MediaSpace Wiki

Small Group Spring2006 Session14

Announcement

I'm moving the due date for the Short Paper back from March 28 to April 11.

Types and Functions of Groups

• Group Tasks
  • Planning
  • Creativity: Generating Ideas
  • Negotiating
  • Competing
  • Performing
  • Deliberating
  • Building Relationships
  • Providing Support

• Dimensions of Groups
  • Formal Versus Informal Dimension
    • Formal implies regulated structures and processes
    • Informal implies emergent structure through process
  • Relational Versus Task Dimension
    • Relational is about affiliation and networking
    • Task is about accomplishing specific purposes
  • Personal Versus Professional Dimension
    • Personal involves family and friends
    • Professional involves peers and colleagues in work and community

Combinations			Examples
Personal	Relational	Formal	A support group
Professional	Relational	Formal	A Professional Association
Personal	Relational	Informal	Friends who go out to the movies together
Professional	Relational	Informal	A lunch group at work
Personal	Task	Formal	A Community Association Picnic Planning Committee
Professional	Task	Formal	A School Board or PTA committee
Personal	Task	Informal	Friends who get together to paint someone's house
Professional	Task	Informal	A self-help or reading group at work

• Other dimensions of groups
  • Time together
  • Scope of activities
  • Membership by choice, election, or requirement
  • Goals
  • Tasks
  • Constituencies

• Types of group activities
  1. Generate
     • Planning
     • Creativity
  2. Choosing
     • Intellectualizing
     • Decision-Making
  3. Negotiation
     • Conflict
     • Resolution
  4. Execution
     • Resolving Power Conflicts
     • Executing Tasks

• Task characteristics of activities
  • Difficulty
  • Multiplicity of Solutions
  • Intrinsic Interest
  • Population Familiarity
  • Acceptance level
  • Decision Freedom
  • Social Complexity

• Constraints on activities
  • Time
  • Diversity of Viewpoints
  • Implementation
  • Outcome Ambiguity

• Evaluation of activities
  • Decision Quality
  • Member Satisfaction
  • Group continuity

• All of this holds for bona fide groups
  • Real
  • Stable but permeable boundaries
  • Connectivity
  • embeddedness

Index Card Assignment (due Thursday)

List the five things about small group communication that we've discussed so far this semester that you find most interesting. "Things" can be flexibly interpreted to encompass theories, methods, and aspects of the small group communication process.