Edward B. Klein

The waiting-list group.

This report describes a pilot study of a waiting-list group (preliminary process group [PPG]) that provided treatment for applicants to a university affiliated, urban mental health center. All individuals on the treatment waiting list were informed of the PPG. This semistructured group, meeting weekly, began with members presenting their problems, followed by free discussion, and ending with goal setting for the next week. Approximately one seventh (35 out of 262) of the clinics applicants during a 4 1/2-month period chose to enter the PPG. They differed from those who chose not to participate (wait list) by being older and less educated. Approximately 80% of both wait-list and PPG participants subsequently entered therapy. Significantly more PPG patients than those on the wait list entered group treatment. The PPG served clinic needs by providing prompt service for self selected individuals and by supporting the group therapy program.

Leadership education: the impact of managerial level and gender on learning

Examines the impact of level and gender on the learning of participants who attended a one‐ week leadership education programme. A total of 550 executives and managers from major private and public sector organizations participated in 14 residential seminars. Three‐month follow‐up questionnaire data were collected from 65 per cent of attendees. As predicted, significantly more learning was reported by executives than managers and by women executives than women managers. Uses a combination of social system and role theories to provide an understanding of the obtained level and gender findings. Offers implications for training and practice including the need for institutionally‐sponsored mentoring programmes linked with gender‐sensitive leadership training.

The effect of social systems on group relations training

SummaryTwo Tavistock group relations conferences were held for mental health professionals in different social systems: a university and a medical school. Three-month follow-up studies were conducted. When compared with those attending the medical school conference, members of the university conference reported that they participated more in the application group and conference discussion, learned more in the intergroup event and about how the group effects task performance, that the emotional impact of the conference was greater, and were more likely to recommend the training to a friend. A social systems analysis of the conferences is offered as a way of accounting for these results. The conferences differed with regard to: 1. sponsorship, legitimacy and support of training activities; 2. heterogeneity of learning opportunities, an indication of systems openness and 3. authority and sentient linkages between members and staff. The more positive responses of the university participants probably had to do with multiple departmental sponsors, a heterogeneous environment, and outside authority and sentient ties. The less positive responses of the medical school members most likely were due to sponsorship by only one discipline, low systems openness, and a lack of sentient and authority linkages between members and staff.

Large groups in treatment and training settings

A review of published work over the past decade and a half supports the effectiveness of the large group in clinical settings. Greater sophistication among practitioners has led to combining administrative, psychotherapeutic, and sociotherapeutic large groups and to the use of effective treatment teams and clearly defined contracts in inpatient hospital work. Some research findings suggest that large treatment groups are as effective as small therapy groups with some patient populations. There appears to be a movement toward convergence in the techniques employed by individual, small group, and large group therapists in practice, while not in theory. This positive trend in the mental health field may lead to more flexible practitioners.

Group work: 1985 and 2001

Abstract Currently, trainers focus on individual, interpersonal, and group levels. Global interdependence and turbulence demand powerful sponsors and intergroup and system skills to manage future social change.

Dimensions of experiential learning at group relations conferences

SummaryFour hundred and seventy-seven professionals attended thirteen group relations conferences. Conferences varied across three dimensions:context, including sponsorship and history;design, involving duration, intensity (residential setting) and complexity; andlinkages, the social and authority ties between members and staff. Three month follow-up questionnaires were collected from sixty percent of participants. Significantly more self-assessed learning was reported by those who attended the residential than the non-residential conferences. The results, from a large diversified sample, suggest that acombination of training in a residential setting, strong institutional sponsorship and pre-existing authority and social linkages between members and staff resulted in the most reported learning. Group relations conferences provide unique learning opportunities for mental health professionals, (Correa et al. 1981) and have been increasingly used in the United States and Europe during the last twenty years. Despite this, there is little research evaluating the outcomes of such training in terms of member learning or the differential effectiveness of the alternative forms of conferences currently available. Conferences vary along three major dimensions: a)context, including the institutional sponsorship as well as the history of previous conferences held at the same site, b)design, including the duration, intensity and number of events which make up the conference, and c)linkages, the social and authority relations among members and staff. A review of the first decade of group relations work in the United States concluded that the characteristics of a conference, including the setting have an important impact on member learning, (Klein 1978). Since this review, there have been few studies that address the relationship between conference characteristics and outcomes. Using a large sample of conferences which were held in six different geographic regions of the United States, the present study investigates the relationship between outcomes in terms of self-reported member learning and the context, design and linkage dimensions of the conferences.

A systems analysis of a failure to test the effectiveness of waiting-list group therapy.

Abstract This nonexperimental effectiveness study attempted to evaluate the utility of a brief waiting-list group. The setting was a university clinic providing treatment for an inner-city population. Health delivery and staff dynamics made it difficult to conduct clinical research in this treatment-oriented setting. The nonrandom design allowed for patient choice, with few clients attending more than two group sessions, thus decreasing its impact. Managed-care pressures decreased staff cooperation with our research objectives, resulting in very low return rates in testing and follow-up data. A social systems analysis, highlighting staff and institutional ambivalence, is used to understand the failure to adequately test the effectiveness of waiting-list group therapy. Recommendations are offered to investigators who contemplate conducting clinical research with limited resources.