Understanding Group Dynamics and Roles

Posted on Jan 11, 2025 in Other university degrees and diplomas

Negative Roles in Group Dynamics

  • The Offender: A person who operates by humiliating, attacking, taunting aggressively, and creating division and strife.
  • The Occluder: A person who tends to be negative and stubbornly refuses to cooperate and facilitate teamwork.
  • The Recognition Seeker: A person who boasts at work, showing off to attract attention and gain prestige through admiration.
  • The Confessor: A person who uses the opportunity provided by the group setting to present their guidelines that are irrelevant to the task and objective of the group.
  • The Mundane: A person who flaunts their lack of commitment and solidarity in the progress of the group, behaving indifferently and cynically.
  • The Dominator: A person who tries to assert themselves as compulsive or in a higher authority, seeking to manipulate the group or some of its elements.
  • The Help Seeker: A person who tries to awaken responses of sympathy or pity from other elements in the group, through expressions of insecurity, need for affection, or self-deprecation, without a real basis for it.
  • The Sniper: A person who keeps searching for the errors of others to show them off and satisfy a sadistic pleasure or conceal their own failures.
  • The Silent Member: A person who remains silent most of the time, even sabotaging their learning.
  • The Monopolizer: A person with a high need for status, often insecure, who seems to always need to be in control.

Roles for Task Groups

Its purpose is to facilitate and coordinate group efforts aimed at fulfilling the task of solving problems. A person may play more than one role, and leadership is often shared.

  • The Initiator-Contributor: This is the person who suggests or proposes new ideas to the group, a new task, or a different way of seeing the group’s target or problem.
  • The Information Inquirer: This is the person who asks to clarify ideas and comments, to find information on data and facts related to the task or problem to be addressed.
  • The Opinion Inquirer: This is the person who directs their questions to explore and clarify the ethical and moral values that concern the group.
  • The Informant: This is the person who offers data and facts related to the task and the problem of the group.
  • The Discussant: This is the person who expresses pertinent and timely beliefs, opinions, or ideas on the problem and issues involved in the group.
  • The Elaborator: This is the person who develops thoughts and emotions to get products that are understandable, simple, and familiar. This person explains the ideas and problems in terms of examples or meanings already known to the group.
  • The Convener: This is the person who suggests the distribution of roles, displays, or makes clear the relationship between ideas and objectives of the group.
  • The Advisor: This is the person who defines and reminds the group of its position on the task or conflicts.
  • The Critical-Evaluator: This is the person who subjects the group’s performance to a standard or performance criteria to evaluate and judge the results according to the objective or the problem to be solved.
  • The Energizer: This is the person who encourages the group to react or make decisions.
  • The Registrar: This is the person who writes down, either spontaneously or by assignment, the progress, comments, and decisions of the group, keeping track of the work results.

Roles of Constitution and Group Dynamics

Its aim is to keep the group working, as well as to strengthen, regulate, and perpetuate the group during its lifespan.

  • The Stimulator: This is the person who praises, agrees with, and accepts the contribution of others. They express understanding, tolerance, and acceptance of others in conflict situations.
  • The Conciliator: This is the person who tries to smooth over disputes, resolve conflicts, and reduce tension in conflict situations.
  • The Compromiser: This is the person who operates to find a compromise, acting as part of conflict resolution channels and proposing alternatives to solve the problem.
  • The Gatekeeper: This is the person who tries to keep communication channels open by encouraging or facilitating the participation of others.
  • The Ego Ideal: This is the person who remembers and exposes to the group the ideal operating model, advises on quality standards, and attempts to implement the operation of the group.
  • The Observer-Commentator: At first, their only business is to witness what happens to the group, putting full attention into observing what happens. Later, they provide feedback to the working group, making comments for constructive purposes.
  • The Follower: This is a person who accepts their role as an audience in the group events, moving along with the group and passively following at all times.