The Nature of Groups and Helping Groups Improve Their Operation.

This article discusses the nature of groups and the interrelationships among the various factors which affect the group behavior. The authors have interpreted research broadly and have included in their review reports of responsibly evaluated experiences, case studies, conceptual analyses, and field studies, as well as controlled experiments. The authors have seen change as improvement to the degree that is guided by a methodology which incorporates basic democratic values and the values inherent in scientific method as procedural norms in group life. The writers recognized five approaches to the study and practice of group improvement: adjusting group size to the task, leadership training, membership training, adjusting training efforts to stages of group development, and building a social environment which supports the group in its efforts to improve.