Group and Public Communication
1. Hirokawa and Gouran claim that small groups are like living systems. Do
you see parallels between the four functional requisites of task groups and the
body’s need for respiration, circulation, digestion, and elimination?
2. Given that the functional theory focuses on decision-making and problem-
solving groups, why is its silence on relationship issues a problem?
3. Think of a time when you’ve been part of a task group that strayed from the
goal path. What counteractive statement could you have made that might have
brought it back on track?
4. Why might you ind it frustrating to use Hirokawa’s Function-Oriented Inter-
action Coding System (FOICS) to analyze a group discussion?
