UNDERSTANDING GROUPS STRUCTURE; ROLES UNPACKED

Forsyth (2009) commented that if you had to choose one aspect of groups to study, you would probably learn the most by studying its structure.think about it! watching a group of individuals do something, perhaps a committee deliberating on trivial issues, a work crew at a construction site, a gaggle of school children streaming in the school's premises, you get a sense that these groups are structured in some way, that something unseen is holding them together. in some situations this bond might be loose in other cases they bind tightly. some proper understanding of these groups structure will help researchers and students in the social science and other fields know more about group actions both past, present and possibly future. In the article 'What a group means and what makes a group different than just a collection of strangers' i briefly touched on the structure of groups which Forsyth (2009) explained to be the complex of roles, norms and inter-member relations which organizes a group. In this article, i will try and unpack roles and consider some theorist definitions of the concept in relation to groups.
  Forsyth (2009) defined roles as the types of behaviours expected of individuals who occupy particular position within the group(consider how actors in a play have to take on roles and have to act out in the specified manner of the roles taken). he further commented that roles are independent of individuals(people pass through a group from entry to exit all the time but the roles pertaining to a position always remains e.g leader/follower roles in a group). Roles are flexible and to an extent structure interaction, create patterns of action and define responsibilities. having understood what roles now, we shall look at roles in a group concepts by considering some concepts identified by theorist in their studies of roles in groups.

Role Differentiation: this is an increase in the number of roles of an individual in a group, accompanied by a decrease in the scope of those roles as each one becomes more narrowly defined and specialized.
 Benne and Sheats (1948) identified task roles(performance oriented and initiating structure), relationship roles (strength of bond among members) and individualistic roles. they argued that these roles serve basic functions in a group. This is a functionalist view on roles though, other paradigms address the concept from a different angle.
 The interactionist role theorist propose that group members share a basic sense of the requirements of the roles that are common in most group settings. So individuals work out the details of their roles and their demands as they interact with one another;

• role sending: through communication you let people know what the role they adapted are.
• role taking: this is when you recognize other peoples role requirements, it is a perspective taking process, involving the individual stepping into a role.
• role enactment: this is the stage where the individual adopts the requirements of a role.

Roles Socialization: this is the process by which newcomers learn their roles in a group and by so doing become more committed to the group.

Role Transition: this involves the process by which a member of a group moves from a new member to a full member.

The concept of roles in a group context can sometimes lead to personal and group conflict. in the article "Understanding groups structure: roles unpacked 2", role stress and further role related concepts are addressed.