Group and Team Dynamics

This course focuses on groups in an organizational context: how they develop, behave, and function, and the dynamics that evolve within the group. It also addresses the ways in which groups influence and are influenced by organizational behavior and life. The course pays particular attention to the seemingly inexplicable group and team events and behaviors that occur in organizations, including what groups “carry” on behalf of the department or organization they are part of; covert behaviors; cascading problems; scapegoating; and counterproductive group behaviors. The course will emphasize understanding group dynamics through paradoxical and psychodynamic frameworks. Although we spend much of our lives in groups and teams, we rarely take the time to understand their underlying dynamics. Group and Team members often struggle to make meaning of the myriad spoken, as well as unexpressed, factors influencing the process and outcomes of the groups of which they are a part. By emphasizing both theory and practice, this course provides students with a thorough grounding in the ways groups and teams develop, learn and behave. In addition to drawing on the extensive literature and research in group dynamics and team building, the class will rely on experiential methods to help students develop keener understanding and insight into the ways in which their own leadership and followership dynamics, as well as the dynamics of the group-as-a-whole, influence their team's ability to accomplish its tasks. Non-Dynamics students: please include a brief job description in your Permissions Request.