Group Communication Theory
This resource will help you group your audience based on their common characteristics. It also introduces a group's roles, status, power, and hierarchy. The purposes of different groups in the workplace are explored.
Group Communication Theory
Where Group Communication Theories Come From
"It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data".
Arthur Conan Doyle
To develop group communication theories, people generally follow a three-step process which parallels what Western science calls "the scientific method".
- Ask important questions. What stages should most groups expect to pass through as they form and adopt goals? How does the size of a group affect its ability to pursue its goals? What methods of group decision-making work best with which kinds of people? Which blend of individual personalities contributes most to the satisfaction of a group? All these questions are meaningful and significant to groups, and all of them have served as the foundation of theories about group communication.
- Observe people's behavior in groups. To be productive, this observation should proceed on the basis of well-defined terms and within clear boundaries. To find out which blend of individual personalities contributes most to group satisfaction, for instance, it's necessary first to define "personality" and "satisfaction". It is also important to decide which kinds of groups to observe under which circumstances.
- Analyze the results of the observation process and base new theories upon them. The theories should fit the results of the observations as closely as possible.
You may want to go on line and look at a journal devoted to group communication topics, such as "Small Group Research". If you do, you'll see that the titles of its articles refer often to existing theories and that the articles themselves describe experiments with groups which have tested and elaborated upon those theories.