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The Individual in a Group - Part 1

No two people in any group ever "join" it for exactly the same reasons. In a business conference, each person present will have a different degree of motivation and interest. Some will be staunch proponents of either the pro or the con of the subject— if there are pros and cons; others will be present as "resource people," who were invited to contribute their experience or specialized knowledge, but otherwise will not be concerned with any action taken or decided upon; still others will be there purely and simply because they were ordered to attend. Initially, these may be completely indifferent to the purposes or causes of the meeting. And finally, in any group, at least half the members will be composites to varying degrees of any or all of these character­ized members.

(Although we are concerned here primarily with business groups of "conference" size it should be noted that most of these principles and methods are equally applicable to social groups as well. For example, the main concern of a religious group may be to probe and explore the values of the human soul and spirit. However, there will undoubtedly be individual members of any such group who will be in it purely for the social opportunities which the group provides. This can, at times, lead to a conflict of interests which may threaten the primary purpose of the group.)

Most groups of six or more persons will include one or more individuals who may be almost fanatics for "group thinking"— they consider the group the only efficient and impersonal arrange­ment for objectively disposing of a problem. They may or may not enjoy participating in the group action, but they do believe in it.

Then there are other individuals who consider group participa­tion an emotionally satisfying experience to be prolonged and savored to its fullest. (In this respect, it is important to remember that one of the biggest things you can "give" any person is recog­nition. Group methods do give people a sense of being recognized through participation and experience. This is a mixed blessing: on the one hand, participation in a group can be used as a motiva­tional tool or as a reward to an individual; on the other, there exists the danger that such participation will "go to the head" of a member and he will devote much time to scheming how he can be included in more of it!)

The most satisfactory group member, however, will be the one who finds the group personally satisfying to the extent that he is motivated by participation to contribute, but who, at the same time, realizes the true purpose of the group as a problem-solving mechanism and will work efficiently toward that end.

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