COMMUNICATION THEORY – M2

Assignment # 02

SUBMITTED TO: PROF AMBER JAVED

SUBMITTED BY: SYED MUHAMMAD ZARGHAM ALI (2183184)
 What are the general factors in group communication and explain the
roles people play in groups?
A strong group communication depends on understanding interpersonal communication basics
and how they can improve or ruin messages.
 Group cohesiveness
 Homogeneity
 Group status
 Presence of other
 nonverbal communication
 Conflict resolution
Group cohesiveness:
It is the extent to which group members like and trust each other, committed to accomplish a
team goal and share a feeling of group pride.
Homogeneity:
Homogeneity is the extent to which members are similar or different to one another. The
difficulty for most project managers is finding the right balance between overly homogenous and
overly heterogeneous teams. When evaluating team homogeneity, a manager can consider
similarities and differences in personal characteristics, education, skills, abilities
Group status:
The higher the group status, the greater is the cohesiveness; thus, a group can be made more
cohesive by increasing its status, at least in the eyes of the members
Presence of others:
Social facilitation provides the positive effects of the presence of others, but for easy tasks or
well learned tasks
Non-Verbal Communication:
Group communication works best when members trust each other. Nonverbal communication,
such as facial expressions and body language, can establish trust or raise suspicion. It builds trust
when the nonverbal messages sent complement the verbal ones.
Conflict Resolution
With team communication comes conflict. Conflict will more likely benefit group
communication if you confront problems, in a respectful manner, as soon as possible
Culture:
Biases and prejudices created by culture cause barriers to effective team communication. For
instance, a man from a culture that views women as inferior to men might have trouble working
as equals with women.
 ROLES PEOPLE PLAY IN GROUPS
1. TASK ROLES
Coordinator
 Clarifies the relationships among information, opinions, and ideas or suggests an
integration of the information, opinions, and ideas of subgroups.
Information Seeker
 Asks for clarification of comments in terms of their factual adequacy; asks for
information or facts relevant to the problem; suggests information is needed before
making decisions
Information Giver
 Offers facts or generalizations that may relate to the group’s task.
Opinion Seeker
 Asks for clarification of opinions made by other members of the group and asks how
people in the group feel.

2. Group building and support roles

Encourager

 Praises, agrees with, and accepts the contributions of others; offers warmth, solidarity,
and recognition.
Harmonizer
 Reconciles disagreements; mediates differences; reduces tensions by giving group
members a chance to explore their differences
Gatekeeper
 Keeps communication channels open; encourages and facilitates interaction from those
members who are usually silent.
Follower
 Goes along with the movement of the group passively, acceptance the ideas of others
sometimes serving as an audience.