Small group work climates: A lag-sequential analysis of group interaction

This study examines procedural messages and group work habits of 20 three-person groups, 10 who preferred a tightly-structured work climate and 10 who preferred a free-associative work routine. The groups interacted for 15 minutes on a party-planning task and then prepared a written report. Group talk was coded into nine categories and analyzed with a lag-sequential procedure. Results of the study reveal that tightly structured groups followed procedural messages with abstract headings that organized group talk, while free-associative groups followed procedural state-ments with specific details on a content-related issue. Moreover, group members elaborated upon procedural issues, particularly at lag 1 occurrences, and embellished digressions for the entire 25 lags. These findings suggest that practitioners who aim to help groups improve their work habits should focus upon the sequences of talk in addition to the inputs or outcomes of a group. The small group is a popular and essential unit of most organizations. In an age of matrix structures and specialization of task functions, small groups serve as project teams, coor-dinating agents, clearinghouses, and decision-making bodies for a wide array of tasks and organizational functions. In order to work efficiently and satisfactorily on a project, group members must concur on the modus operandi for planning and organizing their tasks and endeavors (Bormann, 1975: 161). To this end, participants frequently barter and negotiate their AUTHOR’S NOTE: A variation of this article was competitively selected as a top paper in the Interpersonal Communication Division of the International Communica