Authority Relations in Group Relations Conferences and in “Real Life”: Group Relations Conferences—Danish Design I1

This paper discusses the authority relations of group relations conferences. The authors have worked with group relations conferences (GRC) in different contexts for many years—mainly as a part of educational programmes for managers and consultants (OPU at IGA Copenhagen, MPO at Roskilde University, and NAPSO2). Seen from the horizon of their experience some of the basic concepts in the theories about GRC need clarifying, revision, and development. The GRC is a part of the learning from experience movement and as a consequence it stresses the underlying basis: learning is personal so everyone decides for themselves what makes sense and what does not. This principle sometimes works as a defence against a closer examination of the two questions: do GRCs provide relevant experiences to learn from, and what is it you learn or can expect to learn at a GRC. Here we will take a look at the authority relations that the participants at the GRCs can experience. A set of definitions of the concepts authority, power, leadership, and of the relations between them, as they are understood in the GRC field, will be provided. Some of the unclear aspects of the concepts will be worked with. Finally, the paper goes through the authority relations in a typical conference and compares these with “real life” organisations.