Introduction
How to build a successful team is always a concern. This article is written to describe three
important factors in group process which are cohesiveness, communication and conflict
and how they benefit individuals in their master program and future career.
Hackman (1987) thought group processes represent interactions that take place among
team members, or team members and tasks. Hill (2011) addressed that decision-making,
participation, influence, and conflict are four aspects of team process that have a profound
influence on team effectiveness and that all team members can impact. Jewell & Reitz
(1981) proposed the key factors of team process are communication, decision making,
influence, cooperation and competition. Adair (1986) mentioned responses to frustration,
responses to authority and decision-making procedures. Other scholars also proposed other
factors such as cohesiveness, team climate and shared mental models.
According to theories above, the key factors the scholars focus on are cohesiveness,
communication and conflict. This article will discuss how individuals benefit from these
three factors when involved in groups.
Cohesiveness
Festinger and colleagues (1950) proposed that cohesiveness can be considered as
attractiveness to individuals within the group and attractiveness to the group as a whole.
Forsyth (2006)suggests that group cohesion is a combination of the unity or solidarity of a
group, as indicated by the strength of the bonds linking group members to each other and
to the group as a whole; the sense of belonging and community within the groups; and the
degree to which the group members coordinate their efforts to achieve goals. Based on
Barrick’s (1998) research, cohesiveness has positive impact on intention for corporation
among members, because for team with high cohesiveness, the cost of communication and
corporation is low and the satisfaction is high, making the teamwork more effective.
A major concern for group cohesiveness is every group member’s degree of acceptance or
inclusion in the team. Individuals are determining their level of commitment, sizing up the
other team members, deciding how to position and involve themselves in team activities.
(Hill, 2011) They have to adapt the change of condition from alone to together and find out
their own roles—whether they are plants, resource investigators, co-ordinators, shapers,
monitor-evaluators, team workers, implementers, completer-finishers or specialists
(Belbin,1970) from the process of teamwork. Everyone can try each role in different tasks
in order to know their strength and weakness better in this process, so he could improve
their weakness in master program, and more importantly find out his own professional
