The Group’s Cadre Functions

October 26th, 2007 Posted in Group, Cadre, Cadre Functions

Take soldiers marching. Their movements precisely synchronized to match. There are a limited number of established actions (left turn, about face, etc.). The sequencing of these is not fixed. So signals are needed to identify and coordinate what is to happen next. In the military these are given by the commanding officer present or by his surrogate.

Take a chorus-line of dancers. Their movements are also matched but without concurrent external command. By plan and practice they follow a fixed routine. Shifts are coordinated by the tempo and the sequence of the accompanying music.

So we have the individual acts of the members and the social pattern that emerges from their unity.

With professional sports the moves are more complex. Following the rules the players perform different acts at the same time. In baseball some throw the ball, some bat. Some chase the ball, some run the bases. In football some kick the ball, others block and tackle. It takes a trained eye to see but the pattern can be picked out in verbal description and in summary statistics.

In the general case there are the actions of the members of a group that together in their variety produce an effect.

Up until now I have been suggesting that this process is controlled in large part by cultural means, a shared set of rules and values. It is as though we identify our situation by determining the game and our appropriate group identification and then call up from memory the correct set of rules and then by following them we each do our bit. Every spear carrier on stage is part of the opera. All of us mobilized join the action and churn out the required effect.

Take, for example, a city bus traveling a fixed series of stops and consider all the rules and requirements a passenger must follow when he joins in making the pattern of the trip.

But sometimes traditional rules are not enough. A certain amount of planning, decision, instruction, co-ordination, evaluation is needed to get an effect. When we all grab the pulley rope to lift a weight someone has to chant our time with a syncopated “heave ho.”

These meta-acts are governing qualities that I propose we call cadre functions–the work of the cadre. A not necessarily established post. Who is doing what, when, where, and why (the essential elements of a journalist’s story) is, and should always be treated as, an open question.

So far we have been in familiar territory. It is as though we have entered a complex cavern and have wended our way to a rarely visited chamber. We know where we are because we know where we have been. Any confusion will be in the subject and not in us. So now I can welcome you to consider the issue of the group and its cadres. Focus flashlights and…

To be continued tomorrow.