Social Psychology And The Process Of Interpersonal Communication - Essay Example

Team Communication 2008 Team Communication Communication has always been a highly essential aspect of human life. There should be at least two human beings for communicative act to occur: this simplest form of communication is called interpersonal dyadic communication. Team communication is another type of interpersonal communication that has several unique features. Presence of others leads to emergence of absolutely new behavioral patterns, changes the way of thinking, and influences different aspects of communication between members of the group. Governmental institutions, business and education heavily rely on team communication to achieve their goals. However, many people involved into this type of interpersonal relations are not fully aware about the rules and logic of team communication. This knowledge is especially important for those who supervise and direct work of teams, namely managers and coordinators. These people spend most of their working hours communicating with their subordinates: participation in planning, organizing, controlling, and supervising activities, preventing and resolving conflicts between the personnel, scheduling and many other tasks that define the nature of team work. Communication between people is a very complex process that includes several equally important aspects. Defining it as a process we mean that it is not static set of behaviors or object we can hold in hands. As David Berlo (1960), the famous expert in team communication, believes, "if we accept the concept of process, we view events and relationship as dynamic, ongoing ever-changing, continuous. When we label something as a process, we also mean that it does not have a beginning, an end, a fixed sequence of events. It is not static, at rest. It is moving. The ingredients within a process interact; each affects all of the others" (p.6). Team or group communication includes "a relatively small number of persons who have a mutually interdependent purpose and a sense of belonging, demonstrate behavior based on norms and values, use procedures accepted by the group, and interact orally" (Pearson, 1994, p.211). This definition mirrors the structure of team communication. Social psychologists long ago identified certain circumstances under which group communication is more appropriate than any other: 1. When a variety of entirely different ideas is better than several ideas that have much in common. Presence of others involved into similar activity encourages the process of thinking in each individual member of the group making them generate new ideas. 2. When members of the group express a strong desire to be involved into the process of decision making and discussing problems. In such situation, group communication helps avoid tension that would have inevitably appeared in case the group's members are denied such opportunity. 3. Team communication plays the key role when commitment of its members is at stake. It is a common knowledge that decisions put into place without agreement of people whom they concern have good chances to meet unexpected resistance. For instance, if a manger determines his subordinates' duty list without discussing it with them, there is a great probability that majority of the subordinates will express strong resistance. 4. And sometimes when a group decision is an essential condition it is appropriate not to ask the members privately, but to let them discuss the problem in group and made a common decision (Pearson, 1994, pp.211-214). Presence of others dramatically transforms behavior of separate individuals as well as their way of thinking. In order to understand the reasons for these changes we should analyze the unique characteristics of small groups, and first of all group norms, roles, leadership, member satisfaction, commitment, and productivity. Norms is a distinctive characteristic of groups. Basically, norm is "an expected standard of behaviour and belief established and enforced by a group" (Franzoi, 1996, p.261). The word "standard" includes absolutely all practices in a group: from wearing black suits during coordination meetings and the way members treat each other to the officially recommended rules of presenting weekly reports. Group norms perform several very important functions, but first of all they make the dynamics of relations within the team more predictable for its members (Forsyth, 2006). Large private companies and especially governmental institutions usually prescribe norms to their employees by issuing procedures, guidelines, and regulations thus killing two birds with one stone: the companies save employees the trouble of establishing their own norms and make it easier for new members to learn the norms. With the help of officially prescribed norms it is possible to regulate the system of relations between different units (groups) thus adding stability to hierarchically organized structures (Robbins, 1996). Except these officially established - or explicit - norms there are also non-official - or implicit - norms that often play no less important role. While explicit norms regulate the sphere of non-personal relations implicit norms determine the personal dimension. They do not exist in written form, and new members of the group learn implicit rules watching the behaviour of old members (Kellya, and Barsade, 2001). Roles are another very important aspect of group behaviour. Each member of the group plays a certain role, which is "a pattern of behaviour perceived, expected, and enacted by a member of a small group" (Pearson, 1994; p.213). In organizations, role expectations are especially strong with behavioural patterns officially prescribed. For example, the role of aviation manager is directing the work of professional subordinates, and every member of his group expects him to perform this role. People may think that they are better at some other role than at the role they have to perform in their unit. In many cases it is really so. Talented coordinators, for instance, effectively organize the work of their subordinates, but they may fail when it will be necessary to resolve a conflict within the unit or solve some working issue. Logically, one prefers to perform a role at which he/she excels, although contemporary situation often requires the so-called role flexibility - the ability to effectively perform several different roles. Productivity is the most important and visible characteristic of teams that is "... strongly affected by both its procedures and the members' ability to communicate" (Pearson, 1994; p.214). Each unit within the organizational structure has one or several tasks to accomplish. Correspondingly, each member of the group is given a part of that task; the complexity and volume of the task depends upon the individual's specialization, promptitude, and readiness to work. After each member of the unit copes with his/her part of the task, the work is summarized and the group's productivity is judged either as low or as high. To achieve higher productivity of the group it is necessary to make all its members aware that doing individual parts of the assignment they pursue one common goal, and individual interests should be left apart together with competitiveness. One should be also aware about cohesiveness and commitment - two basic concepts important in small group communication. Cohesiveness is a technical term that is used to describe a sense of belonging to a group. Group attractiveness to its members depends upon many factors, such as financial benefits, unity of interests with other members, etc. Therefore, the more group attracts its members the stronger feeling of belonging to the group will be observed (Franzoi, 1996). A strong feeling of belonging, in its turn makes group members feel strong commitment to the group. This is very important especially when a group has to cope with a task (Pearson, 1994). The feeling of commitment to a group makes its members also feel a commitment to the task set before their group. Absence of commitment to the task in members is dangerous to effective functioning of the whole group and increases the likelihood of failure. Conflict is another unalienable element of team communication. While conflicts in interpersonal relations are caused by personal factors, majority of organizational conflicts have different roots. However, in any case the effectiveness of conflict resolution largely depends upon the manager's ability to properly direct communication within the team. Team or group communication is a specific context of interpersonal communication, but it has a number of unique features. In business and organization, the primary goal of virtually any team is to accomplish the task as effectively as possible, and communication plays the most crucial role in the process. Comprehensive knowledge of the group dynamics turns communication into a powerful instrument of persuasion and influence while absence of such knowledge makes both sides involved into the process feel bored. Works Cited Berlo, David K. The Process of Comunication. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1960 Forsyth, D.R., Group Dynamics, Edition. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2006 Franzoi, S. Social Psychology. Toronto: Brown and Benchmark, 1996 Kellya, J. R. and Barsade, S. G., "Mood and Emotions in Small Groups and Work Teams", Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Volume 86, Issue 1, September 2001, pp. 99-130 Pearson, Judy C., and Nelson Paul E. Understanding and Sharing: An Introduction to Speech Communication, Sixth Edition, Brown and Benchmark, 1994. Robbins, S.P., Essentials of Organizational Behavior, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1997 Read More