Chapter 9

Group Relationships

Group Relationships

• Traditional Perspective

• Interpretive Perspective

• Critical Perspective

Traditional Perspective

• Communication Skills: Communication Competence in Groups

• Groups as Organizational Subsystems• Group Decision-Making and Problem Solving• Roles and Role Categories in Groups

Communication Skills: Communication Competence

in GroupsComponents of Communication Competence

[Model 1]

• Appropriate Communication Behavior– Does not violate a relational or situational rule

• Effective Communication Behavior– Accomplish goals through communication

Communication Skills: Communication Competence

in GroupsComponents of Communication Competence

[Model 2]• Knowledge

– Knowing what behavior suits a situation

• Skill– Having the ability to perform the behavior

• Motivation– The desire to communicate in a competent

manner [Spitzberg & Cupach, 1984]

Groups as Organizational Subsystems

• Quality Circles

• Focus Groups

• Task Forces

Quality Circles• A group of employees who meet regularly to improve

work productivity and work quality as well as solving any other relevant work-related problems.

• Based on the ideas of W. Edwards Deming, an advocate of managing people and processes to maximize the quality of the final product produced by an organization.

• Comprised of workers from the same work area who volunteer to meet regularly to solve problems related to their jobs.

• Recommended size is 5-15 members.

Focus Groups• Purpose: gather information about a topic so management

can gain a better understanding of how people view it

• Relatively unstructured conversations since the group is encouraged to discuss the issue or problem in any way they choose

• Role of the focus group facilitator is to introduce the topic and give no further direction although he or she may ask questions of a general, follow-up, or probing nature

• Discussions often reveal the participants' interests and values concerning the topic and provide insight into what the participants perceive to be the important issues regarding the problem it is facing

Focus Groups• Issues or problems that would prompt an

organization to turn to focus groups:

– The advertising industry seeks input into consumer opinions about products or services

– A public relations department of an oil company needs to determine how to address the public following an oil spill

– A human resources department wants to understand problems of sexual harassment within an organization

Task Force• A committee authorized by management to study

a specific subject or problem for a specified period of time

• End product: a formal report of findings or recommended solutions

• Example: Study evaluations of several plans that consider different sites for a new factory

• Report is usually delivered in writing and orally to the person or department who called for the special committee. Then the task force disbands.

Group Decision-Making and Problem-Solving

Group Decision Modes

• Lack of response• Authority rule• Minority coalition• Majority rule• Consensus• Unanimity

Group Versus Individual Decisions

Synergy

The ability of people working together to produce a result that is greater than the sum of their individual capabilities

Group Versus Individual Decisions

When do Groups Outperform Individuals?• The task requires a wide range and variety of

information and skills • When neither the group nor the individual compared

possess expertise on the task • When the task is particularly complex even when

both the group and the individual compared have expertise

• When comparing a group of non-experts to an individual with special expertise, the group may sometimes produce a superior decision

Group Versus Individual Decisions

When do Individuals outperform Groups?• Uninformed group members will not usually

outperform a person with special expertise in the problem being confronted

• When groups establish norms of mediocrity• When groups become too large (>10), individuals

may outperform groups [task coordination and efficiency problems and social loafing]

• When the task is a simple one groups do not produce superior decisions to individuals. When time is a critical factor [crisis situations]

Group Decision-Making Effectiveness

Group decisions depends on the group's vigilance in interaction concerning four questions:

• Problem analysis: Is there something about the current state of affairs that requires change?

• Objectives: What do we want to achieve or accomplish in deciding what to do about the problem?

• Choices: What are the choices available to us?• Evaluation: What are the positive and negative

aspects of those choices? (Hirokawa & Rost, 1992)

Group Decision-Making Effectiveness

Conditions that promote team effectiveness:• Motivated team members• Adequate time and informational resources

for the task• Competent leadership• Direct organizational assistance (e.g.,

training) [Hirokawa & Keyton, 1995]

Group Decision Development

Logical/Unitary Sequence Model• Orientation

• Conflict

• Emergence• Reinforcement

Fisher (1970)

Group Decision Development

• Groups may follow any one of several possible sequences (e.g., consider solutions first)

• Groups in different situations act in different ways

• Even when group decision-making fits a phase model, the specific types and cycles of interaction within any given phase differ substantially from group to group (Poole, 1983)

Roles and Role Categories in Groups

• Perceived role: the set of behaviors that the occupant of the position believes he or she should perform

• Expected role: the set of behaviors that others believe he or she should perform

• Enacted role: the actual set of performed behaviors [Wofford, Gerloff & Cummins, 1979]

Roles and Role Categories in Groups

• Task Roles

• Maintenance Roles

• Self-Centered Roles

Task Roles

• Initiator: defines problem, contributes ideas and suggestions, proposes solutions or decisions, offers new ideas.

• Information seeker: asks for clarification, promotes participation by others, solicits facts and evidence.

• Energizer: prods members into action.• Orienter: keeps group on track, guides discussion.• Secretary: keeps track of group progress,

remembers past actions.

Maintenance Roles

• Encourager: provides support, praise, acceptance for others.

• Harmonizer: resolves conflict, reduces tension.

• Comedian: provides humor, relaxes others.

• Gatekeeper: controls communication channels, promotes evenness of participation.

• Follower: accepts others' ideas, goes along with others.

Self-Centered Roles• Blocker: interferes with progress of group by

consistently making negative responses to others• Aggressor: attacks other members in an effort to

promote his or her own status• Dominator: monopolizes group time with long, drawn-

out monologues• Deserter: withdraws from group discussion by

refusing to participate, engages in irrelevant conversations

• Special-interest pleader: brings irrelevant information into discussion, argues incessantly for his or her own point of view

Interpretive Perspective

• Bona Fide Group Perspective

• Norms and Conformity

• Values and Sense-Making

• Decision-Making and Culture

Bona Fide Group Perspective

Two Central Parts of the Group Experience:• Stable yet permeable group boundaries

– A group cannot exist without defined boundaries– Group boundaries are also dynamic and fluid (e.g.,

multiple group memberships, members leave and join the group)

• Interdependence with their relative contexts– Reciprocal relationship between the group and the

environments within which it is embedded (e.g., historical, economic, cultural contexts)

Norms and Conformity

• Norm: a standard of behavioral expectations shared by group members against which the validity of perceptions is judged and the appropriateness of feelings and behavior is evaluated [Secord & Backman, 1964]

• Norms may be developed within the group or imported (brought in) from the larger system of which the group is a part

Norms and Conformity

• Norms may be explicitly stated or implicitly understood.

• Explicit normative standards could include policies, written rules, and verbally communicated procedures and standards.

• Implicit norms and other rules are not explicitly articulated, but the individual group member can observe and learn about their functions.

Stages of Pressure to Produce Conformity to Norms

• Delay action toward the deviant, allowing for self-correction.

• Joke humorously with the deviant about the violation.

• Ridicule and deride the violation.• Seriously try to persuade the deviant to

conform.• Engage in heated argument with the deviant.• Reject or isolate the deviant.

Why are Norms Essential to Group Action?

• They help to reduce uncertainty– When we understand the norms and rules in a

situation, we can have more confidence about the appropriateness of our own actions and in our expectations of others.

• Some predictability is required for joint action and cooperation– In order to collaborate at all, we must have some

shared expectations for one another's behavior.

Negative Impact of Norms

• Norms can hamper group creativity and protect inefficient and archaic practices (e.g., changes in policy can only occur if there is consensus support for the change).

• Norms also enforce inequities within and between groups. They can be used as instruments of repression that primarily serve the interests of a privileged few (e.g., only upper level managers may take advantage of the flexible work hours policy).

Values and Sense-Making

• Work group relationships provide the primary context from which individual values and attitudes toward work and the organization are derived

• One important function of group communication: provide the basic frames of reference from which individual members understand, enact, and justify the organization and its mission

• The group, as "the unit of social life”, provides the basic "petri dish" for culturing the negotiated order of meanings and values

Decision-Making and Culture

• Individualistic Cultures

• Collectivistic Cultures

Individualistic Cultures• Decisions are made quickly• Reliance on centralized authority• Implementation is slow and uncertain• People look after themselves and those to

whom they are most closely connected• Opposition and misunderstanding surface

after decision is announced

Collectivistic Cultures

• Bottom-up consensus decision-making• Slow and cumbersome decision process• Decisions implemented effectively because

support is developed among all participants during the decision process

• Members belong to in-groups which look after them in exchange for loyalty

• In-group relationships are more intimate than in individualistic cultures

Critical Perspective

Giddens’ Structuration Theory• Social structure is a product of human action• Social structures both enable humans to act

and constrain their subsequent actions• Human action creates social structures by

producing and reproducing them (the duality of structure)

• Far End Design example from Chapter 2