Small Group, Team, and Family Communication

Catalog description

In this course, students will investigate the nature of small group communication within contexts such as work teams, family life, and social connections in which members interact, exchange information, form identities, face conflict, influence one another, make decisions, grow, and change. This course will help students become more competent communicators within small group, team, and family settings by focusing on group identity, overcoming miscommunication, the building and maintenance of healthy relationships, cohesion, the navigation of change, and the resolution of conflict. Group interaction, decision-making, and leadership will be explored through systems theory, symbolic interactionism, and relational dialectics, with additional focus on the human rules paradigm and critical theory.