A First Look at Communication Theory (6th edition)

2. Structuration is more complex than the single-sequence model.
3. Poole believes that the value of a theory of group decision making hinges on how
well it addresses the complexities of interaction.
IV.
Interaction—concerns of morality, communication, and power.
A. Poole assumes that group members are skilled and knowledgeable actors who
reflexively monitor their activities.
B. Morality, communication, and power are combined in every group action.
C. Advocacy can sometimes hurt rather than help a reticent member of the group.
D. Communication in small groups makes a difference.
E. Adaptive structuration has a critical edge.
V. The use and abuse of rules and resources.
A. Rules are propositions that indicate how something ought to be done or what is good
or bad.
B. Resources are materials, possessions, or attributes that can be used to influence or
control the actions of the group or its members.
C. Rules and resources can constrain or empower group members
D. Appropriation occurs when rules and resources are borrowed from parent
organizations or from the larger culture.
VI.
Researching the uses and rules and resources.
A. Poole’s research with Gerry DeSanctis explores how groups use computerized group
decision support systems (GDSS) to improve decision making.
B. The computer system is designed to support democratic decision making.
1. Equal opportunity to participate.
2. One vote per person.
3. Anonymous idea generation and balloting.
C. Poole and DeSanctis call the values behind the system the spirit of the technology.
1. The spirit of the technology is the principle of coherence that holds a set of rules
and resources together.
3. A faithful appropriation of technology is consistent with the spirit of the resource.
4. An abuse of rules and resources is described as ironic appropriation.
VII. Production of change, reproduction of stability.
A. Poole emphasizes product—that which is produced and reproduced through
interaction.
B. Giddens’s concept of duality of structure means that rules and resources are both
the medium and the outcome of interaction.
1. In terms of group decision making, the decision is affected by rules and
resources, but it also affects those structures.
2. Duality of structure explains why some groups are stable and predictable and
others are changing and unpredictable.
C. Resources and rules can change gradually through interpenetration of structures.
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