Book, Group Work Techniques 3/01[LS]

This text presents general rules for conducting meetings, working techniques in small and large groups, instruments for evaluating individual and group performance. The techniques exposed here have been identified as one of the indicators of the importance attributed to the study of the dynamics of group behavior, since Kurt Lewin's pioneering studies, developed in the 1940s. Furthermore, in parallel with the emergence of such techniques, the scope of range of its applications, evaluating, in each case, its effective results. Therefore, there is currently enough accumulated experience to indicate the most appropriate techniques for different purposes - ranging from teaching to decision-making in business organizations. According to Kurt Lewin, creator of the expression group dynamics and creator of T-Group, the techniques developed in this area are essentially intended to reformulate the behavior of each of the members of different groups, organized in different environments, aiming to achieve the more diverse objectives. As a result of applying these techniques, the aim is generally to achieve greater cohesion in group activity, consensus and agreement of feelings and objectives. Consequently, with a view to better understanding all these aspects, there was much research that followed Lewin's embryonic studies. Zander and Cartwright, for example, studied communication processes, leadership, cohesion, structural properties, pressures and group patterns. Moreno and his collaborators created groups of psychodrama, sociodrama, role-playing and other techniques, with psychoanalytic connotations. Piaget emphasized the group as a fundamental element in the education of logical thinking, thus creating genetic epistemology in developmental psychology. Bales, in turn, carried out more specific studies on work groups. In essence, it is a promotional and instructional text on how to apply these techniques. Reinforcing its didactic nature, it presents, at the end, a vocabulary of technical terms.