Page 142 - Effective group discussion theory and practice by Adams, Katherine H. Brilhart, John K. Galanes, Gloria J

The Members and Their Roles 125

High impact on FIGURE 5.3
Primarily social both Task and social/
relational impact of
Amount of member behaviors
social
or
relational
impact
Little or no impact Primarily task

Amount of impact on group task achievement
Specific act or behavior

to the group. Thus, although some researchers consider actions to be either task- or
relationship-oriented, it is more accurate to say that an act may have considerable
44
impact on both dimensions. In fact, Mudrack and Farrell found that the gatekeeper
role, a maintenance role we describe later, and the information-seeker role, a task role,
straddled both categories. Figure 5.3 depicts these two major dimensions and illus-
45
trates how individual acts can affect each dimension to a greater or lesser degree.
Both task and socioemotional needs must be met for a group to be effective. For
example, the ad team’s members attended to both the task and socioemotional needs
of the group. Candi and Marija made sure that the group had all the information it
needed to perform well and kept the group on track, but they also participated in the
teasing and joking that made meetings fun. Ben provided agendas for the group’s
meetings, but he also sometimes brought in snacks or treated the group to happy-hour
celebrations when something great happened. Toni and Vinnie had a great sense of
fun and play, but they made sure their visual and textual images for ad campaigns
were done on time and on target. We turn now to look at the specific kinds of behav-
iors that contribute to a group’s success (or not!). The following list of behavioral
functions is based on Benne and Sheats’s classification. Figure 5.4 illustrates the roles
of three group members who exhibit various combinations of the following behaviors.

Task Functions Task functions affect primarily the task output of the group. Some of Task Function
the most helpful, with statements that exemplify those functions, are as follows: Task-oriented
Initiating and orienting: proposing goals, plans of action, or activities; prodding member behavior
the group to greater activity; defining position of group in relation to external that contributes
primarily to
structure or goal. (“Let’s assign ourselves tasks to finish before the next accomplishing the
meeting.”) goals of a group.
Information giving: offering facts and information, evidence, or personal
experience relevant to the group’s task. (“Last year, the ad campaign spent
S200,000 for TV spots.”)

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