Communication, Team Roles and Responsibilities | Encyclopedia (2023)

A group is a collection of individuals united by a common goal. Different populations can differ significantly in many ways, including their purpose, how they arise and develop, their structure, their lifespan, and their size. Groups can be formed for task completion, financial gain, social support, personal development and change, spiritual growth, or any other reason. They can arise and develop naturally, or they can be developed and maintained through planning and conscious effort. Groups can exist very briefly or remain stable over time. Its structure and operation can be causal or formal. Regardless of the exact nature or structure of a team, communication is critical to its creation and continued development.

There is no single opinion on the minimum or maximum number of members needed to form a group. However, size is an important factor that affects communication and other dynamics with any group. Compared to a two-person relationship, the presence of additional members provides additional resources to assist with team activities and facilitates planning, decision-making, and problem-solving. However, larger teams require greater leadership effort to set and maintain direction, gain consensus on plans and goals, inform and involve all parties, and identify and integrate the expectations and perspectives of multiple members.

Task and Social Dimensions

Groups are created to serve a variety of purposes. The generally stated objectives are to accomplish and complete specific tasks. Examples of group assignments include organizing social events, painting houses, and completing community service projects. Groups may also be formed and maintained primarily to build positive morale and help members achieve personal or social well-being. Examples include social clubs, discussion groups and support groups. They are often formed to help lonely or supportive people overcome personal difficulties.

To a greater or lesser extent, most groups serve a combination of mission and social goals. Even in highly task-oriented teams such as construction workers or ambulance crews - where successful task performance is the main objective - good morale and supportive working relationships are important. This is especially the case if workgroup members are working together for a period of time. In these situations, good morale and a positive social climate often contribute to mission effectiveness. On the other hand, low morale undermines productivity and efficiency.

group communication

In a relationship between two people, there is only one possibility of mutual communication. That is, A can talk to B. In a threesome, there are six possible message processing relationships: A with B, A with C, B with C, A and B with C, A and C with B, and B and C with A. In a group of four members, this increased to 25 potential relationships. In other words, increasing the group size by one person (from three to four) creates 19 additional communication relationship possibilities (Kephart, 1950). Thus, as the size of the team increases, the number and complexity of the communication relationships involved grow exponentially, creating many new opportunities, but also many new challenges.

group development

Typically, groups go through four predictable stages as they develop: forming, encroaching, norming, and enforcing (Tuckman, 1965; Fisher, 1974).

Training includes getting to know each other, discussing how the group started, researching where and when members meet, identifying the purpose of the group, and sharing other initial concerns. A storm is the dynamic that occurs when individuals on a team begin to express different viewpoints, preferences, and opinions that must be considered and resolved in some way when the team starts working. This phase can be short or long - it depends on the individual, the range of views expressed and the purpose of the group. Normalization is a stage in the development of a group in which objectives, guidelines and methods of action are clarified and agreed upon. Once the specification phase is complete, the team can move to the performance phase more quickly and efficiently to achieve the team's goals.

While moving in this order is typical of newly formed groups, the process of group development is often not as logical as this description might suggest. Even in teams that have been working at a high level for some time, it's not uncommon for the first three phases to recur occasionally as the team continues to work.

Decide

Different methods can be used for group decision making. These methods include consensus, compromise, majority voting, leader decision, and arbitration (Wilson and Hanna, 1986).

Consensus requires all group members to make a decision with which they fully agree. Compromise involves decisions made through negotiation and compromise to arrive at a decision that is acceptable to all team members. In a majority vote, the final decision is the one supported by the majority of the group. In the leader-determined approach, the leader imposes his decision on the entire team. Formal negotiations and arbitrations often require the assistance of an impartial "third party" to reconcile conflicting points of view.

Roles and responsibilities

Certain roles (ie behavior patterns) occur in most groups. In a classic essay on the subject, Kenneth Benne and Paul Sheats (1948) identified three broad categories of roles that commonly occur in group interactions: task completion roles, team building and support roles, and individualistic roles.

Task completion roles are those associated with completing specific jobs or activities. Examples of task performance roles include information seeker, opinion seeker, information provider, recorder, coordinator, and critical evaluator.

Team building and support functions are those related to promoting the social development of a team. Examples of these roles include encourager, regulator, conciliator, gatekeeper/facilitator, observer, and follower.

Individualistic roles are generally not ideal. These roles have a negative impact on the team, both in terms of progress in completing tasks and on team development and climate. Examples of individualistic roles include bully, blocker, approval seeker, dominator, and special interest advocate.

to manage

In any group, a particularly important role is that of the leader. Essentially, this role involves leading a team. Much has been written about leadership and there are many different perspectives on the subject. Michael Useem (1998) summarized this literature simply by explaining that leadership requires a vision of what needs to be done and why, and a commitment to action (ie, implementing the vision).

At a more micro level, the leadership role involves two sets of responsibilities: a team maintenance function and a team achievement function (Baird & Weinberg, 1981). Group maintenance activities include promoting participation, managing interactions, promoting cooperation, ensuring members' needs and concerns are met, resolving conflicts, protecting individual rights, modeling behavior, promoting group growth, and taking responsibility by the dynamics of the group. The group's achievement functions include informing, planning, directing, integrating, representing, coordinating, clarifying, evaluating, and motivating.

There are different theories about what effective leadership is and how a person acquires the necessary attributes to be a leader. A classic approach – the “Great Man” theory – states that “leaders are born, not made”. Popularized in the 1800s and early 1900s, this view holds that some people inherit the natural abilities necessary for effective leadership, while others do not.

The "trait" approach, which was particularly popular in the first half of the twentieth century, argues that certain traits, such as assertiveness or outspokenness, are essential for someone to be an effective leader. If someone has these qualities, they are likely to succeed in a leadership role.

Beginning in the 1950s, leadership theories began to emphasize the importance of learned behaviors in effective leadership. Early behavioral theories generally held that there was an ideal way to lead all groups in all situations, but later theories suggested the importance of situational leadership - adjusting one's behavior to the specific groups and circumstances involved in a particular situation. More recent approaches see leadership as a set of social and communication skills and values ​​that can and should be learned.

to complete

Understanding roles and responsibilities is important to understanding team dynamics. Understanding these concepts is also very helpful for functioning effectively in a team and improving team productivity and cohesion.

See too:group communication;group communication, conflict and;group communication, decision making and;group communication, dynamic;interpersonal comunication.

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Brent D. Reuben