THEORETICAL COMMITMENTS PRESUPPOSED BY FUNCTIONAL APPROACHES TO GROUPDISCUSSION

Functional theory is theory in which the central core includes a descr iption of attributes that lead to good consequences for, and/or that s atisfy a goal of, a system or the system's designer or user. The appli cation of functional theory to small group discussion requires the the orist to make two types of theoretical commitments. First, functional theories should include scientific functional explanations. Second, fu nctional theories should include a description of necessary discussion functions on one and only one level of abstraction. Three well-known functional approaches to group discussion, those of Benne and Sheats, Bales, and Hirokawa, are described, and the two commitment requirement s are applied to these approaches. All three approaches are shown to c ontain incomplete explanations and to describe functions on different levels of abstraction.