Group Behavior

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the social-psychological literature on social interaction in small groups. Part I covers the influence of the physical situation, personalities, and social characteristics of the group members on the dynamics of the group. Part II covers the effect of the presence of others on pressures to conform experienced by group members. Part III includes chapters on roles, relationships, and leadership. Part IV reviews verbal and nonverbal communication, group decision making, and choice shift. Part V deals with cooperation, competition, and conflict resolution. Part VI discusses two types of external influence on the small group: the influence exerted by a larger group of which the smaller group is part, and the influence exerted by other groups with which the small group cooperates or competes.

An examination of Hare's findings about groups, teams, and social interaction, this book shows how these findings can be placed in the context of several theories, and discusses some applications that can be constructed for the analysis of various kinds of social situations. Part I brings together the literature on small workgroups from laboratory studies by social psychologists and practitioners in organizational development. Part II presents four theories of social interaction with examples of applications: functional, dramaturgical, exchange, and SYMLOG. The final chapter brings together features of these theories in a category system for the observation of groups.

This book has two purposes. First, it is fundamentally about groups at work, both as they attempt to accomplish their goals and as they operate in organizational settings. Second, it draws together group researchers from social psychological and organizational studies. Each chapter focuses on a central issue regarding groups as they work and examines that issue by drawing from both social psychological and organizational research. Thus, this book centers on the convergence and divergence of these two fields.