Olivia Wolf Lecture Notes Final 11 12 12 Group Think Irving Janis Goal to understand the nature of decision making in small groups Boundary conditions o Decision making or task oriented groups o Groups under pressure to make decision juries work fast under pressure because they don t want to be there for that long Video Definition the inability of a group to realistically appraise alternative courses of action due to Leads to poor decision making o High cohesiveness o Desire for unanimity Definition of cohesiveness good or bad Conditions that promote Groupthink o High cohesiveness o Group insulation o No impartial leadership when the leader is a member it can be problematic o Homogeneity of group members same levels of education experience etc if they have same characteristics they may think the same o No decision making procedures o High stress Symptoms of Group think o Overestimation of the Group Illusions of invulnerability Belief in the Inherent Morality of the group o Close mindedness Out group stereotypes Collective rationalizations o Pressure Towards Uniformity Self censorship Illusion of unanimity Self appointed mind guards member who takes it upon themselves to protect the group from information that goes against what they re thinking Pressures on dissenters 11 14 12 Organizational Information Theory OIT Karl Weick 1969 1995 To describe how organizations collect manage and use the information that they receive o Needs to find a way to manage information in order to be successful Theoretical Influences on OIT General Systems Theory Bertalanffy 1968 o The interrelationship among organizational units departments highly interrelated something that happens in one department can affect another department and then affect the department as a whole Theory of Socio cultural Evolution Darwin 1948 o Feedback cycles o Survival of the fittest Assumptions of OIT Organizations exist in an information environment The information on organization receives differs in its equivocality Information varies in terms of level of ambiguity to the organization as a whole Information processing reduces equivocality makes it less ambiguous so you can achieve communication goals Key Concepts Information environment Equivocality ambiguity Rules guidelines an organization has for dealing with information o 4 types of rules Duration take the least amount of time Personnel who should receive the information Effort want to accomplish things by doing things as Success develop rules that have been successful in the past quickly efficiently as possible minimal effort Communication Cycles series of communication behaviors used by members of an organization use to reduce the ambiguity of information 3 stages o Act behavior that indicates that ambiguity exists original message o Response behavior that attempts to lessen that ambiguity o Adjustment response to the response have to go through it again feedback why it s a cycle Double Interact loops can take multiple cycles of this act response adjustment to reduce the ambiguity of the situation Principals of Equivocality Reduction of equivocality depends on o Amount of equivocality o Number of rules in place o Number of cycles that are needed Few rules in place more cycles will be needed to reduce equivocality More cycles used the less equivocality remains Reducing Equivocality 3 stages Enactment analyze the situation Selection select the rule to help deal with the equivocality select one that s good for me Retention remembering what you used so you can use it again Focus on communication process resonates with communication scholars 4 models of public relations serve as a concrete application of OIT how organizations manage and use information according to particular proposes o Logical consistence do people really follow the rules make Evaluation Positives o Utility o Heurism Negatives choices Define Communication Intentional Correspondence Metatheoretical Assumptions O humanistic make choices social context matters E social scientific A social scientific Overall middle more towards social scientific 11 19 12 Classical Rhetorical Theory Types of Rhetorical Theories Classical Rhetorical Theories o Aristotle s Rhetoric o Quintillian o George Campbell Contemporary Rhetorical Theories o Dramatism o The Narrative Paradigm HUMANIST SIDE 100 Classical Rhetorical Theory is Humanist Part of humanist tradition of theory building testing o Hermeneutic Interpretive Theories methodological study of interpretation methods principles and steps principles for creating meaning discourse for public speeches o Principles for evaluating discourse became popular after Aristotle but people still use his methods Differs from social scientific approaches o Humanists deny objective truth do NOT think knowledge is certain o Different interpretations of the same communication epistemological event phenomenon o Builds knowledge through human reasoning and social construction Definitions of Rhetoric Aristotle the ability to determine in any particular case all the available means of persuasion o Falls under the public communication context One to many Oral communication George Kennedy contemporary rhetorical theorist a system of language intentionally used to persuade others decisions or actions o Oral and written communication Goals Inform give information clarify ideas and concepts describe a process layout a train of thought Persuade change people s attitudes or beliefs or to call them to action campaign speeches Entertain graduation speeches best man speech eulogy Origins of Classic Rhetorical Theory Greece about the 5th century BCE Early rhetorical theorists emerge Greek citizens about he world Aristotle Former student of Plato o The Sophists taught public speaking basic principles of persuasion to o Plato disagreed with the Sophists concerned with absolute truths o Also disagreed with the sophists but more practical than plato o Concerned with probabilities not certainties The Rhetoric a comprehensive treatise on rhetoric o Lays out a prescriptive theory how to for constructing discourse public speeches 5 Assumptions Guiding Classical Rhetorical Theory Rhetoric is designed to find the best or most appropriate form of influence or persuasion o Must consider in the context Rhetorical communication is public o Must consider the audience Rhetorical communication is intentional o Speakers intend to influence their audiences so they develop strategies to accomplish goals Rhetorical theory
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