Group Communication Theory: New Theories and Perspectives

Group communication scholarship has flourished in recent years and several insightful and valuable perspectives have been articulated. This chapter will review theories and perspectives on group communication that have emerged after 2000 (group participation, processual communication networks, communication and teamwork, leadership and communication, sequences and cycles in decision making and problem-solving processes, interventions to improve group performance). Some of these have been articulated formally as theories, while others are more loosely stated and present a point of view on group communication. Classical theories of group communication, including functional theory, symbolic convergence theory, structuration theory, and developmental theories were reviewed in Poole (1999) and are not covered here.