Small Groups as Complex Systems: Formation, Coordination, Development, and Adaptation

345 Pages·2000·15.52 MB·English

by  Holly Arrow

SMALL GROUPS AS
COMPLEX SYSTEMS

Sm a ll Gr o u ps as
Co m p l ex Sy s t e ms
Formation, Coordination, Development ,and Adaptation
Holly Arrow
Joseph E. McGrath
Jennifer L Berdahl
Sage Publications, Inc.
' International Educational and Professional Publisher
Thousand Oaks • London • New Delhi
Copyright © 2000 by Sage Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Arrow, Holly.
Small groups as complex systems: Formation, coordination, development,
and adaptation / by Holly Arrow, Joseph E. McGrath, and Jennifer L.
Berdahl.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8039-7229-6 (cloth: acid-free paper) — ISBN 0-8039-7230-X (pbk.: acid-
free paper)
1. Small groups. 2. Teams in the workplace. I. McGrath, Joseph
Edward, 1927- II. Berdahl, Jennifer L. III. Title.
HM736 .A77 2000
302.3'4—dc21 99-050490
06 07 08 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3
Acquiring Editor: C. Deborah Laughton
Editorial Assistant: Eileen Carr
Production Editor: Diana E. Axelsen
Editorial Assistant: Cindy Bear
Typesetter: Danielle Dillahunt
Designer: Marion Warren
Cover Designer: Candice Harman
Contents
Preface vii
PART I: ORIENTATION, HISTORY,
AND OVERVIEW OF THE THEORY
1. Introduction 3
2. Small Group Research:
The Past and Some Needs for the Future 11
3. Groups as Complex Systems: Overview of the Theory 33
PART II: THE THEORY IN DETAIL
4. Group Formation: Assembly and Emergence 61
5. Local Dynamics: Coordinating Members,
Tasks, and Tools 89
6. Global Dynamics: Stability and Change
Within the Group System 131
7. Contextual Dynamics: Adaptation of the Group
to Multiple Embedding Contexts 169
8. Metamorphosis: Endings and Transformations 213
PART III: ISSUES AND STRATEGIES
9. Implications of Our Theory for
Constructing a Research Program 249
10. Some Research Strategies for Studying
Groups as Complex Systems 265
References 297
Author Index 317
Subject Index 322
About the Authors 335
Preface
Ë I riting this book has been a challenge, a frustration, and a de-
Vr light. Our goal of creating a new theory of small groups that
would incorporate ideas from fields far removed from our own created
constant conceptual challenges. The material we were trying to de-
velop, articulate, and integrate forced us to rethink many of the things
we thought we "knew." This in itself was frustrating. The frequently
unsuccessful attempts to communicate developing insights to the
other two and the stress of constantly hearing (and having to tell each
other) that this or that passage "just doesn't make sense" created an-
other level of interpersonal frustration.
Repeatedly, just as we thought we had pinned down some part of the
material conceptually, one of us would come up with a "but how about
X?" query, and we would have to reconsider what we had just "final-
ized." Each of us found that explaining ideas clearly enough that the
other two authors were willing to accept them proved maddeningly dif-
ficult. It also provided an essential "quality control" mechanism that
helped get this book over the hurdle from a promising mess to what we
feel is a coherent theory.
This project has also been a delight, both in spite of, and perhaps be-
cause of, the challenge and frustration. Collaborating on difficult mate-
rial with serious scholars who are also good friends and demanding
critics is one of the main sources of satisfaction in our field.
vii
viii SMALL GROUPS AS COMPLEX SYSTEMS
We had help from many people. We want to acknowledge some of
them here: colleagues who read all or part of the book in earlier drafts—
Eck Doerry, Richard Hackman, Richard Moreland, M. Scott Poole,
Philip Runkel, and two anonymous reviewers; members of Arrow's
graduate seminar and of McGrath's graduate seminar, who critiqued
some of the material in earlier forms; and our colleagues on the two
JEMCO studies, who helped us gain many of the insights incorporated in
this work—Kelly Bouas Henry, Kellina Craig, Anne Cummings, Deborah
Gruenfeld, Andrea Hollingshead, Linda Lebie, Joselito Lualhati, Kathleen
O'Connor, Jon Rhoades, and Ann Schlosser.
We also want to acknowledge the support of both the Social Psychol-
ogy Section and the Information and Technology in Organizations Sec-
tion of the National Science Foundation, whose support of our empirical
research under Grants BNS 91-06501, IRI 91-07040, and IRI 93-10099
(J. E. McGrath, Principal Investigator) made it possible for us to develop
a strong empirical underpinning for our theory. A grant to the first au-
thor from the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, Inc. and the Ew-
ing Marion Kauffman Foundation provided support during the early
stages of work on the book, and NSF Grant SBR-9729320 provided sup-
port during the later stages of refining and revising.
We thank C. Deborah Laughton, our editor at Sage, for her patience
and encouragement during what proved to be a much lengthier process
of creation than we had anticipated.
A special thanks to the director of the Baldwin Research Institute in
Baldwin, Michigan, who graciously hosted the three of us during sev-
eral summer retreats in which we struggled with the book. Thanks also
to our respective spouses, Bruce, Marion, and Jim, whose support sus-
tained us through the challenge, frustration, and delight. Finally, we
want to thank one another for an inestimably valuable, nonrepro-
ducible, many-leveled learning experience.
P A RT I
ORIENTATION, HISTORY, AND
OVERVIEW OF THE THEORY