When most people are in any type of group setting they or someone else may feel as if they are in control of the situation, but are they? I’m afraid that the answer is no. Instead the “hidden dynamic” is in control; formerly know to the rest of the world as emotions. These emotions which play a big role in all communication transactions are the biggest, but most frequently looked past part of verbal, and in some cases, non-verbal communication within groups. In work, as well as in our personal lives, “we can no longer succeed without taking down the walls of our emotions that often separate us in groups settings“ (Ralston, 2). By walls, I am referring to the suppression of our emotions or walling off our emotions in the effort to spare the group of how we really feel. But what happens when we try to send our emotions underground? To cut a long story short, “they go underground and become a powerful invisible force” (Ralston, 7) and later become a fuel for action whether they are created by positive or negative feelings. In other words, because progress in groups demand levels of collaboration and teamwork, our emotions play an innate role which sparks the amount of, or lack of enthusiasm toward the group.With all this talk about groups, what or who exactly makes up a group? According to Turner and Giles in their publication of Intergroup Behavior, a group is: “a social unit that consists of a number of individuals (1) who, at a given time, have role and status relationships with one another, stabilized in some degree and (2) who possess a set of values or norms regulating the attitude and behavior of individual members, at least in the matters of consequences to them. Shared attitudes, shared sentiments, shared aspirations and goals that characterize the closely identified members are related to these properties, especially to the common values or norms of the group” (3)....
