A small group is a culture with a set of roles that reflect its members' views
of the group's needs and the talents and preferences of its individual members.
A role is a set of behaviors that an individual member adopts in relation to
the expectations of the rest of the group members. A member may take on a formal
role that is assigned by the organization or group. This role usually has a
title such as chairperson, vice president, or secretary. On the other hand,
the person may take on an informal role. This type of role is characterized
by behaviors that fulfill a function for the group. Such a function might be
information provider, tension releaser, recorder, or leader. Ernest Bormann describes role emergence as a trial-and-error process. This
stimulus-response model suggests that members attempt roles and the group either
reinforces or discourages the role behavior. Over a period of time, depending
on the group's reaction, the member continues or discontinues the playing of
the role. Two problems that can occur as a member attempts to carry out a role are
role conflict and role strain. Role conflict results from a person's trying
to play two or more roles--generally in different groups, that are contradictory
to each other, interrole conflict. Role strain comes from not being able to perform
a role, intrarole conflict. Sometimes gender stereotypes produce role strain.
These problems can be addressed by selecting participants carefully and not
forcing a role on a reluctant group member. Roles represent a wide variety of behaviors. Some roles are task centered,
in that they help the group achieve its goal. Other roles are maintenance oriented;
they focus on a group and its members, rather than on the task. Finally, self-centered
roles focus on achieving the aims of individual group members and, therefore,
often detract from task accomplishment and group maintenance. |
2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education