CHAPTER 8

Communicating in Teams

Chapter Objectives and Integrator Guide

The opening page of each chapter in Communicating at Work lists desired learning outcomes.
The Integrator Guide will assist you in locating activities and resources relevant to each
objective.

Integrated Objectives Resources

Diagnose a group, and identify the kind of In the text:
communication that can transform it into a true Page references: 253-258
team. Activities: 1
Career Tip: What Makes a Group a Team?
Key terms: team; work group Ethical Challenge:
Self-Directed Work Teams (p 259)

Instructor's Manual online:

Discussion Launchers: 1-4
Classroom Activities: 1

Student Online Learning Center:

Internet Exercise 1
Analyze the advantages and drawbacks of whether In the text:
a group should meet face-to-face or work as a Page references: 258
virtual team. Career Tip: Working in Virtual Teams

Key terms: virtual team Instructor's Manual online:

Discussion Launchers: 5
Classroom Activities: 2
Compare various approaches to centralized In the text:
leadership, self-directed teams, and power Page references: 258-266
distribution. Activities: 2, 6
Career Tip: How to Emerge as a Group Leader
Key terms: authoritarian leadership style; coercive
power; connection power; contingency approaches Instructor's Manual online:
to leadership; democratic leadership style; Discussion Launchers: 6-8
emergent leader; expert power; functional roles; Classroom Activities: 3,4
information power; laissez-faire leadership style; Video Activity: 1
life-cycle theory of leadership; position power;
referent power; reward power; self-directed work
teams; style approach to leadership; task roles; trait
approach to leadership

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Identify the stages and characteristics of each stage In the text:
of group problem solving and the roles that help Page references: 266-274
groups function. Activities: 3,7
On Your Feet: Functional Roles in Action
Key terms: brainstorming; conflict phase;
emergence phase; forming stage; functional roles; Instructor's Manual online:
norming stage; orientation phase; performing stage; Discussion Launchers: 9,10
reflective-thinking sequence; reinforcement phase; Classroom Activities: 5-8
relational roles; storming stage; task roles Video Activity: 2

Student Online Learning Center:

Internet Exercise 2
Explain various decision-making methods and the In the text:
circumstances in which each is most appropriate. Page references: 274-277
Activities: 4
Key terms: authority rule; consensus; designated
leader; expert opinion; majority vote; minority Instructor's Manual online:
decision Discussion Launchers: 11
Classroom Activities: 9,10
Apply the guidelines for effective communication In the text:
in groups and teams in a group to which you Page references: 277-287
belong. Activities: 5, 6, 8, 9
Career Tip: Devil's Advocate and Other Anti-
Key terms: brainstorming; cohesiveness; Conformity Tools
groupthink; hidden agenda; norms; risky shift Ethical Challenges:
Dealing with Offensive Humor
The Unproductive Teammate
Self-Assessment: Evaluating Your Group's
Communication Effectiveness

Instructor's Manual online:

Personal Reflection for Journaling
Discussion Launchers: 12-16
Classroom Activities: 11,12
Video Activity: 3
Other Resources found on the Online Learning Center:
Student online center
Glossary
Key Term Flashcards
Key Term Crosswords
Self-Quizzes
Instructor online center
PowerPoint Files

About Chapter 8

Teams and groups are ubiquitous in business and industry today. This chapter helps students
recognize communication behaviors that set top performing teams apart from mediocre work

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groups. The chapter provides a brief overview of scholarly approaches to studying leadership,
power, and influence in groups. It explains procedures, roles, norms, and goals that can enhance
a group's ability to make sound decisions.

This chapter provides an opportunity to re-emphasize many concepts and skills from
preceding chapters. As you teach this chapter, show how the communication concepts taught in
Chapters 1-5 play out in group work. For example, the transactional model of communication
grows even more complex as group participants simultaneously encode and decode messages,
filtered through physical, social, chronological, cultural contexts. Organizational cultures
strongly influence whether the ideas generated by teams are valued and put to good use or left on
the shelf. Evaluative listening is called for to prevent groupthink and risky shift. Clarity is
important when using the systematic problem-solving protocol. And nonverbals that
demonstrate enthusiasm for the group goal contribute greatly to the performance of a team. In
fact, the best leadership, followership, and decision-making strategies take into account all these
lessons learned in earlier chapters.

If you assigned a group project earlier in the term, this would be a good time for those groups
to analyze their group process in light of the concepts presented in this chapter.

Personal Reflection for Individual Journaling Assignment

Consider a group you've participated in that exhibited characteristics of groupthink. What

were these characteristics? Using specific examples, describe how the tendency toward
groupthink impacted your group's interaction, decisions, and interpersonal dynamics.
Now that you know how to reduce groupthink, propose some individual actions you
might have taken to improve the group's involvement in critical thinking.

Discussion Launchers

1. What was the most productive work or community group you were ever part of? What
made it so? Try to identify the factors that contributed to its productivity.

2. What was the most ineffective work or community group you were ever part of? Identify
the factors that made it ineffective, and suggest how it could have become more effective.

3. Think of a group youve been a member of that did not function well as a team. Which
characteristics of a team did it lack? Suggest how you might have helped the group
develop those team characteristics.

4. Suggest five tasks that would be best suited for group work and five tasks that would be
best suited for individual work. Have you ever participated in a group that was
attempting to accomplish a task that would have been better suited for an individual?
What happened?

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5. Have you ever participated in a virtual group? Describe your experience. What was
satisfying? What was frustrating? If you were to participate in another virtual group,
what might you do differently?

6. How does leadership emerge in a group that has no common history? Give examples
from groups you've been part of or observed. Can you think of situations where
leadership didn't follow the norms presented in the text?

7. Who is the best leader you've ever worked for or observed? What kind of leadership did
that person employ? What made that person effective?

8. How does your perception of power vary or coincide with the description in the book?
Describe different types of power you have in different groups you belong to, and explain
why you classify your powers as you do.

9. From your own experiences, give examples of each of the seven steps of problem solving
described in the text.

10. Analyze a decision-making group that youve been a member of. Did it work through all
four stages of decision emergence as described in the text? If so, describe what occurred
in each stage. If not, explain how your group varied from the explanations in the text.

11. Provide an example of each type of decision-making method described in the text. For
each example, explain why the group used that method. Use the guidelines from your
text to explain why the method was or wasnt effective in that situation.

12. Using some of the groups you belong to, cite examples of differences between your
individual goals and the group's goals.

13. What impact is created when a group member violates one of the groups norms?
Suggest productive ways to manage this impact.

14. Have you ever been a member of a group that is not cohesive or that is too cohesive?
What have you, as one person, tried to do to increase (or decrease) cohesiveness? If you
havent tried to improve the level of cohesiveness, why not?

15. Have you ever participated in a group that displayed the characteristics of groupthink or
risky shift? What happened? Why did this happen? How might you have prevented
groupthink from occurring?

16. If a friend came to you for advice for improving the cohesiveness of a college study
group to which she belongs, what would you tell her?

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Classroom Activities

1. Team Characteristics
Objective: Students will learn about team characteristics through direct observation.

Procedure: Assign students at least one week ahead of time to visit a meeting of a task
group meeting. Ideas include city councils, faculty meetings, library resource groups,
environmental advocacy groups, church board meetings, and the like. During the meeting,
students will note which characteristics of effective teamwork were present and which were
absent. For a list of qualities to look for, see Career Tip: What Makes a Group a Team.

Class Discussion: The day the assignment is due, lead a discussion in which you elicit
examples of each of the characteristics identified by Larson and LaFasto. Next, ask students to
point out characteristic that seemed ineffective. Finally, elicit ways students can use this
information to improve the functioning of groups they belong to.

2. Participate in Your Own Virtual Meeting

Objective: Students will experience a virtual meeting first-hand.

Procedure: Students will need computer access for this activity, so you may need to
assign it as homework or sign up for the computer lab for one class session. If you have a
limited number of computers available, teammates can work as pairs rather than as
individuals. To prevent students from relying on face-to-face communication if they have
problems, you should be present in the lab or ensure that teammates are not working in
the same room. Ask students to form teams with about five members (or five pairs of
members). Each team member will need to register at www.eroom.net.
The team will simulate the first organizational meeting of a hypothetical ongoing
team project. The tasks for this organizational meeting are:
Exchange names and contact information (email and phone)
Draw up a set of team norms (both task and relational)
Assign task and relational roles to team members (including facilitator)
Schedule the team's next three hypothetical one-hour meetings (NOT during class
time) at times when all members can be present
Designate a meeting location
Select a team name

Class Discussion: After teams have completed their first virtual meeting, debrief
students.
What was rewarding about your virtual team experience?
What was challenging about your virtual team experience?
Which specific activities were the most difficult to complete? Why?
What difficulties might you encounter if you were using a virtual team meeting to
make a complex business decision?

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 What suggestions would you give to a team that had to rely on virtual technology
to complete all its business?

3. Assessing Leaders

Objective: The purpose of this activity is to give students the opportunity to examine and
evaluate the role of group "leader."

Procedure: Divide the class into groups of about five students. Instruct each group to attend
a formal meeting of an established small group outside the classroom (e.g., a civic group,
community group, religious group, counseling group, or work group). Using the
characteristics of leaders and their use of power described in the text, have students evaluate
the leadership of the group.

Class Discussion: After completing this activity, the following questions could be used to
facilitate class discussion.
Which styles of leadership did you witness? Give specific examples.
How was power used in each group situation you observed?
Were these leaders effective? Why or why not?
What could the leader have done to be more effective?

4. Leadership Grid

Objective: Students will be able to distinguish behaviors that illustrate each of the five
leadership styles identified by Blake and Mouton in their Leadership Grid. They also should
be able to assess the effectiveness of each style in various situations.

Procedure: Review the characteristics of the five styles of leadership illustrated in Figure 8-
1. Label five columns on the board, corresponding to the leadership types. Describe several
situations to the class. For each situation, ask students to identify which style of leadership
Blake and Mouton would recommend. Write the scenario in the appropriate column. Here
are some examples of situations you could suggest:
Social Loafer: You are the leader of a student group in which one student is clearly a
social loafer. The other students in the group are becoming resentful. What style of
leadership should you use?
Forced Overtime: You are the manager of a group of engineers charged with
developing cell phone components that can withstand super-heated temperatures. The
group has been making fairly good progress, but the deadline is fast approaching, and
the project is not yet completed. It is mid-December and several engineers have
requested time off, but you realize that overtime work seems to be the only way to get
the product out on time. What style of leadership should you use?
High School Teacher: You are a newly hired high school teacher. At first you were
pleased with the way your classes were progressing, but now several students are

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 testing your authority by disrupting the class with loud and impolite comments. What
style of leadership should you use?
False Positives: You are the quality-control manager at a toy manufacturing plant.
Your employees work as teams, checking for items with defective parts, which they
should take off the assembly line. You have recently found several false positive
items (items that should have been recalled but were not pulled out by the employees)
in the finished product bin of one of your teams. What style of leadership should you
use?
If you have time, elicit additional scenarios from students.

Class Discussion: After you have identified styles of leadership for three or four different
situations, discuss advantages and disadvantages of each style.
Does one style seem to be more effective than others in all situations, or does the best
choice of style depend on the situation?
Which styles seem to be effective most often? Why?
Which styles seem least effective in most cases? Why?
Which styles might be most difficult to learn to use? Why?
How might you go about learning to exhibit an effective style of leadership?

5. Reflective Thinking Sequence

Objective: Students will learn to use each of the steps of the reflective thinking sequence.
Procedure: Divide students into groups. Provide students with a list of potential problems,
such as those listed on the page titled "Potential Group Problems" located at the end of this
section. Instruct each group to select a problem. As an alternative, you can ask groups to
solve a problem that one of their members is currently experiencing in a small group they
belong to, such as a work group, living group, or class group. Each group should then
discover the best solution they can for the problem they have chosen by working through
each step of the reflective thinking sequence. Students will not be able to complete steps 6
and 7 in class, but they should think through how they would accomplish these steps. To
check that groups have completed each step correctly, ask them to submit one set of notes for
each group, summarizing their discussion of each step of the process. If students work
through all the steps diligently, this activity will probably take 30-40 minutes to complete. If
you want students to complete the project thoroughly, this activity will require more than one
class session to allow students to research their problem outside class.

Class Discussion: After groups have completed all steps of the process, review their
application of the reflective thinking process.
Elicit examples of their problem definitions. Analyze the definitions to be sure
theyve been stated as focused, open-ended questions.
Discuss groups analyses of their problems. Were they able to uncover a variety of
perspectives from the people experiencing the problem? Did they find any positive
aspects of the problem? Did they discover any potential causes? What variations of
the problem exist?
How many criteria did each group establish? Are the criteria reasonable? Did the
criteria specify realistic deadlines and budgets? Did the group attend to relational

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 criteria (e.g., ensuring that each person affected by the solution will feel reasonably
satisfied and that the solution does not favor the needs of one constituent over
another)?
Was the group able to brainstorm freely without entering into a discussion of the
merits or drawbacks of any solutions at this stage? Did the group encourage radical
thinking? Did the group discourage anyones comments at this stage?
Did the group take the time to consider each solution in terms of all the proposed
criteria? Did this help them discover an effective solution? Why or why not?
Is the implementation plan realistic? Is the plan detailed enough to serve as a plan of
action? Did the group take the time to tease out any potential negative consequences
and describe how to manage them if they should occur?
Did the group specify a time and method they could use in the future to evaluate
whether the solution was working as planned?
Did this method seem too restrictive? How could you frame these restrictions in a
positive light?
Did this seem to help you come up with a better solution? Why or why not?

6. Group Problem Solving

Objective: Students should be able to discuss the advantages of group versus individual
problem solving and explain why groups are able to solve problems more effectively than
individuals. Students should be able to differentiate functional from nonfunctional
approaches to problem solving.

Procedure: Divide the students into groups of five. Using the Group Problem Solving Form
located at the end of this section, provide each student in a group with a different information
sheet (A, B, C, D, or E). If there are extra students, have them act as observers. Each student
in the group should have access to only the part of the information needed to solve the
problem, that is, the three different statements that appear on his or her information sheet.
Tell the students only that they have enough information among them to define the problem
and to arrive at a solution. The students should then proceed to solve the logic problem.

Answer to Logic Problem

President Irene Chambers
Vice President Kristina Dow
Office Manager John Barton
Personnel Director George Eggars
Sales Manager Harvey Appleby

Class Discussion: The following questions could be used to facilitate class discussion after
completing this activity
What is the easiest way to solve this problem?
Which of your groups procedures contributed most to solving the problem?
Did your group engage in any behaviors that detracted from the problem-solving
process? If so, what were they? Be specific.

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 What basic problem-solving procedures appeared to be the most effective?
Which roles did the various group members assume? How were these roles assigned?

7. Observing and Identifying Group Roles

Objective: The purpose of this activity is to provide students an opportunity to identify task
and maintenance roles in a group.

Procedure: There are several ways to promote observation and identification of group roles.
The class can be divided into halves or quarters, depending on its size. Each two groups
should form concentric circles (a fish bowl) so that one part (half or quarter) of the class is
seated in an outer circle in order to observe the other part, which forms an inner discussion
circle. You may either spend one day with half the class observing the other half and switch
roles in the following class period, or set a time limit and switch roles in the same class
period. Students in the outer circle should be given the Group Observation Form located at
the end of this section. Everyone in the outer circle may observe everyone in the inner circle,
or you may assign each outercircle member to observe a specific person in the inner circle
but also allow him or her to comment on his or her observations of any other person in the
inner circle. Assign or allow the inner circle to choose one of the group tasks.
1. Each student in the class will receive between 1 and 50 points for class participation
this semester. Devise a plan to determine the number of participation points each
student should receive.
2. The budget for the Communication Department has been increased. Create and
prioritize a list of items that, if funded, would best satisfy student needs.
3. Money has been allocated for three new support positions at our college. These are
not instructor positions, but they may be any type of support services. Provide a plan
for use of these funds.
4. This group is a student liaison committee to facilitate communication between
students and administration. There is no additional money. Provide a directive to the
administration citing the three most significant things the administration could do to
benefit students at no additional cost.
5. Money has been allocated for grounds and physical plant improvements at our
college. How could the physical environment be improved to meet student academic,
social, and safety needs? Prepare a concrete list of ideas and prioritize them.

Class Discussion: After completing this activity, the following questions could be used to
facilitate class discussion.
Who filled which roles?
Which roles were unfilled? Why?
Did you observe competition for roles by group members? Which roles?
Why would group members see their own performance differently than other
members?

8. Roles in Group Discussion

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Objective: After completing this activity, students should be able to identify and understand
the various roles people fill during group discussions. Further, they should be able to
recognize the specific methods for capitalizing on constructive roles and minimizing the
interference of destructive roles. Finally, group members should be able to indicate how
communication skills can facilitate effective group discussion.

Procedure: Organize students into groups, and give each group member one of the role
descriptions listed below. Each group member should also receive The Bob Lee Case Study,
located at the end of this section. The discussion of the case study should take 1015
minutes. After each group has reached a decision, have the students discuss their
observations and reactions to each of the roles they enacted or observed. The discussions
should focus on a description of each person's behavior, trying to ascertain the assigned role.
Students should also describe their reactions to each of the roles and report the effect of the
roles on group communication.
Authoritarian Leader: You are the leader of this group. You should control the
procedures and decisions made by the group. You may ask for others' opinions, but
the final decision is yours.
Silent Member: You do not want to participate in this group because you feel you
have nothing important to contribute. If others ask for your opinion, you usually say
"I don't know" or switch the focus to some other group member. You are attentive but
silent.
Peacemaker: It makes you uncomfortable to witness disagreements, conflicts, or
opposing opinions. You try very hard to get everyone to be at peace, smile at one
another, and agree with one another. Creating agreement is more important than
finding the best answer.
Clown: You do not take the problem seriously. You want to make people laugh. Your
remarks are frequent, but not relevant. You like to poke fun at others in the group and
express "offthewall" ideas.
Repetitive Member: You like to hear yourself talk. You think your ideas are good
and that everyone should listen to you. You tend to interrupt others to state your own
opinions.
Negative Member: You are argumentative. You like to argue for the sake of arguing.
You seldom offer suggestions or solutions, but that doesn't prevent you from
criticizing others. You like to tear apart others' ideas, even if it means using fallacious
arguments or misleading information.
Highly Intelligent Member: You know (or think you know) all there is to know
about the topic. You are quite convinced that your ideas are up-to-date and absolutely
correct. You can throw out plenty of statistics, and you use an impressive, though
abstract, vocabulary. You are very interested in finding the best solution to the
problem your solution!
Unintelligent Member: You dont seem to be able to keep up with the groups line
of thinking. You ask them to explain everything to you again. You ask them to go
back to points you have previously discussed.
Expediter: You are aware of the time limit for this task, and you want to be sure the
group stays focused. You have a watch and you are trying to keep order and ensure
progress.

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 Class Discussion: Class discussion could focus on the various roles assumed by group
members, and on methods of interacting and resolving conflict issues when confronted with a
variety of different personalities.
Categorize the roles played by students in this group according to those listed in Table
8-3 in your text.
Which roles were functional? Which were nonfunctional?
Did any student fill both functional and nonfunctional roles? Give examples.
How could these students involve a silent member in the group discussion?
How effective is an authoritarian leader in a discussion of values?
What can a group do with a deviant member, such as a clown?
How can you manage a member who acts like a know-it-all?
What should you do if one member keeps repeating herself or asks for frequent
explanations?
Is it good to have members with a variety of opinions and experiences in a group
problem-solving situation? Why or why not?
Is it good to have a variety of personalities within a group setting when problem
solving is involved? Why or why not?
If you had an entire group made up of people with the same type of personality, what
personality would you want? Why?
How can you possibly have a productive group experience when you end up in a
group with personality conflicts?

9. Applying Decision Making Methods

Objective: The purpose of this activity is to provide students with an opportunity to apply
group decision-making skills.
Procedure: Dont prescribe a specific decision-making method for this activity. Divide the
class into groups of five or six students. Give them these directions: "You have 35 minutes to
reach a decision recommending the spending of up to $50,000 for your university or college
to improve its recruiting efforts in local high schools. Your group must come up with a
budget detailing how the money is to be spent. After the 35 minutes are up, one member of
each group will record the groups decision (budget) on the board After each group completes
this task, you will be asked to describe to the class how the group arrived at its decision.
Class Discussion: After the groups reach their decisions, discuss the methods they used to
make their recommendations.
How did they decide on the method they used?
How did they decide it was the best method for this situation?
Did any group members want to change the way they were deciding?

10. Comparing Decision-Making Methods

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 Objective: Students will compare advantages and disadvantages of various decision-making
methods.

Procedure: Divide the class into five groups. Assign each group one of the decision-making
methods identified in the text. Allow students a few minutes to review the description of
their method. Then, assign the entire class the same open-ended decision (either hypothetical
or real) to be made. For example, you could ask the class to decide how to format their next
exam, how to distribute participation points for the class, how to express appreciation to the
best instructors of the college, or how to motivate class members who dont seem motivated.
Then, explain that each group will have five minutes to make their decision. The group must
use their assigned method of decision making.

Class Discussion: Discuss students experiences with each method of decision making.
Was your assigned method effective for this task? Explain.
If not, what type of task might have been better suited to this method?
Was your assigned method enjoyable? Which methods do you think might be most
enjoyable? In which situations?
Was your assigned method efficient? Would this method always be
efficient/inefficient?
Did your method provide the best possible solution? Why or why not?
The next time you participate in a decision-making group, how can you help them
select the best possible method for making their decision? Be very specific.

11. Creating a Group Contract

Objective: Students will understand the importance of establishing group norms,
functional roles, and a shared goal early in the group process.

Procedure: If you assign a group project to your students, ask them to create a group
contract before they begin working on the task. The contract should include
members' last and first names, in alphabetical order
contact information including at least one email address and phone number for each
member
a list of norms, including at least three task norms and three relational norms
a list of functional roles that need to be filled in this group, with each role assigned to at
least one individual
the group's shared goal
After the group has written the contract, all members should sign and date the document. The
group should give you the original. Each student should keep a copy.
As students are drawing up their contracts, circulate around the room, encouraging them
to develop norms that are realistic. For example, rather that stating "No one will ever miss a
meeting," they should state "If we have to miss a meeting, we will email our assignment to the
facilitator ahead of time and get notes from the facilitator shortly after the meeting."

See the sample contract below.

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 Group Contract [created: March 12, 2006]

Team Members / Contact Information

Cook, Blake 519-2432 turtle2@xmission.net

Gamble, Jerry 532-2041 gamje@aol.com
Garcia, Maria 953-2022 mgar@yahoo.com
Leonard, Shelley 892-6988 skigirl@msn.com
Figueroa, Ioane 473-9007 fig_io@comcast.net

Team Norms
Relational norms:
Encourage participation from everyone
Respect one anothers opinions
Refrain from cell phone usage
Shoulder our fair share of the work
Task norms:
Arrive at meetings on time; if you must be late, notify facilitator ahead of time
Come to all meetings prepared for the meeting's objectives
During meetings, stay focused on the topic being discussed
Keep meetings to 60 minutes or less.

Team Member Roles

Relational roles:
Ioane Participation encourager
Shelley Referee
Maria Person to contact if you have to miss a meeting

Task roles:
Maria Facilitator
Ioane Clock watcher
Blake Procedure monitor and distraction monitor
Shelley Scribe
Jerry Proofreader

12. Promoting Effective Communication in Student Groups

Objective: Students will apply guidelines from the chapter to situations that might occur in
student groups.

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 Procedure: Review the chapter guidelines for What Makes a Group a Team, Functional
Roles of Group Members, and Effective Communication in Groups and Teams. Divide the
class into groups, and distribute the worksheet (located at the end of this section) titled
Managing Counterproductive Behaviors in Groups. You may also wish to refer students
back to the section about Communication Climate, Descriptive I Language, and
Offering Constructive Criticism from Chapter 5. Instruct students to suggest how they
would manage each of these situations, using guidelines from the text.

Class Discussion: Compare and discuss students suggestions.

What characteristics of effective teamwork are being violated in each situation?
What guidelines could you bring to bear to help manage this situation?
How does your solution demonstrate guidelines for maintaining a supportive
communication climate?
Have you ever been a member of a student group that experienced a similar problem?
How did you handle it? Given the information youve learned in this class, what
would you do differently now?

Video Activities

1. Power in Groups

Objective: Students will analyze the emergence, manifestation, and impact of power in small
groups.

Procedure: The video Lord of the Flies (William Golding) illustrates how power could play out
in a small group. Show students a relevant clip from the video, asking them to observe the role of
power in the group's interactions.

Class Discussion: Class discussion could include questions such as:

Describe examples of leadership emergence.
What types of power existed in the group? How do you know?
What impact did such power have on group members?
Identify examples of goals, hidden agendas, and norms.
Did you see any examples of cohesiveness? Of conformity? Explain.

2. Decision Stages and Leadership Emergence in "Twelve Angry Men"

Objective: Students will identify stages of the group process and principles of leadership,
influence, and power in groups as illustrated in the video Twelve Angry Men, which depicts
group interaction during a jury meeting.

Procedure: Show the video (or a representative clip from the video) Twelve Angry Men. If
you can find a copy of the original edition, it is more striking than the updated version. You

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 may wish to assign students to view the video outside class, as it lasts approximately 100
minutes. It is available through commercial video rental services. Assign various topics
from the sections on Stages in Group Problem Solving, Becoming a Leader, Power and
Influence of Members, and the Career Tip (How to Emerge as a Leader). Students will focus
on their assigned topic and come to class prepared to discuss how it played out in the video.

Class Discussion: Ask students to share examples from the video that illustrate leadership
emergence as well as various types of power and influence. Encourage students to relate
these examples to situations they have witnessed in groups they've participated in.

3. Group Communication Characteristics

Objective: Students will observe examples of group communication characteristics in a video

that focuses on the interactions of a small group.

Procedure: Assign students to watch a video depicting the interactions of a small group, or show
a relevant portion of the video in class. Examples of such videos are Apollo 13, Stand by Me,
and Joy Luck Club. Ask students to note examples of characteristics of small-group
communication outlined in the section of the text titled "Effective Communication in Groups and
Teams." Each of these videos provides multiple examples of goals, hidden agendas, norms,
cohesiveness, conformity, and creativity.

Class Discussion: Ask students to share examples from the video that illustrate goals, hidden
agendas, norms, cohesiveness, conformity, and creativity. Discuss both effective and ineffective
examples. Encourage students to relate these examples to situations they have witnessed in
groups they've participated in.

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 Group Problem Solving Form

Information Sheet A
1. On one recent day, the following tidbits of information concerning five executives,
Kristina, George, Harvey, Irene, and Johnin no particular order and not respectively
were heard around the water cooler at the Widget Corporation.
2. From these tidbits (you may assume that they are all factual), can you give each
executive's full name and position?
3. George and the president play golf together.

Information Sheet B
1. Appleby, Barton, Chambers, Dow, and Eggars are all executives of the Widget
Corporation, being (in no particular order and not respectively) president, vice
president, office manager, personnel director, and sales manager.
2. Three of the executives are often in bad moods. Dow tends to be a terror on Monday.
The office manager's bad day is Friday. The sales manager is completely
unpredictable.
3. There is a longstanding feud between Barton and the sales manager.

Information Sheet C
1. Kristina and the personnel director attended the same college.
2. John, Chambers, and the sales manager get together for lunch every Thursday.
3. Three of the executives are often in bad moods. Dow tends to be a terror on Monday.
The office manager's bad day is Friday. The sales manager is completely
unpredictable.

Information Sheet D
1. The president recently approved a raise for John, which was deeply resented by both
Harvey and the personnel director.
2. Kristina is the only single person among the five, and she has been dating Appleby's
brother.
3. Eggars told Harvey that his wife is expecting a baby and that he needs a raise soon or
he will resign.

Information Sheet E
1. Chambers is given to pulling rank on both Kristina and Barton.
2. George and the president play golf together.
3. John, Chambers, and the sales manager get together for lunch every Thursday.

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 Group Observation Form

ROLES IN GROUPS EXAMPLES (specific comments or

nonverbal behaviors)
TASK FUNCTIONS
Information giver (offers facts, relevant
evidence)
Information seeker (asks others for relevant
information)
Opinion giver (states opinions and beliefs)
Opinion seeker (asks others for opinions/beliefs)
Starter (initiates task-related behavior, "Let's get
moving")
Direction giver (gives directions on doing the
task)
Summarizer (reviews and identifies themes in
what's been said)
Diagnoser (assesses group behavior, "We spend a
lot of time")
Energizer (invigorates, enthuses group for task)
Gatekeeper (regulates who speaks, "Bill hasn't
had a turn. John, before you speak again could
we hear from Mary.")
Reality tester (checks group ideas against reality
of time, rules, constraints, "Could we plan a
carnival in three weeks?")
Other comments:

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IM 8-18
 SOCIAL/RELATIONAL FUNCTIONS
Participation encourager (motivates members
to be involved, lets them know they're valued)
Harmonizer (mediates interpersonal conflicts
among group members)
Tension reliever (helps relieve anxiety and
pressures in group)
Evaluator of emotional climate (paraphrases
observed social and emotional climate, "We're all
uneasy about the new manager.")
Praise giver (gives compliments and acclaim to
group members)
Empathic listener (listens without evaluation to
members' concerns)
DISFUNCTIONAL ROLES
Blocker (prevents progress by raising objections
constantly)
Attacker (aggressively questions others' motives
or competence)
Recognition seeker (repeatedly brags and
inappropriately calls attention to him/herself and
his/her own accomplishments)
Joker (clowns or jokes in excess of tension relief
and distracts group)
Withdrawer (refuses to participate, take a stand,
or respond to others)
Other comments:

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 The Bob Lee Case Study
Bob Lee was taking a difficult required course during his junior year at Strivemore
University. Bob needed a B average to keep his scholarship, and he needed his scholarship to
attend the university. But no matter how hard he studied, he could only get Cs and Ds on the
weekly tests that determined his grade in the course. The professor curved the grades of the 30
students in the class, and Bob just couldn't seem to come out on top of the curve.
After the fourth test, Bob complained to a fraternity brother who was in the same class.
The fraternity brother gave him some inside information. He swore Bob to secrecy and then told
him that the professor didn't correct or grade his own tests, but that a graduate assistant did it for
him. The grader apparently had discovered a new way to work his way through college. He was
giving cram sessions before each test, based on the test key that the professor had given him. He
was tutoring nine of Bob's classmates for $5 per test, or $10 if the students wanted the answers to
memorize. The fraternity bother invited Bob to join the group.
Bob had a little money saved from his summer job, but he wasn't sure he wanted to invest
it in an A. Each group should discuss the problem, with the members behaving in accordance
with their assigned roles. The students should not reveal their roles to any other group member.
As a group, they should try to arrive at a consensus by answering the following questions:

Wasn't the whole thing unethical?

Shouldn't the professor be told?

But, then again, what if the fraternity brother or someone else were expelled?

What about the other students at the bottom of the curve?

If you were Bob, what would you do?

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 Potential Problems for Reflective Thinking Process Activity

A. The Food Drive: Our local food banks are short of important food items this year. You are a
group of college students. With Thanksgiving approaching, you would like to help the food bank
gather additional food.

B. The Communication Activity: You are college freshmen in an introductory communication

class. This is your instructor's first time to teach communication. Your instructor has asked a
small group of students to devise a communication project that will help the class use the
theories and skills they have been reading about in the text. The project you suggest must cover
one and only one of the topics youve studied so far in this class.

C. Peer Tutoring: You are a group of college students who function as peer tutors. A nearby high
school has asked you to help motivate its students who are receiving barely passing grades and
are considering dropping out of school.

D. Managing Messy Housemates: You are sharing a house with four other students. When you
first moved in, the five of you agreed to share cleaning responsibilities. For the first month, your
roommates were pretty good about washing their own dishes and cleaning the bathroom and
vacuuming the living room every so often. This month, however, as school gets more
demanding, you notice that more and more dirty dishes are being left in the sink, the bathroom is
getting grungy, and the living room is cluttered with shoes, sweaters, books, and dust. Two of
you have dropped some hints, but the other three have ignored them.

E. Working Hours: You work with a team of 15 coworkers. Each of you works four hours a day,
five days a week, during either the morning, afternoon, or evening shift. Your manager has left it
up to the 15 of you to work out who will work which shift. No one really wants the evening shift.
Right now, the six workers who are married are refusing to work the evening shift, arguing that
they need time to be home with their spouses. They claim that their family needs are more
important than the wishes of the unmarried workers, who would like evenings free to study or
socialize. Your manager does not want to get involved in deciding who works which shift, but
she wants to approve your final proposal.

F. Textbook Selection: Your instructor of [choose an introductory college class you are familiar
with] has asked your group to recommend a text to use in teaching next year's class. This text
should be demanding enough to teach necessary concepts but readable enough for students to
understand easily.

G. Condominium Owners: A new group of 16 to 20 condos has been built and left with a barely
functional leadership by committee condo association. This group has the sudden dilemma that
some of the new owners have dogs and some do not. Some of the non-dog-owners have argued
that they do not want the dogs to harm their children in the commons area, which is in the middle
of the four condo buildings. This area has the childrens playground, but it also is the only area
for dogs to run.

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 Managing Counterproductive Behaviors in Groups

Use guidelines from the text to plan specific steps a student group could use to constructively
manage the following situations. Identify which principles of effective teamwork are being
disregarded, and strive to develop responses that maintain a supportive communication climate.

1. LATENESS: At the second meeting, Peg came in a few minutes late. That was bad
enough, but now she's coming 1015 minutes late to very meeting. What's worse,
Angelica and Robert have started arriving late, too. It makes the rest of us feel like
giving up.

2. SKEPTICISM: Dan constantly makes negative comments. Our brainstorming

activities fail because he makes fun of our efforts. Some people in the group are losing
their enthusiasm and have stopped saying anything.

3. MONOPOLIZING: Rajiv is very opinionated. He keeps talking, and he rambles on

and on. It seems as though we can't get a word in edgewise.

4. SILENT DISAGREEMENT: Adelle sits around rolling her eyes about almost
everything we say. We can tell from the look on her face that she doesn't like our ideas.
It makes us feel like she doesn't like us, either. She's very pretty, and I think maybe she
feels superior.

5. GOSSIPING: Geri and Toni keep talking about the boss and his personal adventures.
They'll make snide remarks about him, right in the middle of a meeting. It seems
inappropriate.

6. REPETITION: Pierre keeps repeating himself, over and over. We feel like we've
finished discussing one topic and we move on to another, but he jumps back and repeats
himself again. It seems like we cant get anywhere.

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Additional Resources

Print
Goleman, D., et al. (2002). Primal leadership: Realizing the power of emotional
intelligence. Hay Resources.

Argues that a leaders emotions are contagious. Leaders can create positive impact on
earnings and strategy by driving their emotions in the best direction.

Katzenbach, J. R., & Smith, D.K. (2003). The wisdom of teams: Creating the high-
performance organization. New York: Harper-Business.

Kaye, K. (1994). Workplace wars and how to end them: Turning personal conflicts into
productive teamwork. New York: AMACOM.
Conflicts can disrupt teamwork and create no-win situations. This book looks at a variety of ways
that personal conflicts can be moved and transformed through communication skills to greater
understanding and teamwork.

Lipnack, J., & Stamps, J. (1997). Virtual teams: Reaching across space, time & organizations.
New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
The authors describe issues facing virtual teams and means of using technology to improve
communication and productivity. Numerous stories are included from companies who
consistently use virtual teams.
.
Torres, C., & Spiegel, J. (1990). Self-directed work teams: A primer. San Diego, CA: Pfeiffer &
Company.
This short book provides the basics on self-directed work teamswhat they are, how to select an
appropriate mode, how they benefit the organizationas well as considerations and how-to
information for implementation.

Zenger, J. H., et al. (1994). Leading teams: Mastering the new role. Burr Ridge, IL: Irwin
Professional Publishing.
This book provides theory and practical guidelines for team leaders. Emphasis is placed on
awareness and sensitivity to predictable phases of growth (forming, storming, norming, and
performing) and on building trust. There are many activities for launching and refueling teams.

Video
Face To Face: A Common-Sense Approach to Developing Effective Business Communication Skills. Vol.
II. Part 3: Planning Effective Meetings. 30 min. The Educational Video Group.

Group Dynamics: GroupThink. CRM Films.

This video depicts scenes from government and industry in which groupthink is a factor. In
addition to illustrating the dangers of groupthink, guidelines for avoiding it are presented.

Implementing Self-Directed Work Teams, With Loren Ankarlo 3-volume video (3 hours) or 4
audiocassettes. CareerTrack.
Role-plays address several managerial issues: What are self-directed teams? How do they work?
Why have self-directed teams? What is team empowerment?

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Making Great Leaders. Hay Group.45min.
Leaders can develop emotional intelligence, a skill that is of critical importance in todays
business world. See ordering information below under Hay Group.

Team Building: What makes a Good Team Player? CRM Films.

This video is designed to look at different styles of communication and lead team players to
understand and value diverse styles. It can be used with the Parker Team Player Survey.

Web
Hay Group
http://ei.haygroup.com/default.asp
This site offers excellent books, videos, and assessment tools related to emotional
intelligence in organizational leadership and teamwork. This group is directly linked to
Daniel Goleman.

Patricia Fripp, Consultant

http://www.fripp.com/articleslist.html
This site offers a number of free educational articles. Scroll down to the heading
Leadership and Team Building.

Lynn Meade, Instructor of Communication, NW Arkansas Community College

http://lynn_meade.tripod.com/id149.htm
This page summarizes power types and leadership styles. Provides links to teamwork
exercises.

PM Talk Newsletter
http://www.4pm.com
The free newsletter includes episodes of The Ongoing Saga of the Project from Hell.
Students can read a saga and suggest ways to improve team communication.

University of Kentucky Honors Course

http://www.uky.edu/%7Edrlane/capstone/contexts.htm
The material on this site is beyond the scope of the basic course. This site, however, is an
excellent resource for instructors who wish to learn more about the theoretical
underpinnings of the concepts we teach.

Other Activities

Parker Team Player Survey is a self-assessment instrument to identify communication styles. Available
from CRM Press. (Same address as CRM Films.)

Several team-building activities are available from Talisco, particularly "Crisis in Mantique" and
"Hurricane Disaster Exercise."

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Quest, a project sponsored by NASA, provides online educational resources to support schools in using
information technologies and Internet as tools for learning. Find ongoing interactive projects, articles on
learning, online teams, and constant updates of projects. http://quest.arc.nasa.gov

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