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External forces affect all group activities; no group exists in a social vacuum. Such forces as community values, community expectations, institutional values, parent group affiliations and control, inter-group competition, and prestige and status affect every group – its member motivations, goals and means, and ongoing activities. These external forces are reflected largely through the beliefs, feelings, and actions of the members. Examples of how external forces directly affect the actions of individuals have already been given. This chapter will treat briefly those broader external dynamics that affect the group as a whole.

Communities are made up of people interacting as individuals and within groups to carry out the activities considered necessary to satisfy their needs. The community develops expectations of various groups, though these expectancies may vary widely from group to group. Certain groups, with certain kinds of members, are expected to perform specific functions for specific categories of people. The freedom with which any group in a community carries on its activities and functions is related to the total community definition of the function and role of that group.

The expectations of a given group may be based upon such things as tradition, past performance, the social status of the membership and leadership, the group’s publicly stated purposes, and the public image of the organization and its organizational affiliation. These forces become effective as they are reflected by individual members or by the members communicating and interacting with each other and making decisions.

However, forces may originate from individuals who are not members of the group, from other groups in the community, or from institutions within the community, such as church, school, or business. Or they may come from other groups with which the local groups are affiliated – such as local Red Cross affiliation with National Red Cross organization. Also forces arise from the more abstract American value system, related to the expectancies of various kinds of groups and group activities.

These external forces may be judged “restrictive” by the group. They may feel certain desired goals and means cannot be adopted by them. On the other hand, the group may judge these external forces as “expansive” in the sense that the group feels the pressure to accept some new and perhaps broader concept of its goals and means. In either case, external forces will affect group functioning.