Lectures 3 & 4: Group Communication Flashcards
What are group norms?
Customs, standards, behavioral expectations that emerge in the formation of groups.
What happens when the amount of group members increase?
It becomes less intimate, it demands more time and one can only speak in a limited amount of time.
Some advantages of groups:
- Support and inclusion
- Fellowship, affection, relationships
- May curb extremes of impulse or reticence
- Build network, connections
- More access to information
- Synergy
Some disadvantages of groups:
- Time consuming in general
- Conflicts may injure feelings, attitudes which impact the group.
- Potential for missunderstanding increases with members
- Bad feelings can hinder group cohesion
- Social loafing
- Groupthink
Stages of a group´s life cycle:
-Forming: Members come together, learn about each other, determine purpose
-Storming: Engage in direct communication, get to know each other, conflicts arise
-Norming: Establish rules (spoken & unspoken), status, ranks and roles
-Performing: Members fulfil a purpose and reach a goal
Adjourning: Members leave the group
Life Cycle of group roles:
- Potential: curious, interested
- New: joined but still unknown, outsider but included
- Full: knows rules, norms, looking for/to leadership
- Divergent: Focus on difference
- Marginal: Not stable active, in and out
- Ex: no longer belongs to a group
Positive group member roles:
+Initiator/Coordinator: suggests new ideas or perspectives
+Elaborator: builds on existing ideas, provides examples and clarity
+Coordinator: brings ideas together
+Evaluator/Critic: evaluates and provides constructive criticism
+Recorder: Records contributions, deadlines, information
Negative group member roles:
- Dominator: seeks to control discussions and limits other people´s contributions
- Recognition seeker: seeks attention to himself
- Special interest: relates to self-interest, singular focus
- Blocker: blocks or impedes consensus or movements of group
- Joker/clown: distracts with humor, seeks attention away from the purpose
