Groups & Teams Overview
Given the complexity of group interaction, trying to understand group communication without looking at types of power is short-sighted. Power influences how we interpret the messages of others and determines the extent to which we feel we have the right to speak up and voice our concerns and opinions to others. Power and status are critical ways that people exercise influence within groups. In the storming phase of group development, members are likely to engage in more obvious power struggles. Still, power is constantly at work in our interactions within and outside our group, whether we are fully conscious. In this chapter, we will define power and discuss its relationship to systems of privilege, oppression, and status within groups. We will also discuss the bases and tactics of power that can operate in groups and teams and the ethical use of power.
Defining Power
Take a moment to reflect on the different ways you think about power. What images come to mind for you when you think of power? Are there different kinds of power? Are some people inherently more powerful than others? We will highlight three ways to understand power related to group and team communication. The word “power” literally means “to be able” and has many implications.
If you associate power with control or dominance, this refers to power as Power Over. According to Starhawk (1987), “Power-over enables one individual or group to make the decisions that affect others and to enforce control” (p. 9). Control can and does take many forms in society. Starhawk explains that,
This power is wielded in the workplace, in the schools, in the courts, and the doctor’s office. It may rule with physical weapons or by controlling the resources we need to live: money, food, medical care, or by controlling more subtle resources: information, approval, and love. We are so accustomed to power-over, so steeped in its language and implicit threats, that we often become aware of its functioning only when we see its extreme manifestations. (p. 9)
This is a power-over when we are in group situations and someone dominates the conversation, makes all of the decisions, or controls the group’s resources, such as money or equipment.
The Power within refers to a more personal sense of strength or agency. Power from within manifests itself when we can stand, walk, and speak “words that convey our needs and thoughts” (Starhawk, 1987, p. 10). In groups, this type of power “arises from our sense of connection, our bonding with other human beings, and with the environment” (10). As Heider explains in The Tao of Leadership, “Since all creation is a whole, separateness is an illusion. Like it or not, we are team players. Power comes through cooperation, independence through service, and a greater self through selflessness” (77). If you think about your role in groups, how have you influenced other group members? Your strategies indicate your sense of power from within.
Finally, groups ma