Nursing

Nurturing roles include: ● Encourager. Compliments members for their opinions and contributions to the group ● Harmonizer. Relieves tension and conflict ● Compromiser. Suppresses own position to maintain group harmony ● Gatekeeper. Encourages all group members to communicate and participate ● Group observer. Takes note of group processes and dynamics and informs group of them […]

Task roles include: ● Initiator–contributor. Redefines problems and offers solutions, clarifies objectives, suggests agenda items, and maintains time limits ● Information seeker. Pursues descriptive bases for the group’s work ● Information giver. Expands information given by sharing experiences and making inferences ● Opinion seeker. Explores viewpoints that clarify or reflect the values of other members’

Conceptual scheme of a basic social system. Source: Adapted from Homans, G. (1950).. The human group. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich; and Homans, G. (1961). Social behavior: Its elementary forms. New York: Harcourt Brace. By permission of Transaction Publishers. 148 PART 2 • LEARNING KEY SKILLS IN NURSING MANAGEMENT deal with absences that affect the

In the third stage, norming, the group defines its goals and rules of behavior. The group determines what are or are not acceptable behaviors and attitudes. The group structure, roles, and relationships become clearer. Cohesiveness develops. The leader explains standards of per- formance and behavior, defines the group’s structure, and facilitates relationship building. In the

BUILDING AND MANAGING TEAMS 147 As the group begins to develop, storming occurs. Members wrestle with roles and relation- ships. Conflict, dissatisfaction, and competition arise on important issues related to procedures and behavior. During this stage, members often compete for power and status, and informal leadership emerges. During the storming stage, the leader helps the

Each type of group presents unique opportunities and challenges. An important role of the nurse manager is to link service areas with groups at higher levels in the organization. This link facilitates problem solving, coordination, and communication throughout the organization. Leadership roles in work groups are important and may also be either formal or informal.

Most groups are considered ordinary interacting groups. These groups usually have a des- ignated formal leader, but they may be leaderless. Most work teams, task groups, and commit- tees are ordinary interacting groups. Discussions usually begin with a statement of the problem by the group leader followed by an open, unstructured conversation. Normally, the final

Many different types of groups and teams are used throughout organizations. Examples are ad hoc task groups, quality improvement teams, quality circles, self-directed work teams, shared governance councils, and focus groups. Nurse managers at a large university hospital are responsible for educating their staff about patient satisfaction. Patient satisfaction surveys are sent to randomly selected

BUILDING AND MANAGING TEAMS 145 bodies, such as committees for education, standards, disaster, and patient care evaluation. Others are established to meet a specific need (e.g., to formulate a new policy on substance abuse). Teams are real groups in which individuals must work cooperatively with each other in order to achieve some overarching goal. Teams

Group members include: ● Individuals from a single work group (e.g., nurses on one unit) or individuals at similar job levels from more than one work group (e.g., all professional staff) ● Individuals from different job levels (e.g., nurses and UAPs) ● Individuals from different work groups and different job levels in the organization (e.g.,