Discusses three studies stemming from an investigation designed to demonstrate that group decision-making performance is contingent on the satisfaction of four functional requirements. Claims the studies provide further support for the functional perspective. (JAD)

This elaboration and critique is the final article in a four-part series that presents the empirical foundation, parameters, and applications of a multidimensional model for organizing research on group psychotherapeutic process. (Author)

Reviews Bale's view on relations between instrumental and expressive structures and ensuing work on legitimacy of instrumental structure. Conceptualizes this legitimacy in terms of integration of distribution of members' skills and instrumental structure. Discusses Bale's conception of primary and secondary differentiation and inequality…

Illustrates the major dimensions of small group members' interpersonal perceptions using the repertory grid technique. Elicited dimensions in the initial and middle stages in a therapeutic and comparison group. Related a variant of the accepting-rejecting dimension to independently derived personality measures. Contrasts results for the two…

Describes a practical conceptualization of group process and management, titled the TRAC model (tasking, relating, acquiring, contacting), which takes into consideration the changing nature of group life. (Author)

Presents problems associated with process analysis with a specific focus on definitional and methodological concerns. Discusses the need for a comprehensive system that will help researchers to separate and comprehend the individual parts of a group and their relationship to the whole group. (Author/LLL)

Describes selected rules that may be abstracted from discussions in a given natural group, in this case, a nursing home admissions board. Suggested that to comprehend group structure, investigators must move beyond the internal units of conversation and consider conversational behavior in the larger context of an ethnographic present. (LLL)

When people work together over time, certain key events stand out as having the potential to teach lasting lessons for the future. Leaders can use the Critical Reflections process to help their groups learn these lessons, whether the key event was a great success or a wretched failure. The goal is to affect future outcomes in similar situations:…

Group decision on the moving of chess pawns is a useful way to demonstrate to students in a management development situation how ineffectively they use the resources available in a work situation. (MF)

A study designed to investigate the question Do Larger or Smaller Groups Make Better Decisions?" (CK)

The longitudinal study reported in this article focuses directly upon Gibb's (1964) model. The impact of initial high and low levels of trust upon later group accomplishment is explored in two sets of groups: one set which participated in organizational training laboratories, and one which did not. Results indicate that prelaboratory trust is a…

Analogy produces remarkably parallel patterns for group and individual maturation. A model of developmental stages (infant, child, adolescent, young adult, adult), intellectual and emotional dimensions, communication, interaction, and typical behavior is included. (Author/LY)

In an attempt to describe "the good community," Warren examines community development on the bases of primary group relationships, autonomy, viability, power distribution, participation, degree of commitment, degree of heterogeneity, extent of neighborhood control, and the extent of conflict. (NL)

Proposes a quantitative conceptual scheme to describe the features of intergroup and intragroup relations. The article examines, both qualitatively and in formal equations, the tautologies that govern contract rates and network densities for any population that can be divided into two categories. (Author/RM)