Group development research conducted within applied sport psychology shares many conceptual similarities with the field of organizational studies. This thesis investigates how the cross-integration of two group development models referenced from separate fields of study can converge to produce a comprehensive analytic model for evaluating group performance. Integrating Tuckman's (1965; Tuckman & Jensen, 1977) successive five stage group development model with Carron's (1982) general conceptual system for cohesiveness in sport teams, this thesis develops an original integrative cross-disciplinary schematic for group development. Guided by a systems approach, the analysis of this model reveals how cross-disciplinary research conducted within these two fields serves to identify mutual benefits, while highlighting the similarities and differences from both group development models. A key contribution of this study is the consideration of opportunities for enhancing current knowledge, and the harmonization of strategic and humanistic approaches to management. The conclusions drawn from this thesis raise significant questions about the potential yielded through the adoption of theoretical applications from applied sport psychology to an organizational context.

Computer-mediated collaboration is an important feature of modern organisational and educational settings. Despite its ever increasing popularity, it is still commonly compared unfavourably with face-to-face collaboration because non-verbal and paralinguistic cues are minimal. Although research on face-to-face group collaboration is well documented, less is known about computer-mediated collaboration. The initial focus of this thesis was an in-depth analysis of a case study of a computer-mediated collaborative group. The case study was a large international group of volunteer researchers who collaborated on a two-year research project using asynchronous communication (email). This case study was a window on collaborative dialogue in the early 1990s (1992-94) at a time when information and communication technologies were at an early stage of development. After identifying the issues emerging from this early case study, another case study using technologies and virtual environments developed over the past decade, was designed to further understand how groups work together on a collaborative activity. The second case study was a small group of students enrolled in a unit of study at Murdoch University who collaborated on a series of nine online workshops using synchronous communication (chat room). This case study was a window on collaborative dialogue in the year 2000 when information and communication technologies had developed at a rate which few people envisioned in the early 90s. The primary aim of the research described in this thesis was to gain a better understanding of how computer-mediated collaborative communities develop and grow. In particular, the thesis addresses questions related to the developmental and leadership characteristics of collaborative groups. Internet research requires a set of assumptions relating to ontology, epistemology, human nature and methodological approach that differs from traditional research assumptions. A research framework for Internet research – Complementary Explorative Data Analysis (CEDA) – was therefore developed and applied to the two case studies. The results of the two case studies using the CEDA methodology indicate that computer-mediated collaborative groups are highly adaptive to the aim of the collaborative task to be completed, and the medium in which they collaborate. In the organisational setting, it has been found that virtual teams can devise and complete a collaborative task entirely online. It may be an advantage, but it is certainly not mandatory to have preliminary face-to-face discussions. What is more important is to ensure that time is allowed for an initial period of structuration which involves social interaction to develop a social presence and eventually cohesiveness. In the educational setting, a collaborative community increases pedagogical effectiveness. Providing collaborative projects and interdependent tasks promotes constructivist learning and a strong foundation for understanding how to collaborate in the global workplace. Again, this research has demonstrated that students can collaborate entirely online, although more pedagogical scaffolding may be required than in the organisational setting. The importance of initial social interaction to foster a sense of presence and community in a mediated environment has also been highlighted. This research also provided greater understanding of emergent leadership in computer-mediated collaborative groups. It was found that sheer volume of words does not make a leader but frequent messages with topic-related content does contribute to leadership qualities. The results described in this thesis have practical implications for managers of virtual teams and educators in e-learning.

Group development research conducted within applied sport psychology shares many conceptual similarities with the field of organizational studies. This thesis investigates how the cross-integration of two group development models referenced from separate fields of study can converge to produce a comprehensive analytic model for evaluating group performance. Integrating Tuckman's (1965; Tuckman & Jensen, 1977) successive five stage group development model with Carron's (1982) general conceptual system for cohesiveness in sport teams, this thesis develops an original integrative cross-disciplinary schematic for group development. Guided by a systems approach, the analysis of this model reveals how cross-disciplinary research conducted within these two fields serves to identify mutual benefits, while highlighting the similarities and differences from both group development models. A key contribution of this study is the consideration of opportunities for enhancing current knowledge, and the harmonization of strategic and humanistic approaches to management. The conclusions drawn from this thesis raise significant questions about the potential yielded through the adoption of theoretical applications from applied sport psychology to an organizational context.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the significance of trust and confidence for the individual and the group in a work situation and what significance trust has for leadership and working groups to be well-functioning. In order to pursue the aim of the study a qualitative interview study was carried out with a total of 9 informants with different experiences of leadership and working groups. The material was analyzed using an adapted form of a thematic analysis. The results showed the importance of trust for the individual in the work-situation when it comes to groups and leadership as well as a connection to self-confidence. Aspects of trust that were brought forward included vulnerability, emotions connected to trust and behaviors that promotes or hinders trust. A reversed relationship between control and trust was established in which a leader could create trust by letting go of control. One of the strongest components of trust was authenticity which was somewhat contrasted by the component of adaptability. All aspects and components were considered important for trust in the individual, the leader and well-functioning groups.

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The aim of this research is to develop an understanding of factors that enable innovation teams to conduct agile innovation work in an industrial context. The background and reason for this research are not only that innovation is necessary for companies that want to stay in business, but also that these companies need to increase the speed of their innovation work to stay competitive. Research has demonstrated that cross-functional (X-functional) innovation teams are fast and agile, and are therefore assumed to be suitable for these activities. Still, there is much knowledge to be gained. Prior research has identified factors that are seen as important from an organizational, team, and individual perspective to enable teams to work with potentially innovative outcomes. However, in cases where teams have been created with the purpose of conducting innovation work, i.e. innovation teams, problems related to e.g. performance and learning have occurred, and the innovation work has stopped shortly after conducted research projects due to the high level of complexity. The research question (RQ) that this thesis explores is the following: “Which innovation enablers are important for innovation teams when conducting agile innovation work in an industrial context?” Based on the RQ, two sub-questions are formulated and operationalized to answer the RQ. Qualitative data have been collected from five innovation teams in two phases. Two innovation teams in two small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were studied in the first phase to clarify the situation for innovation teams before innovation work is begun. In the second phase, which built on the first one, three innovation teams in a large industrial company were studied as they conducted three separate innovation projects. This research revealed five main findings: first, knowledge about important innovation enablers (Enablers) revealed from a literature study; second, the Innovation Team Model (ITM), demonstrating innovation teams before innovation work is begun in relation to the individuals and organization in a holistic way; third, the innovation team creation process (CIT-process), a stepwise process in how to create an innovation team; fourth, the innovation facilitator, who supports and facilitates the innovation team throughout the CIT-process and the innovation projects; and fifth, the Extended Innovation Process (EIP), an extension of the traditional innovation process by a pre-phase, i.e. a Preparation-phase, to gather and prepare the innovation teams for forthcoming work. The findings regarding the importance of the CIT-process, the EIP, and the innovation facilitator were unexpected. The findings formed the Innovation Team Framework (ITF), which represents all of the findings in relation to each other. The EIP is used as the basis for which the other innovation enablers are provided to the innovation teams through an innovation facilitator’s competence throughout the innovation project. The ITF is multidimensional: it could serve as a tool to describe both the simplicity and the complexity when creating an innovation team and forthcoming work and activities. All separate findings within this research contribute to prior research in individual ways, however, the ITF is the main scientific contribution of this study to Innovation management. Practitioners can use the ITF as a complement to already established methodologies for product development or similar; however one should be aware of the limited nature of the data set that served as the basis for analysis and development of the ITF. Further studies regarding the ITF and its detailed models and processes are suggested.

It has been long known that groups of adults learn and enact their learning in certain ways; what is little known is how groups learn and how they develop in cognitive complexity. This dissertation proposes a theory of group cognitive development by arguing that intentional adult groups are complex and dynamic, and that they have the potential to evolve over time. Groups are complex in that they are made up of individuals within different orders of consciousness (Kegan), and they are dynamic in that different orders of consciousness interact and conflict (Lonergan) during the formation and enactment of group vision, values, and procedures. Dynamic complexity theory of group development as it is referred to in this study is grounded in Robert Kegan’s constructive developmental theory and in Bernard Lonergan’s transcendental method. While both Kegan and Lonergan attend to the growth of individuals, their theories are adapted to groups in order to understand the cognitive complexity of groups, intragroup and intergroup conflict, and the mental complexity of leader curriculum. This theory is applied to two case studies, one from antiquity in the case of the first century Corinthian community engaged in conflict with its founder, St. Paul, and in one contemporary study of American Catholic parishioners engaged in contentious dialogue with diocesan leaders from 1994 to 2004. The parish groups experienced a series of dialogues during a ten year period over the issues of parish restructuring and the priest sexual abuse crisis yielding cumulative and progressive changes in perspective-taking, responsibility-taking, and in group capacity to respond to and engage local and institutional authority figures. Group development is observed against a pedagogical backdrop that represents a mismatch between group complexity and leader expectations. In Corinth, Paul’s curriculum was significantly beyond the mental capacity of the community. In the case of Catholic parishioners the curriculum of diocesan leaders was beneath the mental capacities of most of the groups studied. It is proposed that individuals sharing the same order of consciousness, understood as cognitive constituencies, are in a dynamic relationship with other cognitive constituencies in the group that interact within an object-subject dialectic and an agency-communion dialectic. The first describes and explains the evolving cognitive complexity of group knowing, how the group does its knowing, and what it knows when it is doing it (the epistemologies of the group). This dialectic has implications for how intentional groups might be the critical factor for understanding individual growth. The second dialectic describes and explains the changing relationship between group agency, which is enacted either instrumentally or ideologically; and group communion, which is enacted ideationally. The agency-communion dialectic is held in an unstable balance in the knowing, identity, and mission of groups. With implications for the fields of adult education and learning organizations, dynamic complexity theory of group development notes predictable stages of group evolution as each cognitive constituency evolves, and notes the significance of internal and external conflict for exposing the presence of different ways of knowing and for challenging the group toward cognitive growth. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry.

Studien har genomförts på Akademiska Sjukhusets Utvecklingsavdelning, i Uppsala. Från förstudien som genomfördes på samma avdelning framkom ett förbättringsområde inom styrning och ledning. Studien fokuserade därigenom på området styrning och ledning och syftade till att kartlägga och ge förbättringsförslag till Utvecklingsavdelningens arbete kopplat till dess syfte och mål. För att uppnå studiens syfte har följande frågeställningar använts: 1.Vad är syftet med Utvecklingsavdelningen? 2.Hur arbetar avdelningen? 3.Hur kan avdelningens arbete förbättras? För att svara på frågeställningarna har observationer, medarbetarintervjuer, en gruppintervju med styrgruppen på avdelningen och en enkätundersökning använts som datainsamlingsmetoder.Till analysen användes ett relationsdiagram, träddiagram och fem varför-metoden. Resultatet visade att syftet med avdelningen var otydligt definierat i styrgruppen och därmed otydligt kommunicerat till medarbetarna. Medarbetarna i sin tur arbetade patientfokuserat, som beskrivs som en av två delar av deras syfte med avdelningen. Till analysen har teori kopplat till ledarskap använts. Teorin omfattar kategorierna mål, ledarstil kopplat till gruppens utveckling, prokrastinering, förändringsledning och motstånd till förändring. Från analysen har det konstaterats att medarbetarna befinner sig i det första stadiet i grupputvecklingen, vilket i sin tur påverkar deras känsla av trygghet. Det otydligt definierade syftet (och målen för avdelningen) bidrog i sin tur till ett ytterligare starkare behov av att införskaffa trygghet. Det i sin tur ansågs genom studiens analys vara orsaken till att medarbetarna på avdelningen arbetade patientfokuserade mer än utvecklingsfokuserat, vilket också ingår i syftet med avdelningen. Slutsatserna för studien resulterade i att avdelningen ska följa tre steg. De tre stegen presenteras nedan: 1.Tydliggöra syftet(varför avdelningen finns till) och se till så att syftet är rätt definierat och överenskommet inom ledningen 2.Sätt upp mål som bidrar till uppfyllandet av syftet. Kommunicera målen i hela organisationen genom måldelning med SMARTa mål. 3.Tydliggör ledarskapet, tydligare styrning (som kommer genom att uppfylla punkt 1–2), uppföljning och bekräftelse. Planera arbetet utefter målen och tydliggör vem som ska göra vad och när. / The study has been carried out at the hospital, Akademiska's development unit, in Uppsala,Sweden. From the feasibility study, conducted in the same unit, an area of improvements was found, control and management. The study has therefore focused on that area of managementand control. The study aimed to identify improvements to the development unit's work, related to their purpose and goals. In order to achieve the purpose of the study, the following questions wave been used:  1. What is the purpose of the Development unit in Akademiska's hospital? 2. How do the unit's coworkers work? 3. How can the unit's work be improved?  To answer the following questions, different methods were used, observation, interviews withthe employees, a group interview with the management group and a survey were used. In the analysis, tools like the relationship diagram, a tree diagram and a "five why"-method were used. The results of the data collection found that the purpose of the unit was defined unclearly and not properly communicated to the coworkers. The employees work tended to be patient-focused, which is also described as one of the two parts of the purpose of the unit.  Theories related to leadership and management has been used for the analysis. The theoriesalso refer to goals, group development, procrastination and resistance to development. From the analysis, it has been found that the employees are in the first stage of the group development stages. The uncleared defined purpose tended to be the reason to why employeesworked patient-focused.  The conclusion of the study resulted in the three following steps:  1. Clarify the purpose (why the unit exist)  2. Set goals that contribute to the fulfillment of the purpose. Communicate the goals throughthe entire organization and use SMART goals  3. Slightly change the leadership to more controlling leadership, follow up and confirm thecoworkers work. Plan the work towards the goals and clarify what should be done and when it should be done.  Key words: change, development, group development, leadership, opposition, safety

Nursing response to medical emergencies has been an ongoing issue in immigration detention centers. Lack of teamwork and poor communication with medical and security staff have resulted in detainees sustaining injuries during medical emergencies. This project was developed to persuade Immigration and Customs Enforcement Health Service Corps (IHSC) leaders to consider piloting the TeamSTEPPS emergency response curriculum for nurses working in the immigration detention center. Tuckman and Jensen's model of group development will provide guidance to IHSC leaders in understanding the transformational stages of forming a successful team. TeamSTEPPS will address gaps in emergency health care competency by improving collaboration, communication, and detainee outcomes. Evaluation questionnaires will be offered after each training module and several months after the conclusion of the program. Questionnaires will be distributed, analyzed, and interpreted by IHSC leadership or their designee. Implementation of the Team STEPPS curriculum may result in increased staff morale, decreased staff turnover, and improved detainee outcomes.

<p>I will present some voices from the fields of scouting as well as from outdoor focused schools and tell about their feelings for outdoor education and how they think it can be useful to help children develop a sense of belonging in a group. With a hermeneutic perspective on research I have aimed to show that there is a difference in how teachers and scout leaders look upon the effective use of outdoor education and how they use it both as an instrument for learning and as a tool for group development. I have been looking upon the questions with a holistic point of view and with progressive thoughts of education on my mind.</p><p>I visited and participated in three school groups and three scout groups during some hours. The children were in the year span of 3 – 11 years. I interviewed the four teachers that works with outdoor education in different forms and five leaders active in three different scout groups/scout organisations. My pre knowledge and my preconceived notions has been my platform in this research. This research is a bit to small to prove anything but I state that my research show that there is benefits to gain from using the outdoors in a higher degree in learning situations. Also group development through leadership could give large benefits in Swedish schools if there is a conscious awareness about cooperative learning and leadership skills.</p>