Your instructor once attended a management club meeting of a firm at which one of the participants announced publicly that he intended to reduce the time he spent in group meetings from 38 to 25 hours per week. As groups are formed they first must establish norms of behavior within the group, and individuals must assume proper roles. This is the group's structure. A norm is a guide to accepted and legitimate behavior of group members. They define appropriate behavior for group members, they serve as standards for evaluating the various kinds of behavior exhibited by group members, and they help regularize and make predictable the behavior of group members.
Some norms are central to the success of groups, while others are merely desirable.
Group roles are the sets of attitudinal and behavioral expectations imposed on group members. Role ambiguity occurs when there are uncertainties about the behavioral expectations and actual behaviors. When the various expectations associated with some role conflict with one another, role conflict results. Group members can serve task related roles, maintenance related roles, or personal related roles. Both norms and roles must be addressed in the initial stage of group formation.