You can do almost the same thing with the Action option on a sim. You can form a group, add and remove members and disband a group on that menu. To find it, just click on any sim you want in the group. It should be there after clicking on More Choices once if not visible in the first group of options you see when you click on a sim. You can either use Form to make the entire group or Add to add members one at the time. It would be easier and quicker if the game did it like you describe, but you can do it yourself with just a few clicks.
Hope this helps.
