Individual Reflective Journal on Group †Myassignmenthelp.com

Question: 1. What has been your experience of group/team work? What positive/negative aspects you faced? - Please provide answer for this one. 2. How did your group make decisions? What worked and what didnt? How could it be improved? - With this question you can talk about how we met over Skype and had discussions and then allocated tasks due to strengths and fairness. Answer: It is always said two heads are better than one, working as a team results in better decision making and coming up with the best decisions which could not have realized when working as an individual. Working as a team has many advantages, and one can also learn a lot as you get to interact with people from different cultural backgrounds, personalities, and characters. Working or conducting a group work is also done by meeting physically or working online, over the internet platforms. Our team was made up of three members studying online, so we used Skype to discuss. There is an experience you acquire when working as a group or team. Group/teamwork requires dealing or working with individuals of diverse, character, attitudes, individuality, and sometimes of varied cultural background. Working with people from different countries or cultural background is empirical but also hectic; this is due to the different level of understanding and the cultural differences among the group or the team members. It requires good communication and understanding. At the beginning of the work, all can be seen easy but as the work gets extreme, and a bit puzzling, it becomes chaotic as everyone starts to display their personality types and impatience begins setting in, this is the point where you start knowing each other better and understanding gets in. The key thing in a group or teamwork is understanding each others character, personality, attitudes and cultural background. This collaboration, although for academic purposes, has trained me many effects, interacti ng with persons of diverse culture and nature, a very thrilling knowledge, though, at times, it can be rough. It is good that I am undergoing this at this period because, it will be of much help later in the later days when I will be working in a in different country outside my motherland with different people from other countries, with a different traditions and of a different character. Some of the positive aspects we encountered as a group include, Sense of Ownership, Teamwork or group work encourage team members to feel proud of their contributions to the group and feel pleased. Working on achieving teams goals allows team members to feel they own the team/group. It creates devotion, leading to trust among team members. Promotes Healthy Risk-Taking, working on a project alone will probably not allow you to think out of the box (Hanna Nooy, 2009). If the project goes wrong, you take the whole blame. While you may not get full credit for a successful team project, working with other people as a team the responsibility for a failed assignment is shared among them. One learns Conflict Resolution Skills when conflict arises in teamwork situations; team members are forced to resolve the conflicts by their own other than turning to other people (Alle-Corliss Alle-Corliss, 2009). Experiencing conflict resolution first hand is a skill that group/team members can use to b ecome well-organized persons there after. Working as a team also builds Trust among group mates, leaning on other people builds trust, and group work establishes strong interaction with teammates. Tasks not being completed by the deadline, this is experienced when may be a member submits his or her assigned work late as we did over mail. When the group has difficulty in starting, this arises when the team does not have a team leader who can direct the group on what to do or start with (Atkins, Stockham, Phillips Atkins, 2011). Ideas not thoroughly discussed as a team, team members contribute points but fail to elaborate more on the point to bring out the required meaning, or the members present ideas very shallowly leaving behind high points this may be because we discussed online, lack of physical contact. Some members contribute less, other members of the group joy ride in the group. Ineffective communication, when the team leader calls for a meeting and few members turn up, means there is ineffective communication among the members. The manager should make sure that each and every member receives the message (Capuzzi, Gross Stauffer, 2010). The conflict between team membe rs. People have different characters; others are too emotional that a small misunderstanding among the teammates results in a conflict which otherwise could resolve among them. Domineering personalities. Equal opportunities should be given to each member of the group so that everybody can contribute equally to the team to avoid other members dominating the group (Alessi, 2013). In our group, we made decisions through the following methods; First, Decision made by the power without a group discussion. The leader of the team making all the decisions without consulting group members. Secondly, Decision by an expert. Selecting an expert from the team and let him or her make the decision considering his or her way of expertise (McLean, 2010). Thirdly, Decision by averaging individuals' opinions, this is done by separately asking each team member his/her opinion and average the results. Fourth, Decision made by the authority after group discussion, the group or the team creates ideas and has discussions, but the group leader makes the final decision (Hanna Nooy, 2009). The team leader calls a meeting, in our case, the group leader made phone calls and presents the issue, listens to the discussion from the team, and announces her/his decision over Skype. Fifth, Decision by a minority, a minority of the team, less than half of the team, make the decision, in the c ase of our group one member would do so as we were only three members (Pat, 2013). Sixth, Decision by majority, the decision is discussed until more than half of the team members make the decision, in our group two members qualify to do so (Heck, 2009). Seventh, Decision by consensus, all members of the group speak and being listened to, and all the decisions put together. To have an active group or team work the following should be improved or done; In the case of difficulty to get started during a group or teamwork, it could be helpful to have a chance for all teammates to introduce themselves by name. Extend a mutual understanding of the duty by brainstorming. Make sure each affiliate is given a chance to speak and make decisions. Come up with a schedule and also a timetable. Recommend one member to act as the leader of the team (Alyce, 2012). Interchange names and contacts. Agree on jobs and tasks for each group member. Conclusion Working as a team or having a group work is crucial as the team always comes up with the best decisions ever as compared to working individually. The most excellent decision described as a decision that (a) would not have thought of by someone working alone, (b) a wide-ranging solution to a condition, (c) composed from every team mate, also (d) expresses the group target for the resolution-c. References McLean, R. J. (2010). Team work: Forging links between honesty, accountability and success. Camberwell, Vic.: Penguin. Alyce Cornyn-Selby (2012). Whatever happened to team work?: new look at the team concept. Neal Fisher - Beynch Press Pub. Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Human Resource Development (2010) Team Work 20 Steps to Success Pat Williams (2013).The magic of team work. Thomas Nelson Publishers. Capuzzi, D., Gross, D. R., Stauffer, M. D. (2010). Group work. Denver: Love Pub. Alle-Corliss, L., Alle-Corliss, R. (2009). Group work: A practical guide to developing groups in agency settings. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Atkins, J., Stockham, J., Phillips, M., Atkins, J. (2011). Working together. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes. Heck, T. (2009). Duct tape teambuilding games: 50 fun activities to help your team stick together. Asheville, NC: Life Coach. Hanna, B. E. Nooy, J. D. (2009). Learning language and culture via public Internet discussion forums. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Alessi, L. (2013). Teaming up: A handbook for the multi-age classroom. Mt. Waverley, Vic.: Dellasta.a