Small Group Communications Chapter 5: Roles in Groups
Self-center or disruptive roles
Serve individual nees or goals (Me-oriented) while impeding attainment of group goals.
Most common disruptive roles
Stagehog / Isolate / Clown / Blocker / Fighter-Controller / Zealot / Cynic
Most common maintenance roles
Supporter-Encourager / Harmonizer-Tension Reliever / Gatekeeper-Expediter
Clarifier-Elaborater
Task role; explains, expands, and extends the ideas of others and provides examples and alternatives that piggy-back off the ideas of eachother.
Devil's Advocate
Task role; gently challenges a prevailing point of view for the sake of argument to test and critically evaluate the strength of ideas, solutions, or decisions.
Information Giver
Task role; giving information and/or researching the topic to provide credible information to the group.
Opinion Seeker
Task role; helps the group determine where agreement and perhaps disagreement exist.
Facilitator
Task role; keeps participants on track, guides discussion, and regulates group activities.
Coordinator
Task role; organizes where, when, and how a meeting will take place. Encourages teamwork and cooperation among the group.
Secretary-Recorder
Task role; serves as a group memory function.
Initiator-Contributor
Task role; starts the ball rolling by offering lots of ideas and suggestions.
Information Seeker
Task role; takes an inventory of the knowledge base of the group when the group begins a task.
Role Fixation
The acting out of a specific role and that role alone no matter what the situation might require.
Role flexibility
The capacity to recognize the current requirements of the group and then enact the role-specific behaviors most appropriate in the given context.
Group socialization
The communication process in which new and established group members adjust to one another.
Group role
The pattern of expected behavior associated with the parts we play in groups.
Role status
The relative importance, prestige, or power accorded to a particular role.
Strategies that established groups can employ to make the tole of newcomer less challenging and intimidating
Welcome new members into the group; Orient new members; Mentor newcomers.
Role specialization
When an individual group member settles into his or her primary role once a role for a member has been endorsed by the group.
Role fixation in decision-making groups can occur when...
an individual moves from one group to another, or it can happen within a single group.
The central communicative function of self-centered, disruptive roles is...
to focus attention on the individual.
The central communicative function of maintenance roles is...
to gain and maintain the cohesiveness of the group.
A harsh initiation provides the group with...
valuable information about the newcomer.
Strategies newcomers can employ to improve their chances of acceptance from a group.
Conduct a thorough reconnaissance of the group; Play the role of newcomer; Embrace your new group/distance yourself from your previous group; Seek mentors within the group; collaborate with other newcomers.
Isolate
Disruptive role; deserts the group and withdraws from participation.
Cynic
Disruptive role; displays a sour outlook, engages in faultfinding, focuses on negatives, and predicts group failure.
Clown
Disruptive role; engages in horseplay, thrives on practical jokes and comic routines, diverts members' attention away from serious discussion of ideas and issues, and steps beyond the boundaries of mere tension reliever.
Blocker
Disruptive role; obstructionist by nature, prevents group from taking action, especially action they find objectionable.
Stagehog
Disruptive role; seeks recognition and attention by monopolizing conversation and preventing others from expressing their opinions fully.
Zealot
Disruptive role; tries to convert members to a pet cause of idea, delivers sermons to the group on the state of the world, and often becomes obsessively political in remarks.
Fighter-Controller
Disruptive role; tries to dominate group discussion, competes with members, picks quarrels, interrupts and interjects there own opinions into discussion, and makes negative remarks to members.
Harmonizer-Tension Reliever
Maintenance role; attempt to maintain the peace and reduce secondary tension by using humor and by reconciling differences between members.
Supporter-Encourager
Maintenance role; bolsters the spirits and goodwill of the group, provides warmth, praise, and acceptance of others, and invites reticent group members into the discussion.
Gatekeeper-Expediter
Maintenance role; controls channels of communication and flow of information, regulating the degree of openness within the group system.
Characteristics of a group that directly affect the acceptance of a newcomer.
Level of group development; Level of group performance; Number of members; Degree of turnover.
Hazing
Any activity expected of someone joining or participating in a group that humiliates, degrades, abuses, or endangers them regardless of a person's willingness to participate. Creates group cohesion and conformity.
Informal role
Emerges from the group transactions, and it emphasizes functions, not positions. Mostly found in small groups.
Most common task roles
Initiator-Contributor / Information Seeker / Information Giver / Opinion Seeker / Clarifier-Elaborator / Coordinator / Secretary-Recorder / Facilitator / Devil's Advocate
The central communicative function of task roles is to...
extract the maximum productivity from the group.
Playing roles is a...
fluid, dynamic process.
A harsh initiation may convince newcomers...
how dependent they are on longtime members (old-timers).
The role that has the greatest importance and most potent effect on us...
is usually the one we choose when we have to decide between conflicting roles.
Despite their critical importance to group success, maintenance roles are often viewed as...
lower status in a competitive culture such as the United States.
The harder it is to get into a group...
the greater will be the loyalty and commitment to the group once membership has been attained.
Groups are more accepting of a newcomer when members believe...
the newcomer accepts and will conform to the norms, values, and practices of the group.