COM230

• Condition for determining whether a group meeting should be called

  If there is a clear purpose/goal for the meeting
• Final item in the agenda

  Summarize the action needed following the meeting
• Someone who both actively participates and critically reflects on group interactions

  Participant observer
• Interdependent goal


  An object shared by members of a group in such a way that one member cannot achieve the goal without the other members also achieving it
• Human communication


  A transactional process by which people simultaneously create, interpret, and negotiate shared meaning through their interaction
• Content dimension of communication

  The subject idea, or topic of the message, the "what" of the message
• Relationship dimension of communication


  Reveals how the speaker views their relationship to the other participants, the "how" of the message
• Any message contains both content and relationship dimensions, content is the "what" and relationship is the "how"
• The relationship dimension can get more confusing and get misunderstood more often
• Meaning in communication


  Occurs in people, we assign everything a meaning
• Components of a system

  • Input: energy, information, and raw materials used by an open system, transformed to outputs by the throughput process
  • Output: anything that is produced by a system, a tangible object or a change
  • Environment: context or setting the system exists in; physical, social, culture, competition
  • Throughput process: the actual functioning of a group, how inputs get made into outputs
• What makes something a system

  • A set of relationships among interdependent, interacting components and forces
  • A system is a whole, rather than a collection of individuals
  • All parts affect each other and the whole
  • Whatever happens to a system isn't caused by one thing, but many factors
• Intracultural communication


  Interaction among individuals from the same culture or co-culture
• Ethnocentricity


  The belief that one's own culture is inherently superior to others, and typically sees over cultures through the lens of their own
• Characteristics in which cultures vary

  Collectivism/Individualism

  High Power Distance/Low Power Distance

  High Uncertainty Avoidance/Low Uncertainty Avoidance

  Masculinity/Femininity

  High/Low Context
• Cultural group


  A group defined by a shared set of beliefs, values, norms, practices, traditions, language, and symbols that are passed down from generation to generation within a specific community or society. Cultural groups can be based on various factors such as ethnicity, nationality, religion, language, geographic region, or social practices.
• Emergent group role


  A situation where a member of a group, initially without a designated leadership position, naturally assumes leadership responsibilities based on their competencies, knowledge, and communication skills
• Leadership


  Influence exerted through communication that helps a group achieve goals, it can modify the attitudes and behaviors of others in order to meet group goals and needs
• Designated leader


  Someone appointed or elected to the position as the leader of the group
• Emergent leader


  Someone who emerges as the leader from a previously leaderless group where all members are equals. This happens through 3 stages: 1) members drop from consideration as leader, 2) the members (usually 2) still in consideration are supported by other members, 3) last person is no longer considered and there is a leader. This can shift moving forward though.
• Leadership styles


  • Democratic: egalitarian leader who coordinates and facilitates group discussion, encouraging participation of all members
  • Laissez-Faire: a "do nothing" designated leader who provides minimal services to the group
  • Autocratic: leader who tries to dominate and control a group
• Traits approach to leadership

  Assumes leaders have certain traits that distinguish them from followers or members of a group
• Critical thinking


  The systematic examination of information and ideas on the basis of evidence and logic rather than intuition, hunch, or prejudgment
• Overgeneralization


  An assumption that because something is true about one or a few things, it is true for most or all things
• Conjunctive tasks


  A task where each member has relevant information, but no one member has all the information needed; thus a high level of coordination is needed
• Groupthink


  Tendency of some cohesive groups to fail to subject information, reasoning, and proposals to thorough critical analysis leading to faulty decisions
• Problem solving questions


  • What does this problem question mean to us?
  • What are our charge and area of freedom?
  • What is unsatisfactory at present?
  • Who (or what) is affected?
  • When, where, and how?
  • How serious do we judge the problem to be?
  • How long has the problem existed?
  • Do we need to gather any additional information to assess the nature and extent of the problem adequately?
  • What conditions have contributed to the problem?
  • What appear to be causative conditions?
  • What precipitated the crisis leading to our discussion?
  • What exactly do we hope to accomplish (the goal, desired situation)?
  • What obstacles to achieving the desired goal exist?
  • What information do we need before we can find a satisfactory solution?
  • What additional subquestions must we answer?
  • How might we find answers to these subquestions?
  • What are the answers to these subquestions?
  • How can we summarize our understanding of the problem to include the present and desired situation and causal conditions?
• Criteria in decision making

  Not provided
• Purpose of brainstorming


  To stimulate creative thinking by temporarily suspending evaluation of alternatives
• Rules of brainstorming


  • Encourage wild ideas
  • Stay on topic
  • No criticism
  • Record all ideas
  • Build off of others "piggybacking"
• Role of devil's advocate

  Someone who takes an opposing opinion in order to open up group discussion or get other members to think about something in a different way
• 1. MOPS


  1. Identify problems to work on, focus on the problem, state the problem appropriately, and map the problem

  2. Use brainstorming to discover alternatives

  3. Establish a collaborative climate, establish norms

  4. Suggest ideas for achieving consensus, second guess the choice before committing, use risk procedure

  5. Use pert procedure, keep track of implementing details
• Characteristics of typical small group problems
• Conflict styles


  • Avoidance: passive, ignores conflict
  • Accommodation: appeases and gives in to others
  • Competition: aggressive, forceful, attempts to win and dominate
  • Collaboration: negotiating and problem solving, tries to find a solution that is best for all
  • Compromise: finds a shared outcome, thinks in order to get something, you have to give up something
• Task conflict


  Intrinsic, results from disagreements over ideas, information, reasoning, or evidence
• Relationship conflict


  Extrinsic, interpersonal power clashes over likes, dislikes, or personalities
• Process conflict


  2 forms: logistics (how), and coordination (how much). Resulting from disagreements about how to do something and member contributions to the group
• Conflict


  Expressed struggle that occurs when interdependent parties perceive incompatible goals/ scarce resources and interference with achieving goals. Struggle has to be expressed and acknowledged.
• Nominal group technique


  Procedure that uses methods of brainstorming but being quiet and writing down the ideas, then sharing them after
• Nominal group technique


  Compared to brainstorming, it is similar in using brainstorming methods but done quietly and individually first