"Theories of Small Groups: Interdisciplinary Perspectives is a book that will make a significant difference in how those interested in the study of small groups think and pursue inquiry about them. In this impressive collection of original essays, the reader is introduced to nine different perspectives that have guided the development of theories and research concerning the nature of group processes. Drawing on the efforts of numerous scholars with backgrounds in biological and social sciences, editors Scott Poole and Andrea Hollingshead provide a useful vehicle for the emergence of enriched understandings of the behavior of groups, enhancing the integration of such knowledge, and the prospects for substantial increases in genuinely interdisciplinary scholarship."
-Dennis S. Gouran, The Pennsylvania State University
People live in groups, work in groups, and play in groups. As a result, groups have been a focus of study across the social and behavioral sciences. Although it has been actively pursued within individual disciplines and sub-disciplines, group research as a whole remains fragmented and discipline-bounded.
Theories of Small Groups: Interdisciplinary Perspectives brings together the threads that unify the field of group research. The book is designed to define and describe theoretical perspectives on groups and to highlight select research findings within those perspectives. In this text, editors Marshall Scott Poole and Andrea B. Hollingshead capitalize on the theoretical advances made over the last fifty years by integrating models and theories of small groups into a set of nine general theoretical perspectives. Theories of Small Groups is the first book to assess, synthesize, integrate, and evaluate the body of theory and research on small groups across disciplinary boundaries.
Key Features
- Offers an interdisciplinary approach to group research with contributions from authors across many fields
- Includes nine theoretical perspectives, each written by an author team composed of experts who have conducted independent research within that perspective
- Organizes chapters in a similar format to easily compare the basic premises and findings examined across the various perspectives covered
- Concludes with a chapter that compares and contrasts the nine perspectives in the form of seven "touchstones"- boundaries/embeddedness; competition, conflict and interdependence; causality; regulation of interaction; risk/uncertainty; cognition/intentionality, and time
Theories of Small Groups summarizes the current state of group theory and research in a brief volume that can be used by researchers and in graduate courses that will train the next generation of group scholars. It is an excellent supplementary textbook for graduate courses on small groups in many disciplines, including Communication, Psychology, Management, Sociology, Political Science, and Education.
M. Scott Poole (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin―Madison [communication arts]; M.A., Michigan State University [communication]; B.A., University of Wisconsin―Madison [communication arts]) is one of the nation’s top scholars in group communication and in organizational communication. Among his publications is one of the leading college textbooks on organizational communication (
Strategic Organizational Communication, 5/e, Wadsworth); he is also co-editor of SAGE’s
Handbook of Group Communication. He has been chair of the Organizational Communication Division of NCA and was the chair and founding member of NCA’s Group Communication Division. He is, or has been, a member of the following editorial journal boards:
Human Communication Research,
Communication Monographs,
Communication Research,
Communication Quarterly,
Journal of Applied Communication Research,
Academy of Management Review,
Communication Theory,
Quarterly Journal of Speech,
Information Systems Research,
Organization Science,
Journal of Electronically-Mediated Communication,
Journal of Organizational Discourse,
Information and Organization.
Andrea B. Hollingshead (Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) holds joint appointments in Speech Communication and in Psychology at Illinois. Her current projects include examining the development, use and maintenance of knowledge management systems located on company intranets; investigating how status differences among group members can affect how shared knowledge systems develop in personal and work relationships; and comparing how lies are constructed and perceived in face-to-face and computer-mediated interactions. Her recent work appears in SAGE’s Handbook of New Media and in The Blackwell Handbook of Social Psychology, the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
