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Wednesday, January 16, 2008

What are the purposes of conducting a Group discussion

Group Discussion is forum where people sit together; discuss a topic with the common objective of finding a solution for a problem. The members are expected to arrive at a common consensus. While discussing, it is important that the intention of the members is to facilitate the exchange of views.

You should be aware that in GD, all the members of the group will participate and you have to listen to the views of the other members of the group. It is discussion and the speaker will be “interrupted” by the other members of the group while speaking. At this point, the speaker should modify what he says, based on the points that other members of the group make while the discussion is in progress. He has continually keep evaluating the situation. Also, each participation tries to “grab” the chance to speak or to focus the attention of the group on himself/herself.

You might wonder, “Why should I participate in GD? What is the purpose of GD? Well, Group discussion are arranged in order to measure certain traits of the participants, which are otherwise difficult to identify and time consuming to assess. It is common that a number of people who can communicate their ideas well and discuss effectively with others in a one-to-one situation become tongue-tied in a group situation. They will just not be able to present their ideas or discuss their ideas with the other members of the group. A group discussion will identify people who have such skills and people who do not. It is very necessary for potential candidates to have such group communication skills. The course work at most premier institutes requires group projects to be undertaken. A candidate without the ability to communicate the ideas effectively in a group situation will be a misfit in such and environment.

Further, when you are appointed at any level in an organization, you do not work in isolation of others. Decision making is done after discussing the relevant issues with others-be it superiors, peers or subordinates. In a number of such cases, you will need to interact with more than one person at the same time-very akin to GD type of situation. Unless you are equipped with some of the skills, which will be discussed in the course of this unit, you will not be able to do justice to your role in the organinsation. Hence, it is important to know the nuances of a GD.

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