Speech 140 Chapter 5 Roles and Leadership and Grops 1 In Mixed Company Chapter Five Roles and Leadership in Groups

Speech 140 Chapter 5 Roles and Leadership and Grops

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In Mixed Company Chapter Five

Roles and Leadership in Groups


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Group Roles

• Norms are broad rules that designate appropriate behavior for all group members while roles stipulate specific behaviors that are expected for individual group members.


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Role Reversal: When Students Become Teachers

• The effects of roles on perceptions can be seen in a dramatic way by doing a role reversal, which is stepping into a role distinctly different from or opposite of a role we usually play.


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Role Conflict: Torn Between Two Roles

• When we find ourselves playing roles in different groups that contradict each other, we experience role conflict.

• Students who have children are often faced with conflict between their student role and their parent role. Do you take the final exam or do you stay home with your sick child?

• The role that has the greatest importance and most potent effect on us is usually the one we choose when we have to decide between conflicting roles.


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Types of Roles: Formal and Informal

• In the broadest sense, roles are categorized as form and informal.

• A formal role is a position assigned by an organization or specifically designated the group leader. Titles such as president, usually accompany formal roles.

• An informal role emerges from the group transactions, and it emphasis functions, not position. A group member may fulfill leadership functions, that is, perform a leader, without any formal designation.


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3 Types of Informal Roles

1. Task roles move the group toward the attainment of its goals. The central communicative function of task roles is to extract the maximum productivity from the group.

2. Maintenance roles focus on the social dimension of the group. The central communicative function of maintenance roles is to gain and maintain the cohesiveness of the group.

3. Self-centered or disruptive roses serve individual needs or goals while impeding attainment of group goals. The central communicative function of self-centered, disruptive roles is to focus attention on the individual.


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Group Endorsement: Accepting a Bid

• Individuals initially make a bid to play role. Group endorsement of the bid to play specific role must occur before a person gets to play that role.

• Despite their critical importance to group success, maintenance roles are often viewed as lower status in a competitive culture such as the Untied States.– Those who play maintenance roles are viewed as the

helpers, not the doers. Helpers typically receive less status than doers in society.


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Role Specialization

• Once a role for a member has been endorsed by the group, role specialization-when an individual member settles into his or her primary role-occurs. If the group wants you to be an information giver then that will be you principal function.


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Role Fixation: Stuck Playing One Part

• Role fixation, the acting out of a specific role and that role alone no matter what the situation might require.

• Role fixation in decision-making groups can occur when an individual moves from one group to another, or it can happen with a single group.


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Role Fixation: Stuck Playing One Part

• You can demonstrate appropriate and effective communication in terms of group roles as follows:

1. Demonstrate flexibility- playing a variety of maintenance and task roles adapts to the needs of the group.

2. Avoid disruptive roles- show commitment to group effectiveness, not self-centeredness at the expense of group success.

3. Be experimental, try different roles in different groups. Don’t get locked into playing the same role in all groups, you will become role fixated.


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Leadership and Influence: A Two Way Process

• Leadership is a social influence process.

• Communications scholars have defined credibility as a composite of competence (knowledge & skills), trustworthiness (honesty & character), and dynamism (confidence & assertiveness).


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Leader versus Manager: Interpersonal versus Positional Influence

• There are two primary differences between a leader and a manager.

• A leader does not ordinarily operate from positional authority; a manager does.

• Managers typically maintain the status quo. They don’t try to change it but they do try to manage it efficiently. Leaders work to change the status quo.


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The Emerging Leader

• The competent communicator who wishes to emerge as group leader should observe the following suggestions.

1. Don’t show up late or miss important meetings. Groups choose individuals who are committed, not members who exhibit insensitivity to the group.

2. Don’t be uninformed about a problem commanding the group’s attention.

3. Don’t manifest apathy and lack of interest by sluggish participation in group discussion. Participation is a sign of commitment to the group, and commitment to the group and its goals is part of the leadership process.


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The Emerging Leader

4. Don’t try to dominate conversations during discussion.

5. Don’t listen poorly- Leadership is not a monologue; it’s a dialogue.

6. Don’t be rigid and inflexible when expressing viewpoints. A hardened position is plaque on the cortex.

7. Don’t bully group members.

8. Don’t use offensive and abusive language.


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General Pattern of Leader Emergence: Process of Elimination• In general, a group selects a leader by a process of

elimination in which potential candidates are systematically removed from consideration until only one person remains to be a leader.

• There are two phases to the process-of-elimination of leader emergence:

• First, roughly half of the members are eliminated from consideration. Quiet members are among the first eliminated, nonparticipation will leave the impression of indifference and noncommitment.

• Those who talk the most are perceived initially as potential leader material.


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General Pattern of Leader Emergence: Process of Elimination• Members who express strong, unqualified

assertions are eliminated. The uninformed, unintelligent, or unskilled are next in line for elimination.

• Groups look for task-competent individuals who are committed to the group goals to emerge as leaders.


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General Pattern of Leader Emergence: Process of Elimination• Secondly, of the remaining contenders, those who are

bossy or dictatorial and those whose communication style is irritating or disturbing to group members are eliminated.

• The group often turn to the member who provides solutions to the crisis and he becomes the leader.

• Those members perceived to be effective listeners can make a strong bid to be chosen leaders.

• The general tendency is for groups to accept as leader the person who provides the optimum blend of task efficiency and sensitivity to social considerations.


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Retaining the Leader Role: Hanging onto Power

• There are three primary qualifications for retaining leadership:

1. You must demonstrate you competence as a leader.

2. You must accept accountability for your actions.

3. You must satisfy group members expectations.


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Situational (Contingency) Perspective: Matching Styles with Circumstances

• There are four leadership styles in the Hersey and Blanchard model that flow form the first two variables.

• The Telling Style (high task, low relationship emphasis) is directive. A leader provides specific instructions regarding task and closely supervises the performance of followers but places minimal focus on developing social relationships with followers.


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Situational (Contingency) Perspective: Matching Styles with Circumstances

• The Selling Style (high task, high relationship emphasis) is also directive. A leader using this style explain and clarifies decisions but also tries to convince followers to accept directives.

• The Participating Style (low task, high relationship) is nondirective. Leader using this style encourages shared decision making with special emphasis on developing relationships in the group.

• The Delegation Style (low task, low relationship) is nondirective. A leader using this style allows the group to be self-directed.

• The key to leadership effectiveness is matching the appropriate style to the group environment.


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Functional Perspective: Leadership Responsibilities

• The functional perspective views leadership in terms of certain functions, or responsibilities, that must be performed for the group to be successful.

• Leader-as-completer, leaders are thought to perform those essential functions within a group that other members have failed to perform.

• Vital functions viewpoint, sees leaders performing key responsibilities different in kind and/ or degree from other members.


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Group Procedural Responsibilities

1. Plan an agenda

2. Handle routine housekeeping details

3. Prepare for next meeting


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Task Responsibilities

1. Initiate a structure

2. Seek information

3. Give information

4. Offer informed opinions

5. Clarify, summarize, and elaborate


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Social Responsibilities

1. Facilitate involvement and communication

2. Harmonize

3. Express Feelings

Documents

Speech 140 Chapter 5 Roles and Leadership and Grops 1 In Mixed Company Chapter Five Roles and Leadership in Groups