week 2-concept

Time Pressures

Time pressures in groups’ causes an effect on decision making by interrupting the planning and affecting the leadership skills used. The best way to avoid time pressures is to manage time wisely. In The Group Communication book it states that 1/3 of the time spent in a meeting is used unproductively and that only 3 out of 4 meetings fail to finish on schedule (43-44). While meeting time is not used correctly and productively there are ways to use leadership skills to correct the problem, by taking a nonbinding poll, restricting discussion time, or by not making a decision. A nonbinding poll results in restricting the topics that will be discussed since it shows the places a group is either interested or the topics they already agree on. Restricting time to discuss a topic forces the group members to discuss the topic in a timely manner, by either restricting the floor time of each group member to the discussion or by restricting the discussion time for each topic. Not making a decision can be a better settlement than making wrong decision because of time pressures. The example used in The Group Communication book is of a group given 5 minutes to move from first platform to the 2^nd and 3^rd platform using 2 wooden planks; since the time was so small a person took leadership and informed all group members of the “plan”. The plain fail and for the second try they were given unlimited time and completed the task in 12 minutes (44). The example enforces the idea that making a decision because of time pressure is worse than not making one at all since one person taking control over the situation leaded to a fail in the task. Time pressures in groups should be avoided if trying to complete a task to satisfaction