ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors examine some of the issues of boundary management during the conduct of the event and the export phase. Group events can be viewed as temporary institutions whose manifest goal or task is to provide some psychological benefit to their clients the group members. When group events are viewed as small, temporary institutions, their tasks and structures can be theoretically defined and made explicit with relative ease. Crucial early management responsibilities for those who initiate a group event include defining the task, defining the leader and member roles, recruiting the leader(s) and members, and developing a contract among them—though not necessarily in this sequence. The authors address several neglected boundary management aspects of the leader's role in group work—using social systems based organizational perspective. They provide an examination of some issues surrounding the development of a contract for a group event.
