ABSTRACT
GROUPS ARE COMMONPLACE IN social life. We are born into a social group (the family) and, as we grow, come to play a more active part in an increasing number and range of others. Branching out from the family, children find themselves in playgroups, school classes, sports teams, and youth organisations. Later these may give way to (in no particular order) staff groups, quality circles, seminar groups, choirs, appreciation societies, leisure classes, trade union committees, parentteacher associations, and political party executives, to mention but a very few of the vast number of possibilities. Small wonder it has been claimed that, ‘Most of our waking hours are spent in, and the bulk of our work-related productivity occurs within, settings consisting of…[groups]’ (Simpson and Wood, 1992:1).
