Week of August 27 - September 2: #3

A concept in "The Essential Guide to Group Communication" that I found helpful was titled "WHAT MAKES A GOOD GROUP?" I think this is very relevant to our upcoming assignments, seeing as we will need to work with a group to complete them. There are six characteristics that O'Hair and Wiemann discuss on page sixteen, but I wanted to focus on interdependence and conflict. Group work cannot be done without interdependence; each member of a group will affect the other members in both positive and negative ways. Everything is shared, including responsibility, mistakes, and success. This means that a group needs all of its members to be contributing or the group will fail. When members are absent or have different opinions concerning the work, conflict occurs. Although conflict is inevitable, it is better to manage it than to avoid it. Some conflict may be good; this means that all issues will be discussed and everyone will have a clear sight of what is going on.