Studies the activities teams use to manage their organizational environment beyond their teams, using semistructured interviews with 38 new-product team managers in high technology companies. Teams engage in vertical communications aimed at molding top management's views, horizontal communications aimed at coordinating work and obtaining feedback,…

Explored women's experiences of group process in career planning interventions and relationship of those experiences to vocational maturity. Results from 99 career-undecided women revealed that female clients, similar to other counseling clients, highly valued both cognitive and affective components of group process in career counseling groups.…

Traces the history and influence of study circles, describes the opportunities for personal growth provided by this format and the learning behaviors exhibited by participants, and examines how study circles are conducted and how their techniques engage participants. (JOW)

Proposes a synthesis based on persuasive argument theories but including a revised social comparison component to account for group polarization. Indicates that group members first lean toward risk or caution based on the proportion of arguments on "both sides" but henceforth argue for the "correct side" using their…

Presents tips for effective meetings in the following categories: premeeting preparation, group process, presenting views with impact, accentuating the positive, dealing with politics, and bringing closure. (SK)

Seeks empirical data on whether communication is an essential element of effective decision making and whether the variance in group decision making is best accounted for by noninteraction or interaction sources. Shows that group communication is related to group performance independent of the influence of noncommunication factors like group…

Results of a questionnaire sent to human resource personnel (n=76) suggest that much of the interpersonal communication that occurs in business will be in the form of informal small group settings and that business educators should emphasize the communication processes that occur in those settings and provide a variety of experiential exercises…

Examines the structure of participants' conceptions of ideal group discussion procedures. Finds that about one-half of the participants favor a "reach-testing" procedure, one-fifth a linear procedure, one-fifth a procedure beginning with reach-testing and ending with a linear stage, and one-tenth beginning with a linear stage and ending with…

A consultant who works primarily with women focuses on the promotion of personal change through the use of group processes and collaborative learning reflects on her role as an adult education consultant. (JOW)

Highlights broad philosophical issues and future areas of research on personal relationships that derive from the author's earlier work. Discusses the dialectics associated with intraindividual, interpersonal, and intergroup dynamics as well as the effect of the physical environment on personal relationships. (RS)

Describes ways that components of Information Engineering (IE) methodology can be used by training system developers to extend Instructional Systems Development (ISD) methodology. Aspects of IE that are useful in ISD are described, including requirements determination, group facilitation, integrated automated tool support, and prototyping.…

Argues importance of communication for group decision-making performance and its impact on such performance are function of three task characteristics: structure, information requirement, and evaluation demand. Identifies task circumstances in which group communication can be expected to play role in determining decision-making performance, as…

Investigated assumption that positive group process results from cooperation among group members by analyzing specific components of cooperation involved in teamwork and relating them to group input variables in interdisciplinary health care team members (N=72). Found cooperation was significantly related to size of team and whether an individual…

A stratified random sample of 96 employees in a large firm saved a hard copy of all incoming and outgoing electronic mail for a 3-day period. Proposes a framework for understanding how electronic communication could affect group behavior in organizations. (70 references) (MLF)

Survey responses from 285 continuing education administrators identified positive and negative aspects of continuing education's marginality; positive factors were more frequently cited. Four distinct types of organizational behavior emerged: token, entrepreneurial, imitated parent, and assimilated. (SK)