Power
In every group, there are some who exert more influence than
others This is "power" in the sense that it implies that their views are
considered frequently, and perhaps in more depth than others of lesser influence.
Thus, they have more "power" over any collaborative efforts generated from
the group in terms of content and execution,
and they may enjoy more recognition in the group
Those who post, empower themselves.
Only those who have posted here have influence here.
About control. I don't think I am interested in taking
control
More responses is certainly more
recognition, and could be construed as more power.
The hypothesis that frequent brief posts lead to power in an
email group has been around here for a long time. I suspect there is a fair
amount of truth to it. However, on certain lists (I am thinking of a couple
academic lists in the area of
philosophy and theology) I suspect that posting
a one screen message every day would not lead to power but would lead to
one being seen as the group airhead.
More often than not questioning others 'authority' is a great
way of never having to face taking your own. What I do know is that this
group, or any group for that matter, has no chance at all of realizing its
goals if the defenses against taking ones own authority
as a group member are not resolved.
Continually questioning authority is an acting out of the authority
issue which is a central feature of phase 1 behavior in all group development.
This is not my opinion, this is what happens in all groups in which I participate
and I have been in quite a few
I've never been in a group that didn't first try to kill the
authority
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