AN EXAMINATION OF FUNCTIONAL-ROLE BEHAVIOR AND ITS CONSEQUENCES FOR INDIVIDUALS IN GROUP SETTINGS

Adult members of 68 ongoing small groups evaluated their peers' functi onal role behaviors (i.e., task maintenance, individual) in classroom settings. These three role categories generally emerged from these gro up ratings and were interrelated as predicted. Group members who playe d task roles also tended to play maintenance roles. Individual role be haviors were largely unrelated to task role adoption but were inversel y associated with maintenance role behaviors. Perceptions of group coh esiveness were positively linked with both task and maintenance role a ctivity but were lowest among individual role players. Task roles were seen as valuable and as contributing to the group effort, whereas bot h maintenance and individual roles were viewed neutrally in this regar d. Implications of these results for both researchers and group member s are addressed.