Theories of Group Communication The two theories that hold utmost importance in group communication are: (1) Functional Perspective on Group Decision Making by Randy Hirokawa & Dennis Gouran and (2) Adaptive Structuration Theory of Marshall Scott Poole. The first one i.e. Functional Perspective on Group Decision Making disagrees with the conventional perspective of too many cooks spoiling the broth. Instead it suggests that in a group, the members cares about the issue, are reasonably intelligent and face a challenging task that calls for more facts, new ideas and clear thinking. Hirokawa and Gouran are convinced that group interaction has a positive impact on the final decision and the quality of solutions is tremendous. Here, the functional …show more content…
A lot of time people in groups build up structures or arrangements that are very uncomfortable for them but they don’t realize what they’re doing. The point of Structuration Theory is to make them aware of the rules and resources that they’re using so that they can have more control over what they do in groups. For a long time, scholars generally agreed with the single sequence model and the actual phases that groups go through i.e Orientation, Conflict, Coalscence, Development and Integration. Another researcher, Anthony Giddens gave the theory of structuration which is a social theory of the creation and reproduction of social system that is based on the analysis of both structure and agents, without giving primacy to either. Here, the Adaptive Structuration theory has focused on group process, members’ use of rules and resources in interaction. Poole is also interested in group products- that which is produced and reproduced through the interaction. Here, decision making group produce decision an after everyone in the group agrees, you then decide that the members works after selecting their work. Continuing with the example of Idea Generation Workshop, there, the decision making groups first chose the brand. Then, members, after agreeing to it started working on their specific area that were coming up with a brand name, tagline, campaign posters and advertisements and brand logo. Here all the members acted as agents between the brand and the consumers and in turn facilitated brand