Hirokawa's General Functional Theory

Small Group Communication: Hirokawa’s General Functional Theory

T. Esajian Spring 2002

                In our democratic society, group communication and decision-making are a necessity. It seems like whenever there is a problem or important decision, people look to others or groups for help. However, the answers or help received from these groups may not always be beneficial. A group can make bad decisions just as easily as they can make good ones (Hirokawa 1). For this reason, Randy Hirokawa and his colleagues felt the need to investigate further into the process of group-decision making.

                In Stephen W. Littlejohn’s book Theories of Human Communication, he discusses the basics of Hirokawa’s General Function Theory. Littlejohn shows the general model of the group decision-making process, which is essential to understand the basics of Hirokawa’s General Functional Theory.

Figure 1.1

This model shows how and where a group decision starts, forms, and concludes. Groups normally begin by identifying and assessing a problem, the Probable entry. Here the group asks a variety of questions like: What happened? Why? Who was involved? What harm resulted? The next step is to gather and evaluate information about the problem or decision, Assessment of situation.   Next, the group creates a variety of alternative proposals for handling the problem and discusses the objectives it desires to accomplish the given problem, Identify Alternatives and Identify Objectives. Lastly, the objectives and alternative proposals are evaluated, and a decision is made, Choice (Littlejohn 266-67).

                Although Littlejohn’s book only had a small portion of information about this topic, it was helpful because it directed me to Randy Hirokawa’s book entitled, Communication and Group Decision Making. In 1986, Hirokawa and Marshall Scott Poole wrote an in-depth book that discussed the process of group decision-making. The idea for this book spurted because of a conversation that took place in a small group conference at the University of Pennsylvania. Communication scholars assumed there was a systematic relationship between group interaction and group decision-making, but the precise nature of the relationship had yet to be defined. The purpose of Hirokawa and Poole’s book is to provide an understanding of possible ways in which communication affects, influences, and otherwise contributes to group decision-making (Hirokawa 13).

                I thought the opening quotation to Hirokawa and Poole’s book was a perfect example of how group communication can be misunderstood.

“The great mystery of all conduct is social conduct. I have had to study
it all my life, but I cannot pretend to understand it. I may seem to know
a man through and through, and I still would not want to say the first thing
about what he will do in a group.”

-Anonymous British statesman

Group communication is greatly influenced by each of its members and because of this, there can be a wide variety of outcomes or answers. There are four aspects of group influence that should be discussed in order to understand how a group comes to a compromise or answer. First, a descriptive model is needed to show how a group arrives at a decision (Figure 1.1). Second, the model is used to identify factors that can contribute to a faulty group decision. Third, I will discuss specific ways in which individual group members can influence the group’s decision. Finally, I will identify specific research questions that should be addressed in order to better understand how group members influence the group’s decision-making performance.

                Although past research has indicated that no two groups will come up with the same decision in the same exact way, group’s decisions are often based on the same general conditions. Hopefully, from my explanation of the general group decision- making model above, you are able to follow along, so I will move on to my second point. The general model can also be used to determine if the group’s decision is “faulty” or inappropriate. There are five factors that can potentially lead to a group to a low-quality decision:

The improper assessment of a choice-making solution.

The establishment of inappropriate goals and objectives.

The improper assessment of positive and negative qualities associated with the various alternatives.

The establishment of a flawed information base; and

Faulty reasoning based on the group’s information base.

The improper assessment of a choice-making situation is the initial step in the decision-making process. If any errors are committed at this point, they will be carried on throughout the entire decision-making process and will lead to a faulty group choice. The most common error during this step is the group’s failure to recognize the existence of a problematic situation (Hirokawa 68). If the group fails to recognize a problem, they will not feel the need to change the present situation. Another problem that occurs in group decision-making is failure to correctly identify the cause of the problematic situation. When a group is unable to identify or misidentifies the cause of a problem, they can end up selecting a course of action that does not address the reason that the problem occurred in the first place (Hirokawa 70).

A second source of faulty group decision-making can be traced to the group’s selection of goals and objectives they wish to achieve. When a group neglects to identify necessary goals and objectives, it is not likely that they will search for solutions that will be beneficial to their outcome. A group can also produce a faulty outcome by focusing on unnecessary goals and objectives that will not improve or correct the problem they had been faced with (Hirokawa 71).

The third source of faulty decision-making is the improper assessment of positive and negative qualities. A good example of this is when a sports team looks to draft or recruit new players. After looking at all available athletes, the team looks to acquire players A, B, and C. If the team executive underestimates or overlooks the negative qualities associated with these athletes, for example, player A has had a troublesome past, player B has a bad knee, and play C has a long-term contract which requires more money, it is likely that they will make a decision that they will later regret. The same goes for overestimating positive qualities, just in the opposite situation (Hirokawa 72).

The fourth source of faulty group decision-making can come from the establishment of a group’s information base. According to Figure 1.1, a group’s information base is linked directly or indirectly with all other phases of the general model of group decision-making. Because of this, any errors occurring within the base are likely to contribute to a faulty decision. Errors in the information base can occur in several different ways. A group may reject valid information, which may be helpful in understanding the nature of the problem. A group can also accept information, which can lead them to a misperception of a problem. Another way an error can occur is when a group collects insufficient information and is not able to properly assess the problem and its alternatives. The last way in which and error can occur in the information base is by the group collecting too much information which causes confusion and slows the decision-making process (Hirokawa 74).

The final source for faulty group decision-making can be traced to the group’s utilization of its information base. In this case, the information may be essentially correct, but the manner in which the group interprets or reports the information is flawed. The groups decisions can be faulty if they incorrectly formulate conclusions or positive and negative alternatives (Hirokawa 75).

So far, I have discussed functions of the general model of group decision-making process and how a group can come up with a faulty decision. Now I am going to explain the importance of influence and how each individual affects other members in a group decision. It is known that faulty decision-making does not occur by chance or accident, rather by communicative efforts by individual members. Breakdowns in various stages of the decision-making process usually occur because at least one group member effectively influences the beliefs and perceptions held by other members of the group. This can happen in two different ways. The first way in which this can happen is by one member of the group convincing other group members to accept a faulty belief, perception, or conclusion. The second way a breakdown can occur is by an individual’s influence in an indirect manner. A group member may persuade others to reject a correct assessment of either a positive or negative consequence with a given alternative (Hirokawa 77). The persuasive influence of the first person did not bring about the error, but it contributed indirectly to its occurrence.

There are two questions that are still unanswered in the field of group communication: (1) why and how do these predecisional errors occur? And (2) how might we prevent the occurrence of these potential sources of faulty group decision-making (Hirokawa 79)?   Although we all can understand the significance of communication and influence, the way in which we form conclusions and decisions is not well understood.

Group decision-making is a very complicated and difficult topic to research. Hirokawa and Poole’s book covered so much information, that it made it very hard to cover all aspects they discussed. I tried to pick out the information Littlejohn used in his book and expand on his ideas. I hope that I have given you a better understanding of the difficulties there are in reaching a group decision and the many outcomes that stem from a group atmosphere.

Works Cited



Littlejohn, W. Stephen. Theories of Human Communication.   Belmont, CA. Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2002.

Hirokawa Randy and Poole Marshall, Scott. Communication and Group Decision-Making. Beverly Hills, CA. 1986.