That is, every group establishes a mood or setting for its work that can be experienced or felt by the people involved. Within every group, there is also a set of relationships between the group members. These relationships may relate to past experiences that group members have had with each other, or may concern definitions of complementary roles they should play with each other after introductions have been made. Finally, every group has a communications system. The communications system used by the group can be either effective or ineffective.
Some groups always seem to be playing.
A lighthearted bull-session might be described as a group with a dominant play atmosphere. In these situations, there is an unspoken agreement among group members to avoid task accomplishment. When a group devotes itself to its tasks, the group atmosphere is one of work. During productive work times in a group, individual defenses such as arguing, withdrawing, trying to dominate others, over-harmonizing, etc. are usually exchanged for cooperative team spirit. Another type of group atmosphere or climate is conflict.