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Norms, Values and Group Structure

             For a group to function effectively, the norms and values along which lines the group is going to function need to be clearly established and clarified to all concerned. These help to determine the status, roles and responsibilities of the members, in order for them to work together as a unit to achieve their goal.
             2. DEFINING VALUES.
             A value is a concept of what is acceptable in terms of behaviour. It is a general principle indicating the general lines of acceptable behaviour. In applying these values, a person or group will develop norms and norms, in turn are judged according to the group's (or member's) internal value system.
             3. DEFINING NORMS.
             When they enter groups, people manifest behaviours that express anxious or uncertain feelings and thoughts about who they are in relation to others, who the others are in relation to themselves, and who the others are in relation to each other.
             This confusion is made worse in the absence of a code of conduct, or rules of behaviour. Suddenly, out-of-group behaviour is inapplicable and questions arise: "What may others do to me here?"; "What may others do to each other here?"; "What may I do to others here?" ; "What are the rules of the game?".
             As the group functions over time and members come to behave in ways that prove acceptable or unacceptable to individual group members, group agreement is shaped. The initial anxious thoughts and feelings are supplanted by firm, accepted ideas about personal security, safety and membership status. Members come to feel comfortable in the group. This process of reaching behaviour in the group is called norming, and constitutes the structure stage of group development. .
             Forsythe defines norms as "implicit standards that describe what behaviours should and should not be performed in a given context; consensual guidelines that prescribe the socially appropriate, or "normal", course of action" (D.R. Forsyth. Group Dynamics.

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