Peer Review

Small Group Communication: Forming & Sustaining Teams

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Reviewed:: Jan 2, 2023 by Business

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

Small Group Communication: Forming & Sustaining Teams is an interdisciplinary textbook focused on communication in groups and teams. This textbook aims to provide students with theories, concepts, and skills they can put into practice to form and sustain successful groups across a variety of contexts.

Type of Material:

Open (Access) Textbook

Recommended Uses:

This can be used as a text, supporting reference material, lecture material, and in class or assigned reading.
Individual assignments and group assignments can be developed from the book.

Technical Requirements:

Adobe Reader

Mozilla Firefox 95.0.1, Chrome, Edge

Identify Major Learning Goals:

Students will learn theories, concepts, and skills which can be put into practice to form and sustain successful groups in different contexts.

Target Student Population:

Undergraduate management classes
Undergraduate business classes
Any class in which teams are formed

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

To access the book, users must be able to use a browser and download or copy files from the internet. The book is written at an introductory level, and is easy to read and understand.

Content Quality

Rating:

Strengths:

Each chapter is clearly written to explain the topic.
By dividing the textbook in 4 parts, one can concenrate on different sections as they relate to group and team communication.
If one wants more information, each chapter identifies references.
The content includes a wide range of terms, concepts, and topics relevant to communication in groups, well supported by research and theory.
Each chapter provides review and reflection questions, and some chapters provide discussion questions.
Learning objectives are provided for every chapter.
A glossary of terms is included.

Netiquette guidelines are provided.

Concerns:

None

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:

Strengths:

Examples are provided from real-life situations;
Newer terms are introduced, such as ‘grouphate’,
Positive and negative roles are addressed as well as various roles and functions of leadership.
Productive and unproductive roles are described with examples
Appropriate images are included to illustrate the importance of the content.

Concerns:

None

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:

Strengths:

The textbook is easy to download.
The chapters are carefully divided into the 4 different parts.
If someone is instructing the textbook usage, it is easy to explain what chapter(s) to retrieve.
Each chapter is easy to read to determine possible assignments to encourage classroom engagement and interactions.

Concerns:

None

Other Issues and Comments:

This textbook is a highly effective book on groups and communication, in part because it provides more current terms and concepts which address technology, for example, and diversity in groups.

Most books on teams and groups focus on the Tuckman model, and this is included in the book. What many don’t realize is that the Tuckman model was developed for psychotherapy groups; as such, this may not be the most applicable group development approach because psychotherapy groups and business groups have different goals in mind.

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