The 'Task Masters' was formed in the Group-Communication Class (Speech 15), on April 29, 1998 in Room 214 by Professor Alisa Shubb. A simple method was used to form groups: students who picked the same number would join and work together to achieve their required class assignments. In the beginning, the Task Masters had six members: Nancy K., Trung Bui, Harry Jovanosk, Nancy M., John Middlesworth, and Wayman Yao. A week later, John and Harry dropped out of the class. The group is now functioning with the four remaining members. Almost immediately after forming, all members of the group are aware that group's functioning is the key factor in their achieving goals. The Task Masters know that in order to be successful in their assigned presentation, they must interact with other members, treat others with respect, and evaluate all information, ideas, opinions critically and thoroughly in their building of consensus. All members had also demonstrated their commitment to the group. The Task Masters also realized that they would either succeed or fail together in the accomplishment of their assignment

COMMJNICATION BEHAVIOR OF THE GROUP

In their first meeting, the group discussed and agreed to set their goals as follows: come up with the name for the group, define their mission statement, and prepare the presentation outline and methods of presenting their assigned chapter. Unexpectedly, the Task Masters were able to function very smoothly in their first meeting. Primary tension was noticeable at the beginning, but not for long. The group normally goes right into the performing phase of their subjects, evaluating all inputs and checking for support while building the consensus. The successful outputs of the group are credited to members' understanding of group communication. Communication is a process. It is the sensory impression, interpretation, and interaction of human kind. Its the response of people to signals sent by other people. Since people are mainly functioning in small groups (military quarters, cabinet circles, conference committee, work crews, etc.), the understanding of group's process is essential to the successful of group communication. When the Task Masters are discussing topics, the speaking member always pay attention to other members and checks see how they process and give feedbacks and whether or not they support or disagree with the ideas. On the other hand, the listening members are applying the steps of active listening: sensing, attending, understanding, and responding. All members of the group are fully aware of and agree to respect the critical element of group's process: "willing suspension of disbelief."

Regardless of all positive circumstances, like any other groups, conflicts did occur within the group. Learning from this course that conflict is an undesirable but unavoidable situation, and that groups should have conflicts before reaching consensus, the Task Masters calmly and effectively managed their conflicts by applying the problem-solving procedure. With the understanding that each member must agree somewhat, the group worked together to identify and analyze the problems, generate all possible solutions, evaluate solutions, choose and make their decisions. In the critical moments of generating and evaluating ideas to solve problems, the group applied the five-step brainstorming technique: discuss of subjects, silent generation of ideas in writing, record ideas, regenerate ideas and critical evaluation of ideas. After critically evaluating all ideas, the group then set a criteria, discussed each alternative, evaluated alternatives, then made their decisions. These constructive patterns of behaviors became the group's norms and they are the key factors in the success of the Task Masters' communication.

GROUP'S FUNCTIONING (Understanding of Terms and Concepts)

The Task Masters is a secondary group, formed for the purpose of completing a common goal: to present an assigned chapter in their textbook. Group members are aware that they must interact with each other because they have an interdependent goal and their interaction will imply communication. Therefore, group discussion, mutual interdependent, interaction, cooperation and a sense of belonging are essential to the success of the group.

Group by definition is: "persons who are interacting with one another in a manner that each person influences and is influenced by each other". Armed with this understanding, members of the Task Masters were carefully treating each other with respect while exchanging their ideas, words and other signals. This concept is crucial because members of the group understand that their communication signals are perceived and responded in such a way that each member can potentially affect each other member's behaviors, opinions, or beliefs. A wrong signal in small group may result in a serious damage to the interrelationship of the group. One major concept of a group is an interdependent goal, meaning that they a11 succeed or fail together as a group in the accomplishment of their assignment. This was the most challenging goal for the Task Masters because it's members have different backgrounds, levels of education, personal ideas and beliefs. Nonetheless, members of the group realized that their fates were now linked, they must interact and cooperate with each other, create a harmony and fair environment so that each member could have a sense of belonging. There were no other options.

The main failure in the accomplishment of interdependent goal is communication breakdown in groups, usually caused by role conflicts. Roles functions are vital in small group communication because member's roles are really that what they do for the group and these roles are the key factors to help the group in achieving its goal. To avoid communication breakdown, the Task Masters' members, after having defined a11 terms, concepts and functions of small group, assumed their uno8icial roles as follows:

Trung Bui: Participant-Observer Nancy M: Task Performer

Nancy K: Completer Wayman Yao: Maintenance Reporter

All group members were rotated to act as Devil's Advocate and Consultant Observer to maintain the balance of group's communication activities. The role of participant-observer is to engage in the group's activities, but at the same time observes, evaluates, and adapts behaviors to fit the group's processes and needs. A participant-observer directs part of his/her attention to participating in the group and part to assessing how the group is functioning. He/She should be aware of what the group needs at the moment, offer help in resolving conflicts, reduce misunderstandings, and promote harmonious relationships among members. Task-oriented behavior is a key feature of the accomplishment of the group's purpose. The role of Task Performer is to coordinate discussions, ask task-related questions, make suggestions, initiate answers, evaluate ideas, and propose goals.

Equally important, are the roles of Completer and Maintenance Reporter. The Completer and Maintenance Reporter must be able to perform a variety of functions for the group. Group needs different things at different times. They should be able to analyze and provide for the group's needs and create topics that help the group maintain harmony, trust, and cohesiveness. Trust and cohesiveness are essential to the group's success. Members cannot function effectively without having these behaviors existing in the group. Trust is the generally accepted belief that exists among members of the group, that they can rely on each other. Without trust, members are not likely to express themselves openly or to share freely with one another. They may have concern that others might not telling the truth, or may have secret subjects that benefit only to them, not to the group's interest. Cohesiveness refers to the positive relationship and sentiments that hold a group together. When a group is high in cohesiveness, members express more positive feelings for each other and report more satisfaction with the group. The highly cohesive group tend to stick together, speak highly of other members and defend the group's activities. In addition, a highly cohesive group is more productive because cohesiveness enhances productivity. Both trust and cohesiveness affect the final output of the group. To maintain this positive environment within the group, the Task Masters unanimously agreed to follow the group's ultimate rule: there is no hidden agenda accepted under any circumstances, period. The roles of Devil's Advocate and/or Consultant Observer are to act as an outside expert, who is brought in to observe, evaluate, and make recommendations to the group.

After five hard-working weeks, the Task Masters finally presented their assignment to the class. In general, except for the connection of concepts explanation and clarity of overall presentation, the group had succeeded in the accomplishment of their interdependent goal and earned a decent score: 92 points tota1. While the good score may reflect their effort, the real success of the Task Masters is their newly gained knowledge and understanding of group communication. They now know that communication is a process. This process is a network of interrelationship of concepts and behaviors, and it can't be completed without properly applying all the required communication elements. As a member of the Task Masters, I would like to conclude this analysis paper with the following: "Any person who wants to succeed in workplace and social life must understand how to communicate effectively as a member of a group."