Capella University Group-Related Communication Theories Question Discussion

Capella University Group-Related Communication Theories Question Discussion

Question Description
3050-3

Write an investigative paper that applies group-related communication theories to a selected group.

There are many ways to improve interpersonal effectiveness, and the benefits of doing so are profound. Many studies point to interpersonal effectiveness as the leading predictor of future success. Derailment studies (Lombardo & McCauley, 1988) found lack of interpersonal communication skills to be a key factor in the likelihood of a manager to derail, or be removed from his or her job.

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

Competency 2: Analyze the interrelationships of communication within organizational systems.
Describe the characteristics of a group.
Analyze the roles of group members.
Describe the group stages experienced.
Analyze group norms.
Describe positive and negative participation behaviors.
Describe group’s use of technology for communication.
Competency 3: Communicate effectively.
Write clearly to convey the intended content and follow APA rules for attributing sources.
Reference
Lombardo, M. M., & McCauley, C. D. (1988). The dynamics of management derailment. Center for Creative Leadership Technical Report, 34, 1–33.

Individuals are the essence of communication. Even before involving others, intrapersonal communication is at work. These are the messages we send to ourselves and relate to our own issues and perceptions.

Interpersonal communication takes place when a second individual is incorporated into the setting. Trust and power are often part of interpersonal relationships, as is perception, the way we think about others. In today’s organizational environment, technology is also closely linked with the ways we communicate one-on-one.

The Assessment 3 Context document contains important information related to working in groups that address the following topics:

The Importance of Good Listening Skills.
Groups in Organizations.
Group Types.
Group Development.
Individuals’ Roles in Groups.
To deepen your understanding, you are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of the business community.

An outsider’s opinion can be an eye-opening experience. Ask a supervisor or coworker to provide you with honest, detailed feedback regarding your personal communication and listening skills. Then consider the following:

How was it for you to get the feedback you did?
Do you agree with the assessment made by your supervisor or coworker?
If you received feedback you did not expect, how did you respond?
If areas for growth were noted, what plans, if any, do you have for growth?
REQUIRED RESOURCES
The following resources are required to complete the assessment.

Capella Resources
The following is a PDF document written by Capella faculty.

Backlund, G. (2001). Team effectiveness. Minneapolis, MN: Capella University.
Library Resources
The following e-books or articles from the Capella University Library are linked directly in this course:

Benne, K. D., & Sheats, P. (2007). Functional roles of group members. Group Facilitation, (8), 30–35.
Tuckman, B. W. (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin, 63(6), 384–399.
The initial ideas presented by Bruce Tuckman in 1965, regarding the stages of development that teams go through, are so ingrained in the literature about teams that some authors forget to cite Tuckman. Reading Tuckman’s original ideas about team development will help you understand how later authors formulated their ideas on team development.

THE FOLLOWING OPTIONAL RESOURCES ARE PROVIDED TO SUPPORT YOU IN COMPLETING THE ASSESSMENT OR TO PROVIDE A HELPFUL CONTEXT. FOR ADDITIONAL RESOURCES, REFER TO THE RESEARCH RESOURCES AND SUPPLEMENTAL RESOURCES IN THE LEFT NAVIGATION MENU OF YOUR COURSEROOM.SUGGESTED RESOURCES
Capella Resources
Click the links provided to view the following resources:

Assessment 3 Context.
Library Resources
The following e-books or articles from the Capella University Library are linked directly in this course:

Hindle, T. (2008). Guide to management ideas and gurus. London, GBR: Profile Books/The Economist.
This e-book addresses a broad range of management topics, including key issues addressed in this course. It is a helpful resource to reference throughout the course.
Course Library Guide
A Capella University library guide has been created specifically for your use in this course. You are encouraged to refer to the resources in the BUS-FP3050 – Fundamentals of Organizational Communication Library Guide to help direct your research.

Bookstore Resources
The resources listed below are relevant to the topics and assessments in this course and are not required. Unless noted otherwise, these materials are available for purchase from the Capella University Bookstore. When searching the bookstore, be sure to look for the Course ID with the specific –FP (FlexPath) course designation.

Shockley-Zalabak, P. S. (2015). Fundamentals of organizational communication: Knowledge, sensitivity, skills, values (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Understanding personal work group communication processes will be extremely important throughout your career. This assessment provides a framework for you to analyze that in the context of a specific situation you are familiar with. As you take on additional responsibility in your career (particularly in managerial roles), you might be faced with situations where personal work group communications doesn’t seem to be working, or where you perceive it is particularly critical that it work optimally. In those future situations, you can reference this framework and analysis, and apply it to help achieve work group and organization effectiveness and success.

Complete the following:

Choose a group in which you are currently involved or have been involved in the past. A group or team associated with a current employer often works the best, but you may also use group experiences from previous employers or community activities. If possible, choose a group that may be experiencing communication difficulties.
Prepare an investigative paper that applies group-related communication theories to your selected group. Include the following in your paper:
Describe the characteristics of the group and analyze the impact on communication using all of the criteria below:
Describe whether the team is ongoing (permanent) or ad hoc (temporary).
Is the group a short-term group that will only exist for 1–12 months or is the group a long-standing group that has or will exist for more than one year?
Is the group formal or informal? For example, is the group an official (that is, formal) department or committee at a company or is the group an informal collection of people such as a book club.
Is the group self-managing or does the group have a clear consistent leader?
Is the group best described as a primary work team or a project team? A primary work team generally takes on a variety of tasks (for example, a Human Resources Department or a Maintenance Department). Project teams typically engage in a narrow set of activities such as organizing a specific event or a taking on a single project.
Using the 2007 Benne and Sheats article, “Functional Roles of Group Members,” linked in the Resources under the Required Resources heading, analyze the formal roles and communication roles of group members and the impact on communication within the group:
Group members’ task roles.
Group members’ maintenance roles.
Group members’ individual roles.
Using Bruce Tuckman’s (1965) team stages model or Backlund’s 2001 article, “Team Effectiveness,” linked in the Resources under the Required Resources heading, describe the group stages experienced by the group and changes in communication throughout those stages.
Analyze the group norms and the impact on organizational communication. Norms are the formal and informal rules groups develop. Many norms are never written down and many are not discussed openly but are still learned by group members.
Describe positive and negative participation behaviors and their impact on communication.
Describe the group’s use of technology for communication, such as e-mail, texting, or the Internet, and assess the effectiveness of the group’s use of technology for communication.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS
Your investigative paper should be well organized and written in clear, succinct language. Follow APA rules for attributing sources that support your analysis and conclusions.

Academic Integrity and APA Formatting

As a reminder related to using APA rules to ensure academic honesty:

When using a direct quote (using exact or nearly exact wording), you must enclose the quoted wording in quotation marks, immediately followed by an in-text citation. The source must then be listed in your references page.
When paraphrasing (using your own words to describe a non-original idea), the paraphrased idea must be immediately followed by an in-text citation and the source must be listed in your references page.

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You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.