Groups That Work

A range of expert contributors explores the design and leadership of groups, providing detailed descriptions of twenty-seven diverse work groups—including task forces, top management groups, production teams, and customer service teams—to offer insights into what factors affect group productivity, and what leaders and group members can do to improve work group effectiveness.

Working groups play a major role in the development of health & human services. The authors discuss the skills needed for effective participation & leadership within these groups.

Being able to work in groups is an important skill to master at university – especially when you’re assessed on it. Learn how to master this key professional and life skill to become an effective team member. Build communication skills and get to know your team Define roles and workloads by playing to everyone’s strengths Resolve challenges so you can avoid conflict. Super Quick Skills provides the essential building blocks you need to succeed at university - fast. Packed with practical, positive advice on core academic and life skills, you’ll discover focused tips and strategies to use straight away. Whether it’s writing great essays, understanding referencing or managing your wellbeing, find out how to build good habits and progress your skills throughout your studies. Learn core skills quickly Apply them right away and see results Succeed in your studies and in life Super Quick Skills gives you the foundations you need to confidently navigate the ups and downs of university life.

This book has two purposes. First, it is fundamentally about groups at work, both as they attempt to accomplish their goals and as they operate in organizational settings. Second, it draws together group researchers from social psychological and organizational studies. Each chapter focuses on a central issue regarding groups as they work and examines that issue by drawing from both social psychological and organizational research. Thus, this book centers on the convergence and divergence of these two fields.

Thorough, hands-on guidance for conducting group work in nonprofit, public, and for-profit agency settings. Because it improves access, is cost-effective, and can be modified to conform to evidence-based practice, group work has become the treatment approach of choice in a broad range of human service agencies. Written in an approachable manner that allows for direct translation of concepts into practice, Group Work: A Practical Guide to Developing Groups in Agency Settings provides a dual emphasis on clinical group skills along with a thorough understanding of agency systems that is necessary to meet the demands of today's practice settings. Written by two experts in the field, this book offers: Practical, detailed, ready-to-use group treatment plans, including group objectives, weekly session guidelines, discussion topics, activities, relevant research, and other essential tools Coverage of the three major types of agencies—nonprofit, public, and for-profit—supported by research and evidence-based treatments that reflect practitioners' actual experiences A unique agency perspective that includes coverage of agency structure, policies, history, staff, politics, informal and formal norms, and diverse client populations Group Work also contains a resourceful CD-ROM with over fifty different Group Profiles that can be customized to suit clients' unique styles and needs. Addressing a wide variety of psychological issues frequently encountered in therapy work with groups,¿the Group Profiles cover a range of clients across the lifespan—children, adolescents, adults, older adults, and the medically ill. Topics covered in these Group Profiles include anxiety, depression, divorce adjustment, substance abuse, foster care, trauma, chronic pain, anger management, hospice, weight management/obesity prevention, teen pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and many more. Clear, concise, and current, Group Work: A Practical Guide to Developing Groups in Agency Settings is a useful resource from which professionals will gain the knowledge, skills, and awareness of the many intricacies involved in working with diverse groups within different agency settings. Its easy-to-follow presentation will enable all mental health professionals to successfully apply a variety of concepts, ideas, and skills into their group work practice. Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Social Work With Groups describes continuity and change in group work. It revisits the theoretical ideas of group work and group work topics of the past decade, focusing on the continuity of group work theory and practice. At the same time it emphasizes the need for change to more effectively work with deal with people in new groups in need--people with AIDS, gangs, persons in grief, and minorities, as well as groups always in need but now with new and additional needs--families, children, adolescents. This book deals with how to meet the needs of existing and emerging populations. It shows a good combination of theory and practice of group work in a variety of settings and using traditional techniques with new groups. Chapters in this book revisit the theoretical ideas of group work such as stages of development and the question of self-determination in groups. The sections of theory are the basis for the more practical emphasis of what today’s group worker is doing and how they are doing it. Social Work With Groups is very practice oriented. As such, anybody who uses groups to help people will find much to read and reflect upon. With its across-the-board appeal, persons new to group work will delight in the practical information, and experienced group workers will find the revisiting of the issues a helpful and refreshing approach. Clinical social workers and faculty with an interest in theory and theoretical approaches to group work will appreciate the theory addressed in the book. Social change oriented practitioners searching for new methods of empowerment among the people will find helpful suggestions in this book for social, political, and grassroots activism.

This comprehensive handbook presents major theories of social work practice with groups and explores contemporary issues in designing and evaluating interventions. Students and practitioners gain an in-depth view of the many ways that groups are used to help people address personal problems, cope with disabilities, strengthen families and communities, resolve conflict, achieve social change, and more. Offering authoritative coverage of theoretical, practical, and methodological concerns--coupled with a clear focus on empowerment and diversity--this is an outstanding text for group work and direct practice courses.