Com 315 week 2

• Welcome to week 2

• Hello class!!! How is everyone this evening??

• Any questions so far??

• Ok let’s start off with stating something positive that happened to you this week.

Com 315 project

• Let’s review next weeks,• Unit 3 project.•  • During this week, watch a televised panel discussion OR a live

discussion. Select a discussion that deals with serious issues, one that could include conflicting positions and ethical questions. Some of the political/current affairs panels on television give outstanding examples of both poor ethical processes as well as good and poor examination of ethical issues. "Meet the Press", "Crossfire", "Washington Week in Review", and "Newsmakers", are some good examples. Discuss the following:

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Com 315 project cont

• 1. What were the ethical issues faced in the discussion?• 2. How did the participants address these ethical issues?• 3. In what ways did the participants establish credibility, confidence

and trustworthiness?• 4. How can you apply your observations to your group for this

class?• You also may use the course materials and our interactive

discussions for Unit 3 to write a response paper at least one page long. Use the outside resources, course materials and specific, personal examples to substantiate your claims. All references need to be documented in APA style.

Com 315 – Unit 2

• Explain the relevance of theory to small group communication.

• Discuss theories of group roles and decision-making processes.

• Summarize the four ways to assess the quality of group communication

skills.

• What qualities are needed to create group cohesiveness among the firefighters?

• 2. Of the four structured patterns of communication, which one best applies to the group behavior of the firefighters? Provide examples to support your opinion.

• 3. Discuss ways to build a cohesive group for your project for this class.

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• I just want to comment on last weeks discussion board, I thought everyone chose some excellent articles and it really sounds like everyone learned from them and will incorporate some good communication techniques into your daily life’s.

• Did anyone learn any interesting information from your classmates posts. What was it?

• Don’t forget this weeks assignment

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• Review newspapers, news broadcasts, magazines, and other sources of current events. Identify an article that discusses teamwork in a current event. You also may use the course materials and our interactive discussions for Unit 2 to write a response paper at least one page long

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• Choose a current issue in society (on the national or international level). In the paper, discuss the role of teamwork in resolving a conflict or achieving a goal. Specifically, explain the characteristics of an effective team and the ways the group worked together to achieve a goal or resolve a conflict. Discuss the relevant theory that was applied to the group decision-making processes. Use the outside resources, course materials and specific, personal examples to substantiate your claims. All references need to be documented in APA style.

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• Ok…. let’s examine a model of small group communication, which is called Group-classification model, was formulated almost a half century ago, by Kenneth Benne and Paul Sheats. It describes the function participants should seek to assume- and the function they should avoid – during the life of a group. Considered goal achievement (completing the goal), and group maintenance (building relationships) the two basic objectives of any group. They further reasoned that eliminating self – serving roles (nonfunctional behavior) is a requirement or condition that must be met if the preceding goals are to be realized.

• The three categories of roles are:• ask-oriented roles• maintenance-oriented roles• Self-serving roles.

 

 

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• What task and maintenance roles do you typically perform in groups? What different roles might you take on to improve your effectiveness as a group member?

•  • Task oriented roles help the group realize its goals;• Initiating, information seeking, opinion seeking,

information giving, opinion giving, clarifying, coordinating, evaluating, consensus testing.

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• Maintenance –oriented roles are group roles designed to ensure the smooth running of a group. They are;

• Encouraging, gate keeping, harmonizing, compromising, and standard setting.

• Self-serving roles are group roles impede the functioning of a group by preventing members from working together effectively. They are:

• Blocking, aggression, recognition seeking, withdrawing, dominating, joking, self – confessing, and help seeking.

•  • What role do you find yourself performing most frequently? Why?

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•  • What behaviors let some people exert more influence than others in

groups?•  •  • Good answers, confidence, overbearance, creative• What conditions in the group do you think precipitates such bad

behavior?• Right…people coming to the group with a bad attitude. Had a fight

b4 the meeting, thinking the group was on a different path, there friends were not picked for the same group,

•  •  • Any questions?

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• Let’s move on the theories

• John Dewey in 1910 first proposed the Reflective-thinking framework. This is a system for the decision making and problem solving that is designed to encourage critical inquiry.

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• There are six components to this.• What is the problem, Is it clearly defines, do we understand the

general situation in which it is occurring, is it stated so as not to arouse defensiveness.

• What are the situations, what are the causes, what is its history why is it important?

• What criteria must be acceptable solution meet, by which and whose standards must a solution be evaluated

• What are the possible solutions, how would each remedy the problem, how well does each satisfy the criteria.

• Which is the solution, how could you rank the solution which offers the greatest number of advantages

• How can the solution what steps need to be taken to put the solution into effect

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• To make the framework function every member of the group must suspend judgment. Group members must be open to all available ideas, facts, and opinion. Instead of insisting on you own opinion and closing yourself to new information, you need to explore all major variables that contribute to the problem and investigate all the major issues that may be involved in producing a workable solution.

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• As you make your way through the framework, ask yourself• the resources of all the group members are being well used• the group is using its time to its advantage• the group is emphasizing fact-finding and inquiry• members are listening to and respecting one another’s opinions

and feeling• pressure to conform is being kelp to a minimum while an honest

search for diverse ideas is made the atmosphere is supportive, trusting, and cooperative.

• Remember if group members are afraid to speak up, closed-mined, reluctant to search for information, or unmotivated, they will not perform effectively.

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• In statement number one; the resources of all group members are being well used.

• What do you think could be an action item for each member to do?•  • I would think it would be to write down on a piece of paper your

strengths and weakness, and submit them to your group leader. • If a person lists to write why would want that person to do research?• Just a thought….•  • Here is a great quote…• Life is the sum of all your choices…. Albert Camus

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• In 1952, Thibault and Kelley came up with the..Social exchange theory - The Communication Theory of Social Exchange is a theory based on the exchange of rewards and costs to quantify the values of outcomes from different situations for an individual.  People strive to minimize costs and maximize rewards and then base the likeliness of developing a relationship with someone on the perceived possible outcomes.  When these outcomes are perceived to be greater, we disclose more and develop a closer relationship with that person.

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• Ideas and Implications:

• The viability of social exchange rests on the assumption that human beings recognize each other's life situations, notice each other's needs, and in some ways are likely to engage in reciprocity - a condition in which a response is correlated to the worth of the original message.  In other words, humans act with other humans in full recognition that their acts will be noticed and in some way reciprocated (i.e., that they will receive a return on their

communicative investment). 

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• Example: •  A rookie NFL football player thinks that the benefits of

signing with an independent agent would outweigh the costs of signing with a big firm.  He thought that the personal attention he would get would benefit him more than being a little fish in a big pond with a large agency.  As time went on, much to the rookie's surprise, he wasn't getting any offers.  This caused him to reevaluate his relationship with his agent and ultimately threaten to leave him for a big firm.  The rookie eventually chose to continue with the independent agent.  In the end, the rookie signed for millions of dollars with his favorite team and became a hero.

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• In 1992, Ernest Bormann developed Symbolic Convergence theory. This is also called the Fantasy Theme Analysis

• Fantasy Theme Analysis is a method used by groups to intensify the group dynamic based on a communication that allows information sharing regarding issues relating to the group.   

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• Ideas and Implications: Bormann's Fantasy Theme Analysis is a very useful theory because it explains how groups can improve the quality of the group by merely sharing information about each other that extends beyond the classroom or the organization. 

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• Example: Group A is a very cohesive group. Every class period they first tend to the maintenance roles, explaining what each member did the night before. After several minutes, the group then switches to the task roles, a process in which they define a task and go about achieving the task. Bormann would explain that through this action, the group is more likely to have very active conversations, and ultimately energize the group, increasing their productivity. 

• Group B has a problem when it comes to group cohesion. When they are together, they focus solely on the task at hand, instead of tending to the maintenance roles. This causes Group B to become less cohesive in Bormann’s viewpoint

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• Here is a fairely new theory; RULES THEORY.. this one isn’t listed

• By Susan Shimanoff from 1980

• Explanation of Theory: Rules Theory claims that communication is most successful and competent when interactants have shared rules influencing their communication processes

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• Ideas and Implications:

• - People have a choice to follow rules or not. A rule is prescriptive and contextual. In groups, rules indicate which behaviors are appropriate or inappropriate.

• - There are seven categories to go by which include: who says, what, to whom, when, with what duration and frequency, through what medium, and by what decision procedure

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• Example: Certain public places have rules we automatically follow, like waving as a way to say hi. Yet, if we were to travel to a different country, we would find that simple things such as waving hands, or eye contact, could be taken in a very negative way and we could be looked down upon. 

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• There are several more theories that we can read and learn about, but I see some people want to move on…Ok… enough about theory… let’s move on then,

• Why are theories good to know??• It explains why we do the things we do, How to handle

different situation when they arise.• You were supposed to have read and answer your seminar

questions, the first one being..• Here is the first question,• What qualities are needed to create group cohesiveness

among the firefighters?• Cohesiveness

Com 315 new exercise

• . Discuss ways to build a cohesive group for your project for this class.

• NEW EXERCISE• I want to try an exercise, this is the first time I am trying this so

please bare with me. • Individually on a piece of paper write down all the things you can do

with a dinner knife. You will have three minute.• Then I will break you into groups. Can you add to the list. You are

encouraged to come up with unique uses, those that were not on a member’s list.

• What was the average number of uses for the dinner knife on your list?

• How many uses did the group have on its final list?• How many new uses did the group come up with in addition to those

on one or more individual list?

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• Thank you this was a great seminar,

• Are there any questions?

• See you in the DB.