The Nature of Communication - Assignment Example

The Nature of Communication The secondary group which I will be writing about for the purpose of this assignment is the school soccer team, which I myself am a member of. I have been a part of the team for a few months now. We meet regularly for practices as well as tournaments and fixtures. I strongly feel that the ultimate aim of winning a match makes all the members of the team work hard towards achieving the goal and thus in the process a bonding develops. I would slot our soccer team as an activity group because the primary purpose is to play the game together and to improve our short comings and develop strategies so that we are able to outclass the other teams we play with.

However, that is not it, the interest factor plays a major role in the players’ desire to play and show up for practices. Moreover, I strongly believe that by playing and meeting up regularly, the team members become better friends. Sometimes when I have had a bad day I can vent out all my frustration during the game on the soccer field and after months of practice sessions together my fellow players understand that I need some space. I also feel that the sheer love for the game and having people around who share the interest and understand the game adds a lot more value to the activity group.

If I think of our soccer team in the light of a system, I can safely say that it definitely exhibits the qualities of a system. The striker cannot strike a goal till the midfielder or wingers pass the ball to him, similarly the midfielders cannot do much if they are not adequately supported by the fullbacks and the forwards. The crux of the matter is that the members in a soccer team are highly interdependent on each other. Next are the non-summativity, equifinality and multifinality features (Adams and Galanes, 14-17), since the team comprises of various members who cannot all perform the same on all days, therefore the unpredictability about the overall performance of the team is there (Oxford Journals , 134-165).

If a team is unable to score a goal our block the goal of the opponents it is not solely the fault of the striker of the goal keep, rather the actions of all team members culminate into the successes and failures of the team, thus multi-causation exists in a soccer team. The input variables of our soccer team include the expertise of our coach who spends hours making us practice on the strategies we make for our matches, the various tricks we learn from professional matches that we watch on the television, the determination of the members to achieve the victory and so forth.

The environmental variables include the pressure to perform felt by the existence of the sports society and to win laurels for the school. The process variables include the various on-field decisions the players and the coach have to make during a game, the strategies that we make use of in a match, the fights that the players have within the team and with members of the opposite team etc (Adams and Galanes, 54-64). These input and process variable combine together to result in the output, which may either be in the form of a victory or a defeat, both of which accompany with them either motivation and self-esteem or disappointment and the will to do better in future games trough feedback channels.

The ethical concerns are of course present, the game requires a lot of stamina and there are almost four defenders and four midfielders, social loafing can be an easy task if one of the players feels exhausted and leaves the task for the remaining members to accomplish. However, the captain almost plays the role of a participant observer and notices the contribution of all the players. Sometimes, during matches the players lose control of their composure and tend to use abusive language which is not ethically right.

It is sometimes believed that the captain or the coach favors a certain player and thus voicing one’s opinion becomes a little bit of a problem however, if all the players feel the same way approaching the coach or the captain regarding the issue is not a problem. I feel the above account adequately describes how I feel about our soccer team and the affiliation I have with it along with its strengths and shortcomings. Works Cited Adams, Kathrine and Galanes, Gloria J. “Effective Group Discussion: Theory and Practice, 13th Edition.

” Pages 10-17 and 54-64. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 2010. Web. 4th June 2011. http://www.coursesmart.com/0077319788/firstsection#X2ludGVybmFsX1BGUmVhZGVyP3htbGlkPTAwNzczMTk3ODgvaXY= Oxford Journals. "An Outline of General System Theory." British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Volume 1, Issue 2 (1950): Pp. 134-165. Print. Oxford University Press.