Faculty Publications

Who Owns A Group's Proposals: The Initiator Or The Group As A Whole?

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Communication Research Reports

Volume

21

Issue

3

First Page

221

Last Page

230

Abstract

This study examined who “owns”; a proposal during decision‐making group discussion. There are three potential answers to this question: the member who made the proposal, with that member dominating relevant discussion (the “pet proposal”; possibility), the group as a whole, with different members taking different responsibilities in discussing the proposal (the “role specialization”; possibility), and the group as a whole, with all members sharing in the discussion of the proposal (the “collective responsibility”; possibility). Evidence from a relatively large sample of discussion data supports the collective responsibility possibility, with the proviso that the group's biggest talker tends to dominate discussion no matter whose proposal is being discussed. © 2004, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Original Publication Date

1-1-2004

DOI of published version

10.1080/08824090409359984

Link to Full Text

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