Roles And Importance For Effective Group Functions And Development

During the 1970’s, Dr Meredith Belbin and a team of researchers conducted research on a number of teams in an attempt to discover what aspects of a team’s dynamics can contribute towards the teams overall success or failure. They discovered that the success or failure of a team was not dependent upon the individual team members intellect but upon their behaviour. Following Belbin’s publication in 1981 of Team Role Analysis he concluded that there are nine key roles that are aligned to an individual’s behaviour that can contribute to the make up of a team. It is essential that as a leader I am able to understand the possible behavioural role that an individual may exhibit when

There are many problems that hinder good group dynamics. We don’t usually have the luxury of picking who we are going to work with on a team; dealing with different personalities and personal agendas are common challenges in working within a team. Other commons challenges like, poor leadership, bad communications, and lack of focus can be helped or eliminated by establishing team roles.

Thus the role of group work can be seen as one which places emphasis on sharing of thoughts, ideas, problems and activities.

| Groups also have members who play certain social roles: * Encourager: Praises the ideas of others. * Harmonizer: Mediates differences between group members. * Compromiser: Moves group to another position that is favored by all group members. * Gatekeeper/expediter: Keeps communication channels open. * Standard Setter: Suggests standards or criteria for the group to achieve. * Group observer: Keeps records of group activities and uses this information to offer feedback to the group. * Follower: Goes along with the group and accepts the group 's ideas (Roles in Groups, 1999).

In order to evaluate my role within the group it is important to identify what makes a group. A group must

There are many factors altering group behavior and effectiveness, such as decision- making, cohesion and communication (Crocker, 2016). The later has also shown a positive relationship with group task cohesion (Smith et al., 2013), and methods of enhancing intrateam

- There are three main roles that a group member can fill, each with their own variations: task oriented, socioemotional, and destructive.

Group communication follows slightly different ‘rules’ to communication in one-to-one situations. There is often more going on in a group, with a number of different people trying to speak, get their point across and their voice heard. Turn-taking can be more complicated; relationships and power issues between group members can also be more complex than in one-to-one contexts. As a communication context, groups can have a number of benefits for participants: • a group can be an effective way of sharing responsibilities • groups can improve decision-making and problem-solving because they draw on the knowledge and skills of a number of

When teams are performing at their best, you are likely to find that each team member has cleared responsibility. You’ll also see that every team member needed to achieve their own personal goals in order for the team’s goal to be fully met to an adequate level. Dr Mereditch Belbin studied team work for many years and he mainly observed that people in teams tend to assume different roles within the team. He defined a team role as a “tendency to behave,

Participating in teamwork in preparation for a presentation emphasizes the need for informal roles and communication during collaboration. Ewashen (2015) argues that groups with few members do not use explicit “formal groups roles” of leaders and followers, but instead have fluid “informal group roles” based on the overall goal (p. 247). Therefore, my role was informal and switched between necessary “task functions” and “maintain functions” (Ewashen, 2015, p. 247). My task function was to research additional theories to support for our analysis as an “information seeker” (Ewashen, 2015, p. 247). In addition, I acted as a “compromiser” (Ewashen, 2015, p. 247) when there was disagreement about the necessary depth of our systems level analysis. Consequently, collaborative practice can be challenging due to diverse perspectives present, but these differences are invaluable during teamwork (Doane and Varcoe, 2014, p. 401). My informal role was successful as my flexibility supported the other diverse group functions which ultimately meet the goal of developing an evidence-based presentation. However, I could have had more of a maintenance function as a “standard setter” (Ewashen, 2015, p. 247). Our group frequently met late and got off track in our discussions due to individual differences in expectations. I could have been better at enforcing punctuality and keeping everyone on topic by explicitly modeling these behaviors. Overall, collaborating and learning with

The BART Model is consisted of four parts: boundary, authority, role, and task. Boundary works as the container for the group, such as time, space, and resources. The authority is the power to lead and direct the group project in general. When a person takes up his or her authority, it implies that he or she is taking the responsibility and the position of the leader. But there are two types of authorities: formal authority and informal authority. Formal authority should be clearly characterized in one’s role by the general population that is granting it and fully comprehended by the general population that is receiving it. And the informal authority is an authority that was not clearly defined, but granted according to a mutual, tacit agreement

It is important that members of a group be knowledgeable and skillful in their positions, the degree to which those members can work harmoniously and cooperatively

A cornerstone for facilitators is to understand what happens to people in groups. To do this, we need to look both at what people set out to achieve, the task, as well as how they get along – the processes of group activity. People often behave quite differently in groups and teams from one-to-one settings. Some people become quiet, others turn into bullies or tormentors, some become jokers. For the facilitator who has to rely on others for getting the job done, this can be daunting. Why is it that a meeting feels electric one moment and awkward the next? Why do some people refuse to communicate while others do all the talking? It becomes easier to understand the process level if we take a practical example.

Groupwork can be defined as a method of social work that is utilised in order to help individuals to enhance their social functioning through purposeful group experiences and to help cope with their personal group or community problems (Konopka, 1972). The role of groupwork places emphasis on sharing thoughts, ideas, problems and activities, allowing social action groups for instance, to “empower members to engage in collective action and planned change efforts to modify particular aspects of their social or physical environment” (Toseland & Rivas, 2014, p. 38; Pyles, 2009; Staples, 2004). Therefore, reflecting on the processes of groupwork is an essential mechanism for all professionals in order to develop better communication skills, conflict resolution and enhance future performance. This essay will reflect upon the task group processes that were conducted this semester, while evaluating my own role within the group and what was learnt working within a small group.

Working in a group can be very difficult at times. Different people with different views may not always agree which one another. Throughout the various task I played the communicator. I made sure everyone was on track on what we wanted to do. I also made sure people was okay and happy in the role they was playing in the group. My group worked together in collecting ideas from one another and making it into one.