member to perform both types of roles, as some people are better at focusing on tasks and others on relationships; and (3) overplaying any facet of any role can easily become counterproductive. For example, elaborating on something may not be the best strategy when the team needs to make a quick decision; and consensus building may cause the team to overlook an important difference of opinion.
Blocking Roles
Finally, review Table 8.2, which summarizes a few characteristics of another kind of team-membership role. So-called blocking roles consist of behavior that inhibits either team performance or that of individual members. Every member of the team should know how to recognize blocking behavior. If teams don’t confront dysfunctional members, they can destroy morale, hamper consensus building, create conflict, and hinder progress.
Table 8.2 How to Block Teamwork
| Blocking Strategy | Tactics |
| Dominate | Talk as much as possible; interrupt and interject |
| Overanalyze | Split hairs and belabor every detail |
| Stall | Frustrate efforts to come to conclusions: decline to agree, sidetrack the discussion, rehash old ideas |
| Remain passive | Stay on the fringe; keep interaction to a minimum; wait for others to take on work |
| Overgeneralize | Blow things out of proportion; float unfounded conclusions |
| Find fault | Criticize and withhold credit whenever possible |
| Make premature decisions | Rush to conclusions before goals are set, information is shared, or problems are clarified |
| Present opinions as facts | Refuse to seek factual support for ideas that you personally favor |
| Reject | Object to ideas offered by people who tend to disagree with you |
| Pull rank | Use status or title to push through ideas, rather than seek consensus on their value |
| Resist | Throw up roadblocks to progress; look on the negative side |
| Deflect | Refuse to stay on topic; focus on minor points rather than main points |
Source: Adapted from David A. Whetten and Kim S. Cameron, Developing Management Skills, 7th ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2007), 519–20.
Source: Exploring Business (Links to an external site.) by University of Minnesota
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Your Assignment
Read Remote Work Is Here to Stay. Bosses Better Adjust. 
Download Remote Work Is Here to Stay. Bosses Better Adjust.and answer the following questions:
The author said wise leaders know it is time to figure out how they and their teams can work remotely and productively over the long haul while protecting everyone from burnout. Which ideas/recommendations presented in the article did you find most convincing/insightful and why?
What are norms and why are norms important in the workplace?
If you were creating a charter or “prenup” for one of your online or remote classes, what team norms would you include?
How can leaders help workers deal with the “Swiss cheese” days they might be experiencing during the pandemic?
While not specifically discussed in the article, group roles are an important determinant of high performing teams. Which group roles (be specific) become even more important when teams are working remotely?
