A Functional Theory of Task Role Distribution in Work Groups

Abstract

In social psychology, much research has been conducted with regard to small groups, focusing on a few recurrent themes. Questions of group structure and group composition, however, have been widely neglected in social psychology research, although their importance is being recognized (Barrick, Stewart, Neubert, & Mount, 1998; Moreland, Levine, & Wingert, 1996). The following study focuses on explaining the emergence of a task role distribution in self-organizing work groups. A theory of task role distribution in work groups is being proposed capable of predicting the distribution of task roles in a team based on group members’ skills and preferences. The basic assumption behind the theory is that teams will strive to organize themselves in a functional way, taking into account both external demands (tasks that are assigned to the team) and internal demands (needs and preferences of the team members). A case study has been conducted on a self-organizing team of 15 student software developers working on a project task over a period of three weeks. The theory has been applied to the student project team. For the majority of team members the task role each team member was going to be assigned was predicted correctly by the theory.

Team Role Adoption and Distribution in Engineering Project Meetings

“…Previous authors had a strong focus on formal roles-that is, the way individuals meet job demands [8,40], rather than individual ones. However, the actual behaviour may be a combination of formal and informal roles [41].…”

Leadership in anaesthesia teams: the most effective leadership is shared

“…Because these two leadership functions utilise different skills, it follows that team leadership is more effective when the appropriate style is distributed according to the respective skills of team members 40. Since the nurses of the anaesthesia teams we studied tended to have longer tenure within the same work unit, we assumed that they generally had more hospital work experience than the residents who often came directly from university.…”

Eine integrative Theorie des Problemlösens in Gruppen: Problemlöseprozess und Problemlöseerfolg

“…So muss beispielsweise entschieden werden, in welcher Reihenfolge anstehende Aufgaben bearbeitet werden, wer welche Aufgaben erledigt, auf welche Art und Weise in der Gruppe Entscheidungen getroffen werden, etc. Häufig bilden sich in Gruppen implizit Normen, Regeln, Abläufe und Rollen heraus (Stempfle, Hübner & Badke-Schaub, 2001), deren Gesamtheit in der Literatur als Gruppenstruktur bezeichnet wird (McGrath, 1984). Vielfach werden über Verfahrensregeln und Prozesse auch explizit Normen, Regeln, Abläu-fe und Rollen etabliert.…”

“…NachStempfle, Hübner & Badke-Schaub (2001) sollten die verschiedenen Teilprobleme nach Möglichkeit so unter den Gruppenmitgliedern verteilt werden, dass hierdurch eine mög-lichst gute Passung zwischen den Anforderungen der verschiedenen Teilprobleme und den Kompetenzen und Präferenzen der Gruppenmitglieder hergestellt wird. Hierbei sollte zudem die unterschiedliche Wichtigkeit verschiedener Teilprobleme berücksichtigt werden: wichtige Teilprobleme sollten vorrangig nach Kompetenz, weniger wichtige Teilprobleme vorrangig nach Präferenz zugewiesen werden, um Spannung in der Gruppe zu minimieren.…”