Task Roles and Maintenance Roles in Groups

Key Takeaways

we are going to talk about task roles and relationship roles especially in terms of groups and teams and leaders and to do that we're going to work out of two books looking at bb and masterson's book on communicating in small groups and johnson and hackman's book leadership a communication perspective so let's get into the details so there's really two sides of a coin in any group discussion you are there to meet for a certain purpose a task and so you need a leader or other group members to play those task roles to keep the group focused you also however can't be all about the task you have to maintain the relationship dynamics of the group otherwise it's going to be very dry boring and nobody's going to want to show up so these roles help balance the equation so the group can be minimally effective moving toward its goals and relatively satisfying for everybody involved so let's dig into this original research by kenneth bennet and paul sheets this is old research and we're going to look at how we might play these roles today so first task roles these contribute to the organization and completion of the task so if you have an initiator for example this person defines the problem establishes the agenda and the procedures suggest new ideas and solutions so they're keeping people literally on task in terms of what the group is trying to accomplish another role is the information or opinion seeker sometimes they're seeking information other time they want a point of view they're doing this by asking questions soliciting ideas they're seeking clarification asking for details they're drawing people out essentially and then you have the other side these are the people who offer or give information or opinions they're they're providing facts examples their beliefs their opinions their point of view they're putting their neck out there essentially and offering their point of view and in a group discussion you have to at some point give your point of view you have to take a risk and maybe try to lead the discussion by offering a certain direction another task rule is the elaborator i think this is the easiest one sometimes you will hear somebody say to piggyback on what so-and-so said this is where you're hearing the flow of the conversation and you add examples add background maybe from your own experience and if you're a new group member you're new to this team that's a great way to jump into the discussion add a little example that will resonate with what's happening in the discussion already and now a really important role the orienter and coordinator this person summarizes the conversation so far and looks for connections among ideas that refocus the group and get the group back on task so you've probably experienced in the middle of a discussion things get really blurry for a little while and that's where the orienter comes in the corner this person synthesizes pulls together and summarizes everything that's been said so far so that the group can then move to into that realm of a productive discussion again so you refocus and everyone goes oh yeah that's what we're talking about and then you move forward it's a really important leadership role that you'll see leaders do to refocus the group and anytime someone does this in a group discussion i'm always thankful for it because it really helps energizer is next this person stimulates the group to achieve excellence that adds that motivational factor to create more productivity and move forward at a good pace and there are other task roles as well like the procedural technician make sure that all the rules are being followed if that's the case and the recorder so someone who takes the notes these are all task roles but if all we focused on was the task meetings would be even more boring than they already are you have to have people there that care about the relationship dynamics and help support that half of the equation we call these group building and maintenance roles these contribute to the development the maintenance of open supportive and healthy interpersonal relationships so in most leadership discussions you have people talking about task and relationship so these roles help that side that relationship side of the equation for example you have the encourager that person supports and praises the contributions of participants they create a sense of belonging they accept those viewpoints of other people this makes people feel part of the group more socially and relationally because we're getting encouragement for our participation the harmonizer or compromiser plays a really important role sometimes there's conflict this person steps in and mediates that conflict they reduce the tension maybe they use humor a little bit here or there to warm things up a little bit inevitably you're going to have disagreements in a group and if you sense they're coming along sometimes a little humor a little harmonizer a little compromise that will help smooth things over and get you back on track relationally you have the gatekeeper that person encourages the involvement of shy or less talkative group members this may happen by limiting the other group members talking time a little bit to balance the discussion this is tricky you know sometimes you have group members who dominate and then nobody can get a word in edgewise so you have to balance that flow by drawing people into the discussion because not everybody is willing to fight their way into the discussion so this is a really important role then you have the standard setter who expresses the group values the standards and the goals of the group to get people really they're expressing the heart of the group what were they really there for and that gets people really excited and energized and builds people's positive feelings for their group participation and there are other roles as well like observer or follower this doesn't appear like much on the surface but just by observing supportively and following supportively there being an encouragement to the group in that way then you also have this this i wouldn't even call this another side of the coin because these are the ones you should reduce you should not let other people run amok in your group or you shouldn't do these themselves so these are neither tasks nor relationship they're individual roles many of these titles speak for themselves like the aggressor the person who just acts aggressively toward people for whatever reason the blocker who tries to block ideas or block people from participating fully the recognition seeker that's why they're there the player the person who comes and just really wants to goof around and not take it seriously the dominator someone who wants to get all long-winded and take up almost all the talking time the joker who's there to just put those jokes in now everybody likes a joke here there to lighten the mood but this is the person who that's the main way they contribute and that's probably not helpful that's all they're bringing the help seeker so they're showing up at the group and they think it's kind of like a support group that's all they want is the attention on them because they they're coming there for help they're not there for what the group task is and then the special interest pleaders so they see the group as a way to get what they want so they come there saying hey here's what i need from the group they're pleading their special interests that's the idea so here's some key points to take away leaders and other group members need to play both tasks and relationship and maintenance roles to be minimally effective so if you're all tasks or all relationships that's definitely not going to work you have to have a balance just to set a foundation for possible success and different situations call for a different mixture of the needs to play those roles depending upon the situation so if there's tension you might need to harmonize that tension if things are drifting you might need to orient the group it depends on what's going on and when to decide when you're going to play these roles and you want to seek to minimize those individual roles to not get things totally off track but you definitely do not want to squash individuality or uniqueness because once people are really contributing in their own unique way you're going to get an excellent fun fruitful and productive discussion so question of the day which of these roles do you find easiest to play which for you are the hardest to play i would love to hear your comments in that section below the video i look forward to reading them soon take care