Chapter 8 Flashcards
What is task communication?
Communication focused on achieving the instrumental goal
What is socio emotional communication?
Communication focused on developing, maintaining and repairing the relationship between group members.
What says the functional group decision making?
Why do some groups make good decisions while others make bad ones?
What are the 4 requirements of decision-making?
- Problem analysis (nature/cause problem)
- Goal setting (criteria)
- Identification of alternatives (brainstorm)
- Evaluation and selection (alternatives)
What says the group think theory?
Why and how are bad decisions made by groups
What is an example of group thinking?
The Asch Experiment
What are the consequences of group thinking?
Individuals avoid raising controversial issues or alternative solutions
Individuals lose creativity, uniqueness and independent thinking
What are the three conditions that make it more likely that groupthink will occur
- Cohesion (connection)
- Structural flaws
- Groups insulation
- Biased leadership
- Lack of procedural norms
- Too much similarity
- Situational characteristics (stress)
How to recognize groupthink?
Type 1: Overestimation of the group
Type 2: Closed-mindedness
Type 3: Pressure toward uniformity
Name a strategy to prevent groupthink
- Encourage members to voice their opinions and doubts
- Assign group members to teams that will investigate alternative courses of action: followed by a debate
- Appoint a devil’s advocate
- Invite experts from outside the group
- Hold last-chance meetings which members are encourages to raise any doubts or hesitations
- As a manager, set an example by being open to criticism about yourself
What says the adaptive structuration theory?
How do communication processes create norms for interaction?
What are rules?
Traditions, moral codes. You can indicate what is good or bad
What is agency?
Humans are actors who make choices: people have free will in their performance behavior (bike lane example)
What is structuration?
Groups and organizations are produced and reproduced through structures in interaction.
What are allocative resources?
Material forms like time and money
What are authoritative resources?
Characteristics such as cohesion, experience and status
What is production?
The use of rules and resources to create a new structure: change.
You don’t need a signature from your supervisor for
this anymore
What is reproduction?
The use of rules and resources to reinforce structures already in place
You pass the exam if you have a 5.5
How do structures influence decision-making?
- Unitary path (single way)
- Complex cyclic path
- Solution oriented path
What says the symbolic convergence theory?
How is group identity formed and how does it influence norms and behavior?
What are fantasy chains?
Group members share fantasies which help them to create a social reality that indicates who is part of the group
Out of which parts exist the fantasy chain?
- Dramatizing message (joke)
- Fantasy theme (group member actively engage)
- Fantasy chain (fantasies meet positive response)
- Rhetorical vision (group members share number of fantasies)
