Size and Complexity
Size and Complexity
Page 194
The basic logistics of communication—the need to take turns speaking and listening, for example—grow more complex the larger a group gets, creating the need for more structured exchanges among members. Specifically, the bigger the group, the more its communication takes on the following characteristics:
- Interaction is more formal. Group communication simply cannot work in the same kind of informal way that dyadic communication occurs, due to the need to include more communicators in the discourse. Individuals participating in a group may feel the need to obtain permission to speak, and they may also be reluctant to interrupt a speaker.
- Each member has limited opportunities to contribute. Participants may want or be required by a leader to share “floor time” with other group members. Such time constraints can inhibit the quality and quantity of their contributions. Even without a formal leader, in larger groups a few members tend to dominate much of the talk, while the less assertive members tend to remain quiet.
- The communication becomes less intimate. The greater the number of participants, the less comfortable participants feel self-disclosing or voicing controversial opinions.
- The interaction consumes more time. As more participants are invited to contribute or debate, the interaction takes longer to complete.
- Relationships become more complex. As more participants are added, the relationships become more complex. In the dyad, of course, there is only one relationship—that between person 1 and person 2.
As indicated by Figure 9.1, adding just one person to a dyad means that each of the three members of the new group must now deal with four potential relationships—one between persons 1 and 2; another between persons 1 and 3; a third between persons 2 and 3; and finally, the group relationship among all three participants. The number of relationships at play multiplies with each additional participant who joins a group: in a group of four, there are 11 potential relationships; in a group of five, there are 90; a six-member group involves 301 relationships; and so on.
