Customer Reviews

Joining Together: Group Theory and Group Skills (9th Edition)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Unlike some of the reviewers here who are rating a much earlier edition rather than the tenth edition), the text is quite useful and one of the more complete texts on group and team theory and and practice. If one were to want to find more in-depth information on specific theory and research, then he or she should seek out peer reviewed journals rather than an all-encompassing textbook that is designed as an introduction to group theory, which this is, albeit way overpriced...but aren't all textbooks?

The unfortunate thing for online students is that there are dozens of face-to-face scenario and role acting lessons that would be invaluable if they could be applied; however, online students are faced with posting and dialogue with other students who can barely write, command little of English grammar, and are only looking to do the minimum, check the box, and move on. Contrary to one reviewer, these are indeed place strategically throughout the text where the role-playing either leads you into the following text, or reinforces previous text by example.

Thin pages, thick book, and high price, but still an excellent reference for understanding and applying group and team theory.

One more thing: if you buy this book on Amazon, you pay 50% of what colleges charge, and most online colleges now have this in e-book form, which is almost as much as the Amazon price.

This book was required for an online graduate course in group dynamics. While the information is good, the layout of the material makes reading the book difficult. To their credit, the authors included lots of good group activities and assessments. However, these activities appear haphazardly in the middle of the chapters breaking up content and making it difficult to read. You have to flip several pages to get to the next section in a chapter. Plus, since this course was taken online, I never used any of the activities in class discussions/activities as the book was most likely designed to be used.

Although I teach communication studies, I find this book's interdisciplinary approach is better than any other group text I know. I've used the book with student success. The solid research base is excellent, and there is quality skill instruction. I highly recommend this college textbook.

This book was way overpriced. Most of us learned group dynamics in grade school playing on team sports. The observations were good in the book but seriously the authors must think everyone waited until college to learn this stuff. The truth is that the basics of group dynamics are learned at a very young age. The saving grace is that if you are a team player you take something good away even from a bad or poorly written book. If i ever need to cite some of these researchers i can do that. So in that regard i kept this book. I would like to have seen more practical examples in the book relating to government and everyday American life. How about something on college and Professional sports teams?

This book did not match the ISBN that I thought I ordered. I had to reorder the correct book. This book was is good shape as advertised and was received in a timely fashion.

A very good and practical text book for students who are required to take this business course. The book lives up to its intentions-- and that is to teach about group theory and group skills.

This is a very good book. The copy I received was an instructor's copy, which is not what I had ordered. That is not a big problem. The yucky problem is that some of the pages are sticky, and sometimes attached to one another as if the book had been dipped in watered down glue. Luckily, the pages do separate relatively easily without tearing. A bit gross not knowing what it is that this book was exposed to...

The book I ordered was received in a very timely manner - which was appreciated. I would order from this buyer again

I read this book as an assignment in a university sociology course. It is a great resouce to have on hand if you work with teams or are intersted in organizational/group behavior. Some of the activities have been used in my "Effective Social Relations" class and we found them not only fun, but educational. I have not read the 1999 edition, but am hoping to get it for a graduation present this April!

This book should fulfill an important function. Groups are ubiquitous and vital for the functioning of organizations in our society. Who can readily say that they do not interact with a group in order to solve a problem or make a decision in any work setting today? A text that provides a guide to help such groups operate should be a winner. This book used to be such. This edition falls short.

Groups are part of everything that we do. We need a guide to help members of groups contribute to and leaders to facilitate that operation. We have been in groups virtually all of our lives and are, to some degree, experts in groups. But groups do not always work. A reviewer of a previous edition complained that this book added nothing very much to what a person had already learned in sports teams and school groups. But to me, this missed the point. We may have learned some rules and skills in our previous interactions. But those skills and rules may well have been wrong, and possibly dangerous. A review of historical decision making and a study of the literature on the psychology of groups demonstrates the ways in which groups lead members to identify with evil leaders, proceed to bad solutions and adopt processes which lead a group to self destruct. A primer such as this should help teachers and facilitators unlearn some rules and learn new ones. But his is no longer a primer. It is a text.

And as a text is falls down. In earlier editions it was brief and succinct. In this, it has become longer and fatter. As the literature on groups processes and group dynamics has grown, so has this book. But the point of a text, as a guide and a primer, is to continue to select out, to filter out the irrelevance and to present the essentials. This book seems simply to have added material where there is new literature. It has grown but has not been edited. Where it has grown, it has added material that has not reflected the social psychological literature in the world other than the United States of America. Countless references to material from Europe, central to arguments presented in the book, are simply ignored.

This is sad. The authors could have done so much by acknowledging the contribution of modern contributions from outside of the United States. They could also have done so much for the field, and for themselves, by taking a red pencil and edit as much as 50% of the text. Then there would have been a contribution to the literature, and more importantly, to the application of the facilitation of group process to the operation of systems in society.

Perhaps the 10th Edition is one too far.