Authority Themes and Worker-Group Transactions: Additional Dimensions to the Stages of Group Development

This paper develops an additional dimension for the Boston University model of the stages of group development. In utilizing the Bennis model of T-group development, it integrates the authority theme into the Boston model. Summaries of the Boston model and the Bennis model are presented. Stage related themes which characterize worker-group transactions are created to enable integration of the authority issue. The following aspects of the worker role are addressed within the framework of these themes: (1) the reaction of the group to the worker, (2) the worker's role responses to these reactions, and (3) the worker's practice issues in the transaction.