Social Work Case Study: Tao Chen

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1. I surveyed two people. One of them is my friend named Tao Chen who is a member in the university’s drama club and the other is my uncle who is the manager of the financial department of a company. There are some differences between their groups. The drama club is more of a social group than a secondary group. It is formed for people who love drama and acting to enjoy the activities. The financial department is a secondary group that is formed to accomplish a specific task or goal and it is formed to deal with financial issues in the company. For example, the drama club is relatively informal compared to the financial department. There are more and stricter norms in the financial department than in the dram club. For example, Tao said that …show more content…
There was a time when a girl was late without an acceptable reason. Her lateness negatively affected the process of the meeting and other members were a little angry at the girl. My uncle said that employees were expected to wear formal clothes in the department and he said that he had never seen an employment wearing casual clothes, such as jeans and slippers. The norm was followed successfully.

3. Power and status play an important role in the enforcement of group norms. As for Tao Chen, he was only an ordinary member in the drama club without any power and his status in the club was low. When he saw someone violated the norm, he said nothing if it had nothing to do with him. If the violation negatively affected him, he might tell the person or expressed his dissatisfaction with facial expressions. Tao said that this kind of enforcement was not that effective because the violator did not receive any real punishment.
When it comes to my uncle, the enforcement of group norms was more effective. He is the manager and his status in the department is higher than any other members. In addition, he has more power. As he is the manager, he has the legitimate power. He also has the reward power and coercive power to praise or publish other group members. For example, he said that he could exert severe comments or even expulsion to enforce the group
…show more content…
At first, group members are unfamiliar with one another and do not know the group’s tasks, practices, or goals exactly. Therefore, they have no idea about how and what the group should do and they seldom share their own opinions with others. They seldom express their disagreement for the lack of insecurity. For example, if you do not know how deep the river is, you do not dare to jump in. In the second phase of group development, they are familiar with the situation and feel more comfortable and secure in the group. Then they begin to express their own opinions. In addition, they have been working for a period and have a better understanding of the group. They begin to develop reasonable and practical opinions about the group’s performance. When more people express their opinions, there are more disagreements and more conflict

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