Posting this ... waiting on a tense next 5 minutes
u09d1 Group Formation
For this activity, you will discuss an article from the Internet and the text readings from this unit.
Instructions:
1. Incorporate the article you located
2. Describe the process of group formation, including why and how groups are formed.
3. Provide an analysis of the factors that help groups stay together.
Begin Collection of data here …
Stop here for a min …
We’re taking a small break in the action just to make our first time change notation. We read/researched through the first two hours. We’re at the two and a half mark now, but we’ve lost a half hour to talking with our friend on the phone. He was on the way to his mothers, to beg her forgiveness for him forgetting to call on her anniversary hehehe, and his brother was going to be there who he has not seen for 5 months. We got down on him pretty bad (not really). We told him we were pretty sure mother neglect was worse than mistress neglect. Then we spent the better part of the conversation talking about an arrangement he is in with a business partner. There is no doubt the guy puts out … all across the board. After the mothers, he had to tell me that there were actually four games to officiate instead of 3. He’s going to get yelled at for that too, but after we cuddle/rub him down. We worry about him overdoing it. We know he’s already there, and we know the difference after a 4th game. They are only little kids and about an hour each, but that’s a lot of stress … have you ever watched the behavior of parents at a kid’s sporting event? It can get bad – and it’s hard on the legs.
We’re sticking to the plan of getting 2 papers written with time to play. But, now our friend is saying 6-6:30 pm. So, we’re thinking 7 – 7:30 pm. But, the way plans go … we need to budget conservatively. So we’ll say 6. What to do with this extra hour. Why don’t we call it our buffer and try to get back to track. That means now I only have two hours to write instead of 2 ½. Ok, this is doable. Has to be. No cheating now!
Ok, writing this paper … let’s get through the organization part. We’re having a little difficulty trying to distinguish the next two papers on group, because on they are asking how it is that groups stay together, and the second they are asking how do you increase cohesion. Between you and me … that’s not a whole lot of distinction. In the book, there are about 2 pages that include roles, norms, and cohesiveness … so we figure that’s the pivotal point. Ok, so where lies the division?
Stuff … Stuff … Stuff … Outline of points get written
Ok, I’m pretty sure I don’t know how those lines got there … maybe they will disappear, but basically. We got an hour and a half now … we completed our outline … need to flesh it in … let’s make that a flesh colored pencil, because any other thought might be too scary … like Frankenstein fleshing in … noo better not go there. ;)
Down in front
Paper starts here …
Topic: u09d1 Group Formation Date: March 17, 2007 11:19 AM
Subject: In response to the assignment from Ann
Author: Garvey, Ann
Last edited on: March 17, 2007 11:21 AM
This paper hopes to accomplish exploration on the formation of groups; how they form and why they form, and then answer, how they stay together. There is a small line drawn between this paper with “groups staying together” and the next paper “groups being cohesive.” We will limit ourselves by only including what might be an avoidance of that which might be detrimental to the continuation of group processes and save the work of roles, norms, and cohesiveness for the next paper.
People join groups because of an innate need to survive and reproduce, to be protected and secure, to form a personal and social identity, and to accomplish things that can’t be done outside a group (Brehm, Kassin, & Fein, 2005, p. 276). We’ll use as an example what knowledge we have of the center and somewhat its counterparts the larger sister foundation from which we are a part. The center is owned and operated by the Sisters of Daughters of St. Mary of Providence and their founder was Father Aloysius Guanella of Italy.
Father Guanella had a vision of helping people who were less advantaged. He and his order served people who were older, people who were mentally retarded, and people who were poor, but especially the poor who were older or mentally retarded. He established his mission in Italy and then he branched out to other countries. When he came to the United States, he had only five sisters. Today there are about 200 sisters in the United States, but that number is down from numbers in their past. The North American order is centered as our sister center on the north side of Chicago, and from that organization, our center was created about 45 years ago on the poorer south side of Chicago.
As the case of most non-profit businesses, the primary goals of our organization (both south side center and its sister sites) is more vision-orientated than financial. The organization must pay attention to finances in order to survive, but the goals are to assist others in need by sharing the religious vision with people in need of extra support. This vision is spiritually based. For example, at the start of our center’s program, the Administrative sister talks collectively in chapel with the staff and individuals served about their relationships with God and the cohesive goals put forth in the center’s mission. The administrator is given a small stipend to cover immediate needs, such as food, but compensation from a salary that might ordinarily go to a company’s CEO is channeled back to the sister’s order so that other organizations can be supported financially. In this means, the group of sisters and their programs survive and reproduce.
The sisters protect their organization by making the best use of their resources. Due to the shortage of nuns compared to community needs, most sisters within the order assume roles of administrative positions over lay people who work within the centers’ goals. Those who work at the centers and those who participate in its programs are protected within the realms of the church and the beliefs of the church. The mission stays focused on the most ideal beliefs of people. I like to think that the church’s primary mission is to convey the message of love of one another. To this end, people gain an identity that they support at their inner core. The value in coming together as a group of people accepting the services of the religious are that it is able to support a cause that is greater than any one individual or family could conceive. The authors of our text discuss that “the whole (the group decision or performance) is different from the sum of its parts (the attitudes and abilities of the group members)” (Brehm, Kassin, & Fein, 2005, p. 263). Further it states that there is something “mystical or magical about groups, like quantum physics” (p. 265).
People form groups as suggested by Tuckman (1965; Tuckman & Jensen, 1977 as cited in Brehm, Kasin, & Fein, 2005, p. 277) due to a formula of forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. My understanding of this formula (p. 277) added to other contributions within psychology is that:
Forming – polite exploratory orientation and modeling; individual assimilates/group accommodates
Storming – influence group to meet your needs
Norming – reconcile differences (sometimes through a mentor) and form a sense of purpose and perspective
Performing – complete tasks, solve problems, achieve goals, and evaluate/accept - commitment
Adjourning – disengage from group and reduce activities by exiting or disbanding
What this means in relationship to the center will be diagramed from the inception of the adult program that formed only as late as 1997. The 40 years prior to this the center was in large part another formation of itself in that it served youth with developmental disabilities as a school. Because of the schools having assimilated more of this population into mainstreaming, the needs switched to becoming less centered on children and more adult centered for the people who were aging out of school age participation (21 years of age). At the first year, the center as it now stands had only 11 individuals served. This was the formation years. The program modeled itself after its predecessor as to being educational, but in addition had to take on the direction modeled by the State in order to receive funding from that source.
Over the next few years, the center was challenged to meet the needs also of its accreditation organization (CARF). While serving the people from the foundation of the church’s beliefs and state coffer we were influenced by CARFS business and program models that were established nationally. When the state decided because it was paying for the financial support of the center and other day training centers, we should not charge the families more money than it had given, we lost the ability to draw needed finances. For most other services, this meant and under-realization of services although many still drew from financial resources such as grants, fundraising, and donations. Our center was no different with the exception that we continued to exceed the internal standards of most. I would like to think this was because of the dedication and direction of the Sisters.
Our services remained personal and focused on growth where the centers who were more dominated by governmental funding or lack thereof were claiming to be work orientated, but in reality were just housing day care programs. Many of these type of centers had unlimited hours of “down-time” where staff minimally covered listless client “crowds.” Our center seems to be performing at a community leadership level. The center was fortunate also to gain the support of governmental leadership so that while the operational budget was low, we had funding channeled to capital expenditures, which then increased the center’s value as a dollars and cents business entity, which was something noticeable in the community and in the governing body, which had lost other centers because they could not adapt to financial change. The center could be considered to be performing well.
As to the center staying together versus adjoining, we remain intact in part by the centers constant annual re-growth and re-dedication. Our business like others follows a fiscal calendar year, but we are small enough (serve approximately 50 people) that we can incorporate the lessons from one year to the next. We are able to grow and change with the summary of our past year with the additional new knowledge from the next flowing from not only the larger order of sisters, but as well from changes within the individual organization. As with most organizations our staffing patterns and intake patterns are in flux, but due to the Sisters’ adaptability and staff dedication, we are able to redirect resources as needs present themselves. The accreditation processes help too because each year it recycles information from companies throughout the country. The best companies learn from each other through benchmarking. Because accreditation is and State surveys are time orientated there are starts and stops in the process that allow us to procrastinate only to a certain extent - most of the time we are working hard. As suggested by Gersic (1988, 1994 as cited in Brehm, Kassin, & Fein, 2005, p. 278), groups do not proceed gradually, but operate from “periods of relative inactivity until triggered by awareness of time and deadlines.” The center is in motion and we’re proud of it.
Reference
Brehm, S. S., Kassin, S., & Fein, S. (2005). Social psychology [6th ed.]. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Paper ends here ....
posted by Ann Marie @ 3/17/2007 11:51:00 AM
Comments: 1
