Individual competence and group behavior within a living system.

A study was conducted to examine how individual humans exploit their competence in group work during a workshop. The aim of the study was to identify the extent to which the behavior of groups of workshop participants would correspond to the theories of living systems and of organization science ab...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Behavioral Science Vol. 40; pp. 15 - 22
Autor principal: Österlund, Jan
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. January 1995
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:A study was conducted to examine how individual humans exploit their competence in group work during a workshop. The aim of the study was to identify the extent to which the behavior of groups of workshop participants would correspond to the theories of living systems and of organization science about gatekeepers and the organizational structure mentioned by H. Minzberg (1983). Data were drawn from the observation of workshop groups. Findings gave some support to the usefulness of groups being seen as living systems. It was not possible to relate any activity to any individual for the “Channel” function, and the “Decider” function was in most cases distributed among group members, as many decisions were arrived at through consensus. Only in some observations could the “Decider” function be related to a particular individual member. There were some indications of group members having roles as technical or administrative gatekeepers.