Page 156 - Effective group discussion theory and practice by Adams, Katherine H. Brilhart, John K. Galanes, Gloria J

Communication and Group Culture 139

their own cultural experiences into the group as inputs, each group develops its own
unique small group culture (output), and the members’ communicative processes
both create and maintain the group’s culture (throughput and output).
Group culture is the pattern of values, beliefs, norms, and behaviors that are Group Culture
shared by group members and that shape a group’s individual “personality.” Many The pattern of values,
factors weave together to create a group’s culture, including the content and pattern of beliefs, and norms
interactions, the roles members enact and their interrelationships, and the norms and shared by group
rules guiding the group’s interactions. Each group has a unique, interdependent mix members, developed
of elements that cannot be duplicated exactly in other groups. For instance, some through interaction
groups behave informally, with lots of joking and low power distance. Other groups and incorporating
display hostility, aggressive verbal behavior, and divisive conflict. Still others adhere members’ shared
to strict, formal interaction rules with polite, controlled communication. How do experiences in the
these differences come about? We examine some of the processes most important to group, patterns of
interaction, and
the development of a group’s culture in this chapter. status relationships.

Structuration Theory and Group Culture
Communication among members is the means by which members create and sus-
tain their group culture, which is never static. Anthony Giddens’s structuration the-
ory and its application to small group dynamics by Marshal Poole and his associates
helps us understand the central role communication plays in the emergence of
2
group culture. Structuration is the idea that any social system’s rules, operating Structuration
procedures, and resources emerge out of the verbal and nonverbal communication The concept that a
between members. Members’ use of those rules and resources sustains the system. group creates and
Rules are guidelines for how actions are to be done. In our opening case, we see the continuously
rule that all decisions will be based on sound reasoning. Resources are those aspects recreates itself
(e.g., materials and possessions) of a group that are used by members to control the through member’s
behavior of other members. In our opening case, one resource is the higher status communicative
afforded the MDs. Rules and resources are used by group members as they interact behaviors; the
with each other. group’s
3
The theory of structuration embraces three important assumptions. First, the communication both
behavior of group members is constrained by such things as the general rules of the establishes and limits
how the group
society in which they live, the structures of the particular group in which they find develops.
themselves, and the behavior of the other members. For example, the rules of corpo-
rate America frown on executives’ settling their differences with a fist fight. The med-
ical group in our opening story was constrained by the status of MDs within the
medical community, which gave what the MDs said more weight, and the need to
secure external funding.
The second important assumption is that people can choose whether or not to
follow the rules of the group. Although there may be unpleasant consequences for a
member who doesn’t follow a group’s rules, there is no law, like the law of gravity, that
forces conformity. In our medical group, a social worker could have decided to chal-
lenge one of Julian’s decisions. Others might have supported her or might have
frowned on her attempt to change an entrenched norm.
The third important assumption of structuration is that group creation is a pro-
cess; the group creates itself initially and also continuously re-creates itself, changing

gal37018_ch06_135_168.indd 139 3/28/18 12:35 PM