Module 2: Group Work Relationship Management
PART V: Maintaining Long Term Professional Relationships
When working within a small group dynamic, it’s easier to develop stronger bonds with team members compared to a large group structure as there are more opportunities to connect with one another. Groups can have a temporal or long term nature to them depending on the needs of the project.
Behaviours Used to Maintain Relationships
Guerrero, Andersen, and Afifi (2018) have identified three distinctions, as shown in table 2.5.1 below, when assessing behaviours to maintain relationships.
| Distinction 1: Prosocial or Antisocial Group Member Behaviours |
Prosocial Behaviours
Voluntarily helping one another. Altruism (individual desire to help others) and empathy (ability to feel the needs of others) allows for an emotional connect which compels group members to help one another (OpenStaxCollege, 2014). Ideally, group members foster a prosocial relationship as it promotes closeness and positive behaviours amongst team members. According to Guerrero, Andersen, and Afifi (2018), prosocial relationship development emerges through “(1) positivity, (2) openness, (3) assurances, (4) social networking, and (5) task sharing” (p.259). Antisocial Behaviours According to Bauer et al. (2018), assets that “anti-social behaviour refers to non-strategic destructive behaviour that is costly for the decision maker, reduces welfare of others, and is not a response to inequity or a hostile behaviour of a counterpart” (p.3). Antisocial relationship behaviours tend to discourage close, personal interaction amongst its members and is often fuelled by aggressive competitive, a need to control, and/or a need to be perceived a certain way (Guerrero, Andersen, and Afifi, 2018; Bauer et al., 2018). The team may use avoidance, destructive conflict, gossiping, jealousy, spying, and/or controlling of others as a way to create discord amongst the group (Guerrero, Andersen, and Afifi, 2018).
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| Distinction 2: Modality/Channel |
Modality and channel(s) of communications used throughout the group interaction will have an impact on the collaboration process. Your group may decided to communicate verbally, non-verbally, and/or in a written form.
Note that written messages are an important channel to use in any group collaboration as it provides a “paper trail” of the group plans, decisions, and creations.
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| Distinction 3: Employed Strategically or Routinely |
Relationship maintenance behaviours — whether strategic or routine, or both — impact the closeness and satisfaction of group members.
Both strategic (building goodwill) and routine behaviours (focusing on the tasks at hand) are needed to create balance in the group member relationships — especially in a professional, academic/workplace setting where results are prized.
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Table 2.5.1: Three distinctions in relationship maintenance behaviours
Professional Relationships and Career Advancement
Through group work, members are able to exercise and refine their interpersonal skills. Group work also provides the opportunity to network with individuals who you may want to connect with in the future; therefore, getting along with your members will have short term benefits (connected to completing the project as smoothly as possible) and long term benefits (building rapport with the other members in case your paths cross again in the future).
“The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.” – Theodore Roosevelt
