Group Dynamics

Group dynamics is a social process of people interaction with each other (Levi, 2015). Understanding the group dynamics in any working field especially in healthcare organization is an important step to success and work productivity. Group thinking, decision making process and brainstorming can lead to effective discussions and debates which influence the work flow. It is amazing how new teams manage to work even though the team members do not know each other (Yang, 2014). The experiences of members in healthcare organizations when they are in groups are so powerful and fascinating in which they present new dimension about importance of group dynamics (Kreeger, 1975). Each member share responsibility toward effectiveness of the entire group. Different personalities and different back grounds in group dynamics can lead to excellent outcomes. For example, in Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs (MNG-HA) hospital which is one of the well-known Saudi healthcare organizations, a group of employees was formed in which a member is confident, he will share creative ideas and new thoughts while a shy member will be quiet and at the back of a group discussion. Another member can take the lead of managing the group and directing the group work toward achieving its goals. Positive thinkers can convert negative thinkers to see the picture from different angle. Dealing with differences, sorting out conflicts and building trust are some of the challenges that can emerge between members (Curry, 2012).

Group effectiveness and cohesiveness are important to each manager in Saudi healthcare organizations to accomplish certain goals. Effective groups are better in problem solving and task performance than individuals (Araújo-Simões & Guedes-Gondim, 2016). Therefore, Saudi healthcare organizations including MNG-HA plan for group working strategies to accomplish their goals such as medication safety committee, infection control committee and cardiopulmonary resuscitation committee (CPR). Edward Everett Hale Saied “coming together is the beginning, keeping together is progress, working together is success”. (p.1).

The success of Saudi Healthcare organization depends on the success of group work. Each member in the organization is in group tasks in different levels. For Example, director of medical nursing is a member in a group of all nursing directors who work together toward achieving organizational goals. A nurse manager is a member in a group of all nurse managers who work together to ensure policies adherence and disseminate information to their staff. A staff nurse is a member of nursing documentation group who work together to audit nursing documentation for better performance. Group effectiveness and cohesiveness in terms of quality performance, efficacy and efficiency is important. Groups have a reason for existing which is performing tasks and achieving goals and this is the organizational need (Araújo-Simões & Guedes-Gondim, 2016).