ABSTRACT
Group participation and interaction are key characteristics of project-orientated organisations. Participation is the extent to which individuals are involved in group interaction, being coloured by the group norms and group development (Wallace 1987; Anderson et al. 1999). Research into participation should also include aspects of turn taking, the initiation of conversation, how individuals interrupt others and if, and how, the interaction intensifies. Littlepage and Silbiger’s (1992) research on participation and turn taking found that interaction is controlled and dominated by a few members of the group. In moderate and larger sized groups it is widely accepted that participation among group members is skewed and unevenly distributed, but this does not necessarily hinder group performance. Although participation is uneven there is some evidence to suggest that group members become more dominant when issues associated with their specialism become more important. Wallace (1987) found that different communication tactics were used to control specialist contributions. His observations of construction design team interaction using a coding system adapted from Bales’ IPA found that group participation is a function of the group characteristics; with participation varying in relation to the way the group develops.
