Facilitating consensual labor-management decision making may require interventions during, after, and before meetings. These interventions--including persuasion and mediation--may affect both the internal and the external processes of decision making. Communicative actions may help both the internal and the external decision making processes of a…

Evaluators of argument are frequently confronted by conflicting claims. While these claims are usually based on probabilities, they are often resolved with the accepted claim treated as though it were "true," while the rejected claim is treated as though it were "false." Scenario testing is the label applied to a set of…

A replication study tested functional theory utilizing untrained full-fledged groups. One hundred forty undergraduate students who were enrolled in a small group communication course at a large midwestern university participated in small group discussions analyzing a plagiarism case used in an original study by R. Y. Hirokawa. Results indicated…

This annotated bibliography includes sources of information that are primarily concerned with problem solving, decision making, and processes of social influence in small groups, and secondarily deal with other aspects of communication and interaction in groups, such as conflict management and negotiation. The 57 entries, all dating from 1980…

Examines the choice-making processes of students engaged in the selection of speech introduction strategies. Finds that the frequency of students making decision-making errors was a positive function of public speaking apprehension. (MS)

Considers Walter Fisher's criticisms of the "rational-world" paradigm, as well as his defense of the narrative paradigm. Concludes that a useful argumentative tradition, best represented by the informal logic movement, avoids the dangers identified by narrative proponents. Notes that the narrative paradigm largely fails to fulfill its…

One problem confronting theater directors is how to revive a play in such a way as to give it new relevance to a contemporary audience, and there many unhappy examples of this dilemma. Each director is concerned with exploring the text, and in some cases, manipulating the content, in order to bring out new meanings. Whether controversial or…

In the history of small group studies (in the field of communication theory and research), two factors contributed to the changes that led to Ernest Bormann publishing in 1970 his work questioning the value of the knowledge being reported and the appropriateness of the methods by which it was being generated. First, prior to 1965, a limited amount…

The introductory speech communication course can benefit from the use of simulation exercises. In one exercise, students negotiate on behalf of the imaginary governments of Franistan and Germania. Participants are furnished with statistical data and informed that the two countries are mutually dependent, that they share a border, and that the city…

A study was conducted to examine the relationship between the amount of conflict in a group decision-making process and the achievement of a quality decision. A task problem given to 33 college students completing a group symposium assignment in a basic public speaking and discussion course called for subjects to choose three possible topics for a…

Faculty members, as their organization's parliamentarians, must exercise appropriately their own rights as members of the organization as well as maintain loyalty to their role as parliamentarian. Add to this dilemma parliamentary indifference, and a "politics as usual" attitude and the outcome of any parliamentary session is in doubt. Such…

The place of argumentation within the speech communication curriculum is the focus of this article. The article provides a rationale for an upper-level college course in the deliberation and decision making process currently taught at the University of North Carolina, and relates that rationale to broader concerns of argumentation theory. Various…

An examination of the impact that process instructions have on jury deliberations was conducted using ten juries of six members each. Five of the juries were given standard jury instructions, while the remaining five were given step-by-step instructions in the deliberation process designed especially for that trial. The results indicated that…

A study continued a series of empirical investigations into the psychological criteria people use to determine whether or not to make particular arguments. Two hundred volunteers enrolled in a required public-speaking course (1) responded to several demographic questions, (2) described the persuasive choices they would make in the scenario…

Defining "guided design" as a method of teaching students how to use problem solving techniques to analyze and solve issues related to the course material, this paper examines the use of the technique in communication speech course. The paper provides information on the development and application of the principles of guided design to various…