Functional Group Communication Theory

Origins and Influences

Dennis Gouran and Randy Hirokawa are the researchers most closely associated with the functional theory of effective group decision making. They state that the origins of the theory lie in three influences: the work of John Dewey and his work on reflective thinking, Robert Bales and his work on interaction process analysis, and Irving Janis and his work on vigilant decision making.

During the early part of the 20th century, John Dewey developed a method to describe the process that individuals should go through as they work on problem solving. In his 1910 book, How We Think, Dewey suggested that the process of reflective thinking involves five steps: (1) a felt difficulty, (2) its location and definition, (3) suggestion of possible solution, (4) development by reasoning of the implications and consequences of the solution, and (5) further observation and experiment leading to its acceptance or rejection.

The second influence on the development of the functional theory of effective group decision making is the work of Robert Bales. Bales and his colleagues had been working on group members' ability to deal with four functional problems: adaptation, instrumental control, expression, and integration. These are problems with which groups must deal in order to perform effectively. Adaptation and instrumental control relate to the management of task concerns (i.e., making a decision); expression and integration relate to the management of socioemotional concerns (i.e., managing relationships). Groups strive to maintain equilibrium with regard to these two concerns, and group communication is a major means of maintaining that equilibrium. For Bales, work on the task serves to disturb a group's balance in the socioemotional dimension, and group members must work to restore this balance. Group communication, then, is both a means by which deviations from equilibrium can be identified and a means by which equilibrium can be accomplished or restored. Bales developed interaction process analysis (IPA) in an effort to capture how communication functions in both the task and socioemotional domains. IPA consists of 12 categories—six related to task and six to socioemotional—into which communicative acts (utterances) may be classified.

The third influence on the development of the functional theory of effective decision making is the work of Irving Janis on vigilant decision making. Janis theorized that highly cohesive groups sometimes suffer from poor decision making because of the pressures placed on their members to reach consensus. Janis labeled this condition groupthink. Vigilant groups (a) survey the possible alternatives-solutions available, (b) survey the objectives to be accomplished, (c) examine the risks and benefits associated with the alternatives, (d) perform an information search, (e) process the information in an unbiased manner, (f) reappraise the alternatives in light of risks and benefits before making a final choice, and (g) work out a plan for implementing the desired choice along with contingency plans should additional risks associated with that choice become known.

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