Page 95 - Effective group discussion theory and practice by Adams, Katherine H. Brilhart, John K. Galanes, Gloria J

78 Chapter 4

artha, who grew up and attended college in New York City, had always
wanted to work in California. With her degree in computer science almost
M in hand, Martha landed a job interview with a software development firm
in Silicon Valley. The firm’s software development team, a self- managed work group,
was responsible for its own interviewing and hiring. Members wanted to know
whether a potential candidate would be a good “fit” with the rest of the team, and they
had a good track record. Martha would spend an entire day with the team, attending
their meetings, shadowing various members, eating lunch with them, and so forth.
The team wanted to see how she handled herself in the kinds of work situations that
were everyday occurrences for them.
Martha prepared carefully for her interview. She read up on the company, knew
the kinds of software it was known for, updated her portfolio of college projects, and
selected her clothes for the interview very carefully— new navy blue suit, matching
pumps, white shell, discreet jewelry. She was ready!
Martha’s first inkling that something might go wrong occurred when team repre-
sentative Jorge met her at her hotel. Jorge was wearing jeans, a San Francisco 49ers’
cap, and a T- shirt with a fish tie handpainted on the front. When they got to the com-
pany’s building, she noticed that all the workers were similarly dressed— casually, with
a certain irreverent style. Team members asked her to talk a bit about her background
before they started their meeting, and she relaxed a bit. After all, she had prepared for
how to sell herself. About five minutes into her presentation, Jorge interrupted to
suggest that he take her on a tour of the building before the next meeting. They left,
and the other team members began to talk. “Thinks a lot of herself, doesn’t she,” said
Akimi. “She talks so fast I couldn’t follow half of what she said,” complained Scott.
“She’s wired pretty tight,” agreed Montana. The group concluded that Martha would
probably not be a good fit with the culture of this particular team, in part because she
didn’t seem like a team player. Within a half hour of first meeting her, they decided
not to extend her a job offer.
This story underscores four important points we make in this chapter. First, diver-
sity among group members presents a tremendous challenge to small groups because it
forces members to pay more careful attention to their communicative behavior and to
give up preconceived stereotypes if the group is to succeed. Second, diversity stems
from several sources, including someone’s culture, which is the focus of this chapter.
Third, cultural differences can exist even among individuals from the same country
who speak the same language and have similar educations, as Martha’s failed job inter-
view demonstrated. Finally, although diversity is challenging, it represents a potentially
valuable group resource and should be embraced, not eliminated.
In this chapter, we consider a member’s culture to be a major determinant of that
member’s behavior. In the following chapter, we consider several personal character-
istics that also affect individual behavior.
Information about culture fills textbooks! Our goal is to present you with a frame-
work for understanding cultural influences, to help you appreciate the challenges cul-
tural and co- cultural differences create in small groups. We also believe this offers you
a tool for diagnosing what has developed in your group and how you can make the
adjustments necessary to continue to be successful.

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