In our last post (just re-posted to deal with typos) we thought about the three sub-divisions of the Primary Task and their meaning and importance in terms of exploring how teams work together and....sometimes don't.
Let's think say of a Prison Service:
The Normative Primary Task - as defined by the managers/stakeholders might be 'detaining x number of prisoners and ensuring the safety of society from them now or in the future and only releasing them when the courts so decide'.
The Existential Primary Task for some staff-members might be:
Locking people up and making sure they cause the least trouble until they are released.....or.......
Rehabilitating prisoners so that when they are released they lead productive happier lives and are not re-imprisoned.
Now, if this usually unspoken difference is not understood then those factions will be in conflict, overt and/or covert and the overall work will be undermined as each 'faction' works to undermine the other in what has sometimes been called the Anti-Task.
Finally we have the Phenomenal Primary Task which is what an outsider will actually see - perhaps an overcrowded prison with staff openly at loggerheads with each other and/or leaving the service, being on long-term sick, being disciplined etc etc.
An outside, or less likely, an inside consultant may, by using this model makes these stressors explicit, detoxifies and help to remedy them.
Again, what is the Primary Task of a primary or secondary school? To teach and examine children subjects as laid down by higher authorities, Government etc and for the school to rate highly and attract more funding........or......to raise caring, compassionate citizens who will be able to function in any capacity in an equal and diverse world?
'A functioning group (or organisation) must seek to know its Primary Task, both by definition and feasibility: Failure in these matters leads inevitably to the dismemberment of the group.....or to the emergence of some other Primary Task unrelated to the one for which it was originally called into being' (Turquet 1974).
Problems can arise for instance when there is:
Vague Task Definition
Methods are defined rather than aims
Conflict is avoided over priorities
There is failure to relate to a changing environment
Comentários