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Education Resources

Meaning and Purpose of Group Discussion from Business Communication Book of SMU MBA

Friday, August 3, 2012

Group Discussion is a forum where people sit together, discuss a topic with the common objective of finding a solution for a problem. The members are expected to arrive at a common consensus. While discussing, it is important that the intention of the members is to facilitate the exchange of views.

You should be aware that in a GD, all the members of the group will participate and you have to listen to the views of the other members of the group. It is a discussion and the speaker will be “interrupted” by the other members of the group while speaking.

At this point, the speaker should modify what he says, based on the points that other members of the group make while the discussion is in progress. He has to continually keep evaluating the solution. Also, each participant tries to “grab” the chance to speak or to focus the attention of the group on himself/herself.

You might wonder, “Why should I participate in a GD? What is the purpose of GD?” Well, Group Discussions are arranged in order to measure certain traits of the participants, which are otherwise difficult to identify and time consuming to assess. It is common that a number of people who can communicate their ideas well and discuss effectively with others in a one-to-one situation become tongue-tied in a group situation. They will just not be able to present their ideas or discuss their ideas with the other members of the group. A group discussion will identify people who have such skills and people who do not.

It is very necessary for potential candidates to have such group communication skills. The course work at most premier institutes requires group projects to be undertaken. A candidate without the ability to communicate the ideas effectively in a group situation will be misfit in such an environment.

The chapter of Group Discussion (GD) has been taken from Business Communication book of Sikkim Manipal University of MBA.

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