Real Communication An Introduction

260 Part 3  Group and Organizational Communication

(“I planned a gathering for a women’s studies group last year, and it went

really well. People still talk about it! So trust me on this one”).

c A distractor goes off on tangents or tells irrelevant stories (“Does anyone

know what happened on Game of Thrones last night? I missed it”).

These antigroup roles are not limited to face-to-face group communication—

you’ve no doubt run into a few distractors, blockers, or recognition seekers in

online forums. Online groups are also often disrupted by trolls—individuals

who intentionally insert irrelevant and inflammatory comments into the discus-

sion in order to stir up controversy.

Antigroup roles obviously add to the dysfunction of a group (Wilson &

Hanna, 1993). For instance, a blocker who acts superior to other team members

and criticizes the members’ ideas may harm group morale and productivity.

To mitigate the impact of these antigroup roles, members can revisit the norms

the group has established and make the changes needed to improve group com-

munication (for example, “All ideas get a fair hearing”). People fulfilling certain

task or social roles can also help. For instance, if you’re a gatekeeper, you can

prompt an avoider to contribute her opinion on a proposal that the group has

been considering. Research also indicates that positive and proactive responses to

avoiders and blockers can help establish individuals as leaders in their organi-

zations (Garner & Poole, 2009).

Role Conflict

Imagine that you work at a local retail store and you’ve been promoted to store

manager. As part of your new role, you will have to manage staff members who

are working as individual contributors at the store. In this new role, you’ll be

managing several close friends who you used to work alongside as regular staff.

That’s where things might get complicated: as manager, you’ll have to evaluate

staff members’ performance, and how can you give a good friend a poor perfor-

mance review and still remain friends?

Role conflict arises in a group whenever expectations for a member’s behav-

ior are incompatible (Baxter & Montgomery, 1996). Role conflict can make

group communication profoundly challenging. For the manager who must

evaluate a friend—especially a friend whose performance could be better—there

is rarely a perfect option. You might give candid constructive feedback to your

friend on his performance while trying to constrain the damage to your friend-

ship by saying something like “I hope you know I’m offering this feedback as

a way to help you improve. As your friend and manager, I want to see you do

well here.” A less ethical approach, of course, would be to defer to your friend’s

feelings instead of to your responsibility as manager—essentially, to spare his

feelings by giving him a better review than he deserves.

Status

Groups also form around—or are defined by—status. Status is like a social cur-

rency, unequally distributed within groups, which gives some members more

Have you ever been in a

leadership role in a group of

friends? Have you ever been

subordinate to a friend in a

group situation? Did any

conflict arise and, if so, how

did you resolve it?

AND YOU?