Comparative study of approaches to assessment of informal roles in a working (student) group

Abstract: In the courseof the process of education a special organizational context is formed in every student group. Organizational culture that depends on various internal and external factors is used for the purposes of assess -ment of this context. One of the internal factors affecting the pattern of reinforced organizational values is the informal relationship between the students. Division of informal roles in a working (student) group influences formation of the organizational cultural profile of the group. Keywords: organizational culture, organizational culture profile, informal roles, student group, higher profes-sional education. Effectiveness of the educational process depends on sev-eral objective factors. One of such factors is organizational culture which that allows to influence for the process of de-velopment of professional competencies of students. It brings together organizational values and determines effectiveness of both group and individual performance.Notwithstanding the innovative nature of studies related to organizational culture of a student group, researches do not pay considerable attention to this field. Such situation is caused by the necessity to conduct a research on organiza-tional culture management within a student group. In the course of a research being carried out in this field by the department of Economics and management (Moscow State University of Design and Technology) an indicator (in the form of detached area) used in assessment of deviation of a personal organizational culture profile from the profile of a group was proposed. An inverse relationship between this indicator and academic performance of students was also identified. A decrease in the size of the detached area through change in composition of a group contributes to in-crease in effectiveness of the educational process.In the abovementioned research OCAI framework model developed by K.Cameron and R. Quinn was used [6]. This model is based on description of organizational culture with regard to its key dimensions which form the personal profile of the current and desired organizational culture.OCAI instrument is a universal tool easy to under-stand and to use, which allows to identify the system of organizational values. However, universality of this instru-ment resulted in weakness of the correlation between de-tached area and academic performance indices of the stu-dents (regression coefficient — R2 = 0.0465) [1]. OCAI model suggests considering the contribution of each par-ticipant of the group to be equal when proceeding from description of personal profiles of organizational culture to the group profile. It can be assumed that such approach is simplified and that the profile of a group may be compiled regarding the value of each participant of a working (stu-dent) group. The informal relationships between the group members are also an important factor affecting the nature of manifested organizational values.Resuming the research, it is proposed to improve OCAI model via taking into account the peculiarities of division of informal roles in a student group. An increase in index of regression coefficient between the adjusted detached area and objective indicators qualifying academic performance of students may serve as a proof of validity of the proposed assumptions.An amended OCAI instrument may serve as a basis for a pattern of student group formation that will increase the level of quality and effectiveness of core process of education as a result of creation of favourable learning environment.At the first stage of the research a comparative analysis of approaches (theories) to assessment of informal roles in a working (student) group. The results are provided on Table 1.