Steiner's Taxonomy of Tasks

In his book Group Processes and Productivity, Ivan Dale Steiner identified a taxonomy of group tasks to be a key source of coordination problems in groups, contributing to process losses within those groups. These tasks are divided into three categories: Component (or divisibility), Focus (quantity or quality), and Interdependence (combinatorial strategies), with an overlap of tasks between categories. The Component category looks at whether or not a group's task has subcomponents that can be clearly identified and individually assigned to specific members of the group. Divisible tasks can be divided into subtasks and individual members can be assigned specific subtasks to be completed in contribution to the greater task. For example, a group of students assigned a test to complete together as a group, can divide the questions among the individual students to be completed based on specific areas of expertise. Unitary tasks cannot be divided into subtasks which require the group to either work together on the one task or have only one individual complete the task with the remainder of the group becoming bystanders. For example, if the test assigned to a group of students to complete together consisted of only one question that could not be broken into smaller questions, the group would be required to work together to discuss and determine the correct answer or one student would answer the question with the others not participating. The Focus category considers whether the focus of the task is on quantity or on quality. Which is more important for the group – how much is produced or how good is the product. A maximizing task is focused on quantity so that the greater quantum produced, the better the outcome. Using the example of a group of students assigned to complete a test together were advised that it was time limited and marks were awarded for partial answers, the group would be focused on providing some portion of an answer to as many questions as possible. An optimizing task is focused on quality, seeking a correct or optimal solution.