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Group Communication Pitfalls
Overcoming Barriers to an Effective Group Experience
First Edition
- John O. Burtis - University of Northern Iowa, USA
- Paul D. Turman - Nebraska State College System, Lincoln, NE, South Dakota Board of Regents, USA
November 2005 | 264 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
This text treats groups and the work involved in grouping as useful tools humans have developed for responding to pressures or demands faced by group members. As these pressures and demands toward grouping arise, the differences between effective and ineffective groups may be small (as they begin to manifest), but they can become very large when measured by final group outcomes. Thus, it is important to be aware of the signs that a group is not doing well and to know how to help a group begin to do better.
This book assumes an orientation that expects and detects group pitfalls as they arise, providing students with the foundation for overcoming barriers to effective group experiences. By assuming this orientation, this book is designed to 1) provide a map of the group pitfall terrain, and 2) demonstrate how people working well together can use the struggle against such pitfalls to improve their groups.
Preface
Unit I: We Co-construct Our Groups by Communicating
1. Why Study Group Communication Pitfalls?
2. How Grouping and Group Direction Help Create Effective Group Experiences
Unit II: We Struggle to Co-construct and Frame Our Circumstances and Processes
3. Pitfalls in Task and Supragroup Exigencies
4. Personnel Pitfalls
5. Pitfalls in Grouping Techniques, Tendencies, and Process Prizes
6. Pitfalls in Confusion, Conformity, Conflict, and Group Consciousness: Grouping Concomitants
7. Pitfalls in Vision and Direction Giving
Unit III: We Co-construct Our Exigencies for Grouping Into Our Group Outcomes
8. (Un)Intended Group Outcomes
9. To Group or Not to Group, That Is the Question
10. Observing Groups Well
"They have done this with a rich, provocative, and creative conceptual vocabulary that will resonate for readers who practice, supervise others' practice, teach about or do research in group life and group work."
—Paul H. Ephross, MSW, PhD, Professor, University of Maryland School of Social Work
University of Mayland School of Social Work
Social Work With Groups
