CHAPTER 10: SMALL GROUP COMMUNICATION

Small Groups and Teams

A small group is a collection of individuals who are connected to one another by some common purpose, are interdependent, have degree of organizations among them and view themselves as a group. The members of a small group normally are 3-12 people. All the people in small group are as senders and receivers. All of the individuals in the group must have a same aim if not they would not be considered as a group. All the members in the group are interdependent, meaning to say the action of one member has impact for other members. Besides, the members of small group must be connected by some organizing rules which are rigid. The self-perception as a group is important among the members. They must view themselves as a part of the group to increase the productivity.

For your information, a team is a kind of small group too. The team is defined as a small group constructed for a specific purpose whose members have clearly defined roles, whose members are committed to pursue the same goal and that is content focused. A team is usually constructed for a particular task. After the task is completed, they might be assigned to other teams or go their separate ways. Each member's role is clearly defined in the team, each of them has an unique function and is an authority in a specific area. Furthermore, the members in a team know exactly what they goal is and they are committed to achieve the same target. Teams are also more content focused and their communication proceeds largely through exchange of content messages.

Small groups and teams use a variety of channels. Nowadays, small groups and teams interaction take place online besides face-to-face interaction. Virtual groups not only serving the relationship purpose but also serving business task purposes as well. Examples of virtual groups are Twitter and Facebook.

There are 5 small group stages. First is the opening stage. It is usually a getting acquainted time in which members introduce themselves. Next, we move on to the feedforward stages. The members attempt to identify what needs to be done, who will do it. Third is the business stage. This is the stage where the actual work begins. After that is the feedback stage. The group may reflect on what it has done and their performances will be evaluated as well. The last stage is closing. The group members may focus on individuality again.

Small groups serve their functions in a variety of formats like the round table, the panel, the symposium and the symposium-forum. In the round table format, group members are arranged in a circular or semicircular pattern. They share information or solve problem without any set of rules of who speaks when. The group interaction is informal. In the panel, group members are expert but participate informally and without any set pattern of who speaks when,as in a round table. The difference is that there is an audience whose members may inject comment or ask questions. A variation is two-panel format , with an expert panel and a lay panel. The lay panel discuss the topic and may turn to expert panel when in need of technical information. In symposium, each member delivers a prepared presentation. All speeches are addressed to different aspects of a single topic. While the symposium-forum consists of 2 parts, a symposium ( prepared speech ) and a forum, with questions from the audience and responses by speaker.

Small groups also develop their own culture. The cultural dimension of small group are small group norms and high or low context. Group norms are rules or standards of behavior identifying which behaviors are appropriate and which are inappropriate. Sometimes, the rules is explicit ; they are clearly stated in a company contract or policy. Some are implicit, which is common sense and understand by all the members. The small group norms are differ from one society to another. For example, in US, men and women are expected to interact together for making decision or socialization-purpose. Whereas in Muslim and Buddhist societies, religious restrictions prevent mixed-gender group.

Norms that regulate a particular group member's behavior, called role expectations, identify what each person in an organization is expected to do. You are more likely to accept the norms when your group is cohesive. Cohesiveness means you and other members are closely connected and depend on one other in order to meet your needs. A high-context culture is a culture in which much of the information in communication is in the context or in the person rather than explicitly coded in verbal messages. In high-context culture, people have lots of information in common, so it does not have to be made explicit. A low-context culture is a culture which most of the information in communication is explicitly stated in verbal messages. In low-context culture, people do not assume they share certain information so all the crucial details are made explicitly.

Power enables one person to control behaviors of others. There are six major types of power, legitimate, referent, reward, coercive, expert and information power. You have legitimate power when a person believes you have a right by virtue of your position. For example, parents have legitimate power to control their children. You have referent power when that person wishes to be like you or identified with you. Your referent power increases when you are well-respected. You have reward power if you are able to give the person rewards either in material or social form. Then, you have coercive power if you have the ability to remove rewards or administer punishments. You own expert power if group members regard you as having expertise or knowledge. Lastly, you have information power if you are seen as someone who can communicate logically and persuasively.

There are 4 types of group.

IDEA-GENERATION GROUPS

Idea-generation groups are small groups that exist solely to generate ideas and often follow a pattern called brainstorming. Brainstorming is a technique for bombarding a problem by generating as many ideas as possible. It involves two stages, brainstorming period proper and evaluation period. Each person has to contribute as many as ideas after the problem is stated. 4 general rules are followed during the idea-generating session. Firstly, don't criticize and all the evaluations should be suspended during brainstorming session. Second, strive for quantity. Come out as more ideas as you can. Third, combine and extend ideas. Lastly, develop the wildest idea. After this, all the ideas that are generated will be evaluated one by one.

 PERSONAL GROWTH GROUPS

Personal growth groups sometimes are referred as support groups, aim to help members handle their particular difficulties. There are 3 types of personal growth groups. Firstly, the encounter group. It is known as sensitivity groups or Training groups. These groups try to facilitate members' personal growth and foster their ability to deal effectively with other people. Second, the assertiveness training group. It aims to increase the willingness of members to stand up for their rights and act more assertively in various kind of situations. Distinctions between being assertive, non-assertive and aggressive are made too. Third, the consciousness-raising group. This group helps people cope with the problems society confronts them with. The members of this group all have something in common and this commonality leads the members join together to help one another.

INFORMATION SHARING GROUPS

The purpose of information sharing groups is to enable members acquire new information or skills through a sharing of knowledge. All members have something to learn and teach in this group. The example will be education or learning groups and focus group. In education or learning groups, the members pool their knowledge to the benefit of all, as in the popular law and medical student learning groups. Members may follow a variety of discussion pattern. In focus group, a small group assembled for a kind of in-depth interview. The aim is to discover what people think about an issue or product. A leader also tries to discover the beliefs, attitudes, thoughts and feelings that members have to help the organization make decision in the focus group.

PROBLEM-SOLVING GROUPS

A problem-solving group is a collection of individuals who meet to solve problem or to reach a decision. It requires not only knowledge of a small group communication techniques but also a thorough knowledge of the particular problem. It usually demands faithful adherence to a somewhat rigid set of rules. The problem-solving sequences is the technique that used most often. There are six steps of the sequence to ensure the problem solving more efficient and effective. Define and analyze the problem, establish criteria, identify possible solutions, evaluate solutions, select the best solutions and test the selected solutions.

There are 3 groups approaches which are largely rely on problem-solving techniques. Firstly, the nominal group technique. It is a method of problem solving which uses limited discussion and confidential voting to obtain a group decision. It's helpful for those members who are reluctant to voice their opinions. In the Delphi method, a group of experts is established but there is no interaction among them, they communicate by repeatedly responding to questionnaires instead. This method is useful when you want to involve people who are geographically distant from one another, when you need all members to become part of the solution and to uphold it or when you want to minimize the consequences of dominant members or even the peer pressure. A quality circle is a group of workers ( usually 6-12 ) whose task it is to investigate and make recommendations for improving the quality of some organizational function. The basic assumption is that people who work on similar tasks will be best able to improve their departments or jobs by pooling their insights and working through problems they share. Quality circle members use any methods that they think is helpful to investigate problems.

In problem-solving groups, there are six critical thinking hats.

Hat	Focus
The Fact Hat (White)	Focus on the data (facts and figures) that causes the problem.
The Feeling Hat (Red)	Mainly focuses on feelings, emotions and intuition regarding the problem.
The Negative Argument Hat (Black)	In proposed solution, the focus is on the possible negative aspects of the proposed solutions.
The Positive Argument Hat (Yellow)	In proposed solution, the focus is on the possible positive aspects of the solutions.
The Creative New Idea Hat (Green)	New ways to look at a problem and can be easily integrated with the techniques of brainstorming are the focus.
The Control of Thinking Hat (Blue)	Focuses mainly on the thinking processes that are going into finding a solution.

Source:http://www.storyboardthat.com/articles/business/brain-storming/six-thinking-hats