UNIVERSITY OF SWAZILAND DEPARTMENT OF ADULT EDUCATION DAE 114: COMMUNICATION PART-TIME DIPLOMA YEAR 1 ASSIGNMENT

NAME ID

: NOMCEBO N. MKHATSHWA : 146324

LECTURER : MISS B.T.N NGWENYA DATE : 24th MARCH 2013

QUESTION: Discuss four (4) roles of groups (two functional and two dysfunctional) and give a clear reasons why it is necessary for you as a Change Agent to be aware of these roles in your target group.

As a Change Agent I take it as a message that perhaps the group has not given enough space and recognition to normal personal agendas. Groups has roles which are functional roles and dysfunctional roles. Functional roles are those thatcontribute positively to the group,they help it move closer to its goals. Establishing functional roles for each member enables effective group collaboration, which typically results in improved morale and profitability. Functional roles can be devided into two which is group maintenance roles and task perfomance roles. Dysfunctional roles are those that are self-centered roles played by a person who is more concerned about personal needs than the groups interest (Philips, 1973). These roles reduce group productivity, cohesion, and satisfaction. As a Change Agent I will take time for this so that individuals can be freed-up to contribute their energy to the group. While giving these individual needs time, maintain a balance. The group as a whole must be willing to set limits on acceptable individual behavior, and to enforce those limits in an equitable and sensitive manner. The group must be willing to exclude an individual whose personal needs and hidden agendas threaten to disrupt and derail the entire group process. In my target group which is the mixture of adult learners and school leavers who came to satisfy their goal of learning electrical skills. It is necessary for me to be aware of the opinion giver which is the task perfomance roles (These roles help to get the job done. They often appear to need tough and single minded people in them), it states his own beliefs, attitudes and judgement. Ususlly, there are a few people in a group who are more than willing to present their opinions where the concern is that everyone, including the introverts and communication apprehensives, give their views. As a group develops information, it will often discover alternatives. Some people have a particular talent for sorting out alternatives and helping groups reach decisions. Group effort has an advantage over individual effort, it produces both a wider range of ideas and more creative contributions. This principle presupposes that all learners participate not depending to the beliefs and judgement of the learner who is an opinion giver. The ineffective learner withholds his opinions out of fear of critism, the effective learner expresses them. Although the opinion givers beliefs and judgements that he will perfom may be right but allowing him will destracts the other learners ineffectiveness towards the group contributions. Again it is necessary for me to be aware of the gatekeeper which is a group maintenance role (These roles provide the oil for the machinery. They look after the emotional life of the group, help make it work, consider the needs of individuals). The gatekeeper controls the channels of communication, providing proper balance in the amount of participant of each learner. I will expedite attempts to keep communication channels open by encouraging or

facilitating the participation of others or by proposing regulation of the flow of communication. It is important that I limit the length of our contributions so that everyone will have a chance to contribute in the learning process. I will make sure all the learners have a chance to express themselves by encouraging the shy and quiet learners to contribute their ideas. I will limit those who dominate the conversation and may suggest group rules or standards that ensure everyone gets a chance to speak up. One of the historical functions of the Gatekeepers is to invite people to join the group and to make the necessary introductions to the group. The gatekeepers are needed in my target group to encourage those to talk who might otherwise not speak while cutting those to talk who tend to monopolize discussions. Also in conflicts, situations, he attempts to reduce the amiunt of communication by highly dissident or argumentative members. However, if the situation warrants a confrontation, the gatekeeper opens up the channels to the opponents so that the catharsis can take place. The gatekeepers overall purpose I will need it to bring satisfaction, continuation of the group. The gatekeeper control the flow of the learning discussion by his attention, his body orientation and eye contact, and by the members he addresses. Members of a group obviously have their own individual desires, needs, and agendas, some of which may be in harmony with the groups purpose and some not. In any case, these must be recognized and dealt with, and either explicitly brought into the groups process or consciously set aside (Gulley,1968). Ignoring or suppressing these needs often result in individual as well as group frustration. This frustration is frequently expressed through behaviors that tend to block the effective functioning of the group. For example: A blocker which is a dysfunctional role which tends to Opposes every idea or opinion that is put forward and yet refuses to make own suggestions, for example, "That is not a good idea." The result is that the group stalls because it can not get past the resistance, the blocker tends to be negativistic and stubbornly resists, disagreeing and opposing without or beyond "reason" and attempting to maintain or bring back an issue after the group has rejected or by-passed it. Blocking the ideas of others can be even more damaging. Indeed, effective blocking can set up the pattern of self-censorship that leads to Groupthink (Benne & Sheats, 1948).

I as a Change Agent it is important that I do not allow anything that will want to interfere with the learning process. This person constantly objects to others ideas and suggest ions, and insists

that nothing will work. He is totally negative inorder to distracts the everything the learners are looking at or trying to do. As the name implies, the blocker prevents progress and may be labour points that the learners has finished discussing or repeatedly oppose recommendations. This person will be always complaining , always dissatisfied until the learners agree with him. I will not let such happen in my learning process because it will distructs it. He is the type you forget to inform about anything the class is planning to do during times when it is busy. By making all the lerners aware of these maladaptive behaviours of the blocker, individuals can monitor the behaviour and put a name to it when it occurs, then this will be a good way to decrease much of the disruptive behaviour. Another dysfunctional role is a playboy or playgirl which his behaviours are disruptive and damaging. By spotting these behaviours and coaching people out of them can significantly improve my target group of learners. Although these adult learners may not understand easily that the playboy or playgirl will distracts the lessons because he is always uninvolved with the learning purpose, he will disturb it with antics, jokes and comments. He prefere to entertain himself and the other members through his horseplay or sarcasm. He do not care that the learners want to gain electrical skills and be the best group in perfomance results. He makes display of his or her lack of involvement in the processes which disturb the whole lesson. He also uses group meetings as fun time and a way to get out real work and distracts the people by telling jokes, playing pranks, or even reading unrelated material. This kind of a person usually are those who mised the stage of being a child and play so it usually develops while the person grows. Each of these roles is part of the leadership process. Which roles a person plays depends his/her abilities, personality and preferences. Some may fill more than one role, at the same time or over a period of time. There may be one person who fills several of these roles and is considered to be the group "leader," but without the leadership contributions made by others in the learning process, the group would function less effectively, if at all. Roles are also often shared, with, for example, many people serving as initiators or encouragers. Looking at leadership in this way, we can see that it is not a limited or exclusive possession. Quite the contrary, for the more leadership capacity and expression within the learners, the more effective and alive the group will be. When leadership is seen as a set of mutually reenforcing roles, the better the leadership becomes, the more my leadership is empowered and encouraged. As I identify more clearly the roles we each play in the learning processes, we can see our individual strengths in the overall pattern. The challenge is for each to take as many different roles as are appropriate to the groups need in the various phases of its movement toward achieving its purposes.

References: Benne, K. D., & Sheats, P. (1948). Functional Roles of Group Members. Journal of Social Issues, 4(2), 41-49. Gulley, H. E.(1968). Discussion, Conference and Group Process. 2d ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. http://www.google.com/functional and dysfunctional roles of group members. Retrieved on 20 march 2013. Philips, G. M. (1954). Communication and Small Group. 2d ed. Indianapolis: the Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc.