GROUP DYNAMICS AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY

Organizational effectiveness may be either enhanced or inhibited through the actions of internal groups (Bettenhausen, 1991). An understanding of group processes, thus, is essential for organizational managers. Increasing cultural pluralism emphasizes the need to both understand and manage group processes in contemporary organizations (Bernal, 1993). The delegation of autonomy to groups within nursing practice empowers nurses within groups to develop the strategies that effectively integrate pluralistic perspectives (Laschinger & Shamian, 1994). The integration of culturally differing perspectives within organizations is accomplished through the process of group dynamics (Smith & Comer, 1994). Group dynamics is a field of study that explains how individuals interact and build unity.

Groups are collections of individuals that are attracted to one another and who are held together by a variety of social forces (Bettenhausen, 1991). The purpose of a group is to provide individual members with a means of pursuing common goals. The essential characteristics of a group "play a critical role is shaping member behavior and attitudes" (p. 348). The group structure provides a sense of purpose for group members.

An important component of a group's environment is the size of the group (Bettenhausen, 1991). As groups increase in size, group members are more likely to be dissatisfied, and group organi

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petrator is integral to the human condition, then efforts to understand and rise above those roles is integral to improving oneself as well as the human condition. Acceptance of the proposition that people are both targets and perpetrators of discrimination and prejudice leads to a dispersal of blame (Schwartz & Sullivan, 1993). Such dispersal of blame, however, must not be allowed to permit overt discriminatory behavior go uninterrupted. A failure to interrupt overt discriminatory behavior tends to undermine awareness building and the entire process of managing diversity. One way to promote healthier interactions among people who differ from one another is to have one or preferably more people in any given group act appropriately toward members of other groups, that is, on the basis of intelligence and human concern, not on the basis of the misinformation and conditioning that characterize intergroup pathology (Schwartz & Sullivan, 1993). Such appropriate behavior over time tends to cause others to behave in a similar manner. Interactions among people who might otherwise mistreat one another can be made more healthy when one person--and preferably more than one--sets the stage for appropriate behavior. The challenge for
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Approximate Word count = 7713
Approximate Pages = 31 (250 words per page)