The Ecosystem Of Group Relations

The unconscious dynamics that surface in groups when authority is exercised are of paramount importance in Group Relations Conferences; this volume addresses these considerations through research findings and speculation on the future of Group Relations both within conferences and outside of them. This is the sixth instalment in a series of books based on Tavistock Group Relations Conferences and contains a collection of papers presented at the sixth Belgirate conference. Combining chapters on theory and practice, this volume delivers a meditation on the relationships between the physical spaces we inhabit or co-create, the psychic, inner or spiritual space and the liminal space in-between. Group Relations provides a window of understanding into why inequity and intergroup hostilities pervade the modern world alongside a method that illuminates how people consciously and unconsciously contribute to these tensions, whether personally, in groups or in organisations. This will be an invaluable resource for practitioners, academics, and scholars of Group Relations, as well as managers and organisational members wanting to learn more about how Group Relations methods can contribute to their organisational success.

This book presents a sort of angsty identity crisis and offers many clear illustrations of the multiple useful and relevant applications of group relations in different parts of the world, reflecting on the theory of group relations and its relevance to contemporary phenomena.

Group Relations conferences offer opportunities to learn about group, organisational and social dynamics; the exercise of authority and power; the interplay between tradition, innovation and change; and the relationship of organisations to their social, political and economic environments. This book, the fifth in a series of Tavistock Group Relations Conferences, contains a collection of papers presented at the fifth Belgirate conference, plus three additional papers reflecting on and making sense of several participants' conference experiences. Taken together, these chapters study the discourse of Group Relations conferences as well as reflecting on the changing nature and shifting patterns of this discourse. In Doing the Business of Group Relations Conferences, authors reflect on the vicissitudes of meanings this expression generates.

This book is a compilation of chapters based on presentations at the third Group Relations (GR) international meeting in Belgirate, Italy in November 2009, plus a number of pieces from participants reflecting on their experience of the meeting. The book takes yet another step in continuing the discourse, which began in 2003, articulating the relevance of the GR conference method and the timeliness of its application globally. The chapters in the book deal with the personal as well as the organisational journeys of GR practitioners and examine these through the lens of tradition, succession and creative application. The authors are experienced Group Relations practitioners internationally and together they enrich further the tapestry of GR model and its application and potential.

This book reflects the culture of the Belgirate Conference, namely combining traditional and experiential modes of developing new ideas and knowledge; and in order to further the field of Group Relations. It contains the collection of papers presented at the conference plus two additional papers.

Group Relations, Management, and Organization brings together a timely collection of new and important essays by an international group of authors. The authors represent different cultures, roles, and institutional backgrounds, as well as a variety of perspectives on the past, present, and future of group relations and its current impact on management, organizations, institutions, and societies. The importance of the book is in the perspective that it offers on the traditions of group relations and the changes that are currently taking place within this field. It is essential reading for those currently involved in the practice of group relations, for management educators and students, and for organizational consultants. The book provides the reader with reflections and insights which are highly relevant to an in-depth understanding both of the role of manager and to the dynamics of organizing.

COLLABORATIVE NETWORKS Becoming a pervasive paradigm In recent years the area of collaborative networks is being consolidated as a new discipline (Camarinha-Matos, Afsarmanesh, 2005) that encompasses and gives more structured support to a large diversity of collaboration forms. In terms of applications, besides the “traditional” sectors represented by the advanced supply chains, virtual enterprises, virtual organizations, virtual teams, and their breading environments, new forms of collaborative structures are emerging in all sectors of the society. Examples can be found in e-government, intelligent transportation systems, collaborative virtual laboratories, agribusiness, elderly care, silver economy, etc. In some cases those developments tend to adopt a terminology that is specific of that domain; often the involved actors in a given domain are not fully aware of the developments in the mainstream research on collaborative networks. For instance, the grid community adopted the term “virtual organization” but focused mainly on the resource sharing perspective, ignoring most of the other aspects involved in collaboration. The European enterprise interoperability community, which was initially focused on the intra-enterprise aspects, is moving towards inter-enterprise collaboration. Collaborative networks are thus becoming a pervasive paradigm giving basis to new socio-organizational structures.