Page 293 - Effective group discussion theory and practice by Adams, Katherine H. Brilhart, John K. Galanes, Gloria J
P. 293
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
gal37018_ch10_259_290.indd 276 3/30/18 11:14 AM