Paradoxes of Group Life: Understanding Conflict, Paralysis, and Movement in Group Dynamics

Contextual Influences:The Process of Importingand ExportingFrames of Reference

Up to this point, we have been discussing group paradoxes as though the only relevant dynamics are those that emerge from the inner life of a group, from the interactions among individual members and between the membership and the group as a whole. In many ways, we have been acting as though groups exist in a vacuum, free of any outside influences. This, of course, is not true. Groups are always located in a context, and that context has a profound effect on the groups that exist within it. We now want to pause and add the additional perspective and complexity to these ...