CHAPTER FIVE
Roles and Leadership in Groups
I. Lecture/discussion on roles, explaining emergence of roles, types of roles,
role conflict and role fixation.
II. Show Quiet Rage: The Stanford Prison Study. Available from Philip Zimbardo at
Stanford University (psychology department) An excellent 1992 production with
updated footage. (50 minutes long.) Excellent illustration of the power of roles
any role relationships where there is a
nt, doctor-patient, parent-child. Shows the potential
for abuse.
Another, excellent synopsis of the Stanford Prison Study with grim applications to
the Abu Ghraib torturing in Iraq is available on the documentary entitled
available at: http://the-human-behavior-
experiments.blogspot.com/2007/10/human-behaviour-experiments.html
III. Show excerpt of movie The Doctor (role reversal). Show resident doctors in a
hospital told by the William Hurt character to dress up as patients (end of movie)
and/or William Hurt character as a patient with busy nurses ignoring him and forcing
him to wait. Powerfully illustrates the impact of reversing roles (from doctor to
patient, student to teacher, child to parent).
IV. “Role Expectation, Role Performance” exercise
A. Purposes:
1. To illustrate role expectation can create self-fulfilling prophecies (we
r of roles to shape behavior.
2. To demonstrate that role emergence comes from the transactions of
group members and the roles members’ play must be endorsed by
the group.
3. To illustrate hidden agendas.
B. Time required: approximately 35 minutes
C. Instructions:
1. Divide the class into four or five groups (5-6 members works best).
2. Members of two groups will have labels stuck to their foreheads.
These labels will assign roles and dictate the behavior for group
members. Labels (roles) are not revealed to those receiving them.
The labels (file folder labels with sticky backing work best) are:
3. Members of the remaining groups will receive slips of paper with
roles designated and behavior specified. Members are not to reveal
what is on the slips of paper. Choose from the following:
aracter. You will goof off, crack
inappropriate jokes, make frequent asides, side-track the group
background. Don’t be obnoxious, just bored and uninterested.
e very interested in this
discussion. Actively listen. Request information and opinions
from group members. Ask for clarification of others’ points of
4. Have all groups pick a stimulating topic for 10 minutes of discussion
(while the facilitator assigns roles as instructed above), or give groups
a controversial newspaper article or editorial to discuss.
5. Encourage everyone to play their roles with as much
accuracy as possible.
D. Processing the exercise:
1. In the labeled groups, have participants (in turn) guess what
role they each thought they were and why they thought that.
In the “hidden agenda” roles groups (slips of paper), have group
members try to guess what role each participant was playing.
2. Discuss the results:
a. Labeled groups usually have several members who become
the role designated, especially isolates, leaders, and clowns. This
shows the power of role labeling and how groups shape roles
played by members. If the group wants you to be an isolate, you
will become an isolate because after being ignored, you will give
up and shut up.
b. Interactions among members of groups with hidden roles
usually show very clearly the problem of hidden agendas
(personal goals pursued by members without the group’s
role planned in advance of any
discussion).
c. Discuss how participants felt during the role playing.
V. “Role Feedback” exercise
A. Purposes:
1. To provide useful feedback from symposium group members.
2. To allow group members to compare how they saw themselves
interacting in the group versus how group members saw them.
B. Time required: about 30 minutes.
C. Instructions:
1. Have class divide into their symposium groups for the last time.
2. Pass out the feedback form below. Have each group member take as
many copies of the feedback form as there are members in their
symposium group.
3. Each group member should fill out a form about him or
herself then fill out the form on every other member in their groups.
4. Tell participants not to hand out the finished forms to the
appropriate members until everyone has finished the task, then
distribute the forms all at once. Anonymity is not required but
usually works best.
D. Processing the exercise
1. Allow participants to discuss the feedback if they so wish.
2. Encourage all participants to learn from this feedback so they can
improve for their second symposium group in any areas deemed
inadequate.
3. Have participants focus on role flexibility versus role fixation.
FEEDBACK FORM
INSTRUCTIONS: Please fill out this feedback form for yourself and each
member of your term group. You may remain anonymous if you wish.
Name of Group Member:___________________
1. The degree of participation was:
Low 1 2 3 4 5 High
2. How task-oriented (showed interest in meeting group goals) was this
person?
Low 1 2 3 4 5 High
3. How socially oriented (concerned about the relationships among group
members) was this person?
Low 1 2 3 4 5 High
4. How much influence did this person exert on the group’s decisions?
Low 1 2 3 4 5 High
Using the scale above, indicate the degree to which this person played the
following roles:
TASK
_____Initiator-Contributor _____ Coordinator
_____ Information Seeker _____ Secretary-Recorder
_____ Opinion Seeker _____ Facilitator
_____ Information Giver _____ Devil’s Advocate
_____ Clarifier-Elaborator
MAINTENANCE
_____ Supporter-Encourager _____ Gatekeeper-Expediter
_____ Harmonizer-Tension Reliever _____ Feeling Expresser
DISRUPTIVE
_____ Stagehog _____ Fighter-Controller
_____ Isolate _____ Zealot
_____ Clown _____ Cynic
_____ Blocker
VI. Excerpt from the movie, Runaway Jury. Show the scene about 20 minutes into the
movie in which the John Cusack character acts as a lieutenant for the blind man to be
foreman of the jury. Great, short scene illustrating how a lieutenant can sway a group to
choose a leader.
VII. Excerpt from the movie, A League of Their Own.
A. This movie tells the story of the first professional wome
league. The Rockford Peaches coach, Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks), is a
former professional baseball player turned drunk. He shows little initial
interest in the team, but eventually he decides to coach them seriously.
Show two excerpts from this movie. First, show the scene where Dugan
t halfway into the film when a game
with two runs in the sixth inning,
the umpire throws Dugan out of the
game and his team applauds derisively. The second clip shows Evelyn
making the same mistake in the playoff game. It begins about 20 minutes
from the end of the movie. The Peaches are playing in the World Series. The
score is 0 to 0 in the eight inning. Start the clip when Dottie (Geena Davis)
B. These two scenes provide a nice contrast of leadership styles. In the first
scene, Dugan is abusive to Evelyn (emotional incontinence). His
even defiance exhibited. His transformation in the second scene earns
respect from the players.
E. There are several additional scenes that can be excerpted from this
(directive) versus democratic (participative) leadership styles, and the
centrality of competent communication to effective leadership.
VIII. Show excerpt from the film Crimson Tide. About two-thirds into the movie there is
a powerful confrontation between Gene Hackman (captain of the submarine) and
Denzel Washington (second in command) regarding a partial message about
whether to launch nuclear weapons at a Russian renegade group seemingly about to
fire nukes at the U. S. Shows difference between autocratic (directive) leadership
style and democratic (participative) style. Discuss the pros and cons.
IX. Show one of early scenes in Horrible Bosses as example of what not to do as a
leader. Apply the scene to a discussion of the different perspectives on effective
leadership.
X. An excerpt from the movie, The Dream Team, if this movie is not
shown as a substitute for the Twelve Angry Men exam/paper described
earlier, can be shown here for analysis of informal roles, pattern of
leadership emergence, leadership styles, functional approaches to
leadership, and leadership and teambuilding.
A. Begin clip about two-thirds into the film. The Dream Team members
are looking for their psychiatrist, Dr. Weitzman. They enter a
hospital. Finish the movie from
shorter clip (last 20 minutes of film), beginning with all four team
members in jail, could be used if desired.
B. Distribute a list of questions for group members to answer as they
view the video clip. Suggested questions:
1. Which specific informal rules (e.g., information-giver, stagehog,
harmonizer) do Dream Team members play? What are
the results? Any role fixation?
2. Billy emerges as team leader. Does this emergence follow closely
the standard leadership emergence pattern described in the text?
Explain. Discuss each team memb
3. Which leadership styles did Billy use? Were they effective?
4. Apply situational leadership and functional leadership
perspectives to the Dream Team.
5. Analyze the communication competence of each team member.
CHAPTER SIX
Developing Effective Teams
I. Lecture/discussion on teambuilding
A. Effective/ineffective team members
B. Team structure
C. Team leadership
ble from ABC by calling 1-800-505-6139 or 1-800-CALL-
ABC or online at ABCNewstore.com. Tape number is N990713-01. Cost is
about $40. If you have difficulty accessing the webpage, try typing:
N990713-01 The Deep Dive in the Google search window. This should take you
directly to the ABC website and this specific DVD.
B. This is an excellent 25-minut
a challenging goal to reinvent the
common shopping cart. You see teambuilding and teamwork in action as
IDEO teams research, brainstorm, and develop a prototype shopping cart
for the future.
C. Discuss complementary team memb
commitment to the challenging goal, team identity at IDEO, designated
roles, team empowerment, and team leadership. This video dovetails
nicely with text material on IDEO. Highly recommended!
III. Juggling Teamwork
A. Purchase a tape of Owen Morse and Jon Wee available at www.passingzone.com for
instructions for purchasing the tape will appear.
A. Purposes:
1. To provide an opportunity for creative problem solving.
2. To create teamwork.
3. To illustrate the importance of cooperation on an interdependent
task.
4. To show leader emergence, leadership styles, role emergence, and
norms in groups.
B. Time required: 75 minutes
C. Instructions
1. Task
a. Build a platform (a horizontal, flat structure of about 4-6 inches square)
from plastic straws and tape only. The challenge is to build some kind of
STRONG bridge structure of straws and tape that connects to two
parallel tables placed about 3-feet apart in the center of the classroom and
supports the platform so that the platform:
1) is raised about tabletop high from the ground,
2) is about dead-center between the two parallel tables,
3) is attached in some way to the two parallel tables, and
4) is capable of sustaining maximum weight placed on the platform.
Once the structure has been completed (about 30 minutes allowed), small
and large weights used for weightlifting (in increments of one-and-a-
quarter, two-and-a-half, five, and ten pounds) will be placed carefully on
the platform one at a time until the structure collapses. (The record at this
writing is an astounding 103 pounds)
d. Some groups realize that tying straws together at the ends is extremely
effective, much more so than merely taping straws together. Also, building a
column of straws taped together to act as a support under the center portion
of the platform where the weight will be placed to test its strength is an
effective design. Occasionally a group will try hanging a length of
connected straws from the ceiling of the room, taped to the platform
and acting as a support like a cable on a suspension bridge.
2. Procedure
a. Time limit: 50 minutes for design and construction
b. The class will be given 200 straws and two dispensers of scotch tape.
If possible, make half of the straws straight plastic and half plastic flex
straws. Providing more than 200 straws will require more weights to test
the strength of the structure.
c. Brainstorming: Divide the class into 4 teams. Have each team spend
10 minutes on brainstorming ideas for designing the structure. Guide
brainstorming by putting the following brainstorming rules on the board:
1). Encourage wild ideas
2). Focus all ideas on task (stay on topic)
3). No idea killers/cr
4). Record all ideas
5). Build on ideas (piggyback)
d. Have each team report its best ideas for a design to the entire class
(about 5-10 minutes). Write ideas on board. Drawing designs on the
board is encouraged. Have each group briefly discuss, debate the pros and
cons, then decide one final design by voting (show of hands for each
suggestion).
e. Assign each team a specific task to complete (e.g., one team could
work on the platform construction, one team could share the task
of constructing supporting arms, another team could tie straws together
for supporting structure, yet another team could work on the support
structure of some sort for the platform). Instructor should help in the
assignment of team tasks.
f. Encourage teams to coordinate frequently with each other to make
certain the design is proceeding as imagined. Keep teams posted on
time remaining.
g. Assemble the entire structure in center of room
h. With great fanfare, gently place individual weights on the platform
until it collapses from the load. How close to setting a new record did
the class come?
D. Processing
1. The entire procedure for designing and constructing the straw platform
should take about 50 minutes. Allow about 20 minutes to process the
exercise (next class if 50-minute class periods).
2. This is a very dynamic and sometimes raucous exercise. Groups often
become extremely tense, energetic, and enthusiastic about this
challenging goal. Note the team dynamics that take place during the
exercise for later discussion.
3. Points
a. Discuss how successful the groups thought they were. Could they
have been more successful? How? What would have had to happen
for the class to be more successful? If they were very successful,
why did they do so well?
b. Discuss the importance of clear goals for teams to be successful. Did
each team clearly understand its task and how it fit together with the
project as a whole? Was the design clear to everyone?
c. Discuss how a challenging goal is necessary for teamwork to
flourish. Did the class accept the task as challenging? Did the overall
goal motivate the class? Were all participants seemingly committed
to the successful accomplishment of the task? If not, how did this
affect the overall team performance?
d. What kind of team talk took place? Was there any cynicism expressed
e. Did team leadership emerge or did you have to designate leaders for
each team? Did teams assign roles to team members to coordinate
the work? What informal roles
advocate, clarifier, coordinator, director, isolate, clown etc.)
ure of all teams is collaborative
exhibited during the exercise.
4. VARIATION: Videotape the exercise and show portions to the class
when processing the exercise. This can be done best by stretching the
exercise over two class periods (one for building the bridge and testing the
results and one class for processing the exercise).
V. Show a clip from Cool Runnings
A. Cool Runnings is a movie based on the true story of the Jamaican bobsled
runs about 10 minutes, toward the end of the film when the team is about
to make a bobsled run and Derice is imitating the Swiss team by slapping
with the Jamaicans at home cheering
B. Points
1. The bobsled team has to have a high level of cohesiveness, collaborative
interdependence, have members with complementary skills, and work
as a unit to achieve a challenging goal.
2. Note team identity issues that arise. How does the team establish an
identity?
3. What difficulties must be overcome?
4. Discuss team empowerment.
5. Discuss team leadership.
VI. Show excerpt of Miracle, 2004 film about the 1980 U. S. Olympic hockey team that
defeated the Soviet Union in perhaps the greatest upset in sports history. Scene #7
(DVD) illustrates emphasis on We-orientation not Me-orientation for teamwork to
helps create team identification.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Group Discussion: Defective Decision Making and
Problem Solving
A. Purpose: To distinguish between statements of inference and
description.
B. Time required: about 5-10 minutes
C. Instructions
1. Have students take out a sheet of paper and a pencil or pen.
2. Tell students to position their paper and writing implement in such a
fashion that they can write with their eyes closed.
3. Instruct students to close their
4. Instructors should make several different noises with various materials (jiggle
keys, rustle paper, wad up a piece of paper, run a thumbnail over the teeth of a
comb, drop coins on a table, write on chalkboard).
5. Have students open their eyes and share what they wrote on their paper.
D. Processing
1. Note that almost everyone writes down what made the sounds, not a phonetic
2. Inferences are defined in the text
made the sounds (keys, chalk on the
chalkboard, velcro, paper wadded, a
students eyes are closed. They are guessing what made the sounds (making
II. “Collective Inferential Error” exercise
A. Purpose: To illustrate the error correction function when groups work
together effectively to avoid collective inferential error.
B. Time required: About 20-25 minutes with processing.
C. Instructions:
1. Distribute the “uncritical inference test” (below) to all group members
(divided into term groups or ad hoc groups).
2. Have group members work together filling out the test.
3. Identify the correct answers with an explanation for each answer.
D. Processing the exercise
1. Find out how well each group did (normally very well).
2. Discuss inferences and collective inferential error.
3. Discuss the importance of the error correction function. Each group
member must take responsibility for the outcomes of the group.
Instructions: Read the following story carefully. For each statement that
appears below, circle either “T” if it can be determined from the information
provided in the story that the statement is completely true, “F” if information in the story
clearly indicates that the statement is incorrect in any way, and “?” if you cannot
determine from the story whether the statement is true or false (more information is
needed).
The Story: Pat Doyle was sitting behind the receptionist’s desk typing rapidly on a
computer. The Executive Director of the Atlantic Sports Equipment Company walked
briskly by the receptionist and hurried into the office, grunting a hasty “Good Morning” to
Pat. A man with a briefcase, which had “Wilson’s Sporting Goods” engraved on it, was
leafing through a copy of Newsweek magazine while waiting in a chair. A few moments
later the Director came out, made a beckoning motion, and said, “Hi, Jim! How’s the sales
racket?”
1. Pat, the Executive Director’s receptionist, was typing rapidly on a
computer.
T F ?
2. Pat was sitting behind a desk while she typed rapidly.
T F ?
3. Pat’s boss walked briskly by the receptionist’s desk.
T F ?
4. Pat was sitting behind the desk when the Executive Director walked
by and said, “Good Morning.”
T F ?
5. The Executive Director hurried into his office.
T F ?
6. A man with a briefcase was sitting in a chair.
T F ?
7. A man was reading a copy of Newsweek magazine.
T F ?
8. The man worked for Wilson’s Sporting Goods.
T F ?
9. The man was waiting to see the Executive Director.
T F ?
10. The story involves only three people: a receptionist, the Executive
Director of the company, and a salesman.
T F ?
ANSWERS: (All are ? All T answers are inferences)
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8. The briefcase said Wilson’s Sporting Goods. The briefcase doesn’t
necessarily belong to the man, a
necessarily mean you work for the company anymore than wearing a
sweatshirt that says Harvard University means you are a student at
Harvard.
9. You don’t know who the man was waiting to see.
10. You don’t know if Pat is the receptionist. If not, then add Pat to the
the same person.
E. VARIATION: Have each class member complete the test independently.
Then lecture about collective inferential error. Have the class members
congregate in groups and examine their answers on the test together as
a group. Change any answers deemed incorrect. Correct the test. Is
there any error correction when working in groups following the
lecture? Another variation: Have half the class work on the test as
individuals without discussion of any sort and have half the class work in
small groups on the same test (out of earshot from the individuals).
Compare scores of individuals (average and range) with the group scores.
III. Excerpt from movie, Being There.
A. Show 6-minute clip from Being There, starting approximately 35
minutes into the film. The scene depicts a meeting between Ben, an
older wealthy industrialist (Melvyn Douglas), Bobby, the President of the
United States (Jack Warden), and Chauncey Gardner (Peter Sellers).
Chauncey is a guileless gardener with a mysterious past. His only
knowledge of the world comes from watching television and working in
a garden. Ben has taken Chauncey in but has no idea of his background
profundity from literal mundaneness.
A. Purpose: To help students understand what a false dichotomy is and why
it might be a problem for group decision making.
B. Time required: 5-10 minutes
C. Instructions
1. Have students take out a sheet of paper and a pen or pencil.
2. Tell students that you will read a list of words (LEFT column only on the list)
fairly quickly to them. They are to write on their sheet of paper in a column a
3. Ask students if they had any difficulty keeping up as the list of words
was given (normally they will have little difficulty).
4. Now read a list that includes the opposites (BOTH columns in list
below) and tell students to write in a column a word that fits in the
5. Again ask students if they had difficulty (normally they will have had
great difficulty with the middle terms. Often they will keep writing
LIST:
Right Wrong
Strong Weak
Stupid Smart
D. Processing
1. Students rarely have difficulty writing opposites instantly for the list
of words. They typically have great difficulty finding mid-terms
between opposites.
2. The opposites are dichotomies. They are false dichotomies because in
most instances such opposites do not describe what is mostly true.
Most people are not old or young, stupid or smart, ugly or beautiful,
and so forth. Thus, dichotomies describe a reality that is mostly false
to fact.
3. The difficulty we have finding mid-terms between opposites indicates
that our language reflects and nurtures our dichotomous view of the
world. This makes seeing alternatives to problems that groups try to
solve difficult because third and fourth choices between extreme
opposite choices do not easily come to mind. If groups think only in
terms of success or failure, cutting budgets or raising taxes, and so
forth, creative problem solving will be constrained by this narrow
vision of what is possible. What if groups neither cut budgets nor
raise taxes? Does this raise any alternatives? Breaking the mindset of
false dichotomies is a first step toward creative problem solving. How
we talk about problems and potential solutions (using the language of
many alternatives) is critical. False dichotomies freeze our thinking.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Group Discussion: Effective Decision Making and
Problem Solving
I. “You Be the Jury” consensus exercise
A. Purposes
1. Provide participants with experience in the consensus method of
decision making.
2. Reveal the primary strengths and drawbacks of consensus decision
making.
B. Time required: 50-75 minutes (depending on length of court case)
C. Instructions:
1. Videotape a segment of “People’s Court,” “Court TV,” or a single
case dramatized on any courtroom drama series.
2. Break the class into groups (5-7 members).
3. Each group is a separate jury deciding the case presented.
4. Review the guidelines for consensus decision making (and
monitor the groups to make certain they stick to the procedure).
5. All groups must come to a unanimous decision and meet the criteria
for a true consensus.
D. Processing the exercise:
1. Reveal the “actual” decision to all groups (how did the judge or jury
decide the case).
2. Discuss the consensus process with groups, concentrating on the
difficulties groups had achieving a consensus.
3. Ask the groups if majority rule would have worked better than
consensus. Why? Are there any drawbacks to majority rule?
II. Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (an activity originally suggested by Skye
Gentile, Cabrillo College instructor)
A. Obtain the DVD for season Six (2004-2005) of Law and Order SVU (should be
available from Amazon.com). It will contain an episode enti
is a terrific episode that presents conflicting views on a rape case. There is
evidence supporting both the accuser and the accused; there is also reason to
doubt both the accuser and the accused. The ju
you get to hear the decision. Although a little graphic in the beginning, this is a
relatively tame episode in this regard.
B. Break your class into small groups of about 5-7 members (symposium groups work
well). Each group will act as a jury after watching this 40-minute episode in class.
member before showing the episode (see next page).