The substantive leader is the “idea person” who communicates “big picture” thoughts and suggestions that feed group discussion. Task-leader behaviors can be further divided into two types: substantive and procedural (Pavitt, 1999). A task leader’s stresses, however, may be lessened through some of the maintenance role behaviors that we will discuss later. Because of the added responsibilities of being a task leader, people in these roles may experience higher levels of stress. Depending on the number of tasks a group has, there may be more than one task leader, especially if the tasks require different sets of skills or knowledge. This person may be a designated or emergent leader, but in either case, task leaders tend to talk more during group interactions than other group members and also tend to do more work in the group. Within any group, there may be a task leader who has a high group status because of his or her maturity, problem-solving abilities, knowledge, and/or leadership experience and skills and functions primarily to help the group complete its task (Cragan & Wright, 1991). These role categories include task-related roles, maintenance roles, and individual roles that are self-centered or unproductive for the group (Benne & Sheats, 1948). In this section, we will discuss the three categories of common group roles that were identified by early group communication scholars. When someone continually exhibits a particular behavior, it may be labeled as a role, but even isolated behaviors can impact group functioning. After all, we all play multiple roles within a group and must draw on multiple communication behaviors in order to successfully play them. Group communication scholars have cautioned us to not always think of these roles as neatly bounded all-inclusive categories. Some people’s role behaviors result from their personality traits, while other people act out a certain role because of a short-term mood, as a reaction to another group member, or out of necessity. Additionally, one group member may exhibit various role behaviors within a single group meeting or play a few consistent roles over the course of his or her involvement with a group. Group roles are more dynamic than leadership roles in that a role can be formal or informal and played by more than one group member. Just as leaders have been long studied as a part of group communication research, so too have group member roles. Identify and discuss negative group roles and behaviors.Identify and discuss maintenance group roles and behaviors.Identify and discuss task-related group roles and behaviors.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |