Professional Standards for the Training of Group Workers - Essay Example

206HLM Working in Groups (2009) In what ways might leadership characteristics impact upon group dynamics Introduction The group level dynamics deals with forces governing the group as a whole, and since any organization can be visualized as conglomeration of different groups, it would be rational that the leadership acknowledges this fact. Within a group, individual members of a group have the potential to influence and in reality, indeed, they persuade each other. Therefore, if leadership can establish a successful leader-follower relationship, it may be able to relate to targeted influence and persuasion (Stokes, 1994, 19-27). In this assignment, the ways in which the leadership characteristics may influence the group dynamics will be discussed. Different Types of Groups In any organization, various groups are encountered, and according to their constitution, they can be broadly typed into informal or formal. Depending on the task or type of the project, the leadership in an organization forms certain groups. So these groups are formally formed based on the achievable work goals in mind. Since the type of task or the function is the major driving force in such groups, these are known as project or task groups. Some authorities further sub-classify task groups on the basis of interdependencies of tasks among the members of the group. These are interacting, coaching, and counteracting (Wells, 1995, 49-85). In an interacting group, the output of one worker following completion is the beginning point of task of another worker. In a coaching group, the individual members are relatively independent of each other in terms of task. The members of counteracting group work together in order to reconcile and negotiate between purposes and opinions, which are counteractive and conflicting. In the project groups, all members of the group work together for the purpose of completing a project within a stipulated period of time. Within an organization, some groups are formed without any guidance from the leadership group or management. The main driving force in such groups is satisfaction of common interest of the employees. For example, employees may form groups to satisfy their social and human needs. Although informal, these groups may exert beneficial effects in the functioning of an organization (Bacal, 1998, 175-180). Characteristics of a Group Leadership The group leadership while attempting to influence the group dynamics would try to develop an awareness of the working models of each participant in the group. The group leadership must have the power to constantly imagine the meaning of each event and the ability to assess the interpretation of the events by the group and in this way, the leader must be able to determine the patterns of events in the group (O'Connor and Yballe, 2007, 292-312). If the basic activity of the leadership is to mobilize interest, energy, and commitment of all the people in any organization through creation of human vision and human energies, then leadership must play at the emotional level of the group and in this way must influence the dynamics within the group. Within a group, this can be accomplished only through paying close attention to the group's reaction and perception in order to find out the working model that can evoke a meaning within the group (Ringer, 2000, 1-19). From these perspectives, the leader must symbolize himself as the moral unity of the group, since he takes the responsibility to advance the group's common good. In the complexity of the organizational structures, there would definitely be forces that tend to threaten the group effort, and the leader would prevent them. Creative and collective thinking is the most important characteristic of a group, and the leader should promote and facilitate that, and if that does not happen, he identifies the problem. In a group, there would be personalities of all, which may have conflicts, but a leader would take steps to motivate the group to focus attention to issues (Pines, 1998, 24-29). Stages of Group Development It has been observed that different types of groups develop and evolve in a similar pattern. Groups have been recognised to develop in four distinct stages, forming, storming, norming, and performing. During the formation phase, a group would emphasize matters related to procedures. Therefore, in this formative phase of group dynamics, when the group hardly knows each other, the interactions are tentative and polite (Hogg et al., 2005, 991-1004). The leader must understand the dynamics at this phase and must influence the other group members to involve in the decision making process. This is an important step to move the group forward. Gradually, the next phase sets in, and interindividual conflicts start erupting. Naturally, the group members would start questioning the authority related to group procedures, objectives, and structure. All members would attempt to define their roles and responsibilities within the group, and any leadership attempt to promote independence will face resistance from the group members. In the next stage, the group will start taking responsibilities with a focus on working together and a tendency to create and enforce group norms by themselves. As the group continues in this way, the group members develop a sense of accomplishment through performing (McCollom, 1995a, 1-12). Growing Self-awareness of Personal Values and how they Affect Group Leaders For an effective group leadership, the leader must understand the goals of the group very clearly. The leader must develop himself to be of relevance of the needs of the group. To this end, the leader must grow self-awareness (ASGW, 1992, 12-19). It involves understanding own strength and weaknesses. Self-awareness springs from life experiences, and it allows the leader to recognise and develop openings and opportunities of the group. This would also facilitate understanding about the leadership roles and responsibilities, maximisation of contribution to the group functioning, and a self-criticism about personal shortcomings that need to be avoided. The group leaders who are self aware are able to process a wide variety of information that can be integrated into cognitive complexity (Berg and Smith, 1995, 107-132). This would also result in a deep comprehension of the social situations that the group members are exposed to. An understanding of these situational and social components would promote self-realization within the social complexity of a group dynamics. Interpersonal contexts are better understood by an aware leader, and he can predict the behavioural aspects of the team members better. This context would allow the self-aware leader to make plans for a more effective group work within the behavioural complexity of a leadership situation (Bolton, 1986, 111-134). Major Tasks of Group Leadership at each of the Group Stages The leader plays very important role in developing the team goals at the formative phase. The leader must not tighten the control. There must be an attempt on the part of the leader not to force the group members to conform to the rules. All attempts must be in place on the part of the leader to develop a group consensus so there are no disputes over procedures (Kpers and Weibler, 2008, 443-475). If there is a conflict, the true reason must be probed, and an acceptable solution must be negotiated within the group, and to be able to do that the leader must have the ability to mediate between the conflicting members. It is the leader's responsibility to directly contradict and confront a counterproductive behaviour that may affect a group performance. The focus of the leader should be on working together collectively at any point and at all points (McCollom, 1995b, 34-48). Formulation an Agenda for a Group Session The agenda must be clear and must involve systematically all members. All agendas must allow spontaneous expression of all individuals. The meeting is structured for efficient problem solving. Meetings are very common in group performances. The leader has a role to maximise the benefits of the meetings (Jung and Sosik, 2002, 313-336). Thus agenda, which structure the meetings, require preparation. The agenda must take care of information dissemination, and the leader must remain in perspective of the organization. The second part of the agenda must involve opinion seeking so a dialogue can be opened within the group so ideas on specific topics can be freely communicated by the members (Gastil, 1994, 953-975). It can also be used for the purpose of gathering data or testing group reactions. Problem solving perhaps is the most important purpose of a meeting, and the agenda must include that. This can be done through clarification, analysis, and solution of a specific problem, where participation of the group is encouraged. The leader can facilitate this through preparation of the agenda that would involve the people and the task, both (DeLucia-Waack, 1999, 131-132). Roles and Expectations of Group Members at the Various Stages of a Group In the forming stage, the members are expected to be tentative and polite among each other. The members in the early stage are also expected to emphasize on the procedural matters. Sometimes, they expect the leader to be non-dominating (Foels et al., 2000, 676-701). The decision making process is usually passive. In the storming phase, it is expected that there would be conflicts between members and may be even between members and the leader. It is also expected that the members will question the authority of leader. Although the group members would attempt to move forward to independence, they would also resist attempts of the leader to empowerment and independence (Schminke et al., 2002, 272-293). At this stage, the members would try to define their roles in the group. The norming stage is indicated by the members' ownership of responsibility. The members are expected to have responsibilities of the group's goals, behaviour, and procedures. They are also expected to be having a focus on working jointly, and the group members themselves enforce group norms on themselves. In the final stage of performing, the group members bear a sense of pride on the group and its accomplishment. They demonstrate confidence about their abilities to contribute to the group's performance. Techniques in Opening and Closing a Group Session Skills in opening and closing group sessions are important attributes of a leader. When the sessions are regular, which is usually the case, it would be worthwhile on the part of the leader to take some steps to open the session so involvement of all the group members is ensured. This can be done through a check-in process for all the group, and the leader may begin this with an opening comment leading to a brief statement regarding what they want from the session. This may facilitate identification of the emerging themes at the commencement of the meeting. All members are allowed to share their work experiences since the last meeting (Smith, 1995, 276-294). Sometimes sessions are begun by an opening statement of the leader which states about the leader's perspectives about the progress of the group. Similarly closing a session is equally important. It is important for the leader to summarize and integrate the findings from the session that would include encouragement for the members. The leader must ask the members whether they have any unresolved issues, questions, and concerns that can be explored in the next session. Importance of Building a Climate of Trust in a Group Setting As the leader allow the group to move to adversarial to a partnering approach, the intent of the leader is to drive the group members to act increasingly on own empowerment and initiative to facilitate the success of the group as a whole. Building trust within the group, in such situations, becomes the leader's main imperative. With trust, there is a scope for building a cooperative atmosphere, counting on each other to complete a work. Trust within a group prevents an attitude of covering up mistakes and whole focus is then on most effective work. The leader must take active role in developing trust within the group. This can be done through identification of the areas where strong trust exists and where the level of trust is weakest. Finally, the leader must be able to resolve the group conflict. There are several strategies that a leader must employ in order to solve these conflicts. It has been demonstrated that affective conflict may negatively influence the performance of the whole group. The leadership management would look forward towards channeling the resources of the group towards attainment of goals. This can be achieved through alteration of the conflict with minimisation of the affective conflict. Building trust among the members is the first step to that (Sogunro, 1999, 26-40). Conclusions Clarification of goals and choices are important determinates of a group performance, and a clear proactive thinking of the leader can be the best asset that a group can have. The strength of the group is in its diversity, and this diversity can be most explicit when the vitality of the group is continued, where communications are fostered, appreciations are mutual, hopes are consistent, and pride is an asset. The leader is facilitator of these through maturity and generativity. However, the leader who fails as a group leader will have low self esteem, easy burnout, will have failure to deal with loss or failure, will be afraid of conflict, and would not be able to deal with anger effectively. The worst negative points that a leader may have is lack of shared vision and poor communication with the team. 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McCollom (eds) Groups in Context: A New Perspective on Group Dynamics. pp.49-85. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America. Read More