Relational messages are usually expressed nonverbally

Group Leadership And Conflict Summary

I have uploaded the other person's post along with mine as well as chapters you will need for this assignment. Sorry for the short notice but I had to wait to see if others participated

Write a 1,400- to 1,750-word summary of your responses to the following, after completing the collaborative Week 3 discussion associated with the "Planning a Playground and "Politics of Sociology" videos.

Group Interaction

How clear was the intent of the discussion?
How prepared were your group members for the discussion?
Did everyone participate equally in the discussion? No only myself and one other participated in the discussions
Were group members open to different points of view? Yes
How would you describe the overall climate of the discussion?
Did you feel your group was productive in the discussion? Did you use the time efficiently?
What strategies can you use in future discussions to increase productivity and outcomes?
What approach will you take next time to increase group cohesion?
Video Analysis - "Planning A Playground"

What are the issues in this meeting?
What did they do well as a group?
Can you identify constructive or deconstructive conflict occurring in this group? What are some key indicators? What conflict styles do you see?
Based on what you learned this week, how might you handle this situation differently?
Video Analysis - "The Politics of Sociology"

What are the issues in this meeting?
What did they do well as a group?
What types of conflict do you see in this video? Provide examples.
There is a clear leader in this video. What can he do to be a better leader for this group?
Based on what you learned this week, how might you handle this team situation differently?
Format your assignment according to appropriate course-level APA guidelines.

This chapter is about the core event in group communication: communication itself. We’ll focus on three essential skills: using words accurately, listening, and communicating nonverbally. Verbal Dynamics in Small Groups The most obvious yet elusive component of small-group communication is the spoken word. Words are at the heart of who and what people are. Their ability to represent the world symbolically gives humans the capacity to foresee events, to reflect on past experiences, to plan, to make decisions, and to consciously control their own behavior. Words as Barriers to Communication Words are the tools with which people make sense of the world and share that sense with others. Paradoxically, words can both facilitate and impede communication. Spoken language gives individuals access to the ideas and inner worlds of other group members, but it can also—intentionally or unintentionally—set up barriers to effective communication. If you grew up in the United States, you can probably remember chanting defensively, “Sticks and stones can break my bones but names can never hurt me.” Even as you uttered this line, you knew it wasn’t true. People often unwittingly communicate in ways that threaten others and make them feel defensive. As noted in Chapter 6, when group members feel a need to protect themselves, they shift their attention from the group’s goal to their personal goal of self-protection, thus creating a barrier to effective group process. Some subtle but pervasive word barriers are (1) bypassing, (2) allness, and (3) fact-inference confusion. Bypassing The meanings of your words seem so obvious to you that you assume they elicit the same meanings from others. Nothing could be further from the truth. Bypassing takes place when two people assign different meanings to the same word. Most words are open to almost limitless interpretations—consider, for example, the words love, respect, and communication. Similarly, you may know precisely what you mean if you say that the department’s account is “seriously overdrawn,” but how are others to interpret that? How serious is “seriously”? According to some estimates, the 500 most frequently used words in the English language have over 14,000 dictionary definitions. Considering that a dictionary definition reflects only a tiny percentage of all possible meanings for a word and that people from different cultures and with different experiences interpret words differently, it is amazing that people can understand one another at all. The number of people involved in groups compounds the problem; the possibility for multiple misunderstandings always exists. Therefore, good feedback among group members is essential. Feedback is any response by listeners that lets speakers know whether they have been understood accurately. To overcome word barriers, people must understand that words are subjective. They need to check that what they understand from others is really what those others intend. Throughout our discussion of the power of verbal messages, we invite you to keep this important idea in mind: You can influence, but cannot control, the meaning others derive from your messages. Meaning is created in others.1 Words do not have meaning in and of themselves. Allness Allness statements are simple but untrue generalizations. You have probably heard such allness statements as “Women are smarter than men,” “Men can run faster than women,” and “Football players aren’t good students.” These statements are convenient, but they simply are not accurate. The danger of allness statements is that you may begin to believe them and to prejudge other people unfairly based on them. Therefore, be careful not to overgeneralize; remember that each individual is unique. Fact-Inference Confusion Statements of fact can be made only after direct observation. Inferences can be made at any time; no observation is necessary to make an inference. Fact-inference confusion occurs when people respond to something as if they have actually observed it, when in reality they have merely drawn a conclusion. The key distinction between a fact and an inference is that in statements of inference people can speculate about and interpret what they think occurred. Suppose, for example, that you hear someone comment, “Men are better than women at math.” If this statement were true, it would mean that all men and women were tested and that the results indicated that men are better in math than women. The statement is an inference. If the speaker is summarizing research that has investigated the issue, he or she should say, “Some studies have found that. . . .” rather than “It’s a fact that. . . .” The first statement more accurately describes reality than does the second. Like bypassing and allness statements, fact-inference confusion can lead to inaccuracy and misunderstanding. REVIEW: WORD BARRIERS AND HOW TO AVOID THEM Barrier Description Approach Bypassing Occurs when the same word is used to mean different things Use specific language; be aware of multiple interpretations of what you say; clarify. Allness statements Simple but untrue generalizations Don’t overgeneralize; remember that all individuals are unique. Fact-inference confusion Mistaking a conclusion you have drawn for an observation Clarify and analyze; learn to recognize the difference between fact and inference, and communicate the difference clearly. 12-29-09 © 2009 Scott Adams, Inc./Dist. By UFS, Inc. Listening Good listening skills are an important component of being an effective group member or leader.2 However, poor listening habits are one of the most common sources of defensiveness and discord. It is easier to be a poor listener in groups than it is in interpersonal situations because often in a group you do not have to respond to the speaker. After all, the other group members can always pick up the conversation. However, groups cannot reach their maximum effectiveness unless all members listen actively to one another. Listening is a skill that can be improved with practice. It is an active process through which people select, attend, understand, and remember. To listen effectively, people must actively select and attend to the messages they receive. This involves filtering out the other stimuli that compete for their attention: the hunger pangs they’re starting to feel, mental lists of the groceries they need to pick up on the way home, or curiosity about the attractive person nearby. Improving any skill takes knowledge and practice. This section will provide some knowledge. The practice is up to you. Are you listening? Listening Styles Do your ears perk up when you hear someone telling an interesting story, or would you be more interested in listening to data, facts, and details? There is evidence that different people have different listening styles.3 Your listening style is your preferred way of making sense out of the spoken messages you hear.4 Listening researchers have identified four overarching listening styles: people-oriented, action-oriented, content-oriented, and time-oriented. What difference does it make to know your preferred listening style? In a small group, with multiple verbal messages coming at you from several people, you may find yourself focused more on one person’s message than another’s. We’ll discuss each of the four listening styles so that you can identify your preferred style and develop strategies for listening that may not come naturally to you. People-Oriented Listeners People-oriented listeners are most comfortable listening to other people’s feelings and emotions. They empathize with others and search for common areas of interest; they are other-oriented. In a small group, people-oriented listeners will focus on the stories others tell and be good at developing relationships and fulfilling group maintenance roles. People-oriented, interpersonally sensitive group leaders tend to have more satisfied subordinates.5 Action-Oriented Listeners Action-oriented listeners prefer information that is well-organized, brief, and error free. While a people-oriented listener likes to hear longer stories about others, action-oriented listeners want others to get to the point so that they can figure out what to do with the information. Action-oriented listeners tend to be a bit more skeptical of what they hear; they are likely to focus on the underlying reasoning and evidence that supports the conclusions presented. Action-oriented listeners help a group stay focused on the task and assess the quality of information presented. They are more likely to assume task-oriented roles to achieve the group’s goal. Content-Oriented Listeners Content-oriented listeners like information-rich content; they are more comfortable listening to complex, detailed information than are people with other listening styles. A content-oriented listener is likely to perk up when someone says, “Here are five things we should consider.” If a message does not include enough supporting evidence and specific details, the content-oriented listener will be more likely to reject the message. A content-oriented listener would be a good person to take notes at group meetings and to help the group analyze the issues. Time-Oriented Listeners Time-oriented listeners prefer brief messages. They are busy and do not have time to listen to long, rambling talks. Time-oriented listeners remain constantly aware of the amount of time they have to listen. That is why it’s good to have time-oriented listeners in a group—they will help the group keep on schedule and stay focused on the agenda. There is no single best listening style for communicating in groups and teams. Listening and other human communication processes are changing to accommodate the cyber world of the twenty-first century.6 Each style has its advantages and disadvantages. If you were focused only on distilling from the speaker’s words a brief and concise message (that is, if you were a time-oriented listener), you would not be as attuned to the relationships and feelings of others (people-oriented listeners). And although it’s good to focus on details (as would a content-oriented listener) or on what the action steps are (as would an action-oriented listener), spending too much time on the task without being aware of relationships can also be detrimental to a group. Just as it’s a good thing for groups to have people play a variety of roles, it’s also useful for groups to have people with differing listening styles. If, for example, most of your group members are people-oriented listeners, then the group will have to be more mindful of focusing on facts, data, and evidence. On the other hand, a team composed entirely of content- or action-oriented listeners may need to ensure that they are managing the relational aspects of the group. Once you know your own preferred listening style, you can work to develop other styles, so you will be able to adapt your style to different situations. Obstacles to Effective Listening Regardless of your listening style, you need to overcome the common obstacles to effective listening. There are many such obstacles—outside distractions, an uncomfortable chair, a headache—but the focus here will be on two prevalent and serious barriers: prejudging and rehearsing. Prejudging the Communicator or the Communication Sometimes you simply dislike certain people or always disagree with them. You anticipate that what these people will say will be offensive, and you begin to tune them out. An example of this is many people’s tendency to “tune out” the speeches of politicians who hold political beliefs different from their own. In a group, you must overcome the temptation to ignore those you think are boring, pedantic, offensive, or wrong. Good ideas can come from anyone, even from people with whom you disagree. Likewise, you should not prejudge certain topics as being too complex, boring, or controversial. This can be difficult, especially when a cherished belief is criticized or when others say things about you that you might not want to hear. These are precisely the times when communication needs to be clear, open, honest, and confirming. To communicate effectively, you need to listen. Good listening skills are an important characteristic of a good group member. It is especially important not to prejudge others on the basis of culture, ethnicity, or race. Despite continuing social progress, such prejudices linger.7 In one study, college students indicated that racial stereotypes are alive and well. African Americans said that Whites were “demanding” and “manipulative.” Whites reported that Blacks are “loud” and “ostentatious.”8 Such prejudices inhibit our ability to listen effectively and also foster defensiveness in groups. Rehearsing a Response Communication scholar John Shotter observed that “in our talk with others, we listen for opportunities to express our own point of view, to add it to or contrast it with theirs.”9 While looking for such opportunities and planning what we will say, we are actually sacrificing an opportunity to fully understand and be understood. Rehearsing is perhaps the most difficult listening obstacle to overcome. It is the tendency people have to rehearse in their minds what they will say when the other person stops speaking. One of the reasons for this is the difference between speech rate and thought rate. Most people speak at a rate of about 100–125 words per minute, but they have the capacity to think or listen at a rate of 400 or more words per minute! This gives them the time to wander off mentally while keeping one ear on the speaker. The thought-speech differential is better used, though, to attend fully to what the speaker is saying—and not saying. When people learn to do this, their responses can be more spontaneous, accurate, appropriate, confirming, and supportive.10 © 2010 Scott Adams, Inc./Dist. by UFS, Inc. A Guide to Active Listening Supportive, confirming communication focuses not only on verbal messages but on the emotional content of the messages and on nonverbal behaviors as well. Learning to quiet one’s own thoughts and to avoid prejudging others is a first step. Fully understanding others, though, involves considerable effort. Active listening is an attempt to clarify and understand another’s thoughts and feelings. To listen actively involves several steps. These steps may seem like common sense, but they are far from common practice. 1. Stop: Before you can effectively tune in to what someone else may be feeling, you need to stop what you are doing, eliminate as many distractions as possible, and focus fully on the other person.11 Two listening researchers conducted a study to identify the specific behaviors of good listeners.12 What they discovered supports our admonition that the first thing you have to do to be a better listener is to stop focusing on your own mental messages and instead be other-oriented. Specifically, here are five actions you should take during what the researchers called the “pre-interaction phase” of listening: Put your own thoughts aside. Be there mentally, not only physically. Make a conscious, mindful effort to listen. Take adequate time to listen—don’t rush the speaker; be patient. Be open-minded. 2. Look: Now look for clues that will help you identify how the other person is feeling. Most communication of emotion comes through nonverbal cues. The face provides important information about how a person is feeling, as do voice quality, pitch, rate, volume, and use of silence. Body movement and posture clearly indicate the intensity of a person’s feelings. We will discuss the role of nonverbal messages in more detail later in the chapter. 3. Listen: Listen for what another person is telling you. Even though that person may not say exactly how he or she feels, look for cues. Match verbal with nonverbal cues to decipher both the content and the emotion of the person’s message. In addition, ask yourself, “How would I feel if I were in that person’s position?” Try to interpret the message according to the sender’s code system rather than your own. 4. Ask appropriate questions: As you try to understand another person, you may need to ask some questions. Most of them will serve one of four purposes: (1) to obtain additional information (“How soon will you be ready to give your part of our presentation?”); (2) to find out how someone feels (“Are you feeling overwhelmed by this assignment?”); (3) to ask for clarification of a word or phrase (“What do you mean when you say you didn’t realize what you were getting into?”); and (4) to verify your conclusion about your partner’s meaning or feeling (“Are you saying that you can’t complete the project without some additional staff assistance?”). 5. Paraphrase content: Restate in your own words what you think another person is saying. Paraphrasing is different from parroting back everything that person has said. After all, you can repeat something perfectly without understanding what it means. Rather, from time to time, summarize the message another person has given you so far. Paraphrasing can help both listener and speaker understanding. Paraphrasing is also associated with increased liking for the listener.13 Emily: I think this job is too much for me; I’m not qualified to do it. Howard: You think you lack the necessary skills. Note that at this point Howard is dealing only with the content of Emily’s message. The goal of active listening, though, is to understand both the feelings and the content of another person’s message. 6. Paraphrase feelings: In the example just given, Howard could follow his paraphrase of the content of the message with a question such as, “You’re probably feeling pretty frustrated right now, aren’t you?” Such a paraphrase would allow Emily either to agree with Howard’s assessment or to clarify how she’s feeling. For instance, she might respond, “No, I’m not frustrated. I’m just disappointed that the job’s not working out.” A summary of active listening skills would be to act like an active listener and to suspend judgment. Effective listening skills can contribute a great deal to building a supportive, cohesive group.14 Effective listening is also the cornerstone of critical thinking—the skill required to make decisions and solve problems effectively, as you’ll learn in later chapters. For now, we turn our attention to the second step of active listening: looking for nonverbal communication. The Importance of Nonverbal Communication in Groups Nonverbal communication is communication behavior that does not rely on written or spoken words. This definition includes body posture and movement, eye contact, facial expression, seating arrangement, spatial relationships, personal appearance, use of time, and even tone of voice. Although the words someone utters are not classified as nonverbal communication, the pitch, quality, and intonation of the voice, the rate of speaking, and the use of silence can speak volumes; thus, vocal tone is considered part of nonverbal communication. Every message contains both content and information about relationships. Nonverbal messages, particularly facial expression and vocal cues, are often the prime source of information about interpersonal relationships. Thus, they play important functions in metacommunication—which means communication about communication. The nonverbal aspects of a message communicate information about its verbal aspects. You have undoubtedly participated in group and team meetings that were dull and boring. Although not all unexciting group discussion results from poor or inappropriate nonverbal communication, group members’ posture, facial expression, tone of voice, and unspoken enthusiasm (or lack of enthusiasm) dramatically affect a group’s climate and members’ attitudes toward the group. We’ll examine three reasons why nonverbal communication variables are important to group discussion. More Time Is Spent Communicating Nonverbally Than Verbally In a group or team discussion, usually only one person speaks at a time. The rest of the members can, however, emit a host of nonverbal cues that influence the deliberations. (Some cues are controlled consciously, others are emitted less intentionally.) Eye contact, facial expression, body posture, and movement occur even when only one person is speaking. Because group members are usually within just a few feet of one another, they can easily observe most nonverbal cues. In other words, it is safe to say that “you cannot not communicate.” Emotions and Feelings Are Typically Expressed Nonverbally Rather Than Verbally In the past several chapters we identified factors that influence the climate of a group, what it feels like to be a group member. If a group member is frustrated with the group or disenchanted with the discussion, more than likely you will detect those feelings by observing that person’s nonverbal behavior—even before he or she verbalizes any frustration. If a member seems genuinely interested in the discussion and pleased with the group’s progress, this, too, can be observed through nonverbal behavior. Albert Mehrabian and some of his colleagues devised a formula that suggests how much of the total emotional meaning of a message is based on verbal components and how much on nonverbal components.15 According to this research, only 7 percent of the emotional meaning of a message is communicated through its verbal content. About 38 percent of the emotional content is derived from the voice (its pitch, quality, and volume and the rate of speech). The largest source of emotional meaning, 55 percent, is a speaker’s facial expression. Thus, approximately 93 percent of the emotional portion of a message is communicated nonverbally. Although these percentages cannot be applied to all situations, Mehrabian’s research suggests that when inconsistencies exist between people’s verbalized emotional states and their true emotions, expressed non-verbally, nonverbal cues carry more clout in determining how receivers interpret speakers’ emotions. Vincent Brown and his colleagues suggest that the expression of feelings and emotions during group discussion can have a negative effect on group members’ brainstorming ideas.16 During a freewheeling brainstorming session, group members are not supposed to evaluate others’ ideas, yet because of nonverbal expression of feelings, it’s almost impossible not to let true positive or negative feelings leak out. Nonverbal Messages Are Usually More Believable Than Verbal Messages Nonverbal communication affects how others interpret our messages. Nonverbal cues are so important to communication that when a verbal message (either spoken or written) contradicts a nonverbal message, people are more inclined to believe the nonverbal message. The group member who sighs and, with a sarcastic edge, says, “Oh, what a great group this is going to be,” communicates just the opposite meaning of that verbal message. One researcher suggests that as much as 65 percent of the way we convey meaning in our messages is through nonverbal channels.17 An understanding of nonverbal communication, then, is vital to even a superficial understanding of communication in general and of group communication in particular. As you become a more skillful observer of nonverbal behavior, you will understand more thoroughly the way people interact in small groups. Applications of Nonverbal Communication Research to Groups Relatively few research studies have investigated nonverbal behavior in groups. Despite the undoubted importance of nonverbal group dynamics to group discussion, researchers have found this aspect of communication difficult to observe and investigate. When group members simultaneously emit a myriad of nonverbal behaviors, it is difficult to systematically observe and interpret them. In addition, nonverbal messages are considerably more ambiguous than verbal messages. No dictionary has definitive meanings for nonverbal behaviors. We suggest that you exercise caution, then, in attempting to interpret the nonverbal behavior of other group members. The following sections describe some research that should help you become more sensitive to your own nonverbal behavior and to the role nonverbal communication plays in group discussions. Specifically, the sections discuss research on the following aspects of nonverbal communication in small groups: (1) physical posture, movement, and gestures; (2) eye contact; (3) facial expressions; (4) vocal cues; (5) personal space; (6) territoriality; (7) seating arrangement; (8) personal appearance; and (9) the communication environment.18 Posture, Movement, and Gestures To observe and analyze posture, movement, and gestures, Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen have identified five major types of nonverbal behavior: (1) emblems, (2) illustrators, (3) affect displays, (4) regulators, and (5) adaptors.19 Emblems are nonverbal cues that have specific verbal counterparts and are shared by all group members. Emblems often take the place of spoken words, letters, or numbers. Group leaders who place index fingers vertically in front of their lips use a nonverbal emblem to take the place of the words “Shhhh, let’s be quiet now.” A hitchhiker’s raised thumb and a soldier’s salute are other examples of emblems. Group members who point to their watches to indicate that the group should get on with it because time is running out, or who use their index fingers and thumbs to signify all is okay, also depend on nonverbal emblems to communicate their messages. Illustrators are nonverbal behaviors that add meaning to accompanying verbal messages. For example, a group member who emphasizes a spoken message while jabbing a raised index finger in the air with each word illustrates conviction and determination. Several researchers have observed that people synchronize many of their body movements to their speech.20 A blink of the eyes, a nod of the head, or a shift in body posture can accent spoken messages. An affect display is a nonverbal cue that communicates emotion. As mentioned before, the face is the primary source of emotional display, but research suggests that the body indicates the intensity of the emotion, or affect, that is being expressed. For example, the faces of group members may indicate that they are bored. If they are also slouched in their chairs, they are probably more than just moderately apathetic about the discussion. Regulators are nonverbal behaviors that help a group control the flow of communication. They are very important to small-group discussions because people rely on them to know when they should talk and when they should listen. Regulators also provide cues to indicate when other group members want to contribute to the discussion. Eye contact, posture, gestures, facial expression, and body position all help regulate communication in a group discussion. Generally, large groups operate with a rather formal set of regulators; for example, participants raise their hands so that the chairperson will recognize them before they speak. In a less formal discussion, group members rely on direct eye contact (to indicate that a communication channel is open), facial expression (raised eyebrows often signify a desire to talk), and gestures (such as a raised index finger) as cues to regulate the flow of communication. When nonverbal regulators are absent, such as during electronic collaboration when team members are not in the same physical location, team members have a more difficult time coordinating their conversation. Adaptors are nonverbal acts that satisfy personal needs and help people adapt to their immediate environment. Adaptors are also important for learning to get along with others and for responding to certain situations. Generally, people are not aware of most of their adaptive nonverbal behavior. Self-adaptors, for example, are things people do to their own bodies, such as scratching, biting their nails, or twirling their hair. Researchers have noted that when people become nervous, anxious, or upset, they frequently display more self-adaptive behaviors.21 Eye Contact Eye contact, posture, facial expression, and vocal clues tell other people how involved or uninvolved you are in the discussion. What nonverbal cues are evident here, and what do they tell you about the people in the photo? Have you ever felt uncomfortable because the person you were talking to seemed reluctant to establish eye contact? Maybe you’ve wondered, “Why doesn’t she look at me when she’s talking to me?” Perhaps you’ve had just the opposite experience—the person you were talking to would not stop staring at you. You become uneasy in these situations because they violate norms of eye contact. Although you may think that you do a pretty good job of establishing eye contact with others, researchers estimate that most people look at others only between 30 and 60 percent of the time.22 Eye contact usually lasts less than 10 seconds.