Adv. Small Group Comm. Final

Roles

Sets of expectations people hold for themselves and for others in a given context

Task Roles

Roles that members assume to help accomplish the group’s mission

Maintenance Roles

Roles that influence a group’s social atmosphere

Individual Roles

Roles characterized by behavior that calls attention to the individual contributions of group members

Norms

Rules or standards that determine appropriate and inappropriate behaviors in a group

Structuration

Groups do things based on the ways that things were done in other groups

Ground Rules

Explicit, agreed-upon prescriptions for acceptable & appropriate behavior in a group or team

Status

An individual’s importance

Power

The ability to influence or exert control over others

Legitimate Power

Power derived from being elected or appointed to control a group

Referent Power

Power based on interpersonal attraction

Expert Power

The influence someone has over others because of greater knowledge & information

Reward Power

Power based on the ability to reward desired behavior

Coercive Power

Power derived from the ability to punish people for acting or not acting in a certain way

Trust

The extent to which a person is confident in, & willing to act on the basis of, the words, actions, & decisions of another

Primary Tension

Anxiety & tension that occur when a group first meets & members feel awkward & uncertain about how to behave

Secondary Tension

Conflict & stress that occur in a group as members vie for positions of leadership & influence or when group members begin to openly express disagreement about the task at hand

Monochronic

A typically Western view of time as linear & segmented; also, a person who is more comfortable doing one thing at a time

Polychronic

A view of time that places less emphasis on punctuality; also, a person who is able to do many things simultaneously

Group Climate

The emotional environment of a group, which affects & is affected by interaction among members

Strategy

Staged, scripted communication

Evaluation

Use of “you” language calls into question the worth of another person

Description

“I” language describes your own feelings & ideas

Control

Efforts to get others to do what you want them to do

Problem Orientation

Communication aimed at solving problems: “Let’s find a solution that works best for us”

Spontaneity

Here-and-now orientation; being honest rather than planning how to manipulate

Neutrality

Emotional indifference - the unspoken attitude that “you’ll get over it”

Empathy

Emotional involvement; nonverbal behavior is important

Superority

Attitude that you’re better than the other person

Equality

Communication based on mutual respect

Certainty

Taking dogmatic, rigid positions; usually more interested in winning an argument than in solving a problem

Provisionalism

Open to receiving new information; showing some flexibility in the positions you take

Confirming Response

A communication response that causes a person to value himself/herself more

\-Direct acknowledgement

\-Agreement about content

\-Supportive response

\-Clarifying response

\-Expression of positive feeling

Disconfirming Response

A communication response that causes a person to value himself/herself less

\-Impervious response (fails to acknowledge attempt at communicating)

\-Interrupting response

\-Irrelevant response

\-Tangential response

\-Impersonal response

\-Incoherent response

\-Incongruous response (contradicting nonverbal)

Group Cohesiveness

The degree of attraction members feel toward one another & their group

\-Individual benefits

\-Creation of fantasy chains

\-Task effectiveness/productivity

Similarity

The tendency of individuals with like experiences, beliefs, attitudes, & values to be attracted to one another

Complimentarity

The tendency of individuals to be attracted to others who have knowledge, skills, or other attributes that they themselves lack but that they admire

Communication Network

A pattern of interaction within a group; who talks to whom

Bypassing

Occurs when the same word is used to mean different things

Feedback

Any response by listeners that lets speakers know whether they have been understood accurately

Allness Statement

A simple but untrue generalization

Fact-Inference Confusion

Mistaking a conclusion you have drawn for an conclusion

Listening

The active process of selecting, attending, understanding, & remembering

Relational Listening Style

More comfortable listening to other people’s feelings & emotions; they are other-oriented.

Analytical Listening Style

Prefer to focus on facts & tend to withhold judgement before reaching a specific conclusion

Critical Listening Style

Comfortable listening to detailed, complex information and zeroing in the facts

Task Listening Style

Prefer information that is brief, well-organized, and error free. Can help the group keep on schedule and stay focused on the agenda

Emblems

A nonverbal cue with a specific verbal counterpart, such as a word, letter, or number.

Illustrators

A nonverbal behavior that accompanies & embellishes verbal communication. ex: emphasizing a spoken message while jabbing a raised index finger in the air with each word

Affect Display

A nonverbal behavior that communicates emotion. ex: facial expression

Regulators

A nonverbal behavior that helps a group control the flow of communication. ex: eye contact, postures, gestures, etc.

Adaptors

A nonverbal act that helps people adapt to their immediate environment

Paralanguage

Vocal cues such as pitch, volume, speaking rate, & voice quality that provide information about the meaning of a message

Small Group Ecology

The consistent way in which people in small groups arrange themselves physically

Proxemics

The study of how close to or far away from other people & objects we choose to be

Territoriality

Use of space to claim or defend a given area

Perception Checking

The skill of asking someone whether your interpretation of his/her message is accurate; the skill requires observing behavior, thinking about what the behavior might mean, & asking whether your interpretation is accurate

Conflict

An expressed struggle between at least two interdependent people who perceive incompatible goals, scarce resources, & interference from others in an attempt to achieve a specific goal

Interdependent

What happens to one person person influences others in the group

Conflict Phase

Fisher’s 2nd phase of group interaction, in which disagreement & individual differences arise.

Pseudo-Conflict

Conflict that occurs when individuals agree, but, because of poor communication, they misunderstand one another

Simple Conflict

Conflict that occurs when 2 people’s goals or ideas are mutually exclusive or incompatiable

Task Conflict

Conflict that occurs because of substantive differences about how to accomplish what the group is trying to achieve

Process Conflict

Conflict that occurs when one or more group members disagree about how a task could or should be accomplished; there’s a difference of opinion about group procedures to accomplish the task

Ego Conflict

Conflict that occurs when individuals become defense because they feel they’re being attacked

Relational Conflict

Conflict that occurs when one or more group members don’t like, respect, or value another person

Surface-Level Diversity

Social differences that are more readily visible, such as differences in ethnicity, skin color, age, sex, and other noticeable differences

Deep-Level Diversity

Human differences that are less readily visible, such as attitudes, values, opinions, information, & other factors, & that take time to detect

Avoidance

Conflict-management style that involves ignoring disagreements in an effort to side-step conflict

Accomodation

Conflict-management style that involves giving in to the demands of others

Competition

Conflict-management style that stresses winning at the expense of others involved

Compromise

Conflict-management style that attempts to find the middle ground in the conflict

Collaboration

To use positive communication strategies in conflict management in an attempt to achieve a positive solution for all involved

Groupthink

The illusion of agreement exhibited by group members who try to minimize conflict & reach consensus without critically testing, analyzing, & evaluating ideas

Central Negative Role

An individual role that’s characterized by consistently challenging the leader’s power & position & offering negative comments about the group’s progress

Gunny-Sacking

A poor communication technique of dredging up old problems & issues from the past to use against your communication partner

X-Y-Z Formula

A way to describe feelings by saying, “When you do X, in situation Y, I feel Z.”

Criteria

Standards for an acceptable solution to a problem

Consensus

Support for & commitment to a decision on the part of all group members

Metadiscussion

A statement about the process of discussion itself rather than about the discussion topic; discussion about discussion

Leadership

Behavior or communication that influences, guides, directs, or controls a group

Trait Perspective

A view of leadership as the personal attributes or qualities that leaders possess

Functional Perspective

A view of leadership that assumes all group members can initiate leadership behaviors

Task Leadership

Communication directed toward accomplishing a group’s task or goal

Process Leadership

Communication directed toward maintaining interpersonal relationships & a positive group climate; also called group building or maintenance

\-releasing tension, gatekeeping, encouraging, mediating

Situational Perspective

A perspective that views leadership as the interaction of group needs & goals, leadership style, & the situation aka contingency approach

Leadership Style

A relatively consistent behavior pattern that reflects a leader’s beliefs and attitudes; classified as authoritarian, democratic, or laissez-faire

Transformational Leadership

Leadership that aims to change an organization by realigning its culture around a new vision

Creativity

The generation, application, combination, & extension of new ideas

Innovation

A creative process of putting new ideas into action; includes idea generation, feasibility analysis, reality testing, & implementation of the new idea.

Invention

The process of developing new ideas

Noise

Anything that interferes with a message being interpreted by the receiver as intended by the source

Stinking Thinking

Thoughts that limit a person’s, group’s, or organization’s possibilities.

Brainstorming

A problem-solving that helps a group generate creative options

Nominal-Group Technique

A problem-solving brainstorming method in which members work individually on ideas, rank the suggested solutions, & then report their findings for group discussion

Silent Brainstorming

A period of individual brainstorming that occurs before group members share their ideas with the group; integral to the nominal-group technique; also may be used as a part of traditional brainstorming

Delphi Technique

A technique where people share ideas in writing, without meeting face-to-face; aka absentee brainstorming

Electronic Brainstorming

A method of generating creative ideas using electronic devices; group members write out their own ideas, which are then displayed to all other members

Affinity Technique

A method of generating & organizing ideas by using Post-it notes; group members write each idea on a note & then sort the ideas into common categories

Reverse-Brainstorming

Brainstorming ideas or solutions that would make the problem *worse*, & then considering the implications of doing the opposite