Karate Kid
Small group communication is a concept that is quite familiar to us, but can also be confusing at the same time. In some way or another and at some point in our lives, we have belonged to some type of group whether it was a peer group, a club, a sports team, and so on. We understand that each group we associate ourselves with is a unique experience; one group experience is never exactly like the other. By stating these things, it is a safe to assume that we have all developed certain habits and attitudes about group work. In the next few paragraphs, I plan to demonstrate how the film "The Karate Kid" illustrates some aspects of small group communication and hopefully clear up some of the confusion we might have about the topic. A group is defined by five characteristics: size, interdependence, structure, identity, and goal. The first characteristic that I would like to discuss is size. A group consists of at least three people who work together to achieve a common goal. In "The Karate Kid", we see two different groups with conflict between the two. The two groups are the Cobra Kai's and Daniel, Ali, & Mr. Miyagi. The Cobra Kai's group consists of about 5 members who are out to make Daniel's life, along
The fourth step is when the group members generate solutions. They all agree that Johnny is the main source of the problem and should get a taste of his own medicine, but the question is how are they gonna make their mission successful. They could try to be reasonable by letting Johnny know that he should just let it go, but words may not be enough to shut Johnny up. They can also enter Daniel into the contest and if Daniel wins, Johnny will be a huge embarrassment and the group will be successful. The solutions are out on the table now and choosing one will be the next thing they need to do. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The third step is identifying the minimal criteria for the solution. The more criteria the group members can think of for the reason why Daniel should fight the Cobra Kais, the more complete and accurate their decision will be. By fighting Johnny, the whole Cobra Kai group will no longer bother Daniel, so the focus of the fight shifts to one person rather than five to prove his point. This would be considered the maximum expected utility decision; greatest payoff given the smallest risk. Ali is fed up with the way Johnny is treating her and Daniel, Mr. Miyagi is fed up with Daniel getting jumped by the Cobra Kais, and Daniel is fed up with getting beat up and running away from his problem. Each group member has his/her own reasons why Johnny needs to be taught a lesson, but the point is that they all agree that Johnny needs to be taught a lesson and they will figure out the best way to do so. The first step of this process is problem identification. In this step, the group must make clear what it wants to do. It was clear to the group that Daniel had a problem with this other group and the question was whether or not Daniel was gonna fight them in the tournament. After being tortured too much, both Ali and Mr. Miyagi both agreed with Daniel that this is what Daniel needed to do to stand up for himself. In "The Karate Kid", a major decision-making process was needed to help Daniel solve his problem with the Cobra Kai group. By Daniel, Miyagi, and Ali working together as a group, a standard agenda was created. A group using this procedure would complete a series of s
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1525
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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