Key Terms:

• Intrapersonal communication – communication with one’s self, and that may include self-talk, acts of imagination and visualization, and even recall and memory
• Self-concept – what we perceive ourselves to be
• Social comparisons – evaluating ourselves in relation to our peers of similar status, similar characteristics, or similar qualities
• Internal monologue – refers to the self-talk of intrapersonal communication
• Leadership – complex of beliefs, communication patterns, and behaviors that influence the functioning of a group and move a group toward the completion of its task
• Designated leaders – officially recognized in their leadership role and may be appointed or elected by people inside or outside the group
• Emergent leaders – gain status and respect through engagement with the group and its task and are turned to by others as a resource when leadership is needed
• Directive leaders – help provide psychological structure for their group members by clearly communicating expectations, keeping a schedule and agenda, providing specific guidance as group members work toward the completion of their tasks, and taking the lead on setting and communicating group rules and procedures
• Participative leaders – work to include group members in the decision-making process by soliciting and considering their opinions and suggestions
• Supportive leaders – show concern for their followers’ needs and emotions
• Achievement-oriented leaders – strive for excellence and set challenging goals, constantly seeking improvement and exhibiting confidence that group members can meet their high expectations
• Legitimate power –  the power that flows from the officially recognized position, status, or title of a group member
• Expert power – comes from knowledge, skill, or expertise that a group member possesses and other group members do not
• Referent power – comes from the attractiveness, likeability, and charisma of the group member
• Information power – comes from a person’s ability to access information that comes through informal channels and well-established social and professional networks
• Reward power – comes from the ability of a group member to provide a positive incentive as a compliance-gaining strategy
• Coercive power – comes from the ability of a group member to provide a negative incentive
• Group socialization – involves how the group members interact with one another and form relationships
• Uncertainty theory – states that we choose to know more about others with whom we have interactions in order to reduce or resolve the anxiety associated with the unknown
• Forming stage – initiation of group formation
• Storming stage – a time of struggles as the members themselves sort out their differences
• Norming stage – where the group establishes norms, or informal rules, for behavior and interaction
• Performing stage – the group accomplishes its mandate, fulfills its purpose, and reaches its goals
• Adjourning stage – when members leave the group
• New group member – your level of acceptance will increase as you begin learning the group’s rules, spoken and unspoken
• Full members – enjoy knowing the rules and customs, and can even create new rules.
• Divergent group members – pull back, contribute less, and start to see themselves as separate from the group
• Marginal group members – start to look outside the group for their interpersonal needs
• Ex-member – one who no longer belongs to the group
• Conflict – the physical or psychological struggle associated with the perception of opposing or incompatible goals, desires, demands, wants, or needs
• Defensive communication – characterized by control, evaluation, and judgments
• Supportive communication – focuses on points and not personalities
• Face-detracting strategies – involve messages or statements that take away from the respect, integrity, or credibility of a person
• Face-saving strategies – protect credibility and separate the message from the messenger
• Empathetic (Active) listening – involves listening to both the literal and implied meanings of a message which involves hearing accurately, comprehending and interpreting, evaluating, and responding.
• Gunnysacking (or backpacking) – the imaginary bag we all carry into which we place unresolved conflicts or grievances over time
• Problem statement – a single sentence that summarizes the problem
• Problem question – a question posed from the issues the group has analyzed
• Nominal group technique – guides decision-making through a four-step process that includes idea generation and evaluation and seeks to elicit equal contributions from all group members
• Majority rule – a commonly used decision-making technique in which a majority (one-half plus one) must agree before a decision is made
• Minority rule – a decision-making technique in which a designated authority or expert has the final say over a decision and may or may not consider the input of other group members
• Consensus rule –  a decision-making technique in which all members of the group must agree on the same decision

Study Questions:

SQ1 – What is intrapersonal communication and its needs and how does it relate to self-concept?

In intrapersonal communication, we communicate with ourselves. This internal communication creates a self-concept which involves multiple dimensions and is expressed in internal monologue and social comparisons. Overall, through communication we meet universal human needs.

SQ2 – What are some leadership styles in small group communication?

• Leaders fulfill a group role that is associated with status and power within the group that may be formally or informally recognized by people inside and/or outside of the group. While there are usually only one or two official leaders within a group, all group members can perform leadership functions, which are a complex of beliefs, communication patterns, and behaviors that influence the functioning of a group and move a group toward the completion of its tasks.

• There are many perspectives on how and why people become leaders:

  • Designated leaders are officially recognized in their leadership role and may be appointed or elected.
  • Emergent leaders gain status and respect through engagement with the group and its task and are turned to by others as a resource when leadership is needed.
  • The trait approach to studying leadership distinguishes leaders from followers based on traits or personal characteristics, such as physical appearance, communication ability, intelligence, and personality. While this approach is useful for understanding how people conceptualize ideal leaders, it doesn’t offer communication scholars much insight into how leadership can be studied and developed as a skill.
  • Situational context also affects how leaders emerge. Different leadership styles and skills are needed based on the level of structure surrounding a group and on how group interactions play out in initial meetings and whether or not a leadership struggle occurs.
  • Leaders also emerge based on communication skill and competence, as certain communication behaviors function to create the conditions of leadership. This approach is most useful to communication scholars, because in it leadership is seen as a set of communication behaviors that are learnable and adaptable rather than traits or situational factors, which are often beyond our control.

• Leaders can adopt a directive, participative, supportive, or achievement-oriented style.

  • Directive leaders help provide psychological structure for their group members by clearly communicating expectations, keeping a schedule and agenda, providing specific guidance as group members work toward the completion of their task, and taking the lead on setting and communicating group rules and procedures.
  • Participative leaders work to include group members in the decision-making process by soliciting and considering their opinions and suggestions.
  • Supportive leaders show concern for their followers’ needs and emotions.
  • Achievement-oriented leaders strive for excellence and set challenging goals, constantly seeking improvement and exhibiting confidence that group members can meet their high expectations.

• Leaders and other group members move their groups toward success and/or the completion of their task by tapping into various types of power.

  • Legitimate power flows from the officially recognized power, status, or title of a group member.
  • Expert power comes from knowledge, skill, or expertise that a group member possesses and other group members do not.
  • Referent power comes from the attractiveness, likeability, and charisma of the group member.
  • Information power comes from a person’s ability to access information that comes through informal channels and well-established social and professional networks.
  • Reward power comes from the ability of a group member to provide a positive incentive as a compliance-gaining strategy, and coercive power comes from the ability of a group member to provide a negative incentive (punishment).

SQ3 – What is Tuckman’s group life cycle and some group member roles?

Groups and their individual members come together and grow apart in predictable patterns.

SQ4 – What is workplace conflict?

Conflict is unavoidable and can be opportunity for clarification, growth, and even reinforcement of the relationship.

SQ5 – What are problem solving and decision making techniques in small groups?

• Every problem has common components: an undesirable situation, a desired situation, and obstacles between the undesirable and desirable situations. Every problem also has a set of characteristics that vary among problems, including task difficulty, number of possible solutions, group member interest in the problem, group familiarity with the problem, and the need for solution acceptance.

• The group problem-solving process has five steps:

  1. Define the problem by creating a problem statement that summarizes it.
  2. Analyze the problem and create a problem question that can guide solution generation.
  3. Generate possible solutions. Possible solutions should be offered and listed without stopping to evaluate each one.
  4. Evaluate the solutions based on their credibility, completeness, and worth. Groups should also assess the potential effects of the narrowed list of solutions.
  5. Implement and assess the solution. Aside from enacting the solution, groups should determine how they will know the solution is working or not.
• Before a group makes a decision, it should brainstorm possible solutions. Group communication scholars suggest that groups (1) do a warm-up brainstorming session; (2) do an actual brainstorming session in which ideas are not evaluated, wild ideas are encouraged, quantity not quality of ideas is the goal, and new combinations of ideas are encouraged; (3) eliminate duplicate ideas; and (4) clarify, organize, and evaluate ideas. In order to guide the idea-generation process and invite equal participation from group members, the group may also elect to use the nominal group technique.
• Common decision-making techniques include majority rule, minority rule, and consensus rule. With majority rule, only a majority, usually one-half plus one, must agree before a decision is made. With minority rule, a designated authority or expert has final say over a decision, and the input of group members may or may not be invited or considered. With consensus rule, all members of the group must agree on the same decision.

• Several factors influence the decision-making process:

  • Situational factors include the degree of freedom a group has to make its own decisions, the level of uncertainty facing the group and its task, the size of the group, the group’s access to information, and the origin and urgency of the problem.
  • Personality influences on decision making include a person’s value orientation (economic, aesthetic, theoretical, political, or religious), and personality traits (dominant/submissive, friendly/unfriendly, and instrumental/emotional).
  • Cultural influences on decision making include the heterogeneity or homogeneity of the group makeup; cultural values and characteristics such as individualism/collectivism, power distance, and high-/low-context communication styles; and gender and age differences.