GROUP PROCESS
Chapter 8
Overview
Group Process Perspectives
– Functional Approach – 3 Explanations
– Interactional Approach
RESEARCH FOCUS
– Relationship Between Group Process &
Group Output
– Possible Phases in Group Discussion
Perspecitives/Paradigms REVIEW
Conflict – Relational Perspective
Conformity & Deviance – Structural
Cohesion – Structural & Relational
Group Process
– Communication in decision-making groups
– Functional Approach (deviant of structural)
– Interactional Approach (deviant of relational)
Functional Approach
to Group Processes
Functional perspective concerns the behaviors of
people in a social system
FUNCTIONS = GOALS
– Maintenance
– Task performance
“Any social system has a set of goals toward
which it directs it actions”
Primary goal: SURVIVE & MAINTAIN
Members perform the functions the group needs
Positive & Negative Functions
– Facilitate or prevent the group from reaching its goals
– Types of Functions
Discussion Functions
Functional Roles— (Benne & Sheats, 1948)
– Group Task Roles (Table 8.1)
– Group Maintenance Roles (Table 8.2)
– Individual Roles
“Equilibrium Problem” - TASK (Bales, 1950)
– Task and Maintenance Extremes
– Managed by developing properties to balance the extremes
– Sequential Task Problems
ORIENTATION – common understanding and definition of task
EVALUATION – develop common values regarding what a good
solution must accomplish.
CONTROL – find best solution for the task, using power and
influence relationships among its members
– Bales’ IPA (Interactional Process Analysis) (Table 8.3)
“Essential Functions” (Hirokawa, 1982)
Hirokawa’s Functional Perspective
Four Essential Functions of Small Group Decision
Making
– Ability to Analyze the Problem
– Ability to Identify Appropriate Criteria for Making a
Decision
– Ability to Develop Alternative Choices
– Ability to Evaluate Positive and Negative Aspects of
Alternative Choices
Accounts for 60-70% of the Variance
Quality of Decision should be determined by
people who are impacted by the decision.
Hirokawa’s Functional Perspective
Application of Method to
Communication Functions
– “Action Relationships”
Ladder of Abstraction (Figure 8.1, pg. 9)
Relationships among levels are flexible
– Functions are ACTIONS
– The “Act-Tree” and the Three Proposals
– Theories of Communicative Functions
RELATE to Group Performance
Functional Approach Summary
Levels of Functions (low, middle, high) are
important
Theories should not “mix” levels of
abstraction
Group performance and functions are not
all related in the same way.
Functions from different levels perform
differently, and any theory about group
performance must account for this!
Interactional Approaches
to Group Process
Investigate group patterns that form over time.
Repetitive communication sequences become patterned
over time
Systems exist when a number of objects are interrelated
– Human Systems Model (HSM)
Objects are People
Study Relationships AMONG People
– Interact Systems Model (ISM) – “Interactionalists”
Units of communication (ACTS) are the objects that interrelate
Focus is on recurring patterns of these acts
INTERACT – a system of two “acts”
Q: “Are utterances in group discussion probabilistically related?”
– Inductive (theory generating) research
Interactional Approach Summary
Not Particularly Helpful
– Inductive – theory generating
– Deductive – theory driven
Theories would not have told us
anything particularly useful
Did not focus on output variables
Group-Process Research
Study relationship between group
interaction and group output
Q1: Does group process relate to
group output?
Q2: Can scientists divide the
process of group discussion into a
series of phases?
Relationship Between Group
Process & Group Output
Bales – groups use communication in
different ways to perform the balancing
act between task and maintenance roles
Method – three criteria
– Who said it?
– To whom what is said?
– What is the function of the act?
Results
– A successful group’s output is based on the
proper proportion and sequence of
communicative functions.
Low Level Functions
Relationship Between Group
Process & Group Output
Hirokawa (high level functions)
Confounds
– Trainers looking for functions
– “halo” and “horn” effects
Conclusions
– Groups need a small set of “critical functions”
to make successful decisions
– When communicative statements help groups
meet these requirements, they bring about a
high-quality decision
Relationship Between Group
Process & Group Output
Hewes (1986)
Group discussion does not affect group
output
Systems Model
– Inputs-Process-Output Model
– Synergy
– Interdependence
Importance of Individual Aspects
Thinking Aloud
Vacuous Acknowledgments
How “good” groups appear “good.”
QUESTION
Does small group discussion consist
of more than vacuous
acknowledgments and thinking
out loud?
Answer
YES…well sometimes, yes!
There are situations in which group
process has no effect on output
Other situations where PROCESS is
CRITICAL for group performance!
Important Variables
– Group homogeneity
– Task complexity
Possible PHASES in Group
Discussion
Concerns the manner in which group members conduct their discussion.
Bales’ Phase Hypothesis
– Orientation, Evaluation, Control
Tuckman’s Four Phase Model (p. 23)
– Groups pass through four phases, with each phase containing both maintenance and task phases that run
roughly concurrently
Linear Phase Model of Group Process – GROUP STRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT
– Scheidel & Crowell (1964)
– Linear – never go back to earlier stages
Spiral Model – GROUP IDEA DEVELOPMENT
Fisher’s SYNTHESIS MODEL “The Four Phase Sequence Model”
– FUNCTIONS (interpretation, substantiation, clarification, modification, evaluation)
– VALENCE (favorable, unfavorable, ambiguous)
Poole focused on how groups “SHOULD” make decisions
– Groups simultaneously progress along a series of tracks, with each track representing a feature of group
processes (TASK, MAINTENANCE, TOPIC PROCESS
Pavitt’s attempts to refine theory(ies) of group development
Possible Phases - Summary
Linear Phase Model is too simplistic!
Cyclical Processes occur as a group
discusses specific proposals
Large disparities exist in the number
and order of phases that individual
groups go through during discussion.
Summary
Group Process Perspectives
– Functional Approach (concerned with the ways groups
complete their tasks and maintain their cohesiveness)
– Interactional Approach (concerned with discussion patterns
and how group patterns form over time)
RESEARCH FOCUS
– Relationship Between Group Process & Group Output
– The ways groups utilize types of statements during group
discussion – (Possible Phases in Group Discussion)
Linear phase models
Spiral (Cyclical phase) models