MediaSpace Wiki

Small Group Spring2006 Session10

Agenda

• Collect questions
• Index card discussion in groups
• Rules lecture
• Questions
• Talk about exam
• Next assignment

Index Card Assignment Due today

Think about the episode of the West Wing that we watched in class (and/or of other group interactions on television shows). How does real life group interaction differ from the kind of group interaction we see on television?

Group Rules and Roles

• Today's readings intersect in interesting ways
  • The reading in Keyton focuses on classic notions of how we structure groups
    • Relatively static roles and norms
    • Which are examined as structures that define a group
  • Poole's chapter, by contrast, focuses on a more recent notion of how we structure groups
    • Giddens' Structuration Theory
      • which examines the ways in which social systems negotiate their structure
    • Poole has built a variant, called Adaptive Structuration theory, that is specifically oriented to groups and organizations.
    • But all of this is very recent theory
    • The structural elements, roles, rules, and relationships, remain the same
    • But our understanding of them changes
      • There is a mechanism for describing how group structures change
• Group structures are a foundation for group function
  • While group structures are generally fairly stable
  • We build those structures and continuously modify them
• Elements of Group Structure
  • Rules and norms
    • Formal
    • Informal
    • Regulative
    • Constitutive
  • Roles
    • Formal
    • Informal
  • Relationships (Linkages)
    • As we discussed for Network Analysis
  • Process
    • As we discussed for Interaction Process Analysis
    • Structuration
      • System and Relationships
      • Structure, Rules, Roles, and Resources
      • External constraints
      • Internal constraints
        • Member characteristics
        • Structural dynamics
          • Mediation
          • Contradiction
    • Socialization
    • Stages (our focus next time)

Index Card Assignment due on Thursday

Think about a group you have worked in that failed (by whatever standard of failure you like)? At what point did you know the group would fail? Early in the group process? Late? Was there a specific event that triggered your evaluation? Think about a group you have worked in that succeeded? When did you know it would succeed? Was there a specific event that triggered your evaluation?