Small Group Definition, Types, and Roles

During your life, you have no doubt been part of countless small groups, whether it’s a social group, a committee at work, or a group of parents supporting a school sports team. Some people get excited at the prospect of working with a group since they enjoy the back-and-forth of ideas in the collaborative process. Others don’t prefer group work, since they like to work independently and not rely on others. Whether you thrive in a small-group setting or prefer to work alone, there are times when a project needs to be tackled by a group. A group group project can be a motivating and productive experience if there is some groundwork in place.

Small Group Definition

A small group needs at least three members and possibly up to as many as 12 members, so long as the group is small enough to permit all members to freely speak and listen. However, a gathering of people doesn’t necessarily constitute a “small group.” For our purposes, small groups have three primary qualities:

1. shared identity
2. shared goals
3. interdependence^[1].

Shared Identity

In a small group, members should feel as though they belong or identify with that group. They see others as members of this group because of this shared identity. For example, members of a group project for a class, a PTO committee, or a problem-solving team at work have a sense of belonging to a group and feel that other members do as well.

Shared Goals

Groups have at least one purpose in common. These goals might be very obvious and precise, as in a work group where colleagues are on a committee to plan an event or to evaluate a proposal. In other small groups, the goals might be more loosely defined, such as to get to know co-workers better. At times, not everyone will agree on what the actual goals are or how they should be met.

Interdependence

Interdependence in a group means that members are connected and each member’s behavior influences the behavior of the other group members. The members need each other. There is often dependence on one another to reach the group goals. This interdependence is related to the first characteristic, identity. Knowing that you are needed provides a sense of ownership and belonging.

Small Group Types

Not all groups are the same or brought together for the same reasons. Bilhart and Galanes categorize groups “on the basis of the reason they were formed and the human needs they serve.” ^[2]

Primary groups are ones we form to help us realize our human needs like inclusion and affection. They are not generally formed to accomplish a task, but rather, to help us meet our fundamental needs as relational beings like acceptance, love, and affection. These groups are generally longer term than other groups and include family, roommates, and other relationships that meet as groups on a regular basis.^[3]

Secondary groups are those formed to accomplish work, perform a task, solve problems, and make decisions.^[4][5][6]. Larson and LaFasto state that secondary groups have “a specific performance objective or recognizable goal to be attained; and coordination of activity among the members of the team is required for attainment of the team goal or objective”.^[7] Bilhart and Galanes divide secondary groups into four different types.

1. Activity Groups. Clubs, groups of friends who work out together, or groups of co-workers who get together to share current research that they have read are examples of activity groups.

2. Personal Growth Groups. Personal growth group members “come together to develop personal insights, overcome personal problems, and grow as individuals from the feedback and support of others”.^[8] For example, Alcoholics Anonymous is a personal growth group. There are many personal growth groups available to help people through group interaction with others.

3. Learning Groups. Learning groups “are concerned primarily with discovering and developing new ideas and ways of thinking.”^[9] If you have ever been assigned to a group in a college class, most likely it was a learning group whose purpose was to interact in ways that that help those in the group learn new things about the course content.

4. Problem-Solving Groups. These groups are created for the express purpose of solving a specific problem. The very nature of organizing people into this type of group is to get them to collectively figure out effective solutions to the problem they have before them. Committees are an excellent example of people who are brought together to solve problems.

After looking at the various types of groups, it’s probably easy for you to recognize just how much of your daily interaction occurs within the contexts of the various types of groups. The reality is, we spend a great deal of time in groups. Understanding the types of groups you’re in, as well as their purpose, goes a long way toward helping you function as a group member.

Small Group Roles

In small groups, members can assign themselves roles consciously or subconsciously, based on personality, group needs, background, and experience. All these roles will affect communication in the small group. Group members might perform multiple roles in a particular group, and more than one group member might perform the same role. O’Hair and Wiemann describe three categories of roles that group members tend to assume.^[10]

Task Roles

These roles relate to what the group wants to accomplish, or what it will take to reach specific goals.

• Information givers provide input in group discussions, including feedback, experiences, or opinions.

• Information seekers desire clarity or additional information about what others say, asking questions such as, “Can you tell me more about what you mean by that?”

• Elaborators add on to what other group members have said, offering agreement or additional insights.

• Initiators are good at presenting new ways of thinking about a problem by offering solutions or new ideas.

• Administrators take the lead on keeping a discussion, meeting, or exchange moving along, including starting and ending on time.

Social Roles

Social roles are typically based on members’ personalities, abilities, background, and interests.

• Harmonizers try to resolve differences or tensions in the group. A harmonizer might restate a harsh comment in less abrasive language or offer encouragement to a member who is struggling.

• Gatekeepers make sure everyone has a chance to participate and contribute. You might hear a gatekeeper stop and ask a group member who hasn’t commented to add their feedback to an idea.

• Sensors are in tune with the group’s feelings and offer feedback based on those feelings. They might say something like, “I feel like we’re really unified right now and making a lot of progress. Shall we keep going for another 15 minutes?”

Various communication researchers have elaborated other taxonomies, or systems of classification of group roles.^[11] For instance, Mathieu et al. proposed and validated the Team Role Experience and Orientation (TREO), that includes six team roles:

•  Organizer: Structures the team and task to ensure goals are being met
•  Doer:  Completes taskwork
•  Challenger: Challenges the team to question assumptions and approaches to the task
•  Innovator:  Generates ideas and solutions
•  Team Builder: Maintains a positive atmosphere within the team, establishes norms, and supports team decisions.
•  Connector: Connects the team with outside entities.^[12]

Anti-group Roles

Unlike task and social roles, anti-group roles work against the group because members who assume these roles prioritize their own needs over those of the group. You will probably recognize at least some of these roles from your own small group experiences.

• Blockers shoot down everyone’s ideas and insist on continually bringing up their own ideas even when they have already been rejected by the group.

• Avoiders refuse to join in the group discussion and receive others’ ideas with indifference or cynicism.

• Recognition seekers try to bring attention to themselves and their accomplishments.

• Distractors go off-topic and bring up unrelated ideas during group meetings.

• Trolls try to create controversy with irrelevant and provocative comments.

On this episode of the radio show This American Life, Will Felps, a researcher from the University of Rotterdam, talks about his work studying “bad apple” behavior within groups. The segment offers intriguing insights into the way one bad actor (in this case, literally an actor) can undermine a group. Click here to listen to the episode (opens in new window); the relevant segment is the Prologue (the first 12 minutes or so).