Instructor Resource
Duck, Communication in Everyday Life: The Basic Course Edition With Public Speaking, 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
Lecture Notes
Chapter 8: Groups and Leaders
Learning Objectives
1. Determine what makes a collection of people into “a group.”
6. Raise good questions about “leadership vision” and “leadership ethics.”
7. Recognize how leadership is transacted.
Annotated Chapter Outline
I. Introduction
A. Groups affect our lives in various ways, sometimes when we are not even part of
particular groups.
II. What Is a Group?
A. Groups are transacted, or created, through communication and relationships.
B. A group comes into being once people recognize and identify themselves and others
as members of the same group.
C. A team is an organized group with different roles combining individual efforts to
Instructor Resource
Duck, Communication in Everyday Life: The Basic Course Edition With Public Speaking, 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
i. Five primary types differentiated on the basis of their communication and
relational treatment.
a. Formal
b. Advisory
III. Characteristics of Groups
A. Cohesiveness
i. Cohesiveness describes people working together and feeling connected and
concerned not only for group goals but personal growth and welfare.
iii. Group effectiveness or success largely depends on members working together
cohesively and feeling connected and cohesive.
iv. Potential Problem: Groupthink
a. Groupthink: A negative kind of consensus seeking through which members
B. Interdependence
i. Interdependence: The reliance of each member of a team or group on the other
members, making their outcomes dependent on the collaboration and interrelated
performance of all members.
ii. Potential Problems: Recognition and Failed Obligation
C. Commitment
i. Individual members share a commitment to the overall group’s instrumental/ task
goals. The group shows commitment to individual members through caring for
their welfare, as well as aiming to achieve the task purposes and targets of the
group.
Instructor Resource
Duck, Communication in Everyday Life: The Basic Course Edition With Public Speaking, 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
ii. Potential Problem: Out-Groups
D. Norms
i. Group norms: Group norms are either informal or formal rules for procedures
guiding group behaviors.
ii. The norms that are established generally reflect the values of the group, especially
a. Group sanctions: Punishments for violating norms.
E. Roles
i. Group roles: Positions or functions within a group.
ii. The performance of a role requires the participation and influence of other people.
iii. Formal roles: Specific functions to which group members are assigned and that
they are expected to perform within the group.
iv. Informal roles: Those to which someone is not officially assigned but that serve
a function with a group.
F. Group Culture
i. Group culture: The set of expectations and practices that a group develops to
make itself distinctive from other groups and to give its members a sense of
exclusive membership.
iii. Promotive communication: Effectively serves group agenda.
Instructor Resource
Duck, Communication in Everyday Life: The Basic Course Edition With Public Speaking, 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
iv. Disruptive communication: Diverts from group agenda.
v. Counteractive communication: Reminds members of group purposes and gets
them back on track with the group agenda.
IV. Group Development and Decision Making
A. Nonrelational accounts offered by traditional literature are frequently based on
artificial groups in laboratories or based simply on reviewing existing literature.
B. Understanding the limitations inherent within the material will enable us to better
understand important characteristics of actual group development and decision
making.
C. Tuckman’s Five Stages of Group Development
i. Forming: The group comes into existence and seeks direction from a leader
about the nature of its tasks and procedures.
ii. Storming: The group determines leadership and roles of its members.
D. Fisher’s Model of Group Progression:
i. Orientation: Group members get to know one another and come to grips with
the problems they have convened to deal with.
ii. Conflict: The group argues about possible ways of approaching the problem
and begins to seek solutions.
V. Group Decision Making is about Relationships
A. Group decisions are influenced by outside relationships and interactions.
Instructor Resource
Duck, Communication in Everyday Life: The Basic Course Edition With Public Speaking, 3e
VI. Leadership
A. The idea of leadership is now seen as incomplete, with a focus on relationships
between team members, collaborative effort and communication effectiveness.
B. Groups usually have a leader who is formally appointed to that role. Leaders are
C. Problems with leadership having formal position:
i. Groups do not share the same level of formality.
D. Leadership Styles
i. The new approach on leadership exemplifies our relational approach to leadership
to a greater extent than previous research has done.
ii. Task leaders: Those focusing on the performance of tasks to ensure the
achievement of group goals.
iii. Socioemotional leaders: Those focusing on making group members feel
comfortable, satisfied, valued, and understood.
iv. key points to recognize when considering task leadership and socioemotional
leadership:
a. Effective leadership requires sensitivity to the requirements of each type of
E. Leadership Power
Instructor Resource
Duck, Communication in Everyday Life: The Basic Course Edition With Public Speaking, 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
i. Leadership power is transacted through communication and is best understood
through recognizing the influence of relationships where it is tacitly transacted.
ii. A basic distinction: Formal Power versus Informal Power:
a. Formal power: That which is formally allocated by a system or group to
iii. More Ideas about Types of Power: Five specific types of power:
a. Legitimate: created by a person’s office rank or official status.
b. Expert: created through special knowledge of a particular topic.
F. Leadership Vision
i. Different types of leaders do not all need “visions,” or at least not ones of the
same type. The focus and scope of the visions they should have are also different.
ii. Group members are often motivated by the belief that their leader is leading them
in a useful direction.
G. Leadership Ethics
i. Ethical leadership is a prerequisite for success.
H. Leadership Is Transacted
i. Leadership is a relational process.
ii. Leadership is embedded in communication and relationships between people.