Go to Reading Guides | Go to Syllabus  | Go to Course Schedule
Go to Assignments |  Go to Irwin's Main Page | E-Mail Irwin

COM 520, Spring 2007 – Reading Guide Questions for March 26

For Burtis & Turman, Ch. 7:

1. So, in your own words, what are promise pitfalls generally?  How have they manifested themselves in groups you’ve been part of?  What, in your own words, is the advice they give for dealing with promise pitfalls in the italics on page 141?  Would it have helped your group situationS described above?

2.  Put their advice for dealing with disadvantages to a proposal (pp. 142-143) in your own words.  Does it make sense in terms of your own group decision making experience?

3.  In your own words, what is vision distortion?  Finishing pitfalls?  Is there advice for dealing with these useful, given your own experience in groups?

4.  In your own words, what are savior complex pitfalls generally?  Is there a more common term you can use to describe them?  What are conception pitfalls?  Does their advice for dealing with them make sense in terms of your own experience with groups?

5.  What do they mean by ascension pitfalls generally?  What are the different types they identify?  Does it make sense for them to be identified as pitfalls at all given your own experience in groups?  Does the advice they offer dealing with these pitfalls make sense in terms of that experience

6.  So what makes a direction–giving style appropriate or not?  What makes a basis of power appropriate or not?  How does what the authors say compare with your own experience in groups?

7.  What are transition pitfalls generally?  How have they manifested themselves in groups you’ve been part of?  Does the advice they give in the italics make sense in terms of that experience?

For Burtis & Turman, Ch. 8:

1.  What’s the distinction between satisficing and optimizing?  Between positive and negative synergy?  What do our authors mean by “baggage?”

2.  So what distinguishes a good from a bad satisficing group?  When is satisficing justified?  When isn’t it?

3.  Do you agree with their definitions of optimized and failed groups?  Is serving all three group functions really that important?

4.  What distinguishes a good synergized group from a bad synergized group?  What distinguishes a bad synergized group from a failed group?  Why would a public display of failure make it worse?  Why would synergy make it worse?

5.  What are examples of “good baggage” and “bad baggage” from groups you’ve been part of?

6.  Does the authors’ “Good-Enough-Group” argument make sense?  Is “explicitly considering well-reasoned careful choices to satisfice” an oxymoron?  How do their suggestions of when satisficing is appropriate compare with yours in your answer to # 2 above?


Go to Reading Guides | Go to Syllabus  | Go to Course Schedule
Go to Assignments |  Go to Irwin's Main Page | E-Mail Irwin

Copyright © 2007 Irwin Mallin
Last Updated: 20 March  2007
URL: http://users.ipfw.edu/mallini/520rdg20070326.html