What leads to successful and lasting performance careers for music group members? Why did the Beatles break up at the height of their career after less than ten years together, while the internationally known Guarneri String Quartet performed together successfully for over 42 years?? How important, even critical, is teamwork for any music group’s success? When do the individual’s professional and personal needs conflict with group success? When is conflict helpful to a group’s performance and when is it not? Did you know that the rock group Metallica, just as many work organizations do, hired a professional consultant to help them solve interpersonal conflicts within their performance “work” group? In this seminar we will study group process theories, constructs, and research from social and organizational psychology to examine how social and organizational psychology might help explain the success or failure of specific music-related groups including rock groups, string quartets, choruses, orchestras, ballet companies, and opera companies. Among the topics covered will be human control issues and how they affect group performance, individual and group emotional intelligence, and productive and unproductive conflict in groups.

Note: No class will be held on Veterans' Day, Monday, November 11. The seminar will resume on November 18 and continue through December 2.