The Handbook of Group Communication Theory and Research

The Handbook of Group Communication Theory and Research establishes a central resource for the field, documenting and synthesizing the work done in group communication′s 50-year history. With contributions from the most experienced and respected scholars in the field, the editors Lawrence R. Frey, Dennis S. Gouran, and Marshall Scott Poole present an overview of group communication study and examine a variety of theoretical positions and methodological practices.

The volume is divided into six broad areas of communication scholarship:

• Foundations of group communication theory and research
• Individuals and group communication
• Task and relational group communication
• Group communication processes
• Group communication facilitation
• Group communication contexts and applications

The sections serve as a crossroads where various paths pursued in each area meet, summarize and suggest new maps and roads that need to be followed in the future.

Offering a comprehensive history of group communication theory and research, and establishing new conceptual perspectives and research agendas for future group communication scholars, this important resource will be an unrivalled tool for scholars, researchers, educators, practitioners, and students alike.

Lawrence (Larry) R. Frey is a Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Colorado at Boulder. His teaching and research interests include group interaction, applied communication (communication activism, communication and social justice, communication and community studies, and health communication), and communication research methods (both quantitative and qualitative). His research seeks to understand how participation (especially by those who are underresourced and marginalized) in collective communicative practices makes a difference in people’s individual, relational, and collective lives. He received a B.S. from Northwestern University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Kansas. Prior to coming to the University of Colorado at Boulder, he served as department chair at The University of Memphis and as a faculty member at Loyola University Chicago and at Wayne State University. He is the author/editor of 14 books, 3 special journal issues, and more than 60 published book chapters and journal articles. He is the recipient of 11 distinguished scholarship awards, including the 2000 Gerald M. Phillips Award for Distinguished Applied Communication Scholarship from the National Communication Association (NCA); the 2004, 2003, and 2000 Ernest Bormann Research Award from NCA’s Group Communication Division, for, respectively, the edited texts, Group Communication in Context: Studies of Bona Fide Groups (2nd ed.), New Directions in Group Communication, and The Handbook of Group Communication Theory and Research (coedited with Dennis S. Gouran and Marshall Scott Poole); a 1999 Special Recognition Award from NCA’s Applied Communication Division for an edited special issue of the Journal of Applied Communication Research on “Communication and Social Justice Research”; the 1998 National Jesuit Book Award (Professional Studies Category) and the 1988 Distinguished Book Award from NCA’s Applied Communication Division for his coauthored text (with Mara B. Adelman), The Fragile Community: Living Together With AIDS; and the 1995 Gerald R. Miller Award from NCA’s Interpersonal and Small Group Interaction Division and the 1994 Distinguished Book Award from NCA’s Applied Communication Division for his edited text, Group Communication in Context: Studies of Natural Groups. He is a past president of the Central States Communication Association and a recipient of the Outstanding Young Teacher Award from that organization, as well as a 2003 Master Teacher Award from the Communication and Instruction Interest Group of the Western States Communication Association.

M. Scott Poole (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin―Madison [communication arts]; M.A., Michigan State University [communication]; B.A., University of Wisconsin―Madison [communication arts]) is one of the nation’s top scholars in group communication and in organizational communication. Among his publications is one of the leading college textbooks on organizational communication (Strategic Organizational Communication, 5/e, Wadsworth); he is also co-editor of SAGE’s Handbook of Group Communication. He has been chair of the Organizational Communication Division of NCA and was the chair and founding member of NCA’s Group Communication Division. He is, or has been, a member of the following editorial journal boards: Human Communication Research, Communication Monographs, Communication Research, Communication Quarterly, Journal of Applied Communication Research, Academy of Management Review, Communication Theory, Quarterly Journal of Speech, Information Systems Research, Organization Science, Journal of Electronically-Mediated Communication, Journal of Organizational Discourse, Information and Organization.