The Handbook for Working with Difficult Groups

How They Are Difficult, Why They Are Difficult and What You Can Do About It

Sandy Schuman

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9780470190388
• eBook ISBN: 9780470594124
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Organisational Behaviour
• Index: Business

WE'VE ALL EXPERIENCED the challenges associated with working with groups, but The Handbook for Working with Difficult Groups turns the idea of "difficult groups" on its head. Rather than view groups as inherently difficult, it looks at the factors that make working with groups difficult. Individual chapters focus on challenges such as involving dissenters, building external perspectives, reducing complaining, adapting to cultural differences, incorporating diversity, facilitating inclusion, working virtually, resolving identity-based conflict, transforming unproductive behavior patterns, preventing workplace harassment, and strengthening accountability.

The book first provides a framework for thinking systemically about the many and varied ways in which working with a group can be difficult. Building on that framework, the contributors each address three basic issues:

• How the group is difficult—a description of a real group and the observable phenomena that reflect the group's difficulty.
• Why the group is difficult—an exploration of the underlying causes of the difficulty.
• What you can do about it—what you can do as a group facilitator, leader, or member to help the group.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• PREFACE
• ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS
• Introduction
• chapter ONE - Keeping Difficult Situations from Becoming Difficult Groups
• chapter TWO - Building an External Focus: Avoiding the Difficulties on an ...
• chapter THREE - The Downside of Communication: Complaining Cycles in Group Discussions
• chapter FOUR - Facilitating Multicultural Groups
• chapter FIVE - Interpersonally Hostile Work Groups: Precipitating Factors and Solutions
• chapter SIX - Diversity by Design: Creating Cognitive Conflict to Enhance ...
• chapter SEVEN - Facilitating Inclusion: Study Circles on Diversity and Student Achievement
• chapter EIGHT - Overcoming Sources of Irrationality That Complicate Working in ...
• chapter NINE - Working Without Rules: A Team in Need of a Different Picture
• chapter TEN - Interaction Archetypes: Keys to Group Difficulty and Productivity
• chapter ELEVEN - Virtual Teams: Difficult in All Dimensions
• chapter TWELVE - Politics of the Arts: Challenges in Working with Nonprofit Boards
• chapter THIRTEEN - Competitive Group Interactions: Why They Exist and How to ...
• chapter FOURTEEN - Active Facilitation: How to Help Groups Break Through ...
• chapter FIFTEEN - Mediating History, Making Peace: Dealing with the “Messy” ...
• chapter SIXTEEN - Deep Democracy: Multidimensional Process-Oriented Leadership
• chapter SEVENTEEN - Authentic Relationships and Collective Psychological Capital
• chapter EIGHTEEN - How Leaders Can Make Diverse Groups Less Difficult: The ...
• chapter NINETEEN - The Hero’s Journey: Helping Inflexible Groups—and ...
• chapter TWENTY - Difficult Groups or Difficult Facilitators? Three Steps ...
• KEY TERMS
• REFERENCES
• NAME INDEX
• SUBJECT INDEX