Chapter 9 Communicating in Groups 257when information is spoken, as the messages can easily get distorted as they are
passed along. Person A tells person B that their boss, Luis, had a fender bender on
the way to work and will miss the 10:00 a.m. meeting. Person B tells person C that
Luis was in an accident and will not be in the office today. Person C tells person D
that Luis was injured in an accident; no one knows when he’ll be in. You can imag-
ine that Luis will be in a full-body cast by the time the message reaches person G!
All-Channel Networks
In an all-channel network, all members interact with each other equally. When
people talk about roundtable discussions, they’re talking about all-channel
groups: there is no leader, and all members operate at the same level of central-
ity. Such networks can be useful for collaborative projects and for brainstorming
ideas, but the lack of order can make it difficult for such groups to complete tasks
efficiently. Imagine, for example, that you’re trying to arrange to meet up with
a group of friends. You send out a mass e-mail to all of them, to determine days
that will work, and you ask for suggestions about where to meet. The recipients
each hit “reply all” and share their responses with the whole group. By using an
all-channel network, the entire group may learn that Friday is not good for any-
one, but Saturday is. However, only a few people have suggested favorite spots,
and there’s no consensus on where to go. That’s where wheel networks come in.
Wheel Networks
Wheel networks are a sensible alternative for situations in which individual
members’ activities and contributions must be culled and tracked in order to
avoid duplicating efforts and to ensure that all tasks are being completed. In
a wheel network, one individual acts as a touchstone for all the others in the
group; all group members share their information with that one individual, who
then shares the information with the rest of the group. Consider the preceding
example: as the sender of the initial e-mail, you might take on a leadership role
THE COPYEDITING
TEAM in a newsroom works
as a wheel network. All of the
copy editors report to one
copy chief, who regulates the
copyediting style. AP Photo/Herbert
Knosowski