Intergroup Relatios Across Culture

Intergroup Interaction Across the Cultures

GROUP • A group is a unit of two or more people in reciprocal communication and interaction
with each other.

• Group formation promotes discipline, loyalty, group responsibility and group pressure among
employees.

• Group member’s roles include knowledge contributor, process observer, people supporter,
challenger, listener, mediator, gatekeeper and take-charge leader.
GROUP PROCESS: Group process refers to how an organization's members work together to
get things done. Group process refers to what happens within groups including communication,
decision making, leadership, motivation and cohesiveness, norms, roles, power and control
dynamics, synergy, social loafing or free riding, social facilitation effect etc.
INTERGROUP PROCESS • Intergroup relation between two or more groups and their
respective members is often necessary to complete the work required to operate a business.
Many times, groups inter-relate to accomplish the organization’s goals and objectives.
INTERGROUP RELATIONS
Intergroup relations refers to interactions between individuals in different social groups, and to

interactions taking place between the groups themselves collectively.
In 1966, Muzafer Sherif proposed a now-widely recognized definition of intergroup relations:

"Whenever individuals belonging to one group interact, collectively or individually, with another
group or its members in terms of their group identification, we have an instance of intergroup
behavior".
Social psychological research on intergroup relations concerns the perceptions, attitudes, and
behaviors humans express when they think of themselves and others as members of social
groups. All humans belong to many different types of social groups, ranging from smaller
groupings of people (such as one’s circles of friends) to larger social categories (such as gender
and race).
Cultural Differences in Intergroup interactions:
Since people are treated on the basis of their membership to one’s ingroup or out group, it
effects their intergroup relations. The individualistic cultures (Western countries) and
collectivistic cultures such as China and Japan differ on the basis of their in-groups.
In-groups are Characterized by:
 A history of shared experiences and anticipated future interaction.

 Our ingroups gives a us a sense of intimacy, familiarity, trust and personal security.
 All cultures make ingroup-outgroup differentiation, which leads to psychological
consequences.
 People expect greater similarities between themselves and ingroup and attribute more
uniquely human emotions.
In Individualistic cultures, people
 Have more ingroups
 Are not attached to any single group
 Survival of individual and society more dependent on individual interests
In Collectivistic cultures, people
 Have fewer ingroups
 Are very attached to the ingroups to which they belong
 Survival of individual and society more dependent on group interests
In-group favouritism
People also tend to evaluate people differently depending on whether they are members
of one’s own groups (in-group members) or members of other groups (out-group members);
specifically, people typically show a preference for members of their own groups, such that they
evaluate them more positively and make more positive attributions for their behaviours, as
compared to how they evaluate out-group members (this tendency is called in-group
favouritism).
Reasons for In-group favouritism
 It is a good starting point in group formation itself.
 Individuals in all cultures make distinctions among the individuals with whom they
interact based on group memberships.
 One type of meaningful social relationship that people of all societies make are in-groups
and out groups
Theoretical Description of Intergroup relations
1- Realistic conflict theory (RCT):
It is a social psychological model of intergroup conflict. Groups may compete for concrete

resources such as money and land or abstract resources such as political power and social status
which leads to hostility. The theory explains that intergroup hostility can arise as a result of
conflicting goals and competition over limited resources. It may leads to the feelings
of prejudice and discrimination toward the outgroup that accompany the intergroup hostility.
2- Self-categorization theory: It explains the contexts in which an individual perceives a

collection of people as a group. When people think and act as group members, they tend
to accentuate similarities between themselves and members of their own groups, and
exaggerate differences between members of their own group and other groups (social
categorization).
3- Social identity theory describes how individual identity is shaped by membership in a
social group. It also predicts differences in intergroup behavior based on perceived status
differences between social groups, the legitimacy and stability of those perceived status
differences, and ability to move between social groups.
4- Contact Hypothesis
Gordon Allport developed this hypothesis, which states that contact with members of another
social group in the appropriate circumstances can lead to a reduction of prejudice between
majority and minority group members. There are three psychological processes underlying
the contact hypothesis:
 learning about the outgroup through direct contact,

 fear and anxiety reduction when interacting with the outgroup, and
 increased ability to perspective take and empathize with the outgroup which results in
reduced negative evaluation.
Factors effecting membership to a social group
Many factors can affect whether people will be inclined to think of themselves and others
as individuals or as members of social groups. Some of these factors are as follows:
1- Social Context or needs of a social group: Longstanding histories of tension and

conflict between groups, whether based in competition over resources or contrasting
beliefs, can compel people to view themselves and others in terms of group membership.
2- proto typicality Perceiving that certain people are more similar to each other than others
can lead people to categorize themselves and other people as members of distinct groups.
Such perceptions can be enhanced further depending on how strongly people appear to
represent the characteristics that define their groups.
3- homogeneity : how similar members of each group appear to be to each other
4- numerical representation : how many members of each group are present in the
immediate social situation.
5- Past Social experiences: People would identify strongly with their groups, if they were
stigmatized or rejected because of their group membership, might be especially likely to
perceive their interactions with others in terms of their identities as group members.
Because through belonging to their group they feel protected from the feelings of
insecurity due to being stigmatized.
Anxieties about cross-group interactions
People often try to discern whether other people perceive them as individuals or as group
members, so that they know what to expect in interactions with them. Generally, when people
think they are being viewed as group members, they expect that outgroup members will evaluate
them negatively and think of them in terms of the negative stereotypes associated with their
groups. Whether because of the anticipation of negative evaluations or uncertainty about how
they will be perceived, people often feel anxious about interactions with outgroup members.
Such anxieties can have a negative impact on how members of different groups interact with
each other, which destroy the potential for achieving positive relations between their groups. For
example, when people feel anxious in cross-group interactions, they tend to act in less
spontaneous and relaxed ways; not only may such negative behaviors make cross-group
interactions unpleasant, but they may also be interpreted as signs of prejudice by members of the
other group. In addition, feeling anxious can make it harder for people to attend to personalized
information about outgroup members, thereby leading them to rely more heavily on stereotypes
as they interact with members of other groups.
Solution:
Developing close relationships across group boundaries can also be effective in reducing
anxiety about future cross-group interactions and encouraging people to look beyond their own
interests and express more concern for the welfare of members of other groups.
Strategies to Improve the quality of intergroup relations
A great deal of research on intergroup relations has sought to identify strategies that can
be used to improve relations between groups. Much of this work has focused on how to structure
conditions of the social situation so that contact between groups will lead to positive intergroup
outcomes.
1- Super ordinate goals
These are the goals that require the cooperation of two or more people or groups to achieve,
which usually results in rewards to the groups. It will lead to establishment of positive and
supportive intergroup relations.
2- Negotiation
It involves establishing a healthy environment, where two groups agree to discuss about their
concerns openly, and come to mutually agreeable solutions.
3- Intergroup team development
Inter group development seeks to change the attitudes stereotypes and perceptions that
groups have of each other.
It addresses cooperation and effectiveness at an organizational level/in society. Its goal is to
increase cooperation among different groups in society.
It gets the groups to understand how they can best work together in order to make an
effective and progressive society.
Inter group development seeks to change the attitudes stereotypes and perceptions that
groups have of each other
4- Establishing equal status between groups:
It involves ensuring groups that their interactions are supported by institutional authorities,
and having them work together cooperatively toward common goals.
5- De-emphasize group differences
Recent theories suggest that people should initially de-emphasize group differences when
members of different groups interact—by focusing on either personal characteristics or group
memberships they share in common—so that they can develop relationships beyond the confines
of their distinct group memberships. Once these relationships are established, group distinctions
should then be emphasized so that any positive effects of their relationships would be likely to
translate into more positive attitudes toward all members of their groups.

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Intergroup Interaction Across the Cultures

Intergroup relations refers to interactions between individuals in different social groups, and to

In 1966, Muzafer Sherif proposed a now-widely recognized definition of intergroup relations:

In-groups are Characterized by:

 A history of shared experiences and anticipated future interaction.

In Individualistic cultures, people

 Have more ingroups

 Are not attached to any single group

 Survival of individual and society more dependent on individual interests

In Collectivistic cultures, people

 Have fewer ingroups

 Are very attached to the ingroups to which they belong

 Survival of individual and society more dependent on group interests

Reasons for In-group favouritism

 It is a good starting point in group formation itself.

Theoretical Description of Intergroup relations

1- Realistic conflict theory (RCT):

It is a social psychological model of intergroup conflict. Groups may compete for concrete

2- Self-categorization theory: It explains the contexts in which an individual perceives a

 learning about the outgroup through direct contact,

Factors effecting membership to a social group

1- Social Context or needs of a social group: Longstanding histories of tension and

Anxieties about cross-group interactions

Strategies to Improve the quality of intergroup relations

1- Super ordinate goals

3- Intergroup team development

4- Establishing equal status between groups:

5- De-emphasize group differences

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