Module- 5
Group discussion:
It is a systematic and purposeful interactive oral process. Here the exchange
of ideas, thoughts and feelings take place through oral communication.
The exchange of ideas takes place in a systematic and structured way. The participants sit facing
each other almost in a semi-circle and express their views on the given topic/issue/problem. How
does Group Discussion differ from a Debate?
Debate is competitive in nature while group discussion is a co-operative group
process. In a debate, a speaker can speak either ‗for‘ the topic or ‗against‘ the topic whereas
in a GD, the speaker can express both. The final decision or result in a debate depends on
voting while in a GD, the group reaches group consensus. Why is a group discussion an
important activity at college level? As a student, it helps you to train yourself to discuss and
argue about the topic given, it helps you to express your views on serious subjects and in
formal situations. It improves your thinking, listening and speaking skills. It also promotes
your confidence level.
It is an effective tool in problem solving, decision making and personality
assessment.
GD skills may ensure academic success, popularity and good admission or job
offer. Thus it is important to be able to take part in a GD effectively and confidently.
Participants should know how to speak with confidence, how to exhibit leadership
skills and how to make the group achieve the goals.
The objective of a selection in GD is mainly to check your team playing skills. You have
to understand the other persons’ point of view, while making your point and ensure
that your team as a whole reaches a solution or agreement that is both feasible and
accepted by all team members.
There are four major areas of evaluation in selection GDs:
subject knowledge,
oral communication skills,
leadership skills
team management.
Subject Knowledge:
Participants must possess a thorough understanding of the topic on which they are
supposed to speak. You must prepare yourself to talk on a wide range of subjects.
The best way to equip yourself is to read daily newspapers, good magazines,
national and international journals and also watch new bulletins and informative
programmes on the television.
Internet is the greatest boon which provides you with everything you are looking
for. The World Wide Web is a vast database of current authentic materials that present
information in multimedia form and reacts instantly to a user‘s input.
The greater your knowledge of the subject, the more enthusiastic and confident you
will be during the discussion.
Oral Communication Skills
If subject knowledge is important The greater your knowledge of the subject,
the more enthusiastic and confident you will be during the discussion As the exchange
of ideas in a group discussion takes place through speech, one of the pre- requisites of
success in a GD is the ability to speak confidently and convincingly.
Good communication skills include active listening, clarity of though and
expression, apt language and proper non verbal clues.
Listening Skills:
One of the weaknesses of most human beings is that we love to listen to our own
voice rather than listen to others. Listening is as important as speaking in a GD, unless
you listen, you cannot contribute to the stated purpose of communication. It is
extremely important to listen very carefully, only then you will be able to pick up the
thread of discussion and continue. Only active participation as a listener in a group
makes a person a good leader.
Team behavior:
Your group behavior is reflected in your ability to interact with the other members
of the group. You must be mature enough to not lose your temper even if you are proved
wrong. You must be patient and balanced.
Your success in a GD depends on how well you play the role of initiator, information
seeker, information giver, procedure facilitator, opinion seeker, opinion giver, clarifier,
summarizer, social-supporter, tension reliever, compromiser, attacker, humorist and
dominator.
Advantages:
1. Since group members have different specialties, they tend to provide more information
and knowledge. Also, the information tends to be more comprehensive in nature and the
groups can generate a greater number of alternatives. There is often truth to the axiom
that ―two heads are better than one.‖
2. Implementation of the decision is more effective since the people who are going to
implement the decision, either participated in the group themselves or had their
representatives in it. This also increases the commitment of the people to see the
implementation to success.
It is important that the decision be accepted by all, because even a low quality decision
that has acceptance can be more effective than a higher quality decision that lacks general
acceptance.
3. The input from a larger number of people eliminates the biases that are generally
introduced due to individual decision making. It also reduces the unreliability of
individual decisions.
4. The participative style of decision making process builds up foundations as a training
ground for subordinates who develop the skills of objective analysis of information and
deriving of conclusions.
5. The group decision making is more democratic in nature, while individual decision
making is perceived to be more autocratic in nature. The democratic processes are more
easily acceptable and are consistent with the democratic ideals of our society.
Disadvantages:
There are certain drawbacks in group decision making also. The group processes can
negatively affect performance in a variety of ways.
1. The process is highly time consuming in terms of assembling the right group and
usually a group takes more time in reaching a consensus since there are too many
opinions to be taken into consideration. The time problem increases with the group size.
Accordingly, the urgency of arriving at a decision must be considered when group
decision making style is selected.
2. Many times, the participants in group decision making have their own axes to grind or
their own interests to protect. These self- centered interests lead to personality conflicts
that may create interpersonal obstacles which may diminish the efficiency of the process
as well as the quality of the decision.
3. Some members may simply agree with the others for the sake of agreement since there
are social pressures to conform and not to be the odd-man out. Thus the desire to be a
good group member tends to silence disagreement and favours consensus. The social
pressures can be very strong inducing people to change their attitudes, perceptions and
behaviours.
4. The group members may exhibit ―focus effect. This means that the group may focus
on one or few suggested alternatives and spend all the time in evaluating these and may
never come up with other ideas, thus limiting the choices.
5. The decisions made by the group may not always be in accord with the goals and
objectives of the organizations. This is especially true when the goals of the group and
those of individuals do not reinforce each other. This will result in decisions that may be
detrimental to organizational benefits.
6. The groups may shift either towards more risk taking or towards less risk taking and
either of the shifts may be undesirable. Generally speaking, problems suitable for group
decision making involve some degree of risk or uncertainty. But to take excessive risk is
as bad as taking no risk at all.
Seminar:
It is one of the most important forms of group discussion. The discussion
leader introduces the topic to be discussed. Members of the audience
discuss the subject to which ready answer are not available. A seminar
may have two or more plenary sessions. This method has advantage of
pooling together the opinions of a large number of persons.
Conference:
Pooling of experiences and opinion among a group of people who have
special qualification in an area .the conference method mainly consists of
small and large group discussion, steering committee and open plenary
session. The conference help in clarifying various issues involved in a
particular area as different points of view are expressed by experts in the
conference.
Symposium:
This is a short series of lectures usually by 2 to 5 speakers. Each one
speaks for a definite amount of time, and presents different phases or sub
divisions of a general topic. The subject may or may not be controversial.
It is important that the speakers are of approximately equal ability, to
avoid one speaker dominating the meeting or giving the audience a
distorted view of a subject. It is used primarily for information gathering at
professional level. The advantage of symposium over a lecture is that 2 or
more experts presents different facts of the topic.
Workshop:
Workshop is a special type of working conference of a week or more
duration. In workshop emphasis is given on lecture, individual conference
and working in group. This method is used for professional improvement
and in-service training. The main item of the workshop or lectures by
staff members, group meeting with selected group, individual consultation
and study, informal discussion on problems, arranging inspirational or
special events and providing library and other resources for the study.