Week 6, Post #2 - Chapter 18 - Phasing out

In chapter 18, the history of small group communication is explained throught the Phase model. In this model, which was accepted for much of the 20th century, it was thought that there was a universal pattern of communication that all groups use when they make a decision. These phases included, orientation, conflict, coalescence, development, and integration. However, with the work of Poole, he was able to uncover that only about one quarter of small decision making groups actually followed this pattern. There was obviously more, as an approach must be flexible, and recognize that some situations may not fit their model, but more than half not fitting, shows it is not a good model. Thus Poole began looking at the affect of social structures present in the group dynamic.