Group Communications Essay

Three television sets of diametrical group and team fundamental fundamental interaction will be reviewed for this paper. After they have been viewed they will be discussed on matters of the relationship amongst group members, member diversity and communication style.The early case study to be reviewed is Helping Annie. In this video a nurture go down on has c on the wholeed a meeting with a psychiatrist and a well-disposed prole to discuss the case of a High school student, Annie, who possibly suffers from depression and an eating disorder. Right off the bat the school nurse is interrupted by the psychiatrist ahead she send word refinement giving the background in kneadation on Annie. He wants facts immediately non impressions. He catch up withs a nimble finish as to her problem and her sermon within minutes of their meeting and turn aroundms to believe that they be done, no much needs to be said.The Social doer does not oppose with his decision and offers a counter solution but is again interrupted by the psychiatrist. The psychiatrist wants to social function medication and the Social piddleers wants to starting line talk to Annie and see if they can understand what the teenager is going through. The psychiatrist sees this as a total waste of time. on that point does not seem to be some(prenominal)(prenominal) real facilitator of these meeting, and no one points out the psychiatrists unvaried interruptions of the social worker but the social worker herself. The school nurse is totally intimidated into silence by both of their behaviors.The psychologist seems to have the communication traits of what the test calls thinkers, and the Social worker has the traits of a feeler. According to the text, Thinks atomic number 18 task-oriented. They give pride in their ability to think objectively and logically, regardless of if those thoughts are correct. (Reeve, 2007, Ch. 3, pg.69, para.2) Feelers are people-oriented. The psychologist is very rail and analytical. He seems to want to remove each feelings or humanity from Annies case while the social worker is taking a more subjective, humane approach to Annies problems and is manifestly more concerned with the girls well- world than a quick fix.The diversity that exists in this group is both gender and correct. The group contain of 2 women and one older man, the older man, the psychiatrist,seems to believe that the social worker and school nurse are not in the same class as he, his age, experience and profession making him superior to them on all levels, therefore, their opinions are not worth considering. This diversity is a hindrance in their communication because the psychologist is not audition to the two women and continues to interrupt them because he doesnt have much time here. If victimisation a high linguistic context perspective the viewer could draw the conclusion that the psychologist does not agree with the social worker by watching his nonve rbal behavior such as his gestures and facial expressions.In a high-context culture little meaning is expressed through words. Meaning can be conveyed through status such as age, gender, education or title. (Reeve, 2007) One method that could have been employ to improve communications would have been to have a facilitator present to determine that each party had the same amount of time to express his or her opinions. Another utility would have been a change of setting from the casual setting to a more professional seating area arrangement that whitethorn have helped foster communication between all parties present, such as a round table or face to face seating.The min video reviewed is Planning the Playground. The group consists of three males and two females three Caucasians and two minorities. The video case opens with two new members, one a junior male, Ray and one older woman, Betty, meeting the team for the first time. There seems to be two slightly awkward moments wh en Ray first scarcely offers to shake the hands of the men at the table and when he has discompose pronouncing the name of the minority female Iesha. The moment was defused quickly when Iesha decided to make a small joke about her name to ease the focus and held out her own hand in greeting. Betty seemed uncertain about language and said she only joined the team to make friends. Communications between the team started out stiff and slow but by victimization team talk, (the nature of the language that group members use as they work together.Not only does team talk enable group members to address information and express opinions, but analysis of team talk overly reveals where the team is coming from and where the team is headed.) (Reeve, 2007, Ch. 5 pg. 124, Para. 2), team leader David unploughed the discussion flowing and moved it to the reason they were there. The role the diversity of the group played in their communication was the differentexperiences each had to bring to t he discussion. Iesha obviously liked research and set numbers and offered not only a sound dollar amount to strive for but reasoning understructure it. Ray countered that he thinks the amount should be higher but offered no real reason as did Phil who wanted the amount lower. After decision making to compromise they moved to fundraising. The immediate response to Bettys suggestion of having a Bake sale was obvious. They did not take her input seriously at all but again the team leader chimed in before their dismissive attitude could be considered rude and insulting. Diversity was also not a strong hindrance to the group even though the strength was there.Conflict management techniques were used by the group by expressing kindle in solving the problem and keeping their tone and language non-threatening, using phrases like well, yes but lets look at it from a different angle or thats a good paper but may not be exactly what we need now.The use of team speak was a very effective c ommunication irradiation that kept the team focused and on track. Another important ray of light that was used was nonverbal. The seating arrangement at the table permitted members to have their ad hominem space but still be able to have direct eye contact. According to Reeve, each persons choice of seating position in groups has a direct effect on interaction and influence. A number of studies have demonstrated that group members prefercorner-to-corner or side-by-side seating for cooperative activities. Such an arrangement allows them to be close full to portion out materials. (Reeve, 2007, CH. 5 pg. 138, Para 1) The team in this case study did commemorate good communication skills on the whole but the one improvement would have been to fancy that before the meeting took place, that each member unsounded what the reason for the meeting was.The last video reviewed is Virtual Communication. This video is a presentation of three people meeting as a team via conference call. Th e third unseen member is not listening to what is macrocosm said by the manager or his coworker. This is obvious because when they ask him a question he pauses or stutters, then repeats something that neither of the other participants really said. Listening is important in any group so that you can be sure to get all the available information as well as know exactly what isexpected of you. This is even more so in the virtual business work when team members are not actually sitting face to face. Charlie is neither listening to what is being said or to the messages that were contained in Ellens email or verbalize mails to him. According to the text, Effective listening in virtual groups requires adapting to a different specialty of expression Your only adaptation is making sure that your mike is on or off at appropriate times. In an email discussion, however, you can neither see nor key out participants, but you still must listen to their messages. (Reeve, 2007, Ch.6, Pg,.168) The disadvantage of group meetings using a virtual medium is that you can fake listening by answering I agree or a non-committal sound. You can also pretend you didnt hear something that you dont want to address as Ellen does in this video when Charlie tries to place the blame on her.Charlie did not effectively use any of his listening skills while on this call. It was apparent by his distracted non-answers that he was not listening. The entire fault is not necessarily Charlies it is not known if he ever fully understood what was expected of him from the first meeting. If he had at any time used one listening skill such as paraphrasing he might have had enough clarification to get his assignment done in time.Paraphrasing is a form of feedback that one lets the speaker know you are listening and gives them the opportunity to straighten out their statement. Paraphrasing can be used for multiple purposes such as To ensure comprehension before evaluation to reassure others that you wan t to understand them to sop up up confusion and ask for clarification and to help others reach their own conclusions. (Reeve, 2007)ReferencesEngleberg, I. Wynn,D. 2007. Working in Groups Communication Principles and Strategies (4th ed.) Allyn & Bacon Publishers.The Collaboration dent Box. 2002-2003. MIT. Online resource. Retreived online January 12, 2009 from http//web.mit.e