Running Head: GROUP DYNAMICS OBSERVATION REPORT 1

Group Dynamics Observation Report

Brittany Ste Marie
CAYW 214: Group Dynamics and Facilitation
Jillian Manning
October 2nd, 2018
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Introduction
This report is to outline my findings during an observation of a group interaction at my
placement. This assignments purpose is to allow my growth in understanding group dynamics,
process, and facilitation.

The group is a size of nine children who range in age from six to nine. The participants are
majority male; with only one female child. The group meets once a week in the school gym for
fifty minutes. They meet at 10:50 a.m. every Wednesday.

The apparent goal of the group is to help give them strategies to manage their frustrations. This
goal is never clearly stated to the group. The leader does not tell them why they are doing the
activities.

Group Dynamic Observations/Assessment

Leadership: The leadership style observed in this group is autocratic. In class we learned an
autocratic leader can be defined as: “a take charge leader who tells others what to do and sees
that they do it. Emphasis is often placed on task completion” (Manning, 2018). The leader of this
group does not give the participants any opinion or say into what they are doing in each session.
While in the session, the leader gives demands and expects the participants to comply with no
questions or modifications. For this group, an autocratic leadership style is not effective. The
group complies and does the activities that are planned; however, they do not enjoy them and it
appears that they do not take away any lessons or strategies from the sessions. During the
sessions some participants complain and sit out.

Type: The group is a therapy/counselling group. I believe the group fits this type due to it being
an institutional setting (school) and because of the reasons the youth participate in the group. The
text states that, “members come to the group because of certain problems in their lives” (Jacobs,
Schimmel, Masson, & Harvill, 2016, p. 13). It also points out that a group in an institutional
setting is considered a therapy/counselling group. The participants are there because they
struggle with anger and managing both at school and home. They are there to be taught strategies
to help them with this and most sessions are focused, or suppose to be, around this topic.

Stage: The group appears to be in the working and storming phase. The texts states that the
storming phase “occurs in groups where there is tension due to the makeup of the group and the
approach of the leader” (Jacobs, Schimmel, Masson, & Harvill, 2016, p. 38). I believe they are in
the storming phase because they do not work well as a team and each individual participant
thinks what they do, feel, say etc. is more important than anyone else in the group. When the
leader wants them to do an activity they do not like there is usually a lot of complaining, crying,
yelling, and/or sitting out. I believe the group has moved out of the beginning stage and in to the
working stage because the sessions are dedicated to the participants learning new material and
completing various tasks such as yoga and meditation.

Roles: Within the group I was able to observe a functional role as well as a dysfunctional role. In
class we defined a gatekeeper as someone who “keeps communication channels open;
encourages and facilitates interaction from those members who are usually silent” (Manning,
2018). In this group I observed a male participant who realized a newer, younger participant was
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hesitant to participate and took it upon himself to go and sit with the other male and encouraged
him to participate in the activity by reassuring him that it will help him in the end. I believe this
was a good example of the gatekeeper role. I also observed a blocker within this group. A
blocker was defined in class as someone who “interferes with progress by rejecting ideas or
taking a negative stand on any and all issues; refuses to cooperate” (Manning, 2018). One of the
participants vocally fought all activities he was asked to do. He called them stupid and told the
group not to participate in them. He refused to participate in a majority of the activities. Both of
these roles had an affect on the group. The gatekeeper allowed the dynamics of the group to
move in a positive direction. This allowed all members to get the most out of the group by
increased participation. The blocker in the group frustrated a lot of the other participants which
halted progress and made the milieu feel more negative for all involved.

Conflict: There was a lot of tension and conflict observed within this group. I was expecting to
see this as the groups participants are youth who struggle with their frustration. The youth get
angry with each other easily and in this specific session, one youth started screaming at another
youth when he was stating his displeasure with the activity. The leader chose to ignore this
conflict and continued on with the activities she had planned. I believe this was not an effective
course of action because a majority of the other youth got very distracted by the negative
interaction, which resulted in less productivity within the group.

Counselling Skills: One skill that I observed the leader using was summarizing. I observed the
leader using summarizing when she brought forth all of the participant’s thoughts on the
activities near the end of the session. The text stated that, “a good time to use summarizing is at
the end of a session” (Jacobs, Schimmel, Masson, & Harvill, 2016, p.136). There were a few
different view points that arose during the session and having the leader summarize at the end
was strategic and allowed the youth to gain insight based on their peers’ perspective. I did not
observe any other basic counselling skills during this session. The session was more focused
around telling the youth what to do and how to do it; rather than the leader listening to the body
language of the youth and what they were physically saying.

Recommendations
1. The leader should address problems that arise quickly. To do this, the leader should
acknowledge the team member directly and have them reflect on their behaviour and how
it could be changed to support the groups goals. Encouraging discussion of the conflict
will hopefully lead to a resolution which will allow the group to return to a state of
positive group dynamics.
2. The leader should enact meaningful change when the activities she has planned are not
working the way they are intended too. If the leader is flexible and aims to find a program
the group enjoys and that will benefit the participants the same way as she has planned,
the participants will be more inclined to take part leading to a more positive group
dynamic.
3. The leader should ensure the purpose of the activities are well known by and stated to the
participants. If the participants understand the benefits to the activities within the session
they may be more inclined to participate. The increased participation will lead to a
stronger group dynamic.
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Conclusion
After all of my observations and learning from lectures and text, I have learned a lot about the
importance of group dynamics. The dynamics observed in this group need a lot of work.
Implementing the recommendations I have given will help the group progress more positively.
Proper leadership is essential to positive group dynamics. In order for a group to get to the end
goal and progress through all of the stages productively; paying attention to the dynamics of the
group and intervening when needed is very important. As a CYC, I will use what I have learned
both in placement and throughout the rest of my career. Ensuring the group is interacting well
together and the milieu is positive is something I will keep in the back of my head while in the
field.
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References

Jacobs, E., Schimmel, C., Masson, R., and Harvill, R. (2016). Group counselling strategies and
skills. 8th ed. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole LTD.
Manning, J. Group Dynamics and Conflict [PowerPoint Slides]. Retrieved from Blackboard.
Manning, J. Group Process and Stages [PowerPoint Slides]. Retrieved from Blackboard.