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Group Work Practice. Leadership Chapter 4. Leadership. Leadership is the process of guiding the development of the group and its members.
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Group Work Practice Leadership Chapter 4
Leadership • Leadership is the process of guiding the development of the group and its members. • The goal of effective leadership is to meet the socioemotional needs of members and to help the group as a whole, and each of its members, achieve goals that are consistent with the value base of social work practice • Encouraging indigenous leadership helps to empower members
Leadership and Power • New leaders have a tendency to either: • Deny their power • Exert too much power • Should use your power to facilitate group and individual efforts to achieve goals
Attributed Perception among group members or those external to group of worker’s ability to lead i.e. Worker age, educational status Actual Worker’s resources for changing conditions inside and outside the group i.e. connection, expert, legitimate, reference, reward, coercive Attributed vs. Actual Power
Factors Influencing Leadership • The leadership expectations held by group members • The way leadership has been attained • Whether there is competition between designated leaders and the leaders that emerge as groups develop • The needs, tasks and goals of the group as a whole • The task and socioemotional skills of members • Te nature of authority within and outside of the group • The environmental demands placed on the group and its leadership
Interactional Model • Incorporates the empirical finding of others who have developed comprehensive models of group leadership. • Represents leadership as a shared function that is not lodged solely in the designated group leader • The model has six factors that should be considered when leading a task or treatment group. • (1) The purposes of the group • (2) The type of problem the group is working on • (3) The environment in which the group works • (4) the group as a whole • (5) the members of the group • (6) the leader of the group
Purpose of Group • to perform tasks that require more than one or two people • to meet individual needs • to being people together who are involved in the same or similar problem • to represent a larger collection of people • to form the largest collection of people that can be managed together • to help maintain an organization more economically than individuals • to increase motivation
Environment • Environmental influences come primarily from three interrelated factors • The immediate physical setting • The agency or organization in which the group functions • Other social systems and the social environment.
Setting • The décor and comfort of the waiting room and meeting area and the availability of equipment and supplies such as tables, blackboard, or newsprint all influence the group’s leadership
Group as a Whole • The size of the group • The time Limit in which the group is expected to accomplish its goals • Group dynamics- communication, interaction patterns, cohesion, social control and group culture. • The stage of a group’s develop- the developmental tasks that face the group during each stage.
Group Members • Through the unique characteristics and life experiences they bring to the group. • By the extent to which they participate in the group • By the extent to which they share in leading the group
Group Leader • Service technology refers to particular theories or methods of intervention used by a worker Leadership Skills • Some of the basic skills necessary for group leadership are categorized in • facilitating group processes • data gathering and assessment • action
Involve Group Members • Essential for building group cohesiveness, developing a sense of mutual aid and encouraging shared decision making • Helping members to take on leadership roles within the group
Attending Skills • Nonverbal behaviours, such as eye contact and body position and verbal behaviour that convey empathy, respect, warmth, thrust, genuineness and honesty.
Expressive Skills • Important for facilitating group processes. Workers should be able to help participants express thoughts and feelings about important problems, tasks or issues facing the group and to reiterate and summarize them when necessary
Responding Skills • Skillful responses help the group as a whole and individual members accomplish tasks • Workers can use responding skills selectively to elicit specific reactions that will affect future group processes
Focusing Skills • The worker can facilitate group processes by focusing them in a particular direction
Making Group Process Explicit • The skill of making group processes explicit helps members to become aware of how they are interacting
Clarifying Content • The worker’s purpose in clarifying content helps members communicate effectively
Guiding Group Interactions • To help a group accomplish the goals it has set for itself, the worker will often find it helpful to guide the group’s interaction in a particular direction
Data Gathering and Assessment Useful in developing a plan for influencing communication patterns as well as in deciding on the action skills to use to accomplish the group’s purpose
Identify and Describe Skills • This skills allows elaboration of pertinent factors influencing a problem or task facing the group • In using this skill, workers should attempt to elicit descriptions that specify the problem attributes as clearly and concretely as possible
Requesting Information, Questioning and Probing • The skills of identifying and describing a situation are essential to workers’ attempts to gather data by requesting information, questioning and probing • Using these skills, worker can clarify the problem or concern and broaden the scope of the group’s work by obtaining additional information that may be useful to all members
Summarizing and Partializing • Summarizing skills enable a worker to present the core of what has been said in the group and provide members an opportunity to reflect on the problem
Synthesizing • Synthesizing skills can be useful in providing feedback to members about how they are perceived by others
Analyzing Skills • Analyzing skills include pointing out patterns in the data, identifying gaps in the data and establishing mechanisms or plans for obtaining data to complete an assessment.
Linking Members’ Communications • Asking members to share their reaction to the messages communicated by others in the group • Asking members to respond to request for help by other members.
Directing • Directing skills are most effective when coupled with efforts to increase members’ participation and input • The worker should be aware of how each member reacts to being directed in a new component of the group’s work
Providing Resources • Organizations that sponsor groups have access to a wide variety of resources such as medical, home health care, financial assistance, job and rehabilitation counseling , family planning and financial management consultation, which the worker can make available to members • In tasks groups, workers can also provide a variety of resources for member
