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Authority and Leadership: May 19-21, 2006 Howard University College of Dentistry A Non-residential Group Relations Conference The conference will be held on May 19-21, 2006. All questions concerning registration and participation in the conference are to be directed to: Candice A. Crawford, Administrator
Primary Task The primary task of the Conference is to provide members with opportunities to experience and study the nature of authority and the interpersonal and intergroup problems encountered in its exercise. Framework Diversity is a framework for examining differences. Diversity permeates every aspect of life specifically as it pertains to differences such as color, gender, ethnicity, age, and sexual orientation. Today more people are open about their religious beliefs, culture, society, and heritage from which they are born. This openness has also led to ostracism and alienation from mainstream America. This has revealed the ugliness of insular attitudes and created a backlash against the diversity upon which this country is founded, which has far reaching implications given the global nature of community as experienced in the 21st century. Through our interactions with others we are able to see our differences which provide an opportunity for self reflection. By looking at the “other” one unexpectedly sees echoes of one’s self as well as what one is not and as a result has to address how that “otherness” informs one’s actions and reactions. In these times of increasing political complexity, economic uncertainty and spiritual warfare in a global economy, diverse groups are not immune from problems of authority and authority relations. By attending to concepts such as task, role, authority and boundaries, this conference will provide participants an opportunity to explore the impact of diversity as it intersects with authority and leadership, both experientially and intellectually, within organizations and communities. This Conference is a temporary educational institution whose primary aim is to provide members with the opportunity to develop a deeper awareness and understanding of group and inter-group processes which affect institutional and organizational life. The ability of individuals to work effectively in groups and organizations is influenced by the way in which authority is vested, and how responsibilities for leadership and followership are assumed. The forces which influence this process can best be understood when they are seen in actual operation. Therefore, this Conference offers the opportunity to study what happens in and among groups at the same time it is happening. Consequently, the learning which takes place occurs from the direct experience of the individual. The aim is to bring together experience and thought, emotion and intellect, without neglecting one for the other. Since the exercise of authority is dependent upon the presence of others, the Conference’s focus of study is upon groups rather than individual personalities. Although the individual is important, it is our experience that the complexities of group life are best examined and understood when the attention shifts from the narrower perspectives of the individual to the group as a whole. This broadened perspective, shifting the emphasis from the individual to the group, distinguishes these conferences from sensitivity training or encounter groups. The conference gives special attention to covert as well as overt processes operating in and among groups. A basic underlying assumption is that greater awareness and understanding of these processes may enhance leadership and followership, and lead to more effective participation in organizational life. The conference is open-ended in that that there is no attempt to prescribe what anyone shall learn. The intent, rather, is to provide an institutional structure within which conference participants can experience and examine the many dimensions and aspects of authority in a variety of contexts. Using an open systems approach, participants and staff will have the opportunity to experience and examine aspects of the system as they occur in the “here-and-now.” Participants will have opportunities to:
The hope is that as a result of conference experience and subsequent reflection on this experience, participants will increase their capacity for effective leadership and responsible followership. Conferences of this type have been offered in the United States since 1956. The principles and methods of group relations derive from a tradition of inquiry and educational practice developed at the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in London. In 1970, the A.K. Rice Institute was founded for the purpose of fostering work in the Tavistock tradition. Considerable advances have been made in both the theoretical understanding of group and organizational behavior as well as in the applied techniques of consultation and education. In the United States, the A.K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems (AKRI), together with its regional affiliates, sponsors these conferences and other learning events. The Executive Committee of the Washington-Baltimore Center, an affiliate of AKRI, has authorized this conference.
Plenaries: In the course of the Conference there are three plenary sessions: Conference Opening, Institutional Event and Conference Discussion. The Conference opens in an introductory plenary session, attended by all staff and members. The Conference Discussion provides an opportunity for all members and staff to reflect on the Conference experience together. The plenary sessions are not intended to focus on the “here and now,” rather they provide a space for collective review. The Small Study Group: Each member is assigned to a Small Study Group with one or two staff consultants. The task of the Small Study Group is to study its own behavior as it occurs, with the assistance of the staff consultant(s). This setting provides opportunities for members to explore both the overt and covert factors influencing behavior in small groups and to explore how conference members take up personal, as compared to delegated, authority. The Large Study Group: All members of the Conference will comprise the Large Study Group. The task of the Large Study Group is to study the group’s behavior as it occurs, with the assistance of staff consultants. While the Large Study Group also provides opportunities to explore both the overt and covert factors influencing behavior in groups and how members take up personal authority, it highlights dynamics that may occur in large assemblies or in crowds or mobs, where face-to-face interactions are limited. Institutional Event: The task of the Institutional Event is to study the relationships between and among subgroups as they interact with one another within the Conference institution and to consider the meaning of these relationships and interactions for the institution as a whole. During this event the staff conducts its work in open session as one of the subgroups within the institution. Members have the opportunity to continue their exploration of delegation and authorization, roles and representations, boundaries and their management, and other issues related to the interaction of working subgroups within a larger organization. Role Review and Application Groups: Each member is assigned to a group with the task of reviewing her/his experience of roles taken within the Conference institution. The Role Review and Application Groups are not “here and now” events, but focus on review and integration of experiences in the other events. Consultants will be assigned to each group to facilitate this process. The relationship between roles taken in the Conference and roles in one’s personal and professional life may also be examined. Conference Staff Throughout the conference, the staff has dual roles. As a group, they serve as the management of the Conference and maintain appropriate boundary conditions—time, task and territory—to facilitate the learning of the members. Individually, staff members take up roles as administrators, managers and/or consultants, and work in ways they believe will best support members’ learning. In their role as consultants, staff offer working hypotheses on the basis of their own experience and their observations of the group when they believe that doing so will facilitate the learning of the group. Throughout the events of the Conference, the work of the staff is explicitly available for study.
Director Associate Director Administrator Associate Administrator Consulting Staff Linda S. Geurkink, Ph.D., Psychologist-Psychoanalyst in Private Practice, Washington, DC, Faculty, Washington Psychoanalytic Institute; Clinical Faculty, Psy.D. Program at George Washington University; Associate, the Washington-Baltimore Center for the Study of Group Relations, an affiliate of the A. K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems. Elaine S. Goldberg, Ph.D., ATR-BC, Associate and Vice President, the Washington- Baltimore Center for the Study of Group Relations, an affiliate of the A.K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems; Clinical Psychologist and Board-Certified Art Therapist at Children’s National Medical Center, Rehabilitation Unit for medically ill children and adolescents, Private Practice in Maryland. Betsy A. Hasegawa, Ed.D., Lecturer, Department of Management, College of Business and Economics, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA; Adjunct Faculty, Center for Creative Change, Antioch University Seattle; Organizational Consultant; Associate, the Washington-Baltimore Center for the Study of Group Relations, an affiliate of the A.K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems. Kimberley A. Turner, Ph.D. Kathleen Pogue White, Ph.D. Leadership Development Consultant and Psychoanalyst, Founding Member and Past Director, William Alanson White Institute Organization Program, Fellow, the A.K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems; Member, Group Relations Committee, Tavistock Institute. Nancy M. Adams, Ph.D., Fellow, the A.K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems; Associate, the Washington-Baltimore Center for the Study of Group Relations, an affiliate of the A.K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems. Conference Policies and Application for Membership
Practical Information Directions to Howard University Diversity Conference Local Hotel List Diversity Conference: Hostel Listing
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