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What is Small
Group Interaction?
Stewart L. Tubbs
McGraw-Hill
© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Slide 2
What is Small Group Interaction?
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•
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•
•
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McGraw-Hill
McGraw-Hill
A Definition
Empowerment
A Conceptual Orientation for Small Groups
General Systems Approach
General Systems Concepts
Review of the Systems Approach
Summary
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2007 The
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Slide 3
A Definition
• Small group interaction
– The process by which three or more members
of a group exchange verbal and nonverbal
messages in an attempt to influence one another.
• Team
– “A high performance task group whose
members are actively interdependent and share
common performance objectives” (Francis and
Young).
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Slide 4
A Definition
• Why Study Small Groups?
– Modern organizations are undergoing a radical
transformation designed to better utilize human
potential, primarily through the increased use of
small groups.
• Small groups can help you in college.
• Learning to work effectively in small groups can
save you time and money.
• Few leaders in today’s complex society can succeed
on their own without the help of competent and
committed team members.
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Slide 5
Empowerment
• Modern organizations are basing
multibillion-dollar decisions, in part, on the
use of teams.
– Empowerment
• A leadership style that enables the leader to utilize
more effectively the talents, abilities, and knowledge
of others and, at the same time, to increase his or her
available time to work on more strategic activities.
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Slide 6
Empowerment
• Empowerment has certain inherent
advantages:
– Greater productivity
– Quicker response to problems
– Improved quality of communication between
groups
– Increased individual motivation
– Improved overall organizational effectiveness
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Slide 7
Empowerment
• Kirkman and Rosen (1999) found evidence
that empowerment has four very closely
related dimensions:
–
–
–
–
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Potency
Meaningfulness
Autonomy
Impact
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2007 The
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Slide 8
A Conceptual Orientation
for Small Groups
• Small group interaction is very complicated
and involves a large number of factors that
act and interact simultaneously.
– These factors are in continual state of flux.
– Any attempt to provide a conceptual orientation
for small group interaction or any social process
must be highly simplified.
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2007 The
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Slide 9
A Conceptual Orientation
for Small Groups
McGraw-Hill
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© 2004
2007 The
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McGraw-Hill Companies,
Companies, Inc.
Inc. All
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Slide 10
General Systems Approach
• An open system such as a group is defined
as an organized set of interrelated and
interacting parts that attempts to maintain its
own balance amid the influences of its
surrounding environment.
– The consequences, or outputs, of the group are
fed back into the system through the feedback
loop.
– Systems analysis has become a particularly
popular way of analyzing human behavior in
organizations.
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Slide 11
General Systems Concepts
• All processes consist of a cycle of inputs
that lead to outputs, or outcomes.
• Bellinger believes most organizations focus
on the gap between inputs and outputs,
resulting in the creation of barriers to output.
• Focusing on outputs and the necessary
inputs to achieve those outputs is critical to
prevent getting stuck in the gap (Bellinger
2004).
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Slide 12
General Systems Concepts
The 10 general systems concepts that apply to
small group communications are:
1. Input
2. Throughout
3. Output
4. Cycles
5. Negative Entropy
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Slide 13
General Systems Concepts
The 10 general systems concepts that apply to
small group communications are:
6. Feedback
7. Dynamic Equilibrium
8. Differentiation
9. Integration
10. Equifinality
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Slide 14
General Systems Concept
Synthesis of Group Models
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Slide 15
Review of the Systems Approach
• The Tubbs Model of Small Group
Interaction:
– Helps students grasp the conceptual overview.
– Shows the dynamic interactive nature of all the
variables in the model and avoids the causeand-effect thinking of earlier models.
– Explicitly shows how consequences, or outputs,
of one small group experience can become
background factors or inputs for the next group
experience.
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2007 The
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Slide 16
Review of the Systems Approach
• Relevant Background Factors
– Personalities
Team Dynamics: “often-unseen
‘natural forces’ that strongly influence
how a tea reacts, behaves, or performs”
(Team Technology 2004).
– Age
– Health
– Values
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Slide 17
Review of the Systems Approach
• Internal Influences
– Physical environment
– Type of group
 including virtual groups
– Status and power
– Leadership
– Group norms
– Decision making
– Conflict
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Slide 18
Review of the Systems Approach
• Consequences
– Solutions to problems.
– Improvements in interpersonal relations.
– Improvements in the flow of information
between and among people.
– Organizational change.
 Consequences are inevitable when outputs are
the goal.
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©
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2007 The
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Slide 19
Summary
• This chapter presented definitions of the
language and key terms unique to the study
of small groups.
• The Tubbs Model is a conceptual model that
illustrates and defines the relationships of all
the important variables in a small group.
McGraw-Hill
McGraw-Hill
©
© 2004
2007 The
The McGraw-Hill
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Companies, Inc.
Inc. All
All rights
rights reserved.
reserved.