ABSTRACT
In their everyday lives, individuals participate as members of social groups. In order for a group to accomplish its goals, and thereby to fulfill some of the goals of individual members, communication must occur within the group. A formally organized group will have a specific communication network, and this will affect an individual’s satisfaction with his or her par ticipation. Two dimensions of this participation are group locomotion and group maintenance. Whether a group is formally organized or not, it is likely to have a leader, whose effectiveness will depend on his or her per sonal characteristics and on the nature of the situation affecting the group’s performance. An individual’s socialization as a new group member follows a particular pattern, with the person’s commitment to the group changing over time; the attraction that members feel toward a group will produce pressures toward uniformity of opinion, especially on matters of critical importance to the group. In some cases this pressure can lead to the development of groupthink, a denial of reality that invites bad group decisions.
