In today’s society, with the advent of the era of knowledge economy, all kinds of knowledge and technology are constantly bringing forth new ideas, competition is becoming increasingly intense, and social needs are becoming more and more diverse, which makes the situation and environment that people face in their work and study extremely complicated. In many cases, it is difficult to deal with all kinds of complex problems and take practical and efficient actions only by personal ability. All of these require people to form groups, and require greater interdependence, interconnectedness, and cooperation among organization members; Build collaborative teams to solve complex problems and coordinate necessary actions; Develop team strain capacity and continuous innovation ability, relying on the power of team cooperation to create miracles.
Communication among team members is essential to forming a cooperative team. Any form of cooperation is based on communication between members. If a team is not communicating, it is certainly not a good team. In a group or group, uncertainty and complexity are common characteristics of small groups, and communication is the driving force to move the group towards its goals. (Beebe & Masterson, 2014, pg.42). In the sociological category, due to the complexity of groups, a single theory cannot completely summarize all variables. In order to help us better understand these phenomena and concepts, there are five broad theoretical perspectives (Beebe & Masterson, 2014, pg.49) :
- Systems theory: The small group is an open system of interdependent elements, employing input variables and process variables to yield output.
- Social exchange theory: SGroups remain attractive to their members so long as the rewards of group membership exceed the costs.
- Symbolic convergence theory: Group members develop a group consciousness and identity through the sharing of fantasies or stories, which are often chained together and have a common theme.
- Structuration theory: People use rules and re- sources to structure social interactions.
- Functional theory: Communication in groups functions to promote sound reasoning, prevent errors, and build productive relationships among members.
Aside from these five theories, another concept that is more relevant to our lives is “virtual groups”. Virtual groups are one of the most frequent forms in our lives. By definition, a virtual group is a group of three or more people who communicate synchronously or asynchronously across regions through technology. For example, our current online courses are a form of virtual group. Professors and students live in different regions and time zones, forming a kind of team through the Internet. In this team, we may break up into different groups and work together. Communication and collaboration in virtual groups can take the form of synchronous and asynchronous messages(Beebe & Masterson, 2014, pg.23):
- Synchronous messages are those that occur instantly and simultaneously—there is no time delay between when you send a message and the other person receives it.
- Asynchronous message is a message that is not read, heard, or seen at the same time you send the message; there is a time delay between when you send and receive a message.
In virtual groups, the more synchronous messages occur, the higher the interactivity within the group. For example, when you’re working with team members, a video conference can be far more interactive than a message on your discussion board. This synchronous interaction will help us to achieve better teamwork and reduce the incidence of “social loafing”.
This is the knowledge and theory of teamwork that I want to share through this blog. In fact, there are far more theories out there than I’ve outlined in this blog. What I want to express is that in today’s rapidly developing times, we can no longer refuse to cooperate with others. Learning how to build a team, or join a team, is a “skill” that we have to learn.
Reference：
Beebe, S. A., & Masterson, J. T. (2014). Communicating in small groups: Principles and practices. Pearson.
Communication is definitely the foundation to building a strong team or group. Wherever this team might be, whether it is in sports, class, or else where, team work should always start off with communication. Communication leads the team in the right way when a team gets together for the first time. The communication first starts off by introducing each other to collaborating with team efforts on the project or sports even that the team is working on. Even in Tuckman’s notion of developmental stages, communication seems to be the most important thing throughout all of the stages. His stages include the forming, storming, norming and performing, and within each stage, communication is a must (Stein, 2021).
Tuckman found that when there is not communication the trust with the group is not there and that the communication is not all that well, in order to have a better outcome with the team (Tuckman, 1965 ). Communication and the four developmental stages from Tuckman are very important when being in a group as it shows us how to participate adequately in a group and be part of a team the correct way, by communicating throughout the entire time you are part of that group.
References:
Tuckman, B. (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin, 63 (6). 384–399. doi:10.1037/h0022100
Stein, J. (2021). Using the stages of Team Development. Using the Stages of Team Development | MIT Human Resources. Retrieved October 7, 2021, from https://hr.mit.edu/learning-topics/teams/articles/stages-development.
The fact that there are so many theories to explore how and why group members interact with their groups illustrates the complexities of in-group communication. Not only is it important to understand how people communicate with their groups for the sake of teamwork, but it is also important for navigating different social environments.
For example, you mentioned virtual groups like those of online courses. It is important to consider not just whether the course is synchronous or asynchronous, but also the ease of communication within that course. Offir, Lev, & Bezalel (2008) discuss the notion of transactional distance, the literal and figurative distance between a student and teacher, as being far more significant in online learning than in physical classrooms. In physical classrooms, this distance is usually not that significant since the student can easily contact the teacher in person. However, it might be much harder and less frequent to communicate with a teacher in an online course, making them feel further away than teachers in physical classrooms. The increased transactional distance in online learning changes both how the teacher interacts with students and how students learn from their teacher (Offir et al., 2008). Online students may need to use their social skills to make the most of the limited communication they have with their teachers. Thus, not only is understanding how people communicate with their groups important for building teamwork, but it is also important for navigating different social environments that may change how group members interact with one another.
Reference
Offir, B., Lev, Y., & Bezalel, R. (2008). Surface and deep learning processes in distance education: Synchronous versus asynchronous systems. Computers & Education, 51(3), 1172-1183. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2007.10.009