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Maintenance actions, historically referred to as socio-emotive actions, are those leadership actions taken by one or more members of a group to enhance the social relationships among group members. They tend to increase the overall effectiveness of the group and create a more positive atmosphere of interaction within the group.
Leadership is both a research area and a practical skill encompassing the ability of an individual or organization to "lead" or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. Specialist literature debates various viewpoints, contrasting Eastern and Western approaches to leadership, and also United States versus European approaches. U.S. academic environments define leadership as "a process of social influence in which a person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task".
Maintenance actions are contrasted with Task Actions which are those actions taken to enable the group to complete a specific task or goal. [1]
Conceptually developed by social psychologist Kurt Lewin in his extensive research into group interaction during the 1940s, [2] maintenance actions were extended into the discipline of leadership studies through the work of Douglas McGregor in his definitive statement of principles of leadership, The Human Side of Enterprise. [3] Countless texts and "how to" manuals on group and team leadership since Lewin's work have sought to identify those activities which can then be used in group situations to maintain as well as increase friendship, warmth, and attachment among the participants of a group.
Kurt Lewin was a German-American psychologist, known as one of the modern pioneers of social, organizational, and applied psychology in the United States. Exiled from the land of his birth, Lewin made a new life for himself, in which he defined himself and his contributions within three lenses of analysis: applied research, action research, and group communication were his major offerings to the field of communication.
Douglas Murray McGregor was a management professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and president of Antioch College from 1948 to 1954. He also taught at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. His 1960 book The Human Side of Enterprise had a profound influence on education practices.
Attachment theory is a psychological model attempting to describe the dynamics of long-term and short-term interpersonal relationships between humans. "Attachment theory is not formulated as a general theory of relationships; it addresses only a specific facet": how human beings respond in relationships when hurt, separated from loved ones, or perceiving a threat.
Maintenance actions can be understood as those activities which maintain the functioning of the group just as a driver of a car maintains the car by putting oil in the engine or making sure that the tires have enough pressure.
Lewin specifically identified ten types of maintenance actions: encourager of participation; harmonizer and compromiser; tension reliever; communication helper; evaluator of emotional climate; process observer; standard setter; active listener; trust builder; and interpersonal problem solver.
The most identifiable and popular of the ten types is the tension reliever or the person who relieves the tension within the group by telling jokes and stories, suggesting breaks or fun (as opposed to task) activities. (Later group and leadership writers frequently identify the person taking on this role as the group "clown".)
In contrast, often the hardest to identify is that of the process observer, similar to a participant observer, or the person who watches the interaction within the group as it unfolds and shares their observations with the other group members by continually pointing out ways in which the group behaviors become inconsistent or erratic which could throw the group off track in its attempt to accomplish a goal.
The type considered by group facilitators to be the most valuable role is that of interpersonal problem solver or the person who has the natural ability to help people solve their problems in a non-professional manner and draws other people in the group to them by their warmth and openness. [4]
A facilitator is someone who engages in facilitation—any activity that makes a social process easy or easier. A facilitator often helps a group of people to understand their common objectives and assists them to plan how to achieve these objectives; in doing so, the facilitator remains "neutral", meaning he/she does not take a particular position in the discussion. Some facilitator tools will try to assist the group in achieving a consensus on any disagreements that preexist or emerge in the meeting so that it has a strong basis for future action.
The success of Lewin's work in defining these group activities is attributable to his explanation of them in behavior theory terms within the context of role theory . This was in contrast to both previous and subsequent research which would utilize such picturesque but often unrealistic terms for group behaviors such as the eagle, the bear, or the possum (creating confusion among group participants who may not share the same ideas of animal behavior as the theorist who proposed the terms). Lewin also sought to explain these maintenance actions within the context of immediate experience of the group participant as opposed to roles associated with a person's individual personality. Group psychotherapist Irvin Yalom [5] presents a contrasting view to Lewin in his position that group behaviors are developed in an individual's first group experiences (primarily in their family of origin) and then carried with them from group to group for the rest of their lives.
Maintenance actions can also be seen as occurring on three levels of interaction within the group. [6] On the primary level there are individual actions within the group which can be seen as maintenance actions. On the secondary level there are people whose majority of actions identify them as having a maintenance personality. On the highest level there are groups which take on the role of social interaction and support as their primary goal which are then identified as maintenance groups. Maintenance groups are seen frequently in society as in a support group, collections of people who meet with the intention of bonding and problem solving through shared experiences such as groups of cancer survivors or people coping with the loss of a loved one.
Maintenance actions have moved on to become the core of several social psychology theories of leadership and group interaction such as Fiedler's distributed actions model of group leadership; [7] Bales' Interaction Process Analysis model; [8] and Blanchard and Hershey's leadership effectiveness model. [9]
Blanchard and Hershey have argued that more successful leaders combine both maintenance and task actions to a certain extent depending on the group members' abilities and experiences in order to achieve the most successful style and process of group leadership. Their concept is vividly underscored in Herman Wouk's popular novel, The Caine Mutiny [10] where Wouk contrasts the effectiveness of a total task action oriented leader in the character of Captain Queeg versus the leader who combines maintenance and task actions in the character of Captain De Vriess. In the novel, the failure of Queeg to accurately identify the necessary combination of maintenance and task actions to suit the particular setting of the fictional Navy ship the U.S.S. Caine may be seen to lead to his inevitable downfall and the "mutiny" of the crew during a particularly life-threatening mission in the midst of a typhoon. This theme was repeated later in a cinematic form more recently in the movie Crimson Tide which pitted a task action oriented Captain (played by Gene Hackman) against a maintenance action Executive officer (played by Denzel Washington) in a battle for the crews' hearts and minds on a fictitious U.S. naval submarine.
A more popular view among group leaders and facilitators today is that groups rarely see leaders who exclusively choose one extreme of task actions versus the other extreme of maintenance actions, and are more likely to see a leader whose style is to combine the two styles of leadership in varying ways in relation to their own understanding of their ability to lead. [9]
Group psychotherapy or group therapy is a form of psychotherapy in which one or more therapists treat a small group of clients together as a group. The term can legitimately refer to any form of psychotherapy when delivered in a group format, including cognitive behavioural therapy or interpersonal therapy, but it is usually applied to psychodynamic group therapy where the group context and group process is explicitly utilised as a mechanism of change by developing, exploring and examining interpersonal relationships within the group.
The Caine Mutiny is a 1954 American film. A fictional Navy drama set in the Pacific during World War II, it was directed by Edward Dmytryk and produced by Stanley Kramer, and stars Humphrey Bogart, José Ferrer, Van Johnson, and Fred MacMurray. The film is based on The Caine Mutiny, the 1951 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel written by Herman Wouk. It depicts the events on board a fictitious World War II U.S. Navy minesweeper and a subsequent court-martial for mutiny.
An organization or organisation is an entity comprising multiple people, such as an institution or an association, that has a particular purpose.
Group dynamics is a system of behaviors and psychological processes occurring within a social group, or between social groups. The study of group dynamics can be useful in understanding decision-making behaviour, tracking the spread of diseases in society, creating effective therapy techniques, and following the emergence and popularity of new ideas and technologies. Group dynamics are at the core of understanding racism, sexism, and other forms of social prejudice and discrimination. These applications of the field are studied in psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science, epidemiology, education, social work, business, and communication studies.
In the social sciences, a social group can be defined as two or more people who interact with one another, share similar characteristics, and collectively have a sense of unity. Other theorists disagree however, and are wary of definitions which stress the importance of interdependence or objective similarity. Instead, researchers within the social identity tradition generally define it as "a group is defined in terms of those who identify themselves as members of the group". Regardless, social groups come in a myriad of sizes and varieties. For example, a society can be viewed as a large social group.
Organization development (OD) is the study of successful organizational change and performance. OD emerged from human relations studies in the 1930s, during which psychologists realized that organizational structures and processes influence worker behavior and motivation. More recently, work on OD has expanded to focus on aligning organizations with their rapidly changing and complex environments through organizational learning, knowledge management and transformation of organizational norms and values. Key concepts of OD theory include: organizational climate, organizational culture and organizational strategies.
The Zeitgeist is a concept from 18th- to 19th-century German philosophy, translated as "spirit of the age" or "spirit of the times". It refers to an invisible agent or force dominating the characteristics of a given epoch in world history.
Functional leadership theory is a theory for addressing specific leader behaviours expected to contribute to organizational or unit effectiveness. This theory argues that the leader's main job is to see that whatever is necessary to group needs is taken care of; thus, a leader can be said to have done their job well when they have contributed to group effectiveness and cohesion.
Cooperative learning is an educational approach which aims to organize classroom activities into academic and social learning experiences. There is much more to cooperative learning than merely arranging students into groups, and it has been described as "structuring positive interdependence." Students must work in groups to complete tasks collectively toward academic goals. Unlike individual learning, which can be competitive in nature, students learning cooperatively can capitalize on one another's resources and skills. Furthermore, the teacher's role changes from giving information to facilitating students' learning. Everyone succeeds when the group succeeds. Ross and Smyth (1995) describe successful cooperative learning tasks as intellectually demanding, creative, open-ended, and involve higher order thinking tasks. Cooperative learning has also been linked to increased levels of student satisfaction.
A T-group or training group is a form of group training where participants themselves learn about themselves through their interaction with each other. They use feedback, problem solving, and role play to gain insights into themselves, others, and groups.
A contingency theory is an organizational theory that claims that there is no best way to organize a corporation, to lead a company, or to make decisions. Instead, the optimal course of action is contingent (dependent) upon the internal and external situation. A contingent leader effectively applies their own style of leadership to the right situation.
The Caine Mutiny is the 1951 Pulitzer Prize–winning novel by Herman Wouk. The novel grew out of Wouk's personal experiences aboard a destroyer-minesweeper in the Pacific Theater in World War II. Among its themes, it deals with the moral and ethical decisions made at sea by ship captains. The mutiny of the title is legalistic, not violent, and takes place during Typhoon Cobra, in December 1944. The court-martial that results provides the dramatic climax to the plot.
Sensitivity training is a form of training with the goal of making people more aware of their own goals as well as their prejudices, and more sensitive to others and to the dynamics of group interaction.
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is a two-act play, of the courtroom drama type, that was dramatized for the stage by Herman Wouk, which he adapted from his own novel, The Caine Mutiny.
Situational Leadership Theory, or the Situational Leadership Model, is a model created by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard, developed while working on Management of Organizational Behavior. The theory was first introduced in 1969 as "life cycle theory of leadership". During the mid-1970s, life cycle theory of leadership was renamed "Situational Leadership Theory."
Trait leadership is defined as integrated patterns of personal characteristics that reflect a range of individual differences and foster consistent leader effectiveness across a variety of group and organizational situations. The theory of trait leadership is developed from early leadership research which focused primarily on finding a group of heritable attributes that differentiate leaders from nonleaders. Leader effectiveness refers to the amount of influence a leader has on individual or group performance, followers’ satisfaction, and overall effectiveness. Many scholars have argued that leadership is unique to only a select number of individuals and that these individuals possess certain immutable traits that cannot be developed. Although this perspective has been criticized immensely over the past century, scholars still continue to study the effects of personality traits on leader effectiveness. Research has demonstrated that successful leaders differ from other people and possess certain core personality traits that significantly contribute to their success. Understanding the importance of these core personality traits that predict leader effectiveness can help organizations with their leader selection, training, and development practices.
The task-relationship model is defined by Forsyth as "a descriptive model of leadership which maintains that most leadership behaviors can be classified as performance maintenance or relationship maintenances." Task-oriented leadership is a behavioral approach in which the leader focuses on the tasks that need to be performed in order to meet certain goals, or to achieve a certain performance standard. Relationship-oriented leadership is a behavioral approach in which the leader focuses on the satisfaction, motivation and the general well-being of the team members.
Implicit leadership theory (ILT) is a cognitive theory of leadership developed by Robert Lord and colleagues. It is based on the idea that individuals create cognitive representations of the world, and use these preconceived notions to interpret their surroundings and control their behaviors. ILT suggests that group members have implicit expectations and assumptions about the personal characteristics, traits, and qualities that are inherent in a leader. These assumptions, termed implicit leadership theories or leader prototypes, guide an individual's perceptions and responses to leaders. The term implicit is used because they are not outwardly stated and the term theory is used because it involves the generalization of past experiences to new experiences. ILTs allow individuals to identify leaders and aid them in responding appropriately to leaders in order to avoid conflict.