cmm

ANALYSIS OF GROUP DYNAMICS:  THE BAND IMPLOSION PROJECT

Assignment:  Bands are quintessential groups that form, storm, norm and perform.  Their life cycles offer keen insight into group development and dynamics.  Bands experience pressures of creativity, competition, family, failure, success, fame, piracy, more.  As a group pick a musical band and analyze the group dynamics of:

Group Size:  influence of size, impact of more, new, less members

Group Synergy:  group greater than sum of parts? Impact of sudden fame, solo gigs

Group Conformity:  did they conform to norms?  Did member go her/his way?

Group Interconnectedness:  actions of one affecting those of others

Group Norms:  what were band rules?  Were they followed/ why/why not?

Group Adaptability to Change:  did group adapt well to changes inside and world

Group Leadership: leadership style, did others go along, struggles

Group Roles:  who did what, changes, why

Group Conflict:  A lot

Group Power:  who had real power, shared, not, changes over time

Group Decision Making and Problem Solving Skills:  Who ruled?  How? Consensus?  How did band resolve problems?

Group Paper should provide the written analysis of band’s implosion.  Appropriate introduction, conclusion, bibliography should accompany the central analytical responses to group dynamics questions outlined above.  Groups can decide if each member will author a specific section and identify it as such or combine research and written expression into one group paper, with individual group members identifying their contribution in their individual member logs.  Clear analytical expression, logical inferences from theory, logical connections to band’s history, relevant bibliographic inclusions, and well organized sections are some of the scoring criteria.