First Blog - Chapters 3, 9 & 10 {Jennifer Soler}

   

     Chapter 3 "Intercultural Communication"

    The heart of any culture is its values. Values are the commonly accepted standards of what is considered right and wrong, good and evil, fair and unfair, just and unjust, and so on. Cultures have both ideal and real values. Ideal values are the ones that members profess to hold, whereas real values are the ones that guide actual behavior. For example: the United States Constitution professes equal rights and opportunities for all, yet some people are treated unfairly based on sex, race, ethnicity, age, disability, or sexual orientation.

    Cultural identity is part of the self-concept that is based on how closely people associate with both the dominant culture and various co-cultures. If the dominant culture stigmatizes individuals' co-culture, they might downplay this part of their identity to fit into the dominant culture. Conversely, people may choose to identify even more closely with the co-culture and become a vocal activist for it. Some of the co-cultures that exist in the United States today are formed around shared beliefs and values related to. For example: race, ethnicity, sex and gender, sexual orientation, religion, socioeconomic status, age or generation, and disability.

    Cultures differ in the extent to which individualism or collectivism is valued. Highly individualistic cultures value personal rights and responsibilities, privacy, voicing one's opinion, freedom, innovation, and self-expression. People in highly individualistic cultures place primary value on the self and personal achievement. Competition is considered both desirable and useful, and the interests of others are considered primarily as they affect personal interests. Cultures in the United States, Australia, Canada, and Northern and Western European countries are considered to be highly individualistic.

    Unfortunately, there is no "one size fits all" strategy for communicating effectively across cultures. However, competent intercultural communicators work to overcome potential cultural barriers by acquiring accurate information about other cultures' values and practices, adopting an appropriate attitude, and developing culture-centered skills.

        Chapter 9 "Communicating in Groups"

    Although the nature of what constitutes a family continues to evolve, a family can generally be defined as a group of people who, through their communication, generate a sense of home, group identity, history, and future. Families can be nuclear consisting of two parents who live together with their biological or adopted children. Single parent consisting of one adult living with their children. Extended consisting of a parent or parents, and children living with grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, or other relatives. Blended consisting of committed or married adults living with the children of their previous marriages and relationships, as well as perhaps the children of their union, besides unrelated by either blood or marriage.

    The goals of healthy groups are ethical. That is, they are honest, upright, and honorable. Sometimes the actual goal of a group is unethical; other times, fulfilling the goal would require some or all group members to behave in unethical ways. For example: criminal gangs can be highly effective but unethical groups. They may make lots of money, but at the expense of society at large and often by risking the welfare of members. By contrast, healthy groups have goals that benefit both members and the larger society. Fulfilling these goals may require sacrifice and hard work, but accomplishing them does not depend on illegal, harmful, or unethical behavior.

    Norming is characterized by increased cohesion, collaboration, trust, and motivation to achieve the group goal. Having expressed honest opinions, resolved major differences, and sorted out specific roles, members become loyal to each other and to the group goal. During this stage, members come to appreciate their differences, strengthen their relationships, and freely express their ideas and opinions. Members accept the norms established by the group and provide positive and constructive feedback to each other.

    Personality-related group conflict occurs when two or more group members become defensive because they feel like they are being attacked. Typically, personality-related conflicts are rooted in a power struggle. Personality-related conflicts sometimes emerge from poorly managed issue-related conflict. For example: Jack thought the group should do something fun to celebrate the end of finals. Jill thought they should do a service project to give something back to the community before everyone headed home for the summer.

     Chapter 10 "Group Leadership and Problem Solving"

    Shared leadership functions are the sets of roles various group members perform to facilitate the work of the group and help maintain harmonious relationships among members. A role is a specific communication behavior that group members perform to address the needs of the group at a given point in time. When these roles are performed effectively, the group functions smoothly. The three sets of shared leadership functions can be categorized as task, maintenance, and procedural roles.

    An agenda is an organized outline of the information and decision items to be covered during a meeting. It is a road map that lets the members know the purpose of the meeting and what they are expected to accomplish as a result of attending.

    The group implements the agreed-upon solution or, if the group is presenting the solution to others for implementation, makes recommendations for how the solution should be implemented. The group has already considered implementation in terms of selecting a solution but now must fill in the details. What tasks are required by the solution(s)? Who will carry out these tasks? What is a reasonable time frame for implementation generally and for each of the tasks specifically? Because the agreed-upon solution may or may not prove effective, the group should determine a point at which they will revisit and assess its success. Doing so builds in an opportunity to revise or replace the solution it warranted.

    Effective group presentations depend on quality individual presentations, as well as overall group performance. So, evaluations of group presentations should consist of both an individual and a group component. And, if individuals are serious about improving their individual presentation skills, they will also evaluate themselves to discover areas where they can group dynamics. That is the way a group interacts to achieve its goal improve.

    Effective groups periodically stop to evaluate how their interactions affect what they are accomplishing and how members perceive themselves and others. At times individuals may be asked to provide a formal evaluation of the group dynamics of a class project group or other work team. One way people might evaluate members is to describe how each member performed his or her specific tasks and how well his or her communication contributed to the cohesiveness, problem solving, and conflict resolution processes in the group.