An analysis of selected references in group development applicable to school administration

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AN ANALYSIS OF SELECTED REFERENCES IN GROUP DEVELOPMENT APPLICABLE TO SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION

A Project Presented to the Faculty of-.-the School of Education The University of Southern California

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science in Education

by Lucile Carter Lyons January 1950

UMI Number: EP46449

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T his project report, w ritten under the direction of the candidate’s adviser and app ro ved by him , has been presented to and accepted by the F a c u lty of the School of E d ucatio n in p a r t ia l f u lfillm e n t of the requirements f o r the degree

of M a s t e r of

Science in Education.

Date,

A d v is e r

Dean

TABLE OF CONTENTS SECTION I.

PAGE

MATERIALS RELATIVE TO MANAGEMENT ............. Democracy in School Administration Leadership or Domination

1

... .

2

.................

6

National Training Laboratory in Group Development

...............

Role Playing and Management Training

...

Basic Symptoms of Inadequate Supervision

15 .

Employee Success in Work-Groups .......... II.

12

19 22

MATERIALS RELATIVE TO TRAINING ...............

26

The Dynamics of L e a r n i n g .................

27

Group Psychotherapy .......................

34

Conduct, Knowledge and Acceptance of New V a l u e s ..................................

39

Resistance to Reeducation in Government Administration

.........................

44

Changing Relationships Between Dominance and Social Acceptability During Group Democratization

.........................

46

The Psychology of Ego-Involvements . . . . .

5°

Role Playing:

A Technique For Training The

Necessarily Dominating Leader

..........

52

iii ' SECTION

PAGE Role

Playing in Supervisory Training

. .

BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................

55 59

SECTION I MATERIALS RELATIVE TO MANAGEMENT

DEMOCRACY IN SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION by George Koopman, Alice Miel and Paul Misner*^ True happiness is possible only where the individual and the social phases of living serve each other in true functional interdependence.

PRINCIPLES GOVERNING DEMOCRATIC ACTION Democratic administration shall seek; 1. To facilitate the continuous growth of individual and social growth of individual and social personalities by providing opportunity for persons to participate actively in all enterprises that concern them. 2. To recognize that leadership is a function of every individual * and to encourage the exercise of leadership by each person in accordance with his interests, needs and abilities. 3. To provide means by which persons can plan together, share their experiences, and cooperatively evaluate their achievements. k. To place responsibility for making decisions that

^ George Koopman, Alice Miel and Paul Misner, Democracy in School Administration (New York: D. Appleton-Century Com-pany, 1943), p. 330.

3 affect the t&tal' enterprise on the group rather than with one or a few individuals. 5. To achieve flexibility of organization to the end that necessary adjustments can readily be made.

SOME ASPECTS OF THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF ADMINISTRATION 1. Social responsibilities of -education must be defined. A primary aim of education is the ‘democratic socialization of the learners.1 This requires a clear-cut view of the relation of the individual to society. Individuation and socialization are two aspects of one process. 2. A democratic conception of leadership must be developed. As measured in terms of the amount of leader­ ship which administrators foster in others. Specialists should have a specialist relation­ ship rather than an authoritarian relationship. Leadership passes from one member of the group to another as the occasion warrants. Each gives service and leadership. 3. A democratic form of organization is needed. Purposing,, planning, executing and evaluation must be group functions. 4. Participation of all is required. 5. The role of the teacher must be defined. Careful planning for and with all the children and the community adults whom the school serves guarantees a wise program. This contact with others gives teachers an automatic motivation which reduces strain.

4 SIMPLE TESTS OF DEMOCRATIC ADMINISTRATION 1. Does one hear "we" and "our” from students, teachers, school patrons and administrators?

Is a deep sense of posses­

sion expressed by all persons associated with a given school? The pronouns used have significance. 2. Do students and teachers have utmost confidence that certain decisions are theirs to make?

No school is democra­

tically administered if the thinking of the group is junked on the whim of a "superior" or if decisions are reversed when they 3.

do not please the "boss." Is there a friendly atmosphere about the school?

Do teachers, students, and administrators enjoy working to­ gether?

The human relationships in a school are the most

important means of judging what kind of living is going on there. 4.

Are teachers and students

informed regarding the

total institution as people are who constantly

engage in

planning for that institution? 5. Does the school have to its credit a vast number of accomplishments that indicate the active participation of many persons? The point of reference is the extent to which the education promotes the democratic socialization of the indi­ vidual.

Socialization is identical with personality development.

5 "A separate person is an abstraction unknown to experience.” Teachers should continually expose themselves to basic experiences ranging from complete changes in environ­ mental conditions to specific experiences new in type.

We

cannot have socialization without individuation.

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS FOR DEMOCRATIC ADMINISTRATION. 1. The substitution of group control for individual control. 2. The implementation of purposes through appropriate internal organization. 3. The utilization of group reactions in administra­ tion of education. 4. The facing of social realities. 5. The building of an organization broad enough to insure flexibility. 6. The building of an organization functional enough to protect the teachers* energies. 7. Provision for the needs of all groups simultaneously. 8. Continuous appraisal as a guarantee of progress. 9. Cooperation as a residue of a great variety of group activities.

LEADERSHIP OR DOMINATION by Paul Pigors2 1.

The leaning of leadership. Any person may he called a leader during the time when

and in so far as, his will, feeling, and insight direct and control others ift the pursuit of a cause which he represents. Qualifications: a. Individual differences must not be so great as to preclude solidarity of purpose. b. The presence of a common cause is basic to leadership. c. The leadership always has specific reference to the actual situation. d. The leader and follower must be united by the will to lead on the one side and will to follow on the other. 2.

The meaning of domination. Domination Is a process of social control in which

accepted superiors assume a position of command, and demand obedience from those who acknowledge themselves as inferiors in the social scale. It is control from the outside rather than from within 3.

Domination in children.

2 Paul Pigors, Leadership or Domination Houghton Mifflin Company, 1935)a 325 PP-

(New York:

7 In children domination may be exercised in three degrees: a. Blind hitting at the most convenient object; an outlet for accumulated feelings of resent­ ment. If self-expression is denied, power becomes an end in itself. b. A method of exploitation-conscious attempt to manipulate others as a means of advancing his own ends. c. Methods of domination are used to promote "social11 ends. It is still command and obedience but it is more successful because the dominator includes the purposes of others in his commands. In every classroom where children work and play together there develops an accepted social hierarchy. is the basis of organization.

"Social rating"

Some criteria in children’s

groups are: a. Superiority in age. b. Individual ability. Evaluations are accurate and unanimous for those who occupy high positions.

In the lower range each child over­

estimates himself but expects no agreement from those higher in the scale.

Status is determined mainly by what an indi­

vidual has to contribute. A.

Domination in adult groups. Among children and primitives the structure of the

group is "primary.1® Activities involve the total personality. Characteristics of primary groups:

8 a. Group is small. b. Aim is simple. c. Actual presence of each member is required for functioning in a face-to-face relation­ ship . In secondary groups participation affects a person only to the degree to which he identifies himself with this particular interest. In adult society spontaneous social evaluation is impossible for the majority of its members because each institution is so highly specialized and involves only a small segment of individual personality.

It permits con­

cealment of motives, and artificial aids to power, such as money, social pull, unacknowledged aid, and power of publicity. The obstacles to spontaneous social evaluation are: a. Great range of adult interests. b. Testing of specially desired abilities rather than for ’’total personality.” c. Classifying interferes with natural selection. Classification is nine-tenths subjection. "See that he keeps his place.” 5.

Leadership and domination compared. a. In leadership differences in rank are not emphasized; in domination, class distinction' is important. b. Educator versus drill-master. The educator emphasizes the individual. The drillmaster emphasizes the results in subject matter.

9 c. In leadership we have power with. In domination we have power over. d. Leadership is liberating. Domination is binding. e. Leadership has regard for growth and is pre­ paring the follower for independence. Leader­ ship and domination tend to interpenetrate. Relationships oscillate from one pole to another. 6,

The swing from leadership to domination. Man does not conquer nature.

He learns to understand

nature * subordinate himself to its laws:-.arid work in harmony with them.

His power is not over nature but with and through

nature. a. Leadership begins in a personal relationship in a small group. b. Representative begins when the leader is separated from his constituency. Groups may be large. c. Autocratic dominator or dictator represen­ tative uses power given him for his own ends. d. Despotism: The autocratic tyrant enslaves and exploits others. 7.

Leadership and domination among primitives. a. Some form of authority is found wherever people live together. b. Guardians of tradition exercise great au­ thority. c. Social control depends on social structure. d. Leadership is based on recognized superiority. e. Domination requires centralization for ade­ quate military support.

10 8.

Leadership and domination in the life of the child. Children exercise some leadership-authority over each other as early as four to five years. Domineering children are very dependent, . while the child who is a leader is far more independent. The dominant child cannot amuse himself. More research is needed in this field.

9.

The functions of authority. a. Representation is the general function, of authority. h. Specific functions are: (1) Initiative, (2) Administrative, and (3) Interpretative. c. The interplay of functions of leadership is illustrated by the way In which Christ founded the Christian religion. These func­ tions can be isolated only in abstractions.

10.

Morale and leadership. Morale can be built up.

The chief ways are:

a. Finding ones cause. b. Living up to ones standards. c . Building on past achievement. d. Preserving mental and physical health. Hi

Domination and discipline. Building morale has been called the method of leadership.

Enforcing discipline may be termed the method of domination.

11 In Its narrow sense discipline is training in unquestioned obedience. habits.

The essential aim of discipline is to form useful

The subject of regimentation seldom grasps the sig­

nificance of the training. enforced rules.

Discipline implies arbitrarily

Morale consists in voluntary acceptance of

standards mutually agreed upon. 12.t The Integration of discipline and morale. Discipline infused with the spirit of morale becomes self-discipline.

The mutual reinforcement of morale and

discipline is necessary because each by itself is subject to serious limitations.

Both leadership and domination have

their place as processes of social control. Discipline and domination are harmful only as continued subjection, where there is complete surrender of the will. There must be a balance between freedom and control. freedom without responsibility. authority.

No

No responsibility without

NATIONAL TRAINING LABORATORY IN GROUP DEVELOPMENT Report of the Second Summer Laboratory Session, Bethel, Maine, 19^8.3 Cooperating institutions were:

Teachers College,

Columbia University, University of North Carolina, University of California, University of Michigan,

Ohio State University,

Springfield College, and Cornell University. The laboratory was under the direction of Leland P. Bradford, Division of Adult Education Services, National Education Association, and Dorwin Cartwright, Research Center for Group Dynamics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The laboratory originated from the need for more know­ how in human relations and group work.

Knowledge of this kind

has been accumulating as a result of research in the social sciences--particularly psychology, anthropology and sociology. This knowledge needs to be put into the hands of the practi­ tioners.

The laboratory hopes to develop trainers for this

purpose. Many more applications were received than could be accepted.

Criteria were adopted for selection of candidates.

Considerable information was required of each applicant.

A

pre-training period for staff members from the contributing

3 "National Training Laboratory in Group Development," Bulletin No. 3, Department of Adult Education (Washington 6, D.C., 1201 Sixteenth St.,'}, 13& PP*

13 institutions was held.

A statement was prepared by the group

of the principles of planned change and group development. Change, in the sense of alteration in the level and way of functioning of a person or group, or organization or community, occurs when the equilibrium of forces is disturbed. Change may be seen as the transition of a system of behavior from one equilibrium level, to another.

Many of the changes

which result from disequilibrium are unplanned.

When the

forces holding a person or a group at a given level can be assessed, when factors making for disequilibrium are under­ stood, then a possible new and desirable state of affairs can be projected.

OVERVIEW OP LABORATORY Training and Research Team Planning Period (January-June, 1948) Recruiting and Pre-Lab Involvement of Participants, Including Correspondence and Questionnaires (February-June) Pre-Lab Orientation and Training of Research and Training Staff (June 8-13)

Basic Skill Training Groups I-VIII

General Sessions Orientation Warm-up Case Study, Pt. 1 Testing Warm-up Case Study, Pt. 2 1st Research Feedback Job-Area Orientation Community Organization Group Conversation 1st Social Action Meeting Industrial Relations Communication Types of Leadership Open BST Leaders Meeting Principles of Group Dynamics Personal Factors in Group Development Film Forum 2nd Social Action Meeting 2nd Research Feedback Conference Management Future of the Laboratory

03

Action Research Communications Community Organization (2) Discussion Leadership (2) Ethics of Leadership Training Inservice Training Personal Factors in Group Development Role-Playing with Adults (; Role-Playing with Children Role-Playing with Older Children

Pre-Testing Change-Agent Skills Group-Growth Steps Training of Trainers Re-Testing Evaluation

Delegate Council Personal Counseling

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Administrative Committee Individual Job Counsultation

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Cabaret Cooperative Film Showings Folk Dancing Recreation Sports Trips

Adult Education Agricultural Extension Health Education Industry Public Schools Religious Groups Social Agencies Universities

Children’s and Family Activities Education Newspaper Recreation Shows Trips

Job-Team Consultation Air University Cincinnati Glenview (111. ) Community Church Montgomery County, Md. Newtonville, Mass. Philadelphia Puerto Rico Ag . Ext.

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