Communication: A Critical/Cultural Introduction, 2e Warren & Fassett
Chapter 5: Groups and Alliances in Culture
Lecture Outline
Chapter Overview:
In this chapter, the authors approach groups in a unique way – by extending the
conversation to the ways in which groups are cultures with their own rules, roles, rituals,
and agendas. First, Warren and Fassett offer a grounding in group work and collaborative
learning through an examination of the stages of a small group. Next, the authors present
the ways in which a group forms it own culture through facts, vocabulary, rituals, rites,
metaphors, and practices. Finally, the authors explore alliance building and activist work
in groups. The authors present several meaningful ways to engage in alliance building
when working in or out of the classroom setting.
Chapter Goals:
Explore cultures as emergent within and through small groups and alliances
Appreciate the role of communication in and about small groups and alliances
Identify the stages in the creation of small groups
Describe small groups as organizational cultures
Identify and develop skills for alliance-building
I. In this chapter, the authors’ look at how people use communication in small
groups to form alliances across different cultures, values, and experiences.
a. Communication remains constitutive, we remain concerned with verbal
and nonverbal communication, and we must engage in critical
compassionate listening.
b. We create culture inside and through our small groups.
c. You will participate in many groups and teams in school and in the
workplace.
d. Instructors often use collaborative learning – allowing students to learn
in a community of peers.
II. Groups as Emergent And Evolving: Bruce Tuckman (and later Jensen)
propose a useful model for understanding how groups emerge and evolve.
a. Forming is a stage where the group actually comes to be and the group
considers the tasks they need to accomplish.
b. Storming is a stage about conflict within the group, especially over
personal issues.
c. Norming happens if a group works successfully through conflict.
Norming may mean that each member has identified her/his own role
members trust her/him to complete.
d. Performing is a stage where the group begins to run more like a
well-oiled machine.
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Communication: A Critical/Cultural Introduction, 2e Warren & Fassett
e. Adjourning as a stage was added when Tuckman worked with Jensen in
1977. When the group is no longer needed, the members no longer meet.
III. Groups as Organizational Cultures: Your communication within a group
demarcates who are members and who are not members.
a. Organizational culture is built through communication.
i. To understand the organizational culture, an outside observer may
interpret and describe what it means to in-group members of an
organization.
ii. Goodall calls this being an organizational detective – what does it
mean to be an in-group member in an organization.
iii. Pacanowsky and O’Donnell-Trujillo define organizations as places
where people do things together and these things are accomplished
through communication.
b. Relevant constructs are shared, global understandings of objects,
individuals and processes.
c. Facts in organizational culture do not necessarily mean standardized,
scientifically-provable facts.
i. Facts represent social knowledge and commonly understood
explanations of how and why the organization operates the way it
does.
ii. Practices refer to the process of how members complete certain
projects in order to make the organization run.
d. Vocabulary is the specialized words or jargon that organizational
members use.
e. Metaphors demonstrate membership as the way members describe their
organization.
f. Rituals are repeated and common experiences you might have.
g. Rites are more sporadic; they are formalized events such as intuition into a
fraternity/sorority.
IV. Groups as Alliance-Building: When groups come from a variety of
backgrounds and experiences and work to help on another understand those
life histories.
a. Alliance is about relationship; to be associated, connected, and joined in a
united front.
i. Alliances happen when a group works together toward social
change.
ii. Anzaldua (2009) notes to engage in an alliance is to be an activist.
iii. Members in an alliance are bridges between/among different
identities
iv. Bridging the gaps between different identities is an attempt to
create community.
v. Alliance-building has positive effects on groups.
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Communication: A Critical/Cultural Introduction, 2e Warren & Fassett
vi. Members of an alliance learn how to use power differently through
concertive control.
V. Public Advocacy: Skills for Alliance-Building: Six Skills
a. Willingness to engage others in a dialogue.
b. Willingness to admit ignorance by setting aside our defensiveness and
admit we do not know it all.
c. Asking questions/questioning assumptions – one of the quickest ways to
learn.
d. Listening well means that we are present in the moment and attuned to
and willing to set aside assumptions, expectations, and prepare to
participate.
e. Open-mindedness means that we are listening intently, giving validating
feedback, and sharing honestly.
f. Willingness to engage in dialogue means not only that we enter willing
to engage, question our assumptions and listen, it means that we enter
willing to share our own life experiences.
g. The ability to accept place in alliance means that we cannot assume we
will lead the group because we represent whatever is the dominant outside
the group.
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