Just an Aside
It’s interesting to see the correlation between actual network designs, such as bus, ring, star, etc. and the communication networks under discussion in our text. [Tubbs, 2012, p. 178] “The set of rules governing the setup of a network is called its topology.” [Griffiths] Whereas the communication networks also have a form of topology referred to as group size, structure, and type. This was just a random perception on my part.
Group of business people at meeting. Business people hide their emotions under the mask of confidence during the negotiations, business concept
To Mask or not to Mask
The concept of “Idea Generation and Anonymity” of and using computers to mask participants made me uncomfortable. It was as though participants were being “spared” their reality, such as shyness, quiet voices, lack of physical appeal instead of gaining confidence and learning to deal with these attributes and enabling their fellow team mates the opportunity as well. One study found that “anonymous groups generated more unique ideas and had higher levels of participating, yet were more critical and less satisfied than nonanonymous groups” [Tubbs, 2012, p. 197]. Roger Schwartz addresses one of the issues that can arise from anonymity, that of trust, written for the Harvard Business Review in 2013. Continue reading