What is a group? A group consists of a small collection of people who interact with each other, usually face to face over time in order to reach goals (256). In our speech class, we were put together in a group of six people in order to accomplish the goal of giving a speech presentation about organization and support of a speech. We were identified as a group because we worked together and interacted for a long time, had more than three members and had a similar goal. In order to accomplish this goal, we had to have proper norms or rules, shared goals and good problem solving and decision making skills.
Rules are explicit, officially stated guidelines that govern what the group is supposed to do and how the members should behave (263). In our group, the rules were that everyone needs to do their share of the workload, call if you are not able to make it to the group meeting well ahead of time and work on a deadline of finishing the project before October 27th. Norms on the other hand are shared values, beliefs, behaviors, and procedures that govern a group's operation (263). The norms that I think our group had was be courteous and respectful to everyone in the group, listen to a person when they are offering their ideas and talk about things that are related to our project and not personal stuff. A group is required to have some sort of rules or norms so that the group can operate smoothly and the group members know what is expected of them.
Another important part of being in a group is to have a similar goal. A task-oriented group is one where the individuals join the group to get the job done (260). Our group was task oriented as we were in the group to complete the job of giving a group speech presentation. The individual goals of the members in my group were to do their part of the project well and get the job done on time so that they can get a good grade. Our group goal was to have a really good speech presentation that is both informative and entertaining.