Blog post #1- Maria Murillo

 Hello there! Today I will talk about the presentation we had the other day, where we presented chapters 3, 9, and 10. 

Starting with group 1, they all presented chapter 1 focused on intercultural communication, which refers to the interaction that occurs between people whose cultures are so different that communication between them is challenging. They successfully presented their objectives, where they first defined culture and the role of communication in it. I thought it was very nice and interesting to see some of the examples, like the one about Actress Halle Berry, that talks about how she grew up in an all-black neighborhood and all the kids thought she was better than them, just because of her light skin  and straight hair. Then she moved to an all-white neighborhood and that was clearly a culture shock. During the presentation my peers touched and discussed topics like race, ethnicity, sex and gender, sexual orientation, religion, socioeconomic status, age/generation, and disability. They also talked about low-context and high-context cultures and how it can be pretty challenging to communicate between those two since it most likely won’t be an effective communication. They also discussed about how cultures differ in how the value of gender roles. They gave an example of how masculine cultures, view and value masculine more than feminine. On the other hand, in the feminine cultures, people immediately assume a variety of roles and they are valued for doing so regardless of the sex. A really great example to put all this information together was “Respecting other cultures is one way to avoid ethnocentricity and to experience different cultures than your own”. In conclusion, I believe group 1 did an amazing job at explaining chapter 3, they showed great content and amazing visuals in their presentation! After that group 2 came to discus and present chapter 9, Communicating in groups. They first started by explaining what a group was and explained the communication works with verbal and nonverbal messages shared among the members of the group. They talked about the different types of groups like families, social groups, support groups, interest groups, service groups, work groups, virtual groups, and teams. After describing the different groups, they presented what the characteristics of a healthy group are, like ethical goals, independence cohesiveness, productive norms, accountability, and synergy. For the group to be successful, the initial stage (forming) of group development should be characterized by orientation, testing, and dependence. Then strorming means when the members become more comfortable with each other, and begin sharing and expressing their opinions for power and position. Norming is the cohesion, collaboration, trust, and motivation to achieve the group goal. The, performing is harmony, productivity, problem solving, and shared leadership. They also talked about the 3 types of conflict that will inevitably occur during the group interactions. Like for example pseudo conflict, issue related group conflict, and personality related group conflict. They also discussed how it is very common for people who belong to different cultural and co-cultural groups tend to abide by unique communication norms. Also managing conflict effectively in virtual groups poses an additional set of challenges because it can be more difficult to catch the subtle meanings of group members’ messages. After group 2 did their presentation, we discussed with the professor some of the information. We talked about how some individuals can be so tough with each other just because of their differences in groups. After summarizing and reviewing all the topics discussed for group 2, then it was turn for my group (group 3). Group 3 mostly focused on leadership roles and problem solving. We first started by explaining what leadership actually means and it is a process “whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal”. The leadership task roles are divided in 3 different roles like the givers, seekers, and analyzers. The maintenance roles are divided into 5 different roles like the supporters, interpreters, harmonizers, mediators, and tension relievers. Lastly we have the procedural roles which are the logistics coordinators,expediters, gatekeepers, and recorders. I presented the 5 key shared leadership responsibilities, which are “Be committed to the group goal”, “Keep discussion on track”, “Complete individual assignments”, “Encourage input from all members”, and “Manage conflict among members”. My other peers provided some guidelines every leader should follow before a meeting begins.”Prepare and distribute and agenda”, “Decide who should attend the meetings”, “Manage meeting logistics”, and “Speak with each participant prior to the meeting”. Then they discussed about the guidelines for during and after the meeting. After presenting all the leadership roles we got started on identifying and defining the problem, then analyzing the problem, determining criteria for judging solutions, generating a host of solutions, evaluating solutions and decide, and lastly implementing the agree-upon solution and assessing it. Then they also identified the different types of written formats, like written brief, or comprehensive report. The oral formats are divided into 4, which are oral brief, oral report, panel discussion, and symposium. And lastly the virtual formats, which are a remote access report(RAR), and streaming video. One of my peers described what group dynamics were and she added some pictures to explain it and so we could understand even better. After our presentation was over we also discussed some of the topics discussed in the presentation and the professor was able to give us some of her point of view. In conclusion, I believe we all did an excellent job with presenting chapter 3,9, 10. I really enjoyed viewing everyone’s work and how well presented it was. I thought this was an amazing icebreaker since it required everyone to collaborate with their group and it really helped with the communication which can sometimes be overwhelming and harder especially with online classes. I really learned from everyone’s work and especially by those who added those extra details like the pictures, doodles, and videos that make me feel more interested in the topics being discussed.