The Concept of Group Communication - Term Paper Example

The Concept of Group Communication Group work is essential in accomplishing significant tasks. It is a fundamental fact that an individual cannot possess expertise in all fields and the sheer magnitude of some projects require plenty of collaboration to accomplish. Therefore, groups enable people to combine skills and build relationships that enable easy accomplishment of tasks. My first group experience was on the beachcomber project and it involved working in a group of five persons. Several concepts of group experience came to the fore during the exercise. The concept of group development was evident from the onset. At the forming stage, we organized ourselves into a five member team comprising of Vilma, Akeem, Cassy, Yanelli and me (25). Initially, some members like Cassy and Akeem were reserved and made few revelations about themselves during introduction. We tried to know each other and we were all surprised that Yanelli and Cassy shared a birthday. We selected roles based on responsibilities that each person felt comfortable with. Due to her eloquence, Cassy took the role of conducting interviews while the other duties were shared out. In the storming stage, all members gave their ideas on how they wanted the project to be undertaken (30). Akeem was very passionate in advocating that we should go to the beach on Fridays to conduct the interviews so as to have free time on the weekends. On the contrary, Vilma and I felt that weekends were more appropriate since there would be more people. Yanelli and I were of the opinion that any day would be appropriate as long we had time. The other pertinent question was on the choice of beach. I proposed that we choose a beach that was in close proximity for ease of access and cost reduction. Akeem was of the same idea but he wanted the place to be fancy. The other members wanted us to select a fairly distant place to allow us to explore new experiences. The establishment of group norms was also clear in our group (35). Akeem dropped his quest to spare all weekends for personal matters but proposed a more flexible arrangement. We eventually agreed that interviews would be conducted over the weekends and informal group meetings would take place any day after a twenty four hours notice. After a heated debate, we decided to compromise on the choice of beach by selecting a location that was not so far but not so near. Leadership was an important consideration to ensure the effectiveness and success of the group (160). We selected Vilma as our leader since she exhibited great confidence and she had visited most of the beaches in the area. She exhibited transformational leadership by inspiring us to keep on with the project despite the challenges (169). For instance, due to intense workload, some members suggested that we cook the interview results. However, Vilma managed to convince real interviews would enlighten us and it was morally wrong to fake the interview data. Over the course of the project, emergent leadership occurred when Yanelli began to be more active in the group (170). Yanelli took the role of liaison by coordinating the interviews and organizing for the required materials. He offered a voice recorder and also researched extensively on the questions for the interviews. Yanelli was always among the first people to arrive during meetings and he was very vocal. He called all members after the meetings to seek their ideas on any improvements on the issue of interviews. The other notable concept that we experienced is group diversity (120). Cultural diversity was very evident in our group. Cassy had grown outside the US for the better part of his life. In fact, he had spent his life in three countries before coming to the US. Akeem and I were brought up in the suburbs. Vilma and Yanelli grew spent most of childhood in the projects. Therefore, our group had members from diverse cultural backgrounds. The group also had significant personality diversity (130). Vilma and Yanelli were extremely outgoing and loved having fun. After most of the group meetings, they always suggested that we hang out in the nearby clubs. On the other hand Akeem was quite reserved and he preferred sober discussions related to issues of the group work. Cassy and I were liberal and went with the spirit of the moment. After one of our interviews on sunny afternoon, we convinced the group members to engage in a swimming competition! The challenge of leadership and diversity was therefore bound to happen in our group. As previously noted, our group was very diverse; personality, culturally and religiously (165). Vilma faced an enormous challenge of balancing the goals and needs of all the group members. For instance, some members were against going to clubs after group meetings. Yet such informal fun events were the springboards of creative ideas and a chance to bond. Vilma eventually came up with a proposal that we could unwind after meetings by engaging in activities at the beach like swimming. The challenge of listening and participation in the group was also evident (280). Our team chose to apply comprehensive and critical listening during our meetings (288). Each member was required to be keen during the meetings and give the speaker a chance to make his or her point. After each presentation, each member was required to voice their opinions on the matter by asking questions and suggesting improvements. In some instances, the members faced listening challenges (290). For example, I would easily get distracted by the action in the beach and become a passive listener to the proceedings of the meeting. The team members came up with a solution by asking me to record all the points made in a written form. This responsibility made me to stay alert throughout the meetings lest I missed a point. The members also recommended that all communication gadgets be switched off during meetings to ensure everybody was attentive and not distracted by calls or messages. In planning and conducting meetings, our group used the parliamentary procedure (390). Before every meeting, each member was given at least a twenty four hour notice and the agenda. As the secretary, I was in charge of sending members the notice of meeting and the agenda for the day. During the norming stage, all group members agreed to specific rules to be adhered to (25). For instance, it was agreed that all members were to be punctual for all meetings with an allowance of ten minutes. All meetings were compulsory and any member unable to attend had to notify the leader (Vilma) at least twelve hours in advance. I was tasked with the responsibility of preparing the minutes of all meetings (385). However, during the early stages, the task might not have been perfectly executed since I was slow in typing leading to the neglect of some members’ contributions. It was later agreed that members would check on the minutes and make recommendations concerning matters they felt were left out. As a way of evaluation of our meetings, the group decided that each member was to fill an anonymous form indicating their level of satisfaction. Methodologies for handling errant behavior were also laid down. A group is only as strong as its individual members and thus, it was important for us to adapt to each members’ behavior (380). Cassy and Yanelli preferred meetings to be set up informally since they believed that formalizing the meetings seemed intimidating. To address their concerns, we all agreed to dress semi-casually to the meetings and all the members were allowed to be speak in slang as long as the message was clear. The group decision making concept also significantly shaped the experiences we had in the group (340). Initially, we practiced brainstorming where each member suggestive ideas on a given situation (345). When we were choosing the beach at which to conduct research, the leader (Vilma) solicited ideas from each member. However, after careful analysis, we realized that some members were afraid of giving their ideas during brainstorming for fear of being judged negatively. In the subsequent meetings, the group implemented the nominal group technique to select ideas (345). For example, when selecting interview questions each member was asked to write down ten questions that they wanted to asked. After writing the questions, Vilma listed all of them and the most common ones were first selected. The selection of the remaining questions was done through a debate involving analysis of their appropriateness. Conflict is an element that challenges people to think beyond the ordinary and routine ways. Our group was no exception and we experienced conflicts. During the forming stage of our group, the issue of days of meeting created a negative conflict (320). Akeem was passionate that weekends should be left out for personal activities yet some of the members felt that the task at hand would be best carried out during weekends. The debate got heated and Akeem threatened to pull out of the group if his opinion was considered. Under the leadership of Vilma, we had to apply conflict management strategies in order to safeguard our group. Vilma tried to understand the conflict and its root cause (330). In evaluating Akeem’s opinion, we realized that he loved going out with friends during the weekend hence the reason why he did not want the meetings to take place over the weekends. Vilma explained to him that in as much as everybody empathized with him, the project was an important part of our academics. In order to resolve the conflict, it was evident that we needed to collaborate and compromise (335). Eventually, the conflict was resolved by allocating a hybrid meeting system that comprised both weekdays and sometimes weekends. For any group to succeed, motivation is a critical factor (200). Our team agreed on the goals that we had to achieve. The main motivation for undertaking the project was to improve our group experience skills, get good grades in the unit and make a difference in the beach location that we chose. Since a group is as strong as its weakest link, member motivation was also a critical factor (223). It was agreed that each member should have a goal for taking the project. The importance of motivation kept us going even during the tough times. During all our meetings, we evaluated our progress to check if we were in the right track. To ensure that every person was properly motivated, we set up a reward for the most valuable member at the end of the project. We contributed twenty dollars each which would be used to buy a gift. The idea was that at the end of the project, we would each vote the person who we felt was the most valuable in the group and reward him or her. In conclusion, the group experience was of great value. It should be noted that teamwork is essential in almost all undertakings. The skills that we learnt during the project are important life skills that can be applied in various life scenarios. It is important for groups to be very keen during the formative stage as this determines whether or not it will succeed. Conflict are bound to arise in every interaction due to diversity of the members hence conflict resolution strategies are vital. Above all, balance and compromise are the most important concepts in group work. Works Cited Engleberg, Isa, N., and Diana R. Wynn. Working in groups. 6th ed. 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