Effective communication has some key characteristics regardless of it being group or individual; participation in active listening, showing respect to the speaker or speakers, and providing them with honest feedback. Both group and individual communication are usually applied in various processes and it is important that one understands the differences between the two.
The main difference between group discussions and individual discussions is the amount of consultations that have to be made before agreeing on a point. Group discussions involve listening to and analyzing what all members have to say and reaching a group consensus as to what the group’s position on the topic shall be. In individual communication, the individual’s opinion is also the official position on the matter ( Barker, 2013).
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Group communication has a number of challenges. First, the involvement of many people in the decision-making process means more effort is required to ensure there is a consensus and also takes more time. This means decisions take time to be made compared to individual communication. In addition, a lot of proper planning has to be done prior to the group assembling wasting a lot of energy. The convener of the meeting has to look for a suitable venue for the meeting, look for a time when everybody will be available or at least a quorum will be reached and set a specific agenda for the meeting which is a very tedious process. Group communication may also be greatly affected by the presence of a few dominant people in the group who either distract the group from the main agenda or dominate the discussions leaving no room for others to participate. There is also the challenge of dealing with ‘joyriders’ in the group who leave the work to the more experienced or motivated member s and only come during presentation ( Barker, 2013).
For example, a team of script writers for a popular game-show on TV must all agree on what shall be in the final script; this means the final draft has to be approved by all the writers before it is allowed on TV. This encourages creativity but also takes a lot of time and effort to ensure that all the writers are in consensus. All the writers also have an obligation to send in their ideas and not leave the work to a few of the writers and it is upon the lead writer to ensure that all members are playing their roles.
References
Barker, A. (2013). Improve Your Communication Skills. Kogan Page Publishers,
