Psychology of management

2.
 
The main characteristics of a collective, forming and controlling it 
 
Social psychology views 
a collective as a special group quality connected with 
common activity
. This special quality is a product of development of groups existing within a 
certain system of social activity. From this point of view, 
not any group can be viewed as a 
collective, but only that which has formed certain psychological characteristics which 
appeared as a result of its main activity’s development
and are of special importance for its 
members. 

---

74 
One can distinguish three main characteristics which are pointed by different authors as 
obligatory signs of a collective. First of all, 
a collective is a union of people in the name of 
achieving a 
certain
 socially approved aim
(in this sense as a collective cannot be considered a 
united, but antisocial group, for example a group of criminals). 
Secondly, this is a union voluntary in character, and by “voluntary” we mean here not 
spontaneity of collective’s forming, but such a group characteristic when it is not simply “pre-
set” by outer circumstances, but has become for the individuals comprising it the system of the 
relations actively built by them on the basis of common activity. A considerable sign of a 
collective is its integrity. It is expressed in the fact that a collective acts as some activity system 
with inherent to it organization, distribution of functions, certain structure of control and 
management. Finally, a collective is a special form of relations between its members which 
ensures the principle of personality development not in spite, but together wit the collective’s 
development. 
At present there are several “models” of a collective’s development, each of which fixes 
the special stages in this movement. 
The most detailed concept of a collective’s development belongs to A.V. Petrovsky. It 
presents a group consisting of three strata (layers). Each of them is characterized by a certain 
principle, on which the relations between group-members are built up.