UMI/ProQuest URL	http://80-wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/fullcit/9944055
PUBLICATION NUMBER	AAT 9944055
TITLE	Understanding the experience of large group processes: How do people participate collaboratively in creating a vision for their common future?
AUTHOR	Finnerty, Madeline Frances
DEGREE	PhD
SCHOOL	FIELDING GRADUATE INSTITUTE
DATE	1999
PAGES	177
ADVISER	Veroff, Jody
ISBN	0-599-45746-5
SOURCE	DAI-B 60/09, p. 4963, Mar 2000
SUBJECT	PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL (0451); ANTHROPOLOGY, CULTURAL (0326)
ABSTRACT	This study is about the experience of people participating collaboratively in creating a vision for their common future in the context of large group processes. It is based on my personal belief in the potential of people to participate in solving their own issues, and my professional interest in using these approaches to help groups address organizational and societal problems. The study's naturalistic research design involved 18 semi-structured interviews with participants and facilitators from 3 different types of large group event. A public school system and a state government department were the primary research sites, representing a Future Search (Weisbord's model) and an Open Space (Owen's model). Four additional sites involved facilitator interviews only. A provincial department of children's services, a community preservation group, and a corporation involved Search Conferences (Emery's model). A university food service division held a Future Search. Transcribed interviews were coded using NUD*IST software. Data were analyzed using a constant comparative method. The findings from the study presented 2 sets of themes. The first set of themes constitute an image of the large group event as a system. This finding suggests that as systems, each large group event is unique because of its unique initial conditions (history and purpose), inputs (participants and facilitator), throughputs (process), and outputs (outcomes). The second set of themes describe relationships with others (voice, inclusion, connection, validation, emotion), relationships with the environment (space and food), and relationships with time (history and process). Collectively these relationships portray the large group event as a culture (Trompenaars' definition, 1994). This finding suggests that large group events are culture-creating processes and further, that there is a consistent description of this culture from one event, or system, to the next. The research indicates that further understanding of the dynamics of large group participatory processes may be gained from viewing them in the context of systems theory and culture theory, including intercultural communication theory. While the study size limits transferability, the theoretical constructs created by this study have the potential to be useful for analyzing and understanding other large group processes.