Page 293 - Effective group discussion theory and practice by Adams, Katherine H. Brilhart, John K. Galanes, Gloria J
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276                 Chapter 10

                                   touches a lot of people, may be costly, and affects quality of life (such as figuring out
                                   how to negotiate a fair salary and benefit package with Major League Baseball), you
                                   need to make sure that you make the most carefully thought-out decision possible.
                                   Very likely, you will want to use all the steps of P-MOPS. But if your group is charged
                                   with planning a party for your service club, you don’t run a big risk of making a mis-
                                   take. You can skip or shorten some of the steps. How do you know the best way to
               Task Difficulty     adjust? You can consider the characteristics of your  particular problem.
               Degree of problem
               complexity and effort   Problem Characteristics
               required to solve a
               problem.            In his classic synthesis of group dynamics, Shaw described five characteristics of
                                   problems that small groups tackle: task difficulty, solution multiplicity, intrinsic interest,
                                                                             35
                                   cooperative requirements, and population familiarity.  To these we add acceptance
               Solution Multiplicity  requirements and technical requirements. Groups should take these into account and
               Extent to which there   adjust the problem-solving procedure accordingly.
               are many different     Task difficulty refers to the problem’s complexity—hence, the effort, knowledge,
               possible alternatives   and skill needed to achieve the goal. Groups generally are asked to tackle complex
               for solving a       problems, those for which a number of different perspectives must be considered.
               particular problem.  For instance, consider recent government task forces assigned to recommend improve-
                                   ments in the U.S. healthcare system, reduction of the budget deficit, or improvement
                                   in high school graduation rates—problems beyond the capacity of any single person.
               Intrinsic Interest
                                   Thorough problem analysis and mapping will be needed.
               Extent to which the    Solution multiplicity refers to the number of conceivable alternatives for solving
               task itself is attractive   the problem. There are usually only a few useful ways to get from your residence to
               and interesting to the
               participants.       your classroom, but there are innumerable ways to decorate your living room. Struc-
                                   tured procedures like brainstorming help us think of more possible alternatives when
                                   solution multiplicity is even moderately high. 36
               Cooperative            Ideally, groups would discuss only intrinsically interesting problems. In actuality,
               Requirements        people are assigned to committees that deal with a variety of problems, some of little
               The degree to which   interest to them. Intrinsic interest is “the degree to which the task in and of itself is
                                                                                     37
               members must        interesting, motivating, and attractive to the group members.”  When group mem-
               coordinate their    bers are highly interested in their task, they want to share control of the group’s pro-
               efforts for a group to   cedures, but when interest is low, they are happy to let the discussion leader assume
               complete its task   control.  If interest is high, members at first want to express opinions and feelings
                                         38
               successfully.       and will resist strict procedural control. After they have vented their feelings, they are
                                   more likely to accept procedural control of the problem-solving procedure.
                                      Cooperative requirements reflect the degree to which coordinated efforts are
               Population Familiarity
                                   essential to satisfactory completion of a task. In other words, the task is conjunctive.
               The degree to which   Increased complexity requires members to talk to each other, share information, and
               members of a group   cooperate—to be competent communicators.
               are familiar with the   The population familiarity dimension of the problem is the level of members’
               nature of a problem   knowledge about and previous experience with the task. Groups with experienced
               and experienced in                                                              39
               solving similar     members tend to perform better than groups with inexperienced ones.  When
               problems.             population familiarity is low to start, the problem-solving procedure should concen-
                                   trate on analysis of the problem. But sometimes very knowledgeable people become









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