Showing papers in "Human Relations in 1973"

Group Member Traits, Group Process, and Group Performance

Abstract: A laboratory study utilizing sixteen three-man groups varying in member trait composition was executed using measures of group task behavior as well as group performance. The research suggests the fruitfulness of employing measures of group composition, task behavior, and group performance simultaneously. The data suggest that the two group member traits studied, remote associates proficiency and social differentiation had an effect on group performance by shaping the quantity and distribution of both evaluative and elaborative behaviors of the groups. The traits also had an effect on group performance by molding the amount of group conflict generated over the discussion of alternative solutions to group problems.

Violence and Vietnam: a Comparison between Attitudes of Civilians and Veterans

Abstract: Based on a multidimensional concept of violence, this study introduces a questionnaire permitting the assessment of general and specific orientations toward violence, and compares responses obtained from six representative groups: middle-aged males, females, college males, females, enlisted Vietnam veterans, and serving field grade officers. Findings indicate that among the civilian groups, middle-aged males are most positive toward violence, while college females are least positive. In the enlisted veteran and officer samples, those who report heavy combat experience have the highest general violence scores. Factor analyses reveal specific attitude patterns for the different samples, with violence in the service of law and order being the major dimension of response variance. Several implications are discussed.

Identification and Personal Learning in T-Groups

Abstract: The importance and impact of the practice of laboratory training have been increasingly recognized in recent years. However, as with most innovatory techniques of social change, invention and creativeness in practice have far outstripped our systematic knowledge of the internal dynamics of laboratory training and its results. Several general models suggest broad stages of group development or list some conditions of personal learning-although seldom have these models been accompanied by systematic research. However, as several reviews have noted (Stock, 1964; Schein & Bennis, 1965; Lieberman et al, 1969) these general models do not seem to deal adequately with the intrapersonal dynamics of the learning process and the phenomenology of the participant. This research project aimed to examine some fundamental questions: how, more precisely, do people learn in laboratory training; what dynamic mechanisms and specific theory of learning are involved; and what relation does this personal learning process have t...

Some Developmental Correlates of Scarcity

Abstract: Investigating the 'culture of poverty' is currently in vogue. Given the recent focus on the poor within the United States, the values, family structure, and behavior of the poor are being examined and re-examined. If nothing else, this activity seems to be uncovering the fact that the poor in the United States are not unlike the poor of many other cultures. Most of the research has been, and is, centered on the adult; in particular, on the discrepancies between the adult poor and the 'Protestant ethic' middle class society as it is reflected, if not in the reality of the middle class itself, at least in the mind of the reseacher.This paper explores the development and maintenance of the value system associated with the poor by focusing on the concept of scarcity.2 Further, it attempts to explain the transmission of these values through child-training activities; that is, to dig beneath the vague concept of socialization. The base for the research reported here is in Peru. Learning theory models are examin...

The Need-hierarchy and Theories of Authority

Abstract: The need-heirarchy concept and three theories of authority (Formal, Situationist, and Acceptance) are reviewed, and an integrated framework for discussing their interrelationships and importance to organization theory and human relations is developed. The formal theory may be useful in discussions of profit-seeking, formal organizations, but in explaining individual behavior it uses only the lower order needs and expressive behavior. The situationist approach is applicable to a wider range of organizations and uses higher level needs in explaining individual behavior, but does not fully account for the impact of the individual upon his environment. The Acceptance Theory can be used in discussing any form of organization and, in addition, recognizes the full impact of the individual in those organizations using the full range of needs as well as both coping and expressive behavior. The Acceptance Theory is, then, the more general, more inclusive, and more applicable basis for a theory of authority.

The Physical Correlates of Variety in Work

Abstract: The level of variety in work in four shop floor work situations was investigated by means of semi-structured interviews with the workers. Variety was found to occur mainly at the level of batches (that is work units of one to two hours duration) and was generally unimportant in other periods of time. Discretion in work enabled the job occupants to possess more variety in work through allowing different responses to the same stimuli of the work situation. Preferences for different levels of variety were affected by such features of the work situation as bonus earnings and individual levels of skill on particular tasks.