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Relevant
Background Factors
Stewart L. Tubbs
McGraw-Hill
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 2
Relevant Background Factors
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McGraw-Hill
Explaining Why We Do What We Do
Personality
Gender
Age
Health
Attitudes
Values
Review of the Systems Approach
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 3
Explaining Why We Do What We
Do
• Diversity: Groups in Conflict
– All behavior occurs in some context.
– Understanding cultural differences in behavior
is critical, as the United States continues to
become more and more diverse.
McGraw-Hill
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 4
Explaining Why We Do What We
Do
• Diversity: Groups in Conflict
– Hamden-Turner and Trompenaars (2000) have
identified six dimensions that distinguish
people.
1. Universalism-particularism
2. Individualism-communitarianism
3. Specificity-diffusion
4. Achieved status-ascribed status
5. Inner direction-outer direction
6. Sequential time-synchronous time
McGraw-Hill
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 5
Explaining Why We Do What We
Do
• Diversity: Groups in Conflict (continued)
– Behaving in specific ways is usually seen as an
attempt by the individual to meet certain needs.
– Probably one of the best-known models for
explaining people’s needs is Maslow’s (1970)
hierarchy of needs.
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McGraw-Hill
Physiological needs
Security needs
Belongingness needs
Esteem needs
Self-actualization needs
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 6
Explaining Why We Do What We
Do
• Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy
McGraw-Hill
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 7
Personality
• FIRO-B
– Schutz (1958, 1967, 1971) hypothesized that
most people share three needs that groups help
fulfill.
• Inclusion
• Control
• Affection
McGraw-Hill
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 8
Personality
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
– The theory is that we all possess personality
traits in pairs of opposite characteristics.
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McGraw-Hill
Extroversion (E) versus Introversion (I)
Sensing (S) versus Intuition (N)
Thinking (T) versus Feeling (F)
Judging (J) versus Perceiving (P)
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 9
Personality
• Although personality is one of the most
important background factors in small group
communication, other factors are also
involved.
– Organismic factors or variables are those that
are part of the organism.
McGraw-Hill
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 10
Gender
• Communication between the genders is both
the most interesting and sometimes the most
challenging of all types of communication.
– Deborah Tannen’s (1995) excellent research has
demonstrated that men and women talk
differently in group situations.
– Loden (1990) found that women approach
teamwork and participatory management
differently than do men.
McGraw-Hill
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 11
Age
• Communication patterns differ from
childhood through adolescence to adulthood
and old age.
– Zenger and Lawrence (1989) found that age
similarity of group members had a positive
effect on the communication of information
within project groups.
McGraw-Hill
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 12
Age
• Communication patterns . . . (continued)
– Fullerton, Kerch, and Dodge (1996) found that
age was a good predictor of a person’s ethics.
• As age increased, so did one’s ethical standards.
– Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee (2002) found
that “neoteny,” or perpetual enthusiasm for
learning and for life, creates what they call
“resonance.”
• Chronological age is probably much less important
than psychological age when it comes to effectively
working with others.
McGraw-Hill
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 13
Health
• Deficiencies in both physical and mental
health of members seem to impede group
performance.
McGraw-Hill
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 14
Attitudes
• Attitudes are defined as “predispositions
towards action, about or toward people and
things, evaluation of people, objects and
ideas, and made up of emotional reactions,
thoughts and beliefs, and action
components. (www.ChangingMinds.org)
• They can be learned or genetic and are
sometimes impossible to change.
McGraw-Hill
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 15
Attitudes
– According to Triandis (1971), attitudes have
three components: (1) a cognitive component;
(2) an affective component; and (3) a behavioral
component.
– Some of the most intuitive yet provocative
theories concerning attitudes are the so-called
cognitive consistency theories.
• Balance
• Cognitive dissonance theory
McGraw-Hill
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 16
Attitudes
McGraw-Hill
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 17
Attitudes
McGraw-Hill
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 18
Values
• Attitudes and values are closely linked.
• Underwood (2003) states that matching
attitudes result in cohesive values.
• Rokeach (1968, 1971, 1973) has argued that
people’s values are also important as a
predictor of behavior.
– Values are seen as more fundamental than
attitudes and are more stable and long lasting.
McGraw-Hill
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 19
Review of the Systems Approach—
Practical Tips
Tropman (1996) identifies several value
differences that can influence group discussions.
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McGraw-Hill
Multipurpose versus unipurpose
Pragmatism versus excellence
Status versus class
Personal versus organizational purpose
Empirical versus qualitative decision-making bases
Disposable labor versus intimate concern
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 20
Review of the Systems Approach
• Small group interactions are the result of
influences that can be labeled inputs,
throughputs, and outputs.
• Group norms, leadership style, and
communication patterns all tend to influence
the satisfaction level of group members.
• The three organismic factors discussed in
this chapter were gender, age, and health.
McGraw-Hill
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 21
Review of the Systems Approach—
Practical Tips
Promoting Diversity in the Virtual Space
Step One: Introduction – Threaded Discussion
Step Two: Self-Assessment
Step Three: Discussion
Step Four: Strategy Development
McGraw-Hill
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.