Communication In Teams Flashcards
What are groups?
- An assemblage of persons who communicate, face to face, in order to fulfil a common purpose and achieve a goal
- A human communication system composed of three or more inddiviauds, interacting for the achievement of some common purpose, who influence and are influenced by one another
- A small group prefers to a group in which individuals members perceive each other and are aware of each other as individuals when they interact
What are the stages of group development?
- Forming
- Storming
- Norming
- Performing
- Adjourning
What is the forming stage?
- Group members get to know each other for the first time
- Initial assessment of task
- Initial designation of roles
- Avoid conflict and promote collaboration
- Individuals assess their personal and professional need to be part of the group
What is the storming stage?
- Group members start working on the task
- Presentation of opinion (including opposing view point)
- Primary or secondary tension:
What is primary tension?
- During the storming stage
- Primary relates to a natural feeling of anxiety when people that do not know each other too well start working together
What is secondary tension?
- During the storming stage
- Secondary is caused by stress arising from the process of task completion
What is the norming stage?
- Regulation of the norms of the group
- A protocol on appropriate behaviours and activities is created
- Clear knowledge of group members’ expertise
- Sense of belonging in the group
What is the performing stage?
- Only groups successful in norming reach this strage
- Members now perform optimally
- Members have high identificaiton with the group
- Roles may shift based on emergent priorities
- Members may work independently on specific tasks
What is the adjourning stage?
- Members have completed the task
- The group is no longer an active one
- Not all groups go through this phase (ongoing groups)
- Some groups may stay dormant for periods of time
What is true about when new members enter existing groups?
- The group may repeat some of the stages
- New members is socialised into the group (forming)
- Norms may have to be re-established
What are the group roles categorically?
- Task
- Maintenance
- Individual
What are the task roles?
- Responsible for planning, gathering/analysing information, creating a framework and taking action
- Initiator-Contributor
- Information Seeker
- Opinion Seeker
- Information Giver
- Clarifier-Elaborator
- Coordinator
- Recorder
- Director
- Challenger
What is the initiator-contributor role?
- Task role
- Provides initial ideas about how to address the task at hand
What is the coordinator role?
- Task role
- Collates ideas from other roles in order to create a cohesive action
What is the director role?
- Task Role
- Keeps the group from straying away from its objectives
What is the challenger role?
- Task role
- Argues over commonly acceptable views within the group to test validity of ideas
What are the maintenance roles?
- Responsible for keeping the group cohesive and cooperative
- Norm Establisher
- Supporter
- Harmoniser
- Tension Reliever
- Dramatiser
- Unifier
What is the dramatiser role?
- Maintenance role
- Tells stories on related topics to help visualise some of the action
What is the unifier role?
- Maintenance role
- Helps foster positive feelings among group members
What are the individual roles?
- Roles centred on individual goals, disruptive to group activities
- Aggressor
- Blocker
- Player
- Dominator
- Help Seeker
- Special interest pleader
What is the blocker role?
- Individual role
- Criticises group members or their actions
What is the player role?
- Individual role
- Considers the group to be a form of relaxation
What are the important group attributes?
- Group Size
- Age of group members
- Divsesity
- Openness to Communication
- Time Frame
- Group Cohesions
What is important about group size?
- At least 3 members
- Higher the number the more complex
- Large groups have potential for
- Coalitions within the group
- Social loafing
- Difficulty in reaching consensus
What is important about age of group members?
- Members with varying ages will have different life and work experiences
- Younger members may not be able to present their views to older members
- However a variety of ages is desirable because it brings a variety of solutions and encouragers creative thinking
What is important about diversity within a group?
- Has the potential to create conflict
- Professional diversity can create work related conflict, other forms can create emotional conflict
- Conflicts are not always a bad thing - can create out of the box thinking
- When conflicts are voiced, group members get to know each others preferences better, when it is unaddressed or unspoken, performance and group identification can drop
What is important about a groups openness to communication?
Unwillingness to communicate reduces opportunities for creative thinking, social interaction and conflict resolution, leading to lower group performance and cohesions
What is important about a groups timeframe?
- Groups that have sufficient time during development phases perform optimally
- A tight timeline reduces socio-emotional aspects of a group and concentrate more on task and can impact group identification and cohesion
- Individuals within the group may see time differently - interpersonal or cultural factors in visualising time
What is important about group cohesion?
- Based on members perceptions of a group and specific characteristics that attract members
- Cohesion can be social or task related
- Both forms can enhance performance and member loss
What things are important about groups and meetings?
- Meetings have a specific space and time allocated to them
- Members are expected to come ahead or on time to a meeting
- Meetings are associated with oral and written communication
- The leader of the group is responsible for connecting each members input to create a cohesive discussion
- Meetings have specific interactions that start and end the event
- The conversation in meetings happens in turns
What things are important about decision making in groups?
- Group performance is dependent on the decisions made in groups
- Decision can only be made after intensive discussion and consultation between group members
- Prevention of idead
- Evaluation of ideas
- Selection of best ideas to put into action
- Such discussion can lead to conflicts
What is true of conflict in groups and what are some myths about it?
- Can generate logical reasoning that leads to effective decision making
- Myths
- All conflict arise out of misunderstandings and lack of
communication - All conflicts can be resolved if members are willing to talk
- All conflict arise out of misunderstandings and lack of
