If you never worried about group communication, consider this. In larger organizations, you will be spending 70% of your time in a group ritual known as a meeting. And as you go toward the ranks of the executive, more and more time is spend in more and more meetings.
Besides the huge amount time in chairs in conference rooms, it would not be unusual for you to spend a good share of that time lost in forbidden fantasy or enthralled in one's own self-talk. Bottom Line, most people don't really pay much attention to what is going on.
A very simple way to understand group communication is to realize that all communication is the sharing of meaning, whether we do so verbally or nonverbally. What separates group communication from interpersonal communication is size. Group communication begins with three or more individuals.
Effective Group Communication
How you define effectiveness, depends on your purpose. Let's say your purpose is to inform. In that case one can measure the ability of people to comprehend your message. A simple way would be to send out a written message and then ask a question in a meeting. Of course, asking a question has its limitations. Most members won't want to admit that they didn't read the message or didn't understand the message.
One can also try to measure comprehension by looking at confusion. It's amazing, how often people and groups are confused but fail to say anything. This happens many times in every meeting. And of course, there are certain types of meetings where the audience is almost always confused, almost all a time. Think about when you're a student listening to professor's lecture.
Another type of purpose has to do with persuasion. Different people define persuasion differently. But all these definitions have in common the receiver of the information agreeing with the sender.
Why can also say that we can indirectly measure effectiveness of group communication by the actions taken by the members of the group. However, the realm of action also depends on other factors such as human motivation.
Definition Of Group
There are many different definitions of group communication. Some definitions are based on size of group, others are based on type of group, as others still are based on the purpose of why the group is meeting.
Type of Group. There are many different type of groups. Some such as referent groups have a huge influence on our thinking—even shaping our values. While others such as Some like a family will hold together for many years while others such as a project team are time limited.
Group Size. On the aspect of size, we have a lower limit of two people and an upper limit of aliens potentially. The communication patterns exhibited when two people are talking, are different from those in a group of three or more. And the communication pattern shown in a group of five, a quite different then the group of 10,50 or 100.
Group Organization. Some groups are organized to communicate a certain type of way. Let's take a look at a simple network model. As you see even a very small group of five that can be of varying pattern of communication between members.
Group Task. In this case, the communication patterns one see in a mob, are quite different from those observed in a group of people waiting for bus. Although, some of you might say neither one is exhibiting exemplary communication patterns.
Let's take the example a group of individuals on an assembly line. Their ability to communicate maybe limited by management, since everyone is expected to put their total attention on assembling the product. Or they may be free to carry on informal conversation while they're working. In any case, the communication tends to be the person on the right and the person on the left.
Verbal and Nonverbal Communication. Some groups tend to communicate more nonverbally than they do verbally. A perfect example of this, is a basketball game. There has to be a set of nonverbal communications between members in terms of how the ball gets past, or whether specific individual wants to receive the ball make a shot.
Three Major Group Processes
During small group meetings, there are three at least types of processes going on simultaneously.
The Communication Process. The first one is the communication process use by members. This process often runs unconsciously and so very few people pay attention to it.
Meeting Process. The second process, is also often undefined since many meetings run without a agenda. Often people walk into a meeting confused on why they are there.
Problem Solving Process. And finally, the last process affecting communication is the problem-solving process (or lack there of). Again in many groups this process is vague and ill-defined. In fact, you might find that most people don't understand the difference between a problem and a decision.
Major Communication Patterns
Communication patterns are correctly affected by the purpose of the meeting. Typically, you'll see three types.
Information Giving. The first type, is where the chair or the leader primarily provides information. For example, a manager provides news, the teacher is providing information and the preacher is offering salvation.
Information Receiving. The reverse of information giving is information receiving. So in this case, we are primarily focusing receiving information from a group.
Problem Solving. In a problem-solving environment, communication patterns become much more complicated than the simpler roles played when one is giving information or receiving information.
Major Roles Impacting Communication
Leader. Every group has a leader. And most the time, that individual tends to dominate the conversation. This role is necessary and difficult to do well. Typically, strong leadership is required at the beginning of a problem-solving meeting to frame the issue and to motivate individuals to come up with solutions. It's even more critical at the end of the meeting, where people have to " volunteer" to perform some type work of extra. The leader often adapts a dominant style of communication, mostly using statements. The expectation communicated is that subordinates must obey.
Facilitator. The communication patterns exhibited by good facilitator are actually quite different from those seen in the leader. A facilitator is perceived to be neutral and strives to help the group reach a consensus. Because of this, facilitators tend to use less statements and rely more on questions. Also, a facilitator plays a leadership role in the group, but it is a very subtle one. In fact, one can be a participant and also intervene in group dynamics as a facilitator.
Recorder (Scribe). This is a vital role, often not played in meetings across the world. If you stop to think about it, most people have very bad memories. Let's go back to meeting that you had on Wednesday or better still pick a staff meeting two weeks ago. How much that meeting do you actually remember? Most people would say practically nothing. Thus the importance of the recorder. It's actually a powerful position since the recorder often shapes results that come out of any problem-solving meeting. Typically, a good recorder needs to capture and communicate key decisions and actions.
Participants. Finally the last major communication role in meetings is referred to as a participants. Some participants may communicate too much–as most extroverts do. Other participants don't communicate at all–as we see with introverts. Unfortunately, may participants end up playing self-oriented communication roles. These are roles, that typically lead to dysfunctional results.
To cite one simple example, you may to be talking about the budget but all of a sudden you observe the participants talking about pay, and how bad the pay is around this organization. You may reflect for a moment about the craziness of group dynamics that allows participants to be so undisciplined that they stray off topic and might be reminded of the old saying, "All sheep need a shepherd."
Informal Group Communication Roles
Minor communication roles (sometimes known as informal communication roles) are where to need to focus attention if one wants to run meetings really well. Besides dealing with the self-oriented category of roles that one will see in meetings, a great leader or facilitator will needs to develop skill in playing task and relationship (maintenance) roles.
Task Roles. Task roles facilitate the process of getting the job done. They help to come up with a solution for a problem, identify who's responsible, ensure that there is a plan. Collectively, these roles are necessary to execute on the task dimension and the situational leadership models you may have seen before. Of course, it's not just all about the job, the problem, the work, it's also about people.
Relationship Roles. Sometimes problems occur in relationships. One example is conflict. Typically people categorize conflict as either constructive or destructive. No conflict in a group can be just as bad as too much conflict.
And of course if there is conflict, one risks damage two the relationships that are so important, that are so critical, that underlie trust. So someone hopefully the leader, needs to adapt a set of relationship oriented roles to reduce the amount of conflict when people start taking these disagreements personally.
These are important roles to learn, vital if you want to successfully lead or facilitate a group.
Summary
Effective group communication is complicated, more complicated than you think. And it becomes even more complicated the more political the group becomes or the larger the size of the group.
However, one can learn to better manage, better lead, better run groups if one starts to pay greater attention to the communication roles so vital to making things work well. Just like the city cannot work without the invisible infrastructure of clear water and waste removal, so a group needs skilled individuals who can play the right task and relationship roles by a group at the right moment.
