Exploring Group Communication and Productivity Improvement: Using an Experiential Process.

Engineering students at Oklahoma State University used an experiential process (the ACME Basket Exercise) to develop an understanding of how quality and productivity can be improved. The exercise simulates a traditional production organization in the classroom and mirrors the efforts, the successes, and the frustrations of individuals and work groups as they attempt to produce a quality product in a productive manner. Following an initial production run, with a large group, students are assigned the task of improving production. Based on student suggestions, an array of methods and techniques are presented and discussed over time. The students use this information as they redesign the ACME Basket production process. Group communication management, product and process design, quality and productivity improvement, and group processes are explored. The experiential process culminates with a second production run where the students have the opportunity to apply their new group communication understanding and design. In this experiential exercise, there is opportunity also for different kinds of research. Based on students' scores on several instruments, some groups were formed with just one communication style and a high or low level of communication apprehension and others with a mixed communication style and mixed levels of communication apprehension. The experiential process can be restructured to match on the job requirements and allow production and engineering teams to focus on quality, design and project planning issues, and the group communication process. (RS)