COMM250 Final Notes Hubbard Fall 12 Groups and Organizational Theories GROUPTHINK Creator Irving Janis Victims of Groupthink A Psychological Study of Foreign Policy Decisions and Fiascoes Groupthink Psychological Studies of Policy Decisions and Fiascoes 1982 Theory associated with small group communication conceptualization of a group 1972 process Applies to problem solving or task oriented groups o Often under stress Goal of Groupthink Boundary Conditions Describe To understand the nature of decision making in small groups o Decision making or task oriented groups o Groups under pressure to make decisions Video be able to explain following Definition of Groupthink Definition of cohesiveness o Is cohesiveness good or bad Conditions that promote Groupthink use examples from video Symptoms of Groupthink Groupthink the inability of a group to realistically appraise alternative courses of action due to High Cohesiveness banded together one unit degree to which a group gets along and wants to work together in a positive environment Desire for Unanimity pressure for the whole group to agree and it doesn t allow for differing opinions Conditions that Might Promote Groupthink High Cohesiveness Group Insulation group protects itself from outside influences No Impartial Leadership sometimes the leader of a group is biased towards the project i e b c job or grade depends on it Homogeneity of Group Members No Decision Making Procedures groups work better if organized and procedures are stated at beginning High Stress contributes to groupthink more often than low stress groups o Hubbard thinks this is the most important one Symptoms of Groupthink Overestimation of the group 2 types COMM250 Final Notes Hubbard Fall 12 o Illusions of Invulnerability creating excessive optimism and encouraging risk taking o Belief in the Inherent Morality of the Group causes members to ignore consequences of their actions Closed Mindedness o Out Group Stereotypes People outside are bad and everyone inside is good Ex Media doesn t have best interest in mind o Collective Rationalizations Not based on logic or fact or info at hand Ex from movie it has worked 19 times before Pressures Towards Uniformity o Self Censorship Don t say things you know are important o Illusion of Unanimity Silence agreement o Self Appointed Mindguards o Pressures on Dissenters Individuals who shoot other people down or don t bring info to the table protect group from adverse info If someone dissents disagrees other group members attack him her Explanation of Groupthink Preventing Groupthink Require Oversight and Control of Group Decision Making o Everything in the movie Embrace Whistle Blowing within the Group pointing out bad things COMM250 Final Notes Hubbard Fall 12 Allow for Objections o i e Conscientious Objectors o You have to allow people to morally object or withdraw if they are ethically against the idea Balance Consensus and Majority Rule Janis meant his theory to apply ONLY to decision making groups that are under high stress Evaluation of Groupthink Pros o Heuristic o Adequate Scope Cons o Underdeveloped Poorly conceptualized Lacks empirical backing How does Groupthink define communication Groupthink s Metatheoretical Assumptions Janis is social scientist Ontological Epistemological Axiological ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION THEORY OIT GET MORE INFO Creator Karl Weick 1969 1995 The Social Psychology of Organizing Goal of OIT receive To describe how organizations collect manage and use the information that they Theoretical Influences on OIT General Systems Theory Bertalanffy 1968 o The interrelationship among organizational units o Feedback feedback cycles Theory of Socio Cultural Evolution Darwin 1948 o Survival of the Fittest Assumptions of OIT Organizations exist in an information environment The information an organization receives differs in its equivocality Information processing reduces equivocality ambiguity COMM250 Final Notes Hubbard Fall 12 OIT s Key Concepts Information Environment Equivocality Rules Guidelines an organization has for dealing with information 4 types Cycles a series of communication behaviors used by members of an organization to reduce the ambiguity of information 3 stages o Duration o Personnel o Success o Effort o 3 stages Stage 1 Act Stage 2 Response Stage 3 Adjustment o Double Interact Loops Principles of Equivocality Reduction of Equivocality depends on o Amount of equivocality o Number of rules in place o Number of cycles needed Reducing Equivocality 3 Stages Enactment Selection Retention Evaluation of OIT Positives Pros o Utility scholars o Heurism Few rules in place more cycles will be needed to reduce equivocality The more cycles used the less equivocality remains Focus on communication process resonates with communication 4 Models of Public Relations J Grunig Hunt 1984 The Press Agentry Model The Public Information Model The 2 way Asymmetrical Model The 2 way Symmetrical Model 4 Models of PR serves as a concrete application of OIT How organizations manage and use information according to Negatives Cons o Logical Consistency particular purposes COMM250 Final Notes Hubbard Fall 12 Do people really follow the rules How does OIT define Communication Intentional Correspondence OIT s Metatheoretical Assumptions Ontological Epistemological Axiological Rhetorical Theories CLASSICAL RHETORICAL THEORY ARISTOTLE Types of Rhetorical Theories Classical Rhetorical Theories o Aristotle s Rhetoric 384 322 BC o Quintilian 35 to 96 CE o George Campbell 1776 o HUMANIST hermeneutic interpretive theories Differs from social scientific approaches Humanists deny objective truth Builds knowledge through human reasoning and social construction Contemporary Rhetorical Theories o Dramatism Kenneth Burke 1950 o The Narrative Paradigm Walter Fisher 1984 Definitions of Rhetoric Aristotle 384 BC 322 BC The ability to determine in any particular case all the available means of persuasion The Rhetoric Falls under the Public Communication Context o One to Many o Oral Communication George Kennedy contemporary rhetorical theorist of classical rhetoric and lit born 1928 A system of language intentionally used to persuade others decisions or actions Oral and Written Communication Kennedy is a contempr Kennedy received his Ph D in classics from Harvard in 1954 Kennedy taught classics comparative literature and rhetoric at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for twenty eight years Book On Rhetoric A Theory of Civic
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