Com. 45
Pro. Leslyn Mcallum
Group 5
Analysis Paper

We live in a society where most of us have demand to communicate to another one in each specify case. Go along with the development of technology, the way we use to communication also differently. The human’s development history also includes working group’s history, which has important leadership roles of the leaders. When I enroll this class, I know that my goal is to learn the knowledge as the class’s goal as two perspectives within the group context: communication and decision-making. Communication is considered as the organizing means of the group; decision-making is the purpose of the group. Concepts such as group interaction; leadership, status and power; conflict and cohesiveness; rules and roles; verbal and non verbal messages and problem-solving as they apply to social and political institutions as well as the world of work in both the public and private sectors will be investigated.
Our small group communication class did not seem like a very exciting or interesting class to take. However, since I have almost completed this class, I can now say it was both fun and very informative. Follow up the studying time, group climate in my group are friendlier as well as between groups in my class. I personally feel that group work is more beneficial than doing work individually. Usually in all groups, if you have a quiet person and a loud person, in most cases, the quiet people get the reputation of not having any input or ideas for the group because they do not express them. This is so untrue. When I was in junior high, my English teacher Mrs. Thanh had us break into small groups, brainstorm our plans for the summer, and see who had the most fun plans after comparing with other groups. After deciding that our coolest plans were to go house boating at Sai Gon river (a river in Sai Gon city, South Vietnam), I noticed my friend Tam had not said much so I asked her what her plans were and it turns out that she was going on a family trip to Thailand, and even Europe. That is so much cooler than going house boating if you ask me. The rest of the group agreed and we wound up having the most fun plans out of the entire class. Everyone in a group has a say in the discussion and should share their opinion because everyone has something different to share and you can always learn new and interesting things. I also would like to talk about members’ “dichotomous thinking”, which also has an important element to decide the success of a group. The combination of members’ thinking, under agreement or negotiation between members, will be group’s thinking. I think the most I remember is my “dichotomous thinking” about South Vietnamese and North Vietnamese. The main reason is the difference of politics of two sides. The South follows the Capitalism, and the other follows Communism. My family and I are also North Vietnamese but we move to the South before the North taken over by Communist in 1945. Therefore, I so hate the hate North Vietnamese Communists. However, the North Vietnamese Communists are different with North Vietnamese. However, I recognize that I must re-think because it was a “dichotomous thinking”. Throughout this paper, I will explain the communication process among our group and class as well as, individually. My focuses will first be on group development and the principles of small groups. I will discuss the climate of how we functioned as a group and the roles and leadership shown in our group members. Finally yet importantly, I will focus on and share my communication competence and my role in our group; as well as my skills and weaknesses.
The Principles of Small Group Communication is as follows: Consensus, Time, Conflict, Minority viewpoint, Majority viewpoint, Quiet group members, Verbal group members, "Experts", Leadership, and Creativity. My group expressed all of these principles during the in class activities such as the survival one and the random