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WEEK 4 READING 1 - Group Dynamics (COMMUNICATION PROCESSES AND INTERACTION…
WEEK 4 READING 1 - Group Dynamics
Failure to pay careful attention to group dynamics can lead to unproductive meetings and dissatisfied members.
To practice effectively with groups, social workers should:
Understand group dynamic processes as they emerge during the ongoing interaction of group members.
Consider the impact of these dynamics on members from different racial/ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Assess the impact of emerging dynamics on current and future group functioning.
Guide the development of group dynamics that facilitate member participation and satisfaction while simultaneously enabling the group to achieve its goals.
CONCEPTUALISING GROUP DYNAMICS:
A conceptual framework enables workers to identify and understand group dynamics as they emerge during interaction.
Group dynamics fall within five domains:
Communication processes and interaction patterns
Interpersonal attraction and cohesion
Social integration and influence
Power and control
Culture
COMMUNICATION PROCESSES AND INTERACTION PATTERNS:
They are the components of social interaction that influence the behaviour and attitudes of group members.
As a process, communication involves the transmission of a message from a sender to a receiver.
Face-to-face group members experience both verbal and no-verbal communications, whereas members of telephone groups experience only verbal, and members of computer groups experience only virtual communication.
Communication can be synchronous (back and forth in real time) or asynchronous (members may respond to messages long after they are posted).
Communication includes:
The encoding of perceptions, thoughts and feelings into language and other symbols by a sender
The transmission of language and symbols verbally, nonverbally or virtually
The decoding of the message by the receiver
Effective leaders listen hard for the meaning in messages:
In face-to-face groups, members are always communication, because even if they are not communicating verbally, their non-verbal behaviour is observable and communicating something.
In telephone and computer groups nonverbal communication is absent.
The greater anonymity due to the lack of face-to-face contact in telephone and computer groups has important implications for the way members communicate in these groups (greater privacy for stigmatised individuals, salience of race and SES issues is reduced).
The most effective way to ensure that the meaning of the sender is understood by the receiver is for the receiver to provide feedback about that meaning he or she understood. Eg. Did I understand you correctly?".
Effective feedback should:
Describe the content of the communication as it is perceived by the member.
Be given to the member who sent the message as soon as the message has been received.
Be expressed in a tentative manner so that it is clear that the feedback is intended to clarify the original message rather than confront or attack the sender.
ISSUES WITH COMMUNICATION:
Although meaning is communicated in every message, it is important for workers to be aware of problems in sending or receiving messages and transmissions problems can distort the intended meaning of messages. Eg. the sender of the message may be unclear or ambiguous.
The receiver of a message can suffer from selective perception or completely block out a message.
Communication can be distorted in transmission - noise and other distractions within or outside the meeting room (or on computers or telephones) can cause distortions.
Language barriers:
Language often reflects social attitudes. It shapes thoughts and attitudes and guides thinking patterns and the expression of ideas.
The role that language places in human interaction within the context of human diversity can encourage or discourage individual efforts and can influence whether groups and communities attain optimal health and wellbeing.
The use of standard English may unfairly discriminate against those from bilingual backgrounds.
Accents and dialects can sometimes interfere with clear communication and the meanings of many words are culturally defined.
Care should be taken to clarify the meaning of messages in groups with members of different cultural and racial/ethnic background
COMMON INTERACTION PATTERNS:
Maypole -
The leader is the central figure and most communication occurs from member to leader or leader to member.
Round robin -
Members take turns talking
Hot Seat -
Extended interaction between the leader and a member.
Free-floating pattern -
All members freely communicate.
In most therapeutic social work groups, group-centred rather than leader-centred interaction patterns are valued, because they help to insure the full participation of all members.
Factors affecting interactions:
Praise and other supportive comments, eye contact and other expressions of interest tend to elicit more communication.
The status and power relationships within the group - higher status members tend to communicate more than lower status members.
Interpersonal attraction and the emotional bonds that form between members - members of subgroups tend to interact more with each other than with other group members.
The size of the group - smaller groups typically create more opportunity for each member to communicate.
Physical arrangements - how chairs are arranged, size of the room, whether a conference table is used, whether the environment is comfortable and private.
Role of the worker:
Workers may want to reduce communications from talkative members or encourage reserved members to talk.
Pointing out interaction patterns is often sufficient to bring about change.
Reserved members may benefit from go-rounds because they are expected to speak when it is their turn.
Selective attention, clues and reinforcement also can be used to change interaction patterns.
By acknowledging and praising selected communications, workers can draw out reserved members.
By directly communicating to others, workers can reduce the communication of dominant members.
Giving members specific roles or tasks, changing seating arrangements and asking members t break into subgroups are other methods that can be used to change interaction patterns.
An important process in group work is challenging the way individuals accept and interact with each other. The can be accomplished by helping members to increase their personal honesty and to become more aware of their own attitudes and feelings towards people who are different from them.
Groups can be structured so that minority members feel comfortable without having their values ignored, minimised or challenged. Developing norms that celebrate and embrace diversity are one way to accomplish this objective.
SUB-GROUP FORMATION:
Occurs naturally in all groups, because members do not all interact with equal valence.
Interpersonal attraction, emotional bonds and interest alliances are stronger among some members than others.
There can be isolates, who are not attached to subgroups, and scapegoats who receive negative attention and criticism from the groups.
Subgroups usually are not a problem in groups, unless such a strong alliance is formed that it threatens to supersede their allegiance to the group as a whole.
INTERPERSONAL ATTRACTION AND COHESION:
It contributes to subgroup formation and to the level of cohesion of the group as a whole.
Factors affecting interpersonal attraction:
Proximity increases interaction, which in turn often increases attraction. (Just the physical act of meeting people together helps to form bonds)
Similarity to ourselves can foster attraction, however so can those who are dissimilar to us if they complement our personal qualities in some way.
Acceptance and approval - those who are acceptive and positive and who praise others for their contributions tended to be viewed as interpersonally attractive.
Compatibility in member expectations
Members who fulfil the unmet needs of others in the group
GROUP COHESION:
Group cohesion is the sum of all the forces that are exerted on members to remain in the group. Interpersonal attraction is just one of the building blocks of group cohesion.
Other factors contributing to group cohesion:
Satisfaction of member's needs for affiliation, recognition and security.
resources and prestige that members believe will be gathered through group participation.
Expectations about the beneficial consequences of the work of the group.
Positive comparison of the group with previous group experiences.
Greater cohesion = Beneficial group-member behaviours:
Greater perseverance towards group goals
Greater willingness to take responsibility for group functioning
Greater willingness to express feelings
Greater willingness to listen
Greater ability to use feedback and evaluations
Greater cohesion = Positive outcomes:
Greater satisfaction with the group experience
Higher levels of goal attainment by individual group members and the group as a whole
Greater commitment to the sponsoring organisation
Increases in members' feelings of self-confidence, self-esteem and personal adjustment
Higher levels of meeting attendance and an increased length of participating.
Greater cohesion = Negative outcomes:
Dependence on the group
Levels of conformity that detracts from the work of the group (not saying opinion in fear that it is not what the majority wants to hear)
Striving for acceptance and unanimity can override their motivation to think independently and realistically assess alternative courses of action.
Workers should strive to preserve members' individuality as well as promoting group cohesion. They can do this by guiding groups to develop norms that encourage the free and open expression of ideas and opinions and that value the expression of divergent opinions and ideas.
SOCIAL INTEGRATION AND INFLUENCE:
SOCIAL INFLUENCE:
Normative Influence -
the desire to meet other people's expectations and to be accepted by others.
Informational influence -
accepting and being persuaded by information provided by others.
Too much conformity and compliance, resulting from the strong social influences of norms, roles and status hierarchies can also lead to groupthink - which can have a negative consequences for group productivity because members' individual relative and intellectual contributions are suppressed.
At the same time, a certain amount of predictability, conformity and compliance is necessary to enable members to work together to achieve the goals of the group.
SOCIAL INTEGRATION:
How many members fit together and are accepted in the group.
Group dynamics that promote social integration = Norms, Roles, Status.
It helps to build unanimity about the purposes and goals of the group, helping the group move forward in an orderly and efficient manner to accomplish work and achieve its goals.
NORMS, ROLES AND STATUS:
They set out members' places within the group.
They lend order and familiarity to group processes, helping to make individual members' behaviours predictable and comfortable for all.
They help groups to avoid excessive conflict and unpredictability, which can in turn lead to chaos and the disintegration of the group.
NORMS:
Shared beliefs and expectations about appropriate ways to behave in social situations such as a group.
Norm development is important for culturally diverse groups, especially where minority members are underrepresented.
ROLES:
It is helpful to have some members who take on roles that facilitate task accomplishment and other members who take on roles that meet members; social-emotional needs.
Helpful roles = those who keep the group on task, are empathetic, who inject humour.
Problematic roles = monopolisers, jesters, scapegoats, aggressors
STATUS:
The ranking of importance of members of the group, relative to each other.
It is determined by the prestige, power, position and expertise that members bring with them to the group and by their contributions to the work of the group.
As it is measured in relationship to other members, it may change when members join or leave.
It also depends on the situation, so their contribution may change depending on the extent of their contributions to various aspects of the work of the group.
Low-status members have the potential to be disruptive of productive group work as they have nothing to lose.
High status members generally conform to group norms and expectations.
ROLE OF WORKERS:
They need to understand and manage the norms, roles and status hierarchies that are associated with social integration and influence so that a balance can be achieved between too little and too much conformity.
POWER AND CONTROL:
Attributed power -
comes from the perception of people within and outside the group about the worker's ability to be an effective leader. It comes from professional status, education, organisational position experience, boundaries between worker and member roles, fees paid for group participation etc.
Actual power -
a worker's resources for changing conditions within and outside the group.
POWER THAT LEADER'S CAN DRAW ON:
1. Connection power -
the ability to draw on resources of influencial people and organisations
2. Expert power -
having the knowledge to help the ground achieve a particular goal
3. Information power -
possessing information that is needed by the group
4. Legitimate power -
holding an official position and the authority, rights and privileges that go with that position.
5. Reference power -
being liked and admired by group members.
6. Reward power -
The ability to offer social or tangible rewards.
Coercive power - the ability to sanction, punish or deny access to resources, rewards and privileges.
WORKER'S ROLE:
A certain amount of power and control is needed in groups to maintain orderly and efficient group meetings and motivated members.
Leaders can set up incentive systems and use other power and control mechanisms.
Worker's can share power by:
Encouraging member-to-member rather than member-to-leader communications
Insuring that members have input into the agenda for group meetings and the direction the group will go in future meetings.
Supporting indigenous group leaders as their attempts at leadership emerge during group interaction.
Encouraging attempts at mutual sharing and mutual aid among group members.
CULTURE:
Defined by the values, beliefs, customs, traditions and preferred ways of doing business that are implicitly understood and shared by all group members.
As members meet, they explore their value systems and interpersonal styles, searching for common group on which to relate to each other.
Valuing members from diverse backgrounds involves facilitating an exploration of their ethnic and racial heritages and experiences, their attitudes about themselves and how these attitudes and feelings affect their functioning.
Culture is also determined by the sponsoring organisation, the community and the larger society.
A distinct culture tends to emerge more quickly in groups that are homogeneous - when members share similar values and life experiences, their unique perspectives blend more quickly than in groups with diverse membership.
However, heterogenous groups include more opportunities to provide and receive diverse feedback, to develop more knowledge and understanding of oneself and others.
Once a culture has developed, members who endorse and share in the gorup culture feel at home, but those who do not feel isolated and alienated.
Levels of culture:
Surface level =
symbols and rituals that display the culture of the group
Deeper level =
culture is displayed in the styles and approaches that group members use when interacting with each other.
Deepest level =
consists of core ideologies, values and beliefs held in common by members of the group.
WORKER'S ROLE:
By providing individual attention to isolated members and by stimulating all members to consider values that transcend individual differences, leaders can foster the full participation and integration of all group members into the life of a group.
GROUP DEVELOPMENT:
As groups develop over time, group dynamic processes evolve.
Stages include: (Tuckman)
Forming
Storming
Norming
Performing
Stages include: (Garland, Jones and Kolodny)
Preaffiliation
Power and contorl
Intimacy
Differentiation
Seperation
BEGINNING STAGES:
Characterised by the formation of group dynamics
Members interact tentatively and cautiously with little conflict and resistance.
It is when members are establishing norms, roles and status hierarchies.
Group culture slowly emerges through interaction.
Before group cohesion can develop, social integration of members must occur.
While becoming socially integrates, members explore and test roles and they challenge developing norms and status hierarchies.
Encountering some conflict is normal.
Worker's should promote interpersonal skills in ways that build mutual connection and create norms that facilitate an exploration of conflictual issues.
MIDDLE STAGES:
Characterised by an emphasis on work
Energy devoted to developing cohesive group functioning and comfortable norms and productive roles in earlier group meetings gives way to productive interaction during the middle stages.
Focussed on work and goal achievement.
This is where intimacy, performance and problem-solving occurs.
ENDING STAGES:
Focusses on the completion of remaining tasks.
Evaluations of the work of the group are conducted.
Ending ceremonies are planned.
Task groups finish their business, make decisions and produce the results of their efforts.
MEASURING GROUP DYNAMICS:
Observation
Group climate questionnaire (for group cohesion, engagement and level of trust).
Rating scales