What is bone fide Groups.

As John C. Lammers and Dean H. Krikorian (1997) define and explain that, that bona fide groups are characterized by the good faith of their memberships, that is; they are entered into purposefully with reasonable expectations regarding benefits or outcomes of membership. Second, as the common English translation of bona fide suggests, we assume that the groups of concern are actual groups that occur in human society. Finally, we assume that one of the purposes of positing the construct of the bona fide group was to situate group communication in a larger social system.

What are the rationales for studying Bona Fide Groups?

First, Bona fide is self contained models, which is using artificial tasks with zero history groups this is very important in effective research setting, as Poole advocates, offers potential to revitalize the field, if communication scholars preserve their core assumptions, values, and uniqueness. Small group communication researchers can build active lines of research, contribute to a larger body of knowledge, and maintain momentum through forging alliances with scholars from other disciplines. The real issue in revitalizing is how to develop mindsets for introducing new ways of thinking about small group communication.

Second ttrough bona fide small groups’ communications bring up cohesion, conformity and identity, which involve making decision socialization of new members. And third to improve the ecological of our findings this involves group analysis the tendency to explain groups from observations independent of their context. Bona fide group studies would increase the ecological validity of groups studied by avoiding making observations independent of their context. They also suggested that: research on bona fide groups can lead to reframing traditional group concepts such as roles, norms, brainstorming, phases and cohesiveness

Discussion of the Potential of using Bona Fide Groups when testing theory

As Putnam and Stohl 1994 argued that Individuals within a group are naturally part of several groups. A bona fide group perspective posits that the boundary of a group is not a "given." Went further and explain that each group socially constructs or negotiates its borders in developing its identity. Scholars examine how group members conceive of themselves as a group, build group identity, establish the group's essential features, and shape its external influences based on following features:

• Groups Have Permeable and Fluid Boundaries
• Group Members Maintain Multiple Group Memberships
• Group Members Play Representative Roles
• New Members Shift Role Functions
• The Degree To Which Members Enact A Sense of Belongingness
• Interdependence With Context
• Individuals Communicate With People Across Groups
• Groups Within The Organizations Often Must Coordinate Actions
• Group Members Often Must Negotiate Jurisdiction and Autonomy.
• Making Sense of Existing Intergroup Relations

In research methodology class we have been taught that theories must be falsifiable. In order for a theory to be held tentatively and have an empirical basis, Popper argued that it must be subject to falsification and it must be able to be subjected to meaningful tests: theory makes scientific predictions which can be tested in the natural world, and thus qualifies the young earth hypothesis as a falsifiable and testable scientific theory.
The way that a scientific theory makes predictions is by looking at the mechanism inherent within the theory and asking what sort of results would be expected where that mechanism has been at work. From our observations theories relies more on its suitability of being operationalized and the possibility which can lead to predictions

Just as Johne Donne stated that “No man is an island, entire of itself” bona fide group theory also recognizes that no group is without its context, to observe the group’s interdependence with its context. For example when students are assigned for a project paper; the first is that individuals communicate with people across groups. The group in the communication class not only belongs to several different groups but communicates with those groups. Roommates will share information about what happened at a group meeting. Family members may ask one group member to discuss their project over the holidays. What the theory suggests is that the more conversation that is occurring, the greater dependence of the group on its environment. Observations of external conversations serve as evidence of this dependence and prediction which is basis of bona fide groups.

The second as Putnam and Stohl 1994 indicated that groups are interdependent with their context is that groups must often coordinate actions. Group members also negotiate jurisdiction and autonomy; would extend their idea of research to conducting research of their own, since the course hadn’t trained them on methods. In the case of above Project assignment; the conversation continues with the group working out where their jurisdiction lies and maintaining some sense of autonomy now that the Professor is involved. Hence Professor as a leader serves as boundary spanners to filter information from external constituencies into a group and gatekeeper the release of information outside the group.

The bona fide groups makes predictions is by looking at the mechanism inherent within the eight features on the previous pages and from there you can ask what sort of results would be expected where the group has been at work. From our observations about how intelligent the groups operate when designing fro zero history, we can understand that intelligent designers act in specific ways that can lead to predictions that is the essence of theory. Therefore Bona fide theory prediction is a result of evaluation of issue at hand on a case-by-case scenario. When members meet, share intelligent design theory, through group hypothesis, by looking on stability, permeability, connectivity, overlapping memberships, relations among members in other contexts, and fluctuations in membership. In fulfilling the predictions it also looks on context  which looks how the group operates; bona fide operations more or less depends on  multiple levels of operation, tight or loose coupling, task jurisdiction, temporal control, resource dependency, and competing internal and external authority systems.

Therefore the best theory is the one that is most consistent with observable empirical phenomenon, this means that it can be generalized to other setting, rationalized, explained and mastered. We can conclude this statement by arguing that a theory is like the automobile. Components of it can be changed or improved upon, without changing the overall truth of the theory as a whole. Thus this is the most potential of Bona Fide Groups because the predictions and findings can be used for another group research problem

Conclusion:

The members share a team membership in the way that assembly line workers share group membership. The bona fide group perspective is the distinctions we have frequently made between cross-functional groups, decision-making groups, and task groups. The widespread occurrence of cross functional work groups in modern organizations speaks to the instability of those organizations and changes in the division of labor resulting from new technologies, competition, the search for efficiencies, downsizing, and other new problems faced by the organization. But the task group still remains as a fundamental building block of modern organization. Over time, even cross-functional teams will develop norms at the group, organizational, and institutional levels. It would appear that the bona fide group perspective has utility for the study of groups at multiple levels of analysis, although the construct needs further operationalization. In conclusion, we find the bona fide group construct as very worthy theory which can be used in another settings with similar problem.

Emmanuel A. Turuka