SOWK 487 Week 14 - Group Work in Organizational and Community Settings Part I

Time: Wednesday’s from 5:30-8:15
Date: 04/14/21 Content: Group Work in Organizations and Community Settings I Reading Assignment: Garvin et al. (2017) Chapters 24 & 26 Due Dates:

• A-01: Synchronous Class Engagement Attend class
• A-02: Asynchronous Class Engagement Experience using writing center for A-04 paper forum with an initial post due Friday 04/16/21 at 11:55 PM no replies are required via My Heritage Class Forums
• Read Garvin et al. (2017) Chapters 24 & 26

Prioritize Your Values Values

[Small Group Activity] List of values. Have move papers and rank them. Share with people near by.

Acceptance Family Friends Health Honesty Love Money Respect Spirituality What you want

• Community-Based Participatory Research Partnerships
• Ethics in community practice

Community-Based Participatory Research Partnerships have some common characteristics that are important to be effective.

[Whole Class Activity] For each topic discuss what are some possible ways that gets implemented in groups.

• Mutual commitment of members to clearly defined operational goals (mission / vision statement, agency MOUs,letters of commitment, public displays of membership)
• Two-way communication (various forms of communication and methods to share and receive information)
• Mutual leadership & shared power (specific roles i.e. president, etc.)
• Appropriate decision-making procedures (Roberts Rules of Order)

[Whole Class Activity] For each topic discuss what are some possible ways that gets implemented in groups.

• Ability to challenge each other in constructive manner (group cohesion and connection)
• Ability to resolve conflicts effectively (Policies, Rules of Order)
• Mechanisms for mutual accountability (Transparency)
• Ability to appropriately engage the skills and expertise of group members (Member strengths evaluation, sharing leadership, personal connections)

(Israel et al. 2013) taken from the Garvin text p. 439 The following is a Conceptual Framework for Assessing Group Dynamics as an Aspect of the Effectiveness of the CBPR Partnership Process

Assessing CBPR Groups - Environmental Characteristics (2 of 7)

When assessing any type of group, looking at the environmental characteristics is important. Characteristics impact all of the other areas evaluated.

• Previous collaboration
• Community response to issue
• Geographic / cultural diversity
• Social and economic determinants of health
• Challenges/barriers (e.g. institutional policies, time constraints)

When assessing any type of group, looking at the environmental characteristics is important. Characteristics impact all of the other areas evaluated.

• Previous collaboration
• Community response to issue
• Geographic / cultural diversity
• Social and economic determinants of health
• Challenges/barriers (e.g. institutional policies, time constraints)

CBPR groups function the best when they are more highly structured, and so looking at the structural characteristics is also important. These include:

• Membership
• Complexity
• Formalization

Another area assed is the group dynamics characteristics of effective partnerships. These include:

• Shared leadership, including task and maintenance leadership behaviors
• Two-way open communication
• Recognition of conflicts and constructive conflict resolution
• Cooperative development of goals and shared vision
• Participatory decision making process that are flexible and use consensus for important decisions
• Agreed-upon problem-solving processes
• Shared power, influence and resources
• Development of mutual trust
• Collaborative evaluation of both task/goal and process objectives
• Well-organized meetings with collaboratively developed agendas and facilitation consistent with these characteristics (management)

Assessing CBPR Groups - Partnership Programs and Interventions (5 of 7)

The actual work of the group includes both partnership programs and interventions that can be separately evaluated.

The actual work of the group includes both partnership programs and interventions that can be separately evaluated.

The more soft version of the measures are related to participants perceptions and impressions. These intermediate measure of partnership effectiveness include:

• Perceived effectiveness of the group in achieving its goals
• Perceived personal, organizational, and community benefits and costs of participation
• Extent of membership involvement
• Shared ownership and cohesiveness/commitment to collaborative efforts
• Individual, group and community empowerment: Future expectations of effectiveness
• Bridging social ties
• Synergy

Probably the area that is most often thought of for measuring success is the output measures of partnership effectiveness. This looks at:

• Achievement of program and policy objectives (e.g., collaborative problem solving, quality of life, health)
• Institutionalization of programs and/or partnerships

I think that in thinking about doing group work in a community setting, it’s important to continue to consider ethics. The following are four ethical dilemmas.

[Small Group Activity] Have students form four groups. Each one review one of the ethical dilemmas. Then rotate members to join other groups. Each group reviews each ethical dilemma.