Communication Essay

In a small discussion group intended to relay our complaints to the department head on difficulties accessing resources and facilities, I noticed several typical indicators of group thinking. There was a group leader who served as our spokesperson to the department; as a result, we regularly discussed our suggestions and grievances. Due to everyone’s optimism and willingness to take chances, as well as their trust and belief in the group’s strength and legitimacy within the institution, the group had the appearance of being immune to vulnerability (Littlejohn, & Foss, 2009). The illusion of the invulnerability is contributed by the fact that members were not questioning the morality of the group since it was under the internal constitution of the institution. In some occasions, we used to demonstrate as a way of enjoying our constitutional rights though it was an extreme action, most of our members were under peer pressure since the group leaders were putting us under pressure. Failing to concur with the majority in the group was assumed to be betrayal thus considered self-censorship. From my experience regarding group-thinking and decision-making, I learned group work is always characterized by general assumption due to the pressure. Decisions made by groups are slow and strong because it involves numerous opinions and a strong basis.

Question 2

In every office, there are firefighting situations resulting from a misunderstanding among the colleagues and heads of departments. The misunderstanding arises due to the poor communication such our misinterpretation of the messages and lack of clear communication among the colleagues. Michael Scot is a regional manager with poor communication skills; for example, he is noisy in the office thus interrupting employeeshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBPwCYYLxdY. Michael attends the meeting without any agenda and makes jokes in a serious meeting. He tries to paint the culture of the employees to be good, but in reality, employees lack morals and respect to one another. A company attributed by good corporate culture has proper communication and respect among the employees, unlike in Dunder-Mifflin Company where the regional manager is immoral and disrespectful. Therefore, the company is chaotic and downsizing due to lack of proper communication of workflows; hence I can say “Dunder-Mifflin Company is made of the punch of unethical elements.”

Question 3

The ambiguous message is a kind of message that is confusing or vague due to lack of precise elements. Ambiguous messages always bring people into confusion because it lacks clear objective or aim (Kurtz, Silverman, & Draper, 2016). In the office, very communication is supposed to have sender, objective, description and the targeted receivers. Sometimes back, our group leaders posted a memo without clear objective thus leaving every group member in confusion because no one had an idea regarding the urgent meeting. Subject always characterizes memo. The group member clears the ambiguity by interacting through social network forum where every member was alerted, and one of our members had to ask the team leader the subject of the group and gave the feedback to the group members. Professors use the ambitious instructions to test the critical thinking and communication skills of the students. A critical thinker can read through the instructions and in a situation where the instructions are not clear, he or she can seek clarification from the professor regarding instructions ambiguity. Equivocal messages help in solving some disputes in a situation where the disputing parties require deep thinking. I have never used equivocal but based on researchers most people use equivocal to keep the parties in conflict to think critically regarding the problem in-hand (Kurtz, Silverman, & Draper, 2016).

References

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBPwCYYLxdY

Kurtz, S., Silverman, J., & Draper, J. (2016). Teaching and learning communication skills in medicine. CRC press.

Littlejohn, S. W., & Foss, K. A. (2009). Encyclopedia of communication theory(Vol. 1). Sage.