Group Discussion

What Is a Group Discussion?

A group discussion is a discussion between a group of participants on a given subject. A group discussion typically forms a part of the selection process used by organisations and educational institutions. The candidates talk about the given topic to present facts, opinions and conclusions. Employers use this technique to screen candidates and assess their soft skills.

In a typical group discussion activity, the panellists or moderators will introduce themselves and give you instructions about the process. The group will then get about 10-15 minutes to think and prepare about the subject and approximately 30 minutes to discuss it. The time limits can vary from process to process. Panellists use an evaluation sheet for rating the performance of the candidates based on a predetermined marking rubric.

 

A group discussion tests the teamwork and communication skills of candidates. A group discussion involves a discussion on a given topic with other candidates, usually with similar experience and educational qualifications. Performing well in a group discussion helps you to get noticed and practicing for one improves your public speaking skills. In this article, we will review what a group discussion is, its importance in the selection process, the skills evaluated during a group discussion and how to perform well in this round.

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What Are The Types Of Group Discussions?

Factual group discussions: These group discussions are about practical things and judge how a candidate processes information and analyses day-to-day topics or socio-economic issues.

Opinion-based group discussions: These group discussions test how candidates put forward their opinions and views. These group discussions are less about facts and more about opinions.

Case study-based group discussions: These group discussions simulate real-life situations. The panellists give the group the details of a hypothetical situation and then the group has to resolve the situation together.

Abstract group discussions: These group discussions are about intangible topics. In these, the interviewers observe if a candidate can handle the given topic with lateral thinking and creativity.

Importance Of Group Discussion

Group discussions are important because they help the evaluator:

To judge whether the candidate is fit for the job

To test whether the candidate is a good team player

To assess the candidate's communication skills

To check whether the candidate is comfortable speaking spontaneously on any subject

To gauge the candidate's diction and pronunciation

To evaluate the body language and posture along with general composition and maturity

As a candidate, group discussion is a critical test because you get the chance to stand out among other candidates and maximise your chances of success in stiff competition.

Which skills are evaluated in group discussion?

In a group discussion, the panellists evaluate the following skills to check the performance of a candidate:

Subject knowledge

The first thing that employers test is your expertise in the role's subject area. For example, if you apply for a sales position, the employers expect you to have in-depth knowledge of their products and sales process.

Creativity/Originality

Some jobs require innovative ideas and out-of-the-box solutions. In such cases, the panellists may employ group activities to check your creativity and originality of ideas in a group.

Voice

Communication skills include tone, volume and pitch control and your style of delivery. This skill is essential in customer-facing roles and in regular interaction with your peers and seniors. Employers check for an assertive approach, authoritative voice, clarity in speech and audible tone in a typical group discussion.

Body language

In a workplace, your body language speaks volumes about your actions and temperament. So, during a group discussion, panellists judge your hand gestures and head movements along with the expressions on your face. They also give high ratings for a professional outlook and a confident, straight posture.

Fluency

Fluency in speech is a critical skill for sales jobs or customer service roles. Speaking with effective pauses without stuttering or stammering can captivate an audience and make them listen carefully. That is why many employers test this ability simultaneously while checking your speech.

Initiative

Taking initiative is a mark of excellent leadership skills. In the beginning, panel members see if you try to start the conversation and establish its flow. If you are unable to do that, they also check if you wait for the right moment and take that chance to introduce your idea in a better way. Supporting your speech with statistics and some famous quotes also imprints a positive image on the listeners and interviewers.

Leadership

The panellists usually see if you start with your own viewpoint or ask others for their opinions. Helping others understand the subject matter and considering their perspectives proves your leadership acumen. Panellists also give bonus points if you can capitalise on other's viewpoints, adjust the conversation's flow and direct it towards actionable decisions.

Active listening

Active listening is an important skill for managerial positions or customer service roles. In a typical group, all members try to stress their points to get some limelight. So, employers usually observe those who listen to their peers without interruption. Letting them speak by giving a response and mentioning their views when you conclude the discussion shows them that you are an active listener.

Tips To Be Successful In A Group Discussion

Prepare for different topics

Apart from your own academic qualifications, you should also possess general knowledge. Try to keep track of some common trending topics. Check on current national and international events by reading newspapers regularly. You can also try checking social media, discussing your area of expertise with friends and referring to journals and articles from the library. Make sure you research published papers thoroughly and validate the findings.

Practice public speaking

Check for live or recorded group discussions online and observe how influential people conduct themselves. If you have enrolled in any career classes, try to take part in mock group discussions actively. This will allow you to improve your confidence. Try to rehearse your appearance, speech and presentation in front of the mirror. It works great because you can be a more sincere critic of yourself than someone else.

Work on your body language

Be comfortable and pleasant in your demeanour. Avoid artificial gestures or quirky movements, unnecessary hand expressions and pointing fingers. Moving hands to stress your point, waving your arms in the air, scrubbing your nose or looking at the ceiling to disagree show odd manners. When you are talking with someone, try to look straight into the listener's eyes to convey your thoughts more effectively.

Be a good listener

If another candidate is speaking, listen carefully and ask questions to ease the topic's flow. If you need to contradict someone's viewpoint, ask politely. For example, "Your point is valid, but I wish to add some of my own observations." If you listen to their speech carefully, you can strike out their points and stress your opinion more effectively. Remember that other candidates also come prepared and try to lead the group.

Intervene without leaving a bad impression

If you want to interrupt someone, you should have a specific purpose. Wait for the proper time, be polite and speak in a formal tone. You can say, "Thank you for allowing me to speak," and stress your opinion with "Let me add my points," "Your point is valid but ..." or "We can also see this from another angle" sentences. Try to avoid openly disagreeing with other candidates.

Complement the agreeable points

You can support points with merit using sentences such as, "Yes, I also think we can approach this problem differently." Such actions will leave a positive impact on your quality as a team member. This approach is helpful because panel members also observe candidates' teamwork, their manner of response to differing opinions and general courtesy.

Face crucial moments

Sometimes, you may have to take a back foot when someone with a valid objection supersedes you. Or, a candidate may interrupt and try to talk over you. You should address that person calmly, ask them to cease the interruption and carry on speaking. The group supervisor will notice your calmness and maturity.

Practice summarization and conclusion

At the end of a group discussion, you may have to provide some conclusion. Try to summarise the points and provide a valid outcome or a judgement for the best results.

Example

Impact of Social Networking Sites

Indraneel Mal

Hello everybody; I am Indranil Mal and I am going to discuss both about positive & negative aspects of Social Networking sites.
Firstly, being a good user of social networking sites I would draw attention that Social networking sites are just like science & technology as it depends on the user.
Similarly, the case arises for social networking sites. It depends on the user. All positive aspects you all know and shared but in the negative aspects, you all missed a point. Nowadays there is a competition whose posts are far better than others causing huge fan followers and this often leads to expressing low testament which cuts of our nose. Also, blackmailers take a chance of our passive minds to get us ruined. So, it's our duty to limit and to remain alert while using social networking sites.

Aman Vermasaid: 1 month ago

Social networking is nothing but a curse in today's world. We have a lot to know everything but at the same time, we have lost so much that had to be around us.
Just because of social networking we have lost our inner happiness,
* Our consciousness,
* Our soul,
* Our purity,
* Our dedication to the truth.
-> We have totally dependent on social ne for the wrong reasons,
-> A human being doesn't go to social media for experience and learning purposes,
-> They go only for Cheap motivation and a cheap kind of happiness that gives them pleasure for a small moment.

Harsh Guptasaid: 1 month ago

Hi everyone,
As for the impacts of social networking sites, I am little bit disagree with it. My point of view is different for the social networking site.
I agree that social sites have immense knowledge or it is the ocean of knowledge and we are giving our precious time surfing on it.
There are too many advantages such as connecting with our friends who are kilometers away from us, keeping in touch what happening in the world, plus spreading knowledge in all over the world. I am also getting knowledge from social sites.
Its bad impact includes the usage of these sites in the wrong way, children are addicted to it, and they are scrolling their time on these sites but these are adults who actually know what they are doing wasting their time or utilizing it.
According to me the worst impact of social networking sites are on children.
It affects it's mental health. It affects their eyes, children who are less than 10 years are also using the spectacles plus we don't know what they are watching on that sites. These sites are compromising their physical health because, in place of getting rest, they are playing games on phones instead of playing cricket, football, etc.
But they are children they don't know what they are doing. The major problem for this is social sites used by their family members including their grandfather, grandmother, mother, father, elder brother, and sister. We are giving our time on social sites because of which children are not getting attention from their family members. So they are surfing on Instagram, fb, twitter and so on. Because of this loneliness, children start scrolling through videos and then start making videos.
If we don't give time to our children, brothers then it is obvious they get outside to get attention. So they are not totally responsible for that. We should use these phones only for important work not for entertainment especially when we are living in a joint family. For entertainment, we should play with children so that they can be happy with themselves.
Please think about it, are we not ignoring our younger in front of mobile phones?
Thank you.

Sri Ramachandra Murthysaid: 

Hello everyone!
According to me, networking sites have both positive and negative impacts, depending on the way we choose to use them and I would like to discuss the pros of networking sites first.
* It connects with people around the globe.
* Networking sites are useful for business promotion and new-age marketing.
* It helps us develop and explore the work and keeps us up-to-date.
And when it comes to negative impacts
* Social networking sites kill time for those addicted to them.
* And it is easy for scammers to manipulate people towards cybercrimes.
* Social networks have no particular policies, everyone has their own rights, and they express and impose their comments on others, which affects their mental health and commitments in life.

Annushri Bhadsaid: 

 Hello Everyone, I am Annushri.
The Impact of social networking sites is increasing widely although it has positive and negative aspects to start with the positive things we can communicate and connect with our friends worldwide It provides knowledge what is going where, how things work, and we can surf news on it, all the new things which are in trend and going worldwide can get through social sites, through new features of these sites we are getting aware of new technology getting Introduced and at the same time my people are finding their carrier through social media because it's a great platform to showcase our skills and to learn from It.
Moving forward as these things also have Negative sides too.
Talking about the vastest one Increasing screen time adults these days spend most of their time watching entertaining videos over it, attention spam has decreased because of short videos, people no longer socialize in public or may get anxious and start watching their mobile phones, kids these days are also creating the ID's and watching entertaining content throughout the day these are the complaints of many parents and so on.
I am not saying social media has a negative impact but the type of content we are watching is important though it has good and bad side but how we are seeing and using it can have a huge impact.
Thank you.

Tobacco must be banned. Yes or No.

Raj

According to me, smoking and drinking is injures health. And we also see many ads about it. Some may follow and some may not. For this only solution is to stop producing it. So, I final point is to ban tobacco.

Samyak gaykwad

In my opinion, tobacco should not completely ban in India because tobacco industries play a major role in our country's economy. But tobacco is very harmful to our health. If you start consuming tobacco there is a high chance of getting many health diseases like cancer and asthma. So instead of completely banning tobacco, the government should have to increase taxes on the manufacturing company and make a rule for youth who are under 25 not having the right to take tobacco and start creating a say not to tobacco campaign.

Sri Ramachandra Murthysaid: 

Hello everyone,
In my opinion, tobacco must be banned because it causes cancer and health damage to both those who consume it and those who do not. When we are in a place where people consume tobacco, it damages our health even if we don't take it, and it ultimately causes damage to society.
I agree that tobacco and other narcotic products play a vital role in the country's economy, so they must be banned in a scheduled way. The government has to restrict them to particular age groups and they should be banned in a proper way with the necessary guidelines and advertising about disadvantages and all.

Parth Mittalsaid: 

Hello friends,
In my opinion, a complete ban on tobacco would lead to great economic consequences for a nation as the tobacco industry contributes significantly towards revenue generation for a nation.
But seeing the harmful effects of tobacco especially on the youth, I think the government should take strict steps towards banning tobacco for people less than 25 years of age. Also, many forms of tobacco drugs are available at a very cheap price. So, the government should take steps and impose heavy taxes on drugs like tobacco. Then it will become unavailable to many people and would eventually reduce the use of tobacco.

Is India ready for Electric Vehicles?

Yashsaid: 

I want to question you guys if India is ready for EVs why does every state has different subsidy for EVs? Why subsidies aren't common for all of India and we also don't have that much amount of electricity produced in-house? So there will be a scarcity of electricity.
And this will let to an increase in the cost of electricity which will affect people who don't even have money to buy a car.

Sourabhsaid: 

 Hello everyone.
I believe that India is ready for EVs, but in rural areas, there is some unacceptance for EVs because it takes time to charge, so in my opinion it would be a great Move toward the EV that we should make a hybrid system in the beginning. We can charge it and also we can use by fuel so that people will be used to it and slowly we can totally shift towards EVs.

Sri Ramachandra Murthy

Hello everyone,
Yes, India is ready for EV.
We, the Indian people, are very conscious of the environment and its safety, but unfortunately, in search of development, we are damaging it, though it hurts us in the future. People are aware of the safety of the environment and are ready to contribute their part. The stats of electric vehicle usage are increasing, and personally, I feel the government has to support it by giving cost reductions, encouraging sales of electric vehicles, and establishing service and charging points in every petrol filling station. This encourages people to buy electric vehicles, and we are ready to contribute our part to be environmentally friendly, and we are ready to adopt any technologies that are eco-friendly.

RITESH MISHRA

GOOD AFTERNOON.
Today's topic is India is ready for EVs or not.
INDIA is a very populated country. There the requirement for the vehicles is very high. Most of Indian vehicles are either petrol or diesel or CNG oriented. But the problem is petrol and diesel engine produce co2 gas but the EV is pollution-free vehicles. Nowadays petrol and diesel prices are very high there for EVs is much cheaper.
So it is a very big yes that India is definitely ready for EV. Many companies launch EV LIKE TATA, HYUNDAI AND AUDI and many more like that. So from my side EV is good for the future.

Should India have a One Child Policy?

Prince Maurya

According to my point of view on this topic. India should not use one child policy because when we use one child policy the sex ratio of males and females is different because of ratio have both male and female.

Supriya

It's a great topic to discuss whether "India should follow a one-child policy or not. ".
Based on the population growth it is the policy of one child can be obeyed but when we think about a family of minimum 4 members it is a small family. If we implement a one-child policy, a child feel bored alone at home without siblings. Always siblings are the best companions and friends with whom we can share everything.
It has both positive and negative edges so few considerations must be taken before implementing the policy.
Thank you.

Porus

Well, population growth in India is declined quite well.
And India possesses 47 per cent of world's youth. If we look at China, which once was suffering from a population explosion, now giving incentives to its citizens to get married and produce babies.
Because in the past years, China has drastically alleviated poverty from its country and since 1978 it has got 75 per cent of its under-poverty population to the middle class or upper.
So it is simple to understand when there is less poverty or no poverty there is automatically less population growth rate.
It is to be believed that if govt fixed its policies to help people under the poverty line, the country's issues like population growth and gender inequality will automatically either disappear or will reduce remarkably.
Or otherwise it's easy to say that it is unemployment because of its population growth. And this is simply to hide the negligence of the government itself.

Dr Chowdari Prasadsaid: 6 months ago

No. I would prefer that India can follow a policy to have 2-3 children but not more than that. I can't say this rule of thumb can be across all segments of society viz. , rich, middle class and poorer sections uniformly. All depends on the affordability of parents to provide quality education and life to their children. In turn, the risks in having one child are many, like social, health, financial, education, employment related issues. What if the single child is handicapped or goes astray when grows old? We have also experience gender related issues in our country. Today, the expectations and lifestyles of new generation are changing very fast, to the detriment of the parents. Such gaps are very difficult to manage and families get ruined. I can go on and on.