It would certainly seem unnecessary to document man s in-<br >volvement with group behavior. We are all familiar with the per-<br >vasive influence of group experiences in our own lives. Whether<br >such experiences involve social groups or work groups， the bulk of<br >our energy is expended in interaction with others.<br > And just as our personal involvement in groups has grown， so<br >too has the academic study of group behavior. The burgeoning<br >number of college and university courses dealing with group ac-<br >tivity run the gamut from the family to the impact of large social-<br >movement groups. But perhaps the most common focus of study<br >for group-related behavior has been the group-communication<br >processes. Sociology classes spend a great deal of time looking at<br >the basic interactive nature of people in group settings. Social<br >psychology courses are devoted to personality differences of indi-<br >viduals who participate in group activities. Students in business<br >administration classes study the effects of organizational changes<br >on work groups. And speech communication classes in group dis-<br >cussion examine the many formats and types of problems that<br >small groups of people come together to solve.<br > In addition to the fact that the viewpoints on group behavior are<br >as diverse as the fields looking at group behavior， the factors or<br >variables of interest have grown. Thus， such traditional concepts<br > as leadership， norms， and roles， while occupying a fair share of the<br > attention， have been joined by variables of more recent interest.<br >The latter include consideration of decision-making theories，<br > conflict resolution， nonverbal dimensions of group behavior， lan-<br > guage variables in group settings， and power functions of group<br > members. While it is certainly true that knowledge of all these<br > variables--and many more--is useful to the student of group be-<br > havior， it has often been the case that such information has been<br > "dumped" upon the student in one of several ways.<br > For the most part， textbooks in group communication have<br > tended to take either a theoretical or a practical bias in the presen-<br > tation of material. In the former， students are introduced to a<br > number of theoretical concepts and the research literature that<br > describes those concepts. Books that operate from a practical bias<br >