Small group communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Small group communication - Essay Example An effective small group that would guarantee efficient results is one that has established clear roles for the small group members. Firstly, there should be a task leader. A task leader is probably one of the key people within the small group as he controls the direction of the group and initiates debate points. He is resourceful enough to know when a point has been exhausted and also has the ability to come up with debatable points whose answers contribute to the overall discussion. The other critical aspect for a small group is communication. The members of the small group should understand each other they should be able to discern information provided by other members. This ensures that no single point escapes. In totality, this contributes to a healthy group discussion and one that maximizes on the resourcefulness of all the members. Looking through the definition forwarded by the text it is possible to identify our class groups as small groups. A project team, as it was constit uted to achieve a particular goal which was discussion of various academic topics. The intention of the project team was to improve our functionality in groups as well as integrate variable knowledge as presented by various group members. However, the only qualification as a small group only lay in the numbers and communication interactions. This was the only congruent aspect as our small group lacked a communication pattern. There were no ground rules that ensured the discussions remained focused on the subject matter. This was largely due to lack of a task leader. A task leader is defined as the person who emerges as the most qualified to lead a specific small group dealing with a particular problem (Cragan, Wright and Kasch 39). This type of a person lacked in our small group. The result was an uncoordinated group that engaged in debates far from the intended topics. It would take a long time to have the group members focus again on the topic of discussion. The greatest problem was that every time one of the group members seemed to take control of the group he was fast criticized and this again translated to a disorderly discussion. The text identifies that task leaders are not necessarily known at the inception of the