CHAPTER 19 GROUP COMMUNICATION MGT 3213 – ORG. COMMUNICATION Mississippi State University College of Business

Benefits of Teams  Creates flat organizational structures  Increases efficiency  Allows for synergy  Achieve more collectively than individually  “Two heads are better than one”  Improves decision-making  Improves employee motivation  Improves employee acceptance of change

Characteristics of Effective Teams  Members share a common goal  Size  Want lots of interaction? Go small  Want broad input? Go large  5-7 members best for decision-making  Should be an odd number to break ties  Directed by strong leadership  Members play a variety of roles

Negative Group Roles  Dominator  Free rider  Detractor  Digresser  Airhead  Socializer

Positive Group Roles  Facilitator  Harmonizer  Record keeper  Reporter  Leader

Life Cycle of Member Roles Potential Member New Member Full Member Divergent Member Marginal Member Ex- Member Still an outsider Knows the “rules” And looked to for leadership Focuses on differences No longer involved No longer considered a member

Stages of Team Development

Team Behaviors at the Performing Stage  Commitment  Cooperation  Communication  Contribution

Barriers to Effective Group Decision-Making  Oversampling  Tendency to focus on shared knowledge of group members  Using discussion to avoid making decisions  Polarization  Responses of groups tend to be more extreme than individual members’ responses  Limited interpersonal skills

Examples of Interpersonal Barriers to Decision-Making  Poor communication skills  Egocentric behavior  Nonparticipation  Sidetracked  Interruptions  Negative leader behavior  Attitudes and emotions

Groupthink  Occurs when:  Group members dominate the discussion  Group members are intimidated by others  Group members care more about social acceptability than reaching the best solution

Avoiding Groupthink  Encourage voicing objections and critical thinking  Try to avoid ego and emotions to improve objective thinking  Divide into separate groups  Get outsider’s feedback  Appoint a devil’s advocate  Hold a “second chance” meeting

Types of Conflict  Personal conflict  Task conflict  Process conflict

Personal Conflict  Dislike of other group members  Dissimilar personalities lead to more dislike and conflict  Why more diverse groups tend to have more conflict

Task Conflict  Conflicts about the group goal or purpose of their work  Disagreements about issues that are relevant to the group’s goals and outcomes  Positive conflict  Why groups are used to complete tasks  Can turn into personal conflict

Process Conflict  Conflict about how the work gets done (the process)  Can be minimized by adopting workplace procedures and rules  But that can hinder creativity and flexibility

Other Sources of Conflict  Personality  Competitors vs. cooperators  Norm of reciprocity  Free riding  Occurs most frequently when individual’s contributions are combined into a single product

Conflict Resolution Styles  Competition  Collaboration  Compromise  Avoidance  Accommodation

Ineffective Communication During a Conflict  Mind-reading  In a conflict, we often think we know more than we really do about why the other person did something.  You tell them why they did something, or what they were thinking, rather than asking them.  Self-summarizing  When you keep repeating what you’ve already said in the fight.  It ignores the response of the other party.

Ineffective Communication During a Conflict  Cross-complaining  Both parties share complaints and fail to listen to the other side.  “You’ve been late to all our meetings this week.” “And you’ve failed to post the minutes to the website.”  Kitchen-sinking  The parties bring up more and more past issues.  Escalates the conflict.

Meeting Management  Face-to-face vs. electronic  When should you schedule face-to-face meetings?  When you need the richest nonverbal cues  When the issue is sensitive  When the participants don’t know each other  When you need to establish group rapport  When no other channel or medium of communication will suffice

Meeting Management  Advantages of electronic  Convenient for geographically dispersed teams  Speed up follow-up activities  May limit dominator group types  Drawbacks of electronic  Don’t effectively build group rapport  Make it harder to reach consensus

Tips for Effective Meetings  What are two reasons why you should distribute an agenda in advance?  How does using agendas and minutes minimize the effect of free-riders?