Spoke - roles and responsibilities

Individuals can take on a variety of roles and responsibilities when they work within a group. By engaging in this process individuals demonstrate leadership and they show their commitment to the group by contributing to the group’s functioning. There are many roles and responsibilities that individuals can undertake within a group that direct the group to achieve its task (task roles) or that foster the relationships within the group (maintenance roles).

Individual group members can undertake a variety of task roles including giving and seeking information or opinions, asking for clarification, coordinating ideas, summarising and diagnosing. They can adopt maintenance roles by providing support and encouragement or ensure that all voices in the group have an opportunity to be heard.

Effective groups distribute roles and responsibilities to all group members, they demonstrate appropriate task and maintenance roles and they value and acknowledge individual contribution. These actions encourage shared leadership, support the group to achieve its goals and foster the development of trust through building positive relationships within the group.

The wheel model helps us visualise the impact of a faulty spokes/roles and responsibilities on wheel function/group effectiveness. The wheel model helps us visualise the impact of a faulty spokes/planning on wheel function/group effectiveness. A wheel with short spokes does not travel as far per revolution as a wheel with long spokes.