The Role of Formal and Informal Groups

The Role of Formal and Informal Groups Within the University of Phoenix Online By Stephen Ruiz MGT 340 Organization conjecture and Behavior December 2011/January 2012 Online Mondays Professor Robert Schlagheck, MS January 20, 2012 Formal and informal groups play a significant quality within The University of Phoenix Online (UOP). A formal group would be one defined by the organizations structure, with designated practice assignments establishing tasks (Robbins, 2011, p. 276). A typical organizational chart would be an ensample of a formal group, where places and roles within a hierarchical organization ar clearly defined.An informal group would be neither form all toldy coordinate nor organizationally determined (Robbins, 2011, p. 276). Informal groups often develop around social or project groups (Schatz, 2012). An example of an informal group could be a few employees who chose to take a walk during their break sentence each morning. UOP has several formal groups. First, i n that location is a leadership team that is comprised of a Vice President, cured Directors, Associate Directors and Managers. Their roles are defined and collectively they are in charge of measuring and maximizing productiveness and defining organizational objectives.Lately this group has been focusing on employee satisfaction after it was revealed, through employee surveys, that there was a growing dissatisfaction among employees. Things like inflexible work schedules and inconsistent communication from the leadership team were to blame. To ameliorate this situation I would do many of the things this group is doing now besides in a much than aggressive manner. In addressing the inflexible work schedules, employees are now able to flex time more easily. I would weapon alternative work schedules, more specifically, 4-10 work weeks.Regarding the inconsistent communication, we now have all division teleconferences to make the communication more uniform. Again, this strategy has been too infrequent and reactive instead of proactive. I would hold implement more frequent communication opportunities. Perhaps a weekly all pay or all enrollment communication. Next there are work teams. These are formal groups with a manager and ten employees. These team are formed based on the geographical regions that they service. The manager is responsible for(p) for motivating and providing support to the team portions.The team members or advisors are responsible for assisting students. In my case, processing financial aid files, and providing customer service to students, while maintaining acceptable retention and accounts receivable levels. An improvement I would implement would be similar to the Fiedler model discussed in the text. In the past year, I have had 5 assorted managers. I would try to establish manager-team that have styles that compliment each other. There are a superfluity of informal groups at UOP. These groups are encouraged at UOP.There are reading g roups, walking groups, and even out a ping pong group to name a few. Personally, I am a member of a small lunch group and a larger social group. The lunch group is do up of 3 others. We all are in the same position and have common interests much(prenominal) as movies and sports. I would refer to these employees as friends. The larger social group is less defined but is a network of past and present team members and we share information, the grapevine. I would refer to these members as acquaintances.In the end, formal and informal groups can be both positive and negative. The structure and defined roles and objectives are positive. Personal conflict and gossip would be examples of negative attributes of groups References Robbins, S. P. & Judge, T. A. (2011). organizational Behavior. Upper Saddle River Pearson Educational, Inc. Schatz, T. (2012). Basic Types of Organizational Structure Formal and Informal. Retrieved from http//smallbusiness. chron. com/basic-types-organizational-s tructure-formal-informal-982. html