Group Effectiveness
A group gives members sense of belonging due to the relationship they have with a certain group and the characteristics that are associated to a certain group. Members in a group work hard to achieve the group’s objectives under the leadership of a chair person.
Members of a group create agreement among themselves by subscribing to common vales, beliefs and objectives (McKenna, 2000). This article will look at a secondary group which has many members, it is also less intimate and less long lasting. Examples of a secondary group include students in a university or a college, all the people in a company and all members of a church. The article will explain what makes a secondary group effective looking at issue like communication, its development, tasks, maintenance and social interdependence and trust.Group effectivenessIn a secondary group, members have less emotional ties to one another but they only come together for a certain role such as getting a degree or to pray.
This group assumes an impersonal nature and the members may be geographically distant with each other (Macionis, 2002). In order for a secondary group like a church to remain cohesive, there must be an agreement between the members on values, beliefs and objective of the church. One of the churches objectives may be to evangelize to the people and thus the members must cooperate and agree among themselves on how best the objective will be achieved. For a group to be effective it should have a norm which will direct the members on what to do and what should be avoided. Norms will assist a group to prevent embarrassing situations for example by restricting the members from discussing sensitive issues which may hurt some of the members.
It will also help the group to survive by assisting the members to avoid bad behaviors that may pose a threat to its survival (McKenna, 2000).Effectiveness of a group can also be achieved through such factors as ensuring similarity of attitudes and goal because when people for example in a church possess similar attitudes and objectives, then they will find each others company a source of satisfaction. Time spent together also increases the group effectiveness because the members of the church will have a chance of exploring common interest and experience greater interpersonal experience. Group developmentA secondary group involves a lot of people who are together to achieve a certain role and therefore, measures should be put in place to ensure that the group is strong and effective. A group like a church must ensure that the atmosphere provided for the members is good in order to make the members gain trust and remain in the church.
Encouragement helps in building a church group and this can be achieved by the members being friendly, warm, and responsive to the members of the church, praising them for their ideas, agreeing and accepting their contributions. Standard setting is also important in group development because it helps in expressing the standards to be used by the church or a company in choosing its procedures and in evaluating its decisions (Macionis, 2002). It also helps in reminding the members to avoid decisions that will conflict with the group’s standards. Gate keeping assists in secondary group development because it helps all the members of the groups to contribute their ideas and views in decision making. It limits the talking time for everyone so that each and every member will have a chance of talking.
To ensure secondary group development, follow up process is very important because it helps the group leaders to go along with the decisions of the group, also helps them to accept what other members of the group have to say and staying as audience during a group discussion. This helps the members feel motivated and part of the group thus making the group strong. Expressing group feeling help in group development because summarizing the members feeling will help one to understand their attitudes towards the group and thus will help in coming up with a solution. For example a pastor being the leader in a church should try and understand the feelings of the members. This will help him know their attitudes towards the church management, the summons and also the procedures and thus it will be possible to improve on them in order to satisfy the member’s expectations and make the church strong (McKenna, 2000).Group communicationCommunication processes of a secondary group like students in university or employees in a company use indirect communication because the social relationships in this group are of impersonal nature.
Mass media is used for communication where a radio, newspaper, post and television can be used. Communication it this group is not very effective and may be slow. Formal communication is also used in secondary group because the group may have an organization structure which will clearly indicate the communications channels to be followed. Leadership in secondary group can either be formal where leader is chosen and has the authority to reward or sanction. Informal leader on the other hand gets his mandate from the members and he usually represents the group’s values. He can be of great assistance to the members in issues like acting like a spokesperson for the members.
Members in a secondary group like a church or a company play a particular role which has a material influence on how the group functions. There is the expected role which a member is expected by the other members to play. For example a pastor in a church is expected to give sermons to the members and be a role model. The members of the church are expected to adhere to the standards set down and have a positive attitude. The perceived role involves those activities and behaviors that help one to achieve the expected role by engaging with the other members of the group.
Enacted role is the way a person behaves in a group. For example a pastor may interact with the members of the church when preaching either asking questions, discussing issues, encouragement and providing information (Macionis, 2002). Social interdependenceMembers in a secondary group depend on each other in order to achieve the group’s objectives. For example an accountant in a company has to interact with colleagues from other departments like production and purchasing in order for him to accomplish his task. On the other hand attachment of the members to the group is limited because people are only brought together by a specific interest and by the fact that they have impersonal relationship.Group maintenanceWhen a group is formed and developed it is important to maintain it in order to continue achieving the set objectives.
A secondary group has many members who have impersonal nature of relationship and are brought together by a certain role and thus it is important to ensure that the members remain together. The first step in group maintenance is evaluation where the group’s accomplishments are compared with the set standards and objectives in order to know whether the objectives have been achieved or not (Macionis, 2002). If the accomplishments are below the set goals, then it will be possible for the group to identify its shortfalls and thus improve on its performance. The second step in secondary group maintenance is diagnosing which will help the members of the group to identify sources of difficulties and also analyze the main progress blocks in order to know the right steps to take. The third step is testing for consensus which involves getting opinions of the members in order to know whether a group can come in to a consensus about a decision (McKenna, 2000).
The other step is meditating which involves harmonizing the group members and making compromise solutions to solve any problem arising among the group members. The final step in maintaining a secondary group is relieving tension by draining off negative feelings by the members about the group.This article has featured the secondary group in the society like the church members, employees in a company and students in university. It has Cleary explain how the group can be developed and maintained and also the different characteristics of this group like the communication used, roles played and the social interdependency.
