Group Roles
•As you contemplate the theory, which roles help a team? Which roles hinder a team?
While team or group work is essential in any organization, the role of each member of the group must be identified to ensure the group meets it purpose, intended goals and objectives. Every team is formed to accomplish a given goal within the organization; however, some team members’ roles help the group while others hinder the team. Roles that help the team include group task roles and group building and maintenance while roles that hinder a team are individual roles.
Group task roles include initiator-contributor, information seeker, opinion seeker, information giver, opinion giver and elaborator. Others are the coordinator, the orienter, the evaluator-critic, energizer, procedural technician and recorder. Group building and maintenance roles include the encourager, harmonizer, the compromiser, the gatekeeper and standard setter. Others include the standard setter or ego ideal, group observer and follower. The individual roles attempts to fulfill individual interests and are insignificant to the group. These are the deflator, blocker, and recognition-seeker, dominator, playboy and self-confessor.
•What should a leader do to minimize the negative roles and encourage the positive ones?
Group member training is the most important role of a team leader aimed at reducing negative member roles and encouraging positive member roles. There are several ways of training a group to reduce negative roles. These include using self-observation and diagnosis of own growth and development; facilitation of role-played sessions in each group to allow for member roles and role-requiredness diagnosis from the obtained sessions’ information and the allow group members to take part in roles such as observer-commentator where development of skills in diagnosis and assessing of role requirements take place.
A personal assessment of own behavior
In my participation in groups, I often find myself taking the role of the initiator-contributor who suggests to the group new ideas or different ways of dealing with a given problem (Benne and Sheats, 1948). This is made possible by my strong ability to seek and give information through which I learn better ways of achieving different group objectives. I also find myself inviting the participation of other members’ thereby offering gate keeping and expediter roles. This is reinforced by my strong follower abilities that allow me to follow through the ideas of others and take note of people with ideas but are unable to communicate them for fear or shyness.
References
Benne, K., and Sheats, P., (1948). Functional roles of group members. Journal of social issues. Vol 4. P. 41-49
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