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.
In most organizations today, the greatest stress afflicts those working in groups: teams, task forces, and other units with special goals and purposes. Customary manners of management style and leadership largely fail to alleviate this stress. Olmstead offers a conceptual framework and draws upon his own experiences--supported by the similar experiences of others who have worked in most types of organizations under various stressful conditions--to show how.
Year after year, consultants, trainers, and human resource professionals have come to rely on the Annuals to provide them with the most current and quality tools on a wide variety of topics. In this book, editor Elaine Biech and contributors to the Annuals have honed in on the important theme of team building to create the first topic-specific book in the Annuals series. The Pfeiffer Book of Successful Team-Building Tools includes an innovative ten-block model for building a high-performance team and draws on the best-on-the-topic articles from thirty-five years of Annuals volumes. Open the pages of The Pfeiffer Book of Successful Team-Building Tools and you will find: A Stellar Panel of Contributors including Julie O'Mara, Patrick Doyle, Laurence C. Porter, Robert C. Preziosi, Anthony J. Reilly, John E. Jones, Leonard D. Goodstein, and Karen Vander Linde A Toolbox Loaded with activities, surveys, and information that you can put in place to build high-performing teams A Complete Team-Building Kit that includes a model for determining a team's strengths and weaknesses"I cut my training teeth on The Pfeiffer Annuals, and I've been a faithful advocate of these peerless guides ever since the first one. I'm just beside myself with glee to have a collection of the 'classic team-building tools' all in one place! Elaine Biech has done a masterful job of bringing together the all-time favorites and organizing them into a practical model. You've just got to have this book on your shelf, within easy reach. Buy it now! I know you're going to use it often."--James M. Kouzes, coauthor of The Leadership Challenge and Encouraging the Heart, chairman emeritus, Tom Peters Company
Aimed at front-line and senior managers faced with ongoing reorganization and an increasingly reluctant workforce, this book examines what it takes to facilitate problem solving, decision-making, and workforce retention and commitment.
While health care struggles with financing and quality care, educators, clinicians, administrators, and policy makers ignore an untapped resource. Well functioning interdisciplinary health care teams differ from current views of teams. An understanding of this hidden resource, as developed by Drinka and Clark, can help America's health care system.