Function roles of group member
Functional Roles of Group Members
Benne and Sheats
Functional Roles of Group Members
Kenneth D. Benne and Paul Sheats
INTRODUCTION
I am looking at a handout I preserved from a group facilitation workshop I attended some time ago. It lists the various “roles” or
“behaviors” of group members, presenting them in three categories: those related to the accomplishment of the group’s task, those aimed at building and maintaining the group per se, and those aimed at satisfying individual needs that are irrelevant to the group. It is a handy checklist, but without much context or explanation. Many of the books on my shelf, some very recent, have similar lists, characterizing group-member behaviors as the initiator, the encourager, or the blocker. Many of them cite the original source for these insights, an article entitled, “Functional Roles of Group Members,” published in 1948 in the Journal of Social Issues by Kenneth
Benne and Paul Sheats. Paul Sheats, who died in 1984, and Kenneth Benne, who died in 1992, were both professors of adult education, Sheats at the University of California and Benne at Boston University. They collaborated, with others, in the early development of the “T-Group” and were instrumental in founding the National Training Laboratory, now the NTL Institute for
Applied Behavioral Science. This article, reprinted with permission of the publisher, is one of their legacies. The article, which provides context for the often-used list of group-member roles, is best understood in yet the larger context of group effectiveness and democratic ideals. Kenneth Benne, with his coauthors in The Improvement of Practical Intelligence, expressed it this way: The ideal goal of democratic cooperation is a consensus in the group concerning what should be done—a consensus based on and sustained by the deliberation of the group in the planning, execution, and evaluation of the common action of the group. No other method … depends so crucially on the
Benne and Sheats
Functional Roles of Group Members
Kenneth D. Benne and Paul Sheats
INTRODUCTION
I am looking at a handout I preserved from a group facilitation workshop I attended some time ago. It lists the various “roles” or
“behaviors” of group members, presenting them in three categories: those related to the accomplishment of the group’s task, those aimed at building and maintaining the group per se, and those aimed at satisfying individual needs that are irrelevant to the group. It is a handy checklist, but without much context or explanation. Many of the books on my shelf, some very recent, have similar lists, characterizing group-member behaviors as the initiator, the encourager, or the blocker. Many of them cite the original source for these insights, an article entitled, “Functional Roles of Group Members,” published in 1948 in the Journal of Social Issues by Kenneth
Benne and Paul Sheats. Paul Sheats, who died in 1984, and Kenneth Benne, who died in 1992, were both professors of adult education, Sheats at the University of California and Benne at Boston University. They collaborated, with others, in the early development of the “T-Group” and were instrumental in founding the National Training Laboratory, now the NTL Institute for
Applied Behavioral Science. This article, reprinted with permission of the publisher, is one of their legacies. The article, which provides context for the often-used list of group-member roles, is best understood in yet the larger context of group effectiveness and democratic ideals. Kenneth Benne, with his coauthors in The Improvement of Practical Intelligence, expressed it this way: The ideal goal of democratic cooperation is a consensus in the group concerning what should be done—a consensus based on and sustained by the deliberation of the group in the planning, execution, and evaluation of the common action of the group. No other method … depends so crucially on the
References: Raup, R. B., Axtelle, G., Benne, K. D., and Smith, B. O. (1950). Group Facilitation: A Research and Applications Journal – Number 8, 2007 35