Different types of GD

There are 3 primary types of GD depending on the kind of supervision during the entire course of the GD. They are:

i.Freewheeling –
In this, there is no external supervision. The candidates are asked to gather in a room and are allowed to get acquainted with one another. They are allowed a period of time to organise their ideas and decide on the Initiator, the Summarizer and the other members. The candidates are to decide on everything including the placement of the chairs and the order in which they will speak.
This type of GD helps the management to assess the organisational and leadership skills of the candidates.

ii.Monitored -
An external supervisor decides on everything about the GD including the order of the members. This is the simplest form of GD.
This is done mainly to assess the performance of the candidates under external pressure – in this case, the external pressure is simply, the presence of the supervisor.

iii.Audio visual supervision -
Instead of an external human supervisor, audio visual aids are used to assess the participants of the GD.
This is, by far, the most effective form of GD. Audio visual aids such as cameras and mini microphones are used. These help the management to observe the levels of confidence, nervousness, body language, gestures, facial expressions and every other aspect of every candidate completely.

Supervision is required in GD not only to assess all the requirements mentioned above, but also to evaluate a candidate’s performance as a team player. Careful scrutiny of each and every candidate as a team player is important because sometimes, even when a candidate does not really participate in the discussion, he might be
i. An excellent listener- which is a very valuable skill. Effective and patient listeners may be able to grasp points no one else can simply because of their undivided attention to things and may actually be the ones to come out with the final revolutionary ideas.
ii. A wonderful motivator – the person might realise he is not exactly contributing to the discussion – maybe because the topic is new to him and he knows nothing about it – in which case, he’s not ignoring the whole discussion but motivating the shyer ones to speak. Involving people in a discussion is noteworthy and is very conclusive proof that the person will work for the company’s benefit and not his own.

People who interrupt the discussion and always try to put forward their point without giving others a chance are annoying and are inevitably rejected even when they’re actually brilliant.

References:
A CD we were asked to listen to in the multimedia lab, and more importantly, our lecturer’s (Ms. Suneela) suggestions and ideas.