Symbolic Convergence involves the idea of dramatizing and a “dramatizing message,” which is one that contains imaginative language. Usually a dramatizing message is used in a group setting when one person uses this imaginative language to describe past, future, or outside events. The messages are dramatized, or exaggerated. A great example of this is in the movie The Holiday. Kate Winslet, the main character, and her new friends are sitting around a table telling old tales and stories of past events. Some of the stories are obviously exaggerated but everyone thinks it is funny anyway. When Arthur Abbott talks, the oldest man of the group, the rest of the people get super into his stories and do not care whether they are entirely true or not. This is because there are dramatized messages, which paint a picture and are events that happened outside the group.
In Chapter 18, Functional Perspective on Group Decision Making, Hirokawa and Gouran describe the four functions of effective decision making. These four functions, also known as the requisite functions, are the “requirements for positive group outcomes” (234). The four functions include analysis of the problem, goal setting, identification of alternatives, and evaluation of positive and negative characteristics. When reading about the four functions, I was reminded of the a Chess game. In a game of Chess, it is important to use the four functions before making a decision. Goal setting in Chess is very clear; the purpose of a chess game is to checkmate the opponent’s king. Next, analysis of the problem is crucial when playing a chess game; the player has to see the position that they are in and understand what they have to do in order to win. Third, identification of alternatives is defined as the “generation of options to sufficiently solve the problem” (236). When playing chess, the player has to recognize all of his or her potential moves. When identifying the different moves that they can make, they also have to evaluate the positive and negative characteristics of the move. When they weight the costs and benefits of each of the potential moves, they are able to make the best decision. These four functions are important in the game of chess because each player must carefully assess each move that they make in order to win the game.
The functional perspective is an approach that explains and predicts task-group performance when four communication functions are fulfilled to reach a high-quality solution. These four communication functions are: analysis of the problem, goal setting, identification of alternatives, and evaluation of positive and negative characteristics. The communication approach made me think of the show Mad Men and how as a group the men try to come up with ideas for companies that everyone can agree on with the goal of it being popular and good advertising. I have attached a link to a scene where they are in a meeting to discuss advertising for a cigarette company. In this scene the analysis of the problem is that due to new government regulations they can no longer advertise that cigarettes do not affect one’s health. The goal setting is to come up with how they can successfully advertise their brand of cigarettes over their competitors. The identification of alternatives comes into play when Don Draper and others look into what other aspects of cigarettes one can look at to make their customers happy. Finally the evaluation of positives and negatives occurs when the group looks at the new idea and sees whether they believe it to be a successful advertising campaign or not.
The central explanatory principle of symbolic convergence theory is sharing group fantasies creates symbolic convergence. Dramatizing Messages are a main component in this theory. They are imaginative language by a group member describing past, future, and outside events; creative Interpretations of there-and-then. Examples of this include Puns and figures of speech. In this a guy is wandering around the grocery store and coming up with puns about the different foods. An example of dramatic language, is the pun “Raisin the roof.”
Functional perspective is an approach that describes and predicts task-performance when 4 communication functions are fulfilled. These functions include, problem analysis, goal setting, identification of alternatives, and evaluation of positive and negative characteristics. These 4 functions allow the group to come to a high- quality decision about eho she should choose. In this clip from “This Means War” Reese Witherspoon and Chelsea Handler are having a conversation about the two men she is currently dating. They are trying to make a high-quality decision on who to do. During their conversation they evaluate the positives and negatives of each guy such as “FDR has these tiny girl hands, kind of like t-rex hands and Tuck is British.” Then she sets a goal by saying that she “has one week to make a decision.”
In Hirokawa and Gouran’s functional perspective on group decision making, there are four communication functions fulfilled, which are the requirements for positive group outcome. These four functions are: problem analysis, goal setting, identification of alternatives, and evaluation of positive and negative characteristics of each alternative. In the movie John Tucker Must Die, three girls are being played by the same guy. They decide to bring in a fourth girl in order to get back at him and break his heart like he broke theirs. These girls get together and do Hirokawa and Gouran’s first function, identify the problem. John Tucker is an awful guy who messes with girls hearts and needs to be set in his place. Next, they set their goal, or their plan. They bring in Kate, a new girl to the school, and devise a plan in which she gets him to fall for her, and then breaks him to pieces. The problem with their group work, is they forget to do steps 3 and 4. They do not identify an alternative solution an thus cannot evaluate the positive and negative characteristics. Therefore, their plan ends up failing, and hurts Kate instead. If they had done all four functions, they probably would have had a more positive group outcome. Below is a trailer for the movie to get a general idea of the plot.
The theory of Functional Perspective on Group Decision Making mainly talks about the four communication functions which have to be fulfilled in order to get positive group outcome. The four functions are Analysis of the Problem, Goal setting, Identification of Alternatives, and Evaluation of Positive and Negative Characteristics. Personally, I think Analysis of the Problem is the most important one of all. Literally, Problem analysis means determining the nature, extent and causes of the problem facing the group. This is definitely the very first step of every possible solution to a problem. Only if a group can fully understand the situation they are in, could they make a wise group decision after communication. This statement reminds me of the movie 21, which is about the famous poker game – Blackjack. In the movie, Professor Rosa heads a blackjack team whose members are all MIT students. The main goal of this team is to earn money in Las Vegas casinos through card counting, which is actually not allowed by owner of casinos. The team consists of “big player” and “spotters”. The duty of “spotters” is providing enough information about the table through their observation and card counting skills. Based on the information, the team can always make the wise decision about whether to stay or leave. This process is exactly the Analysis of the Problem.
Symbolic convergence is the way in which two or more private symbol worldsincline toward each other, come more closely together, or even overlap. It causesgroup members to develop a unique groupconsciousness. Sharing group fantasies creates symbolic convergence. In this theory, I found theFantasy chain reactions to be the most interesting.Fantasy chain reactions is aboutUnpredictable symbolic explosions. Those reactions happen whendramatizing messages are enthusiastically embraced by the whole group and it causea symbolic explosion in the form of a chain reaction in which members join in until the entire group comes alive. This chain occurs when there is a common response to the imagery. This reminds me of the scene in the movie wolf of the wall street. When the former wall street trader Jordan Belfort tried to start his own business, he went to recruit the brokers for his company. Those applicants for his company tend to be uneducated and they know nothing about the business world. While Jordan did not care about their background, he just want to get people on board. To do that, he describes all the fancy things you can get when you are rich, and he promised to make everyone rich in the future. He put this image into everyone’s head. Then the whole group of people lost in the fantasy world of being rich, they all think about how successful they can be in the future. By this way, Jordan persuade everyone to work with him, and he started his own company.
Functional Perspective on Group Decision Making talks about the group decisions must fulfill four task requirements to be high-quality and efficient, and these tasks requisite functions of effective decision making. The first function is the analysis of the problem, this part is talking about what things the group member need to do to have a deep understanding of the problem. Like group members must determine the nature, extent, and probable cause of the problem. The second function is the goal setting. This is about agroup needs to establish criteria for judging proposed solutions. If the group fails to meet these, the decision will likely be driven by power or passion rather than reason. The third function is identification of alternatives. This is about the important ofhaving a number of different viable options to choose. The fourth function is about the evaluation of positive and negative characteristics. This is focus on avoiding both positive bias and negative bias. The movie Ocean’s Eleven is a good example of practicing the four functions. In the movie, Ocean wants to win back his ex-girlfriend. , he decides to steal her boyfriend’s casino’s vaults, and to prove that he loves her more. This serves as the analysis part. Ocean determines the cause of the problem, and he figures out how to solve it. In order to complete his plan, Ocean recruits all the elites in the world, and they get together talk about the plan and walk things through. This part serves as the goal setting part. In Ocean’s team, Ocean’s best friend provided him different ideas and opinions which helped him make the plan more perfect. This serves as the identification of alternatives. Also, when Ocean met with Old ruben, they talk about the positive side and negative side of task. This is the fourth function which serves as theevaluation of positive and negative characteristics.
Symbolic Convergence Theory talks about how two people’s realities and symbols can converge into one idea or image through conversing. I like the sections where it talks about dramatizing messages, which are messages or conversations that contains creative imageries. These imageries will lead listeners to be able to convert words into images in their minds. This kind of message also helps the speakers and the listeners to make sense from abstract and complicated ideas, and bring clarity to the uncertain future. An example I have here is Martin Luther King’s last speech before his assassination. In the speech, he talks about how he reached the mountaintop and has seen the promise land. Due to the racial tensions at that time, people feel great emotion to these imageries, because they remind the people and symbolize that there are still hope and promise in this world, and they must fight for their freedom and equality.
