Reflecting on Group Dynamics and Personal Contribution

Introduction

At the initiation of the group task, I was not present for the first two classes and missed few details. The day I joined the classes, I was informed by Sonia that I am included in their group along with Deserie, Liliana, Ivy and Lorna. On the first day when I joined the class, I was greeted by the comment that "Sylwia missed an apology no received". This made to develop mixed feeling about the group that I was not properly welcomed because no such comments were passed to Lorna who also missed the first three classes. On discussing with the team, I identified that we were given the task to develop a group presentation for explaining theories related to team development. Reflective writing is important to identify the skills developed during the course and review their effectiveness in the process. Thus, in this reflective piece, I am going to reflect on the group task being executed by me with five other members to identify the effectiveness of each other skills and understand the effectiveness of them in successfully executing the group task.

Reflection on the Presentation of Task

At the beginning of the task, we faced issues with keeping time and were delayed by 30 mins to develop discussion as all the members were not present at the right time. As mentioned by Sharma and Bhatnagar (2017), proper time management is required to be ensured by all within a group so that the team goal is able to be effectively met by all. This is because if one of the members in the group lags behind or do not keep time then role which leads to help in meeting the team goal is delayed. Thus, in the first meeting, Liliana took the initiative to ask other members in the team to be on time so that we can complete the task collaboratively by the deadline with facing hindrance. All the members in the group listened to her and we all were later on time. This indicates the positive aspect was that all the members were collaborative and trusted each other in the sense that they do not doubt Liliana was trying to humiliate others as she spoke to us politely.

Lorna was initially seen to be more interested in sharing her personal problems while discussing group activity. This was not received in good sense by others in the group and they talked about how Lara is giving them a hard time. It made me minimise my communication with the team members as I thought they do not respect each other. As we started to discuss the development of our group work, all the members were asked what role and theories they are going to present during the presentation. As asserted by Cardon and Marshall (2015), effective communications between the team members are required so that they remain informed about each other efficiency and progress in executing the task. This is required so that the team members understand the assistance they are to offer each other to collaboratively execute the task. Thus, we communicated with each other to understand each other weakness and strength so that the roles can be properly disturbed and any member in need of assistance can be helped by others in the group.

Group Dynamics

The Tuckman’s theory informs that in the forming stage the dependence is on the leader and there are disagreements between team members (Siregar et al. 2018). The group fitted to this aspect as in the initial stage me as well as others like Lorna and other members were not cooperative about one another and we were all confused regarding our role. The theory informs that in the storming stage decisions are made and members need to avoid getting distracted by emotion and relationship (Saari et al. 2018). The group did not fit to the aspect of this theory which is evident as Lorna was seen to be distracted to work due to her personal problems and others were not able to control their emotions in criticising Lorna for her behaviour.

The Belbin’s team roles well fitted us as we identified that according to action-oriented roles Sonia acted as the shaper as she directed us the way to form the group; Ivy, Liliana, Sonia, Lorna acted as the worker which is evident as they collected resources need by us to accomplish the task and Ivy as the finisher. The resource investigator in Belbin’s team role theory informs that they are natural communicators who can easily develop rapport with others to form useful partnerships to help the team accomplish the goal (Eubanks et al. 2016). This aspect of the theory well fitted with Lorna who is chirpy and extrovert in nature and arranged all the assistance for each of us when need to complete the team goal. The 5 dysfunctions within a team indicated by Patrick’s theory are results, accountability, commitment, conflict and trust (Overfield, 2016). The theory well fitted in the sense that during the initiation of the group work we experienced conflict as Lorna was not concerned to effectively involve in active communication regarding our activities to be performed to accomplish the task within time. In this aspect, Ivy wore the blue hat according to which she communicates with Lorna to instruct her thinking to be more diverted towards executing our group work rather than sharing her personal problem as to why she arrived late and what personal issue made her avoid taking certain responsibility in the group.

During the development of presentation, I being introvert in nature was nervous about the outcome. In relation to this, my group members came to my rescue and especially Ivy offered her help to me by saying that if I need assistance regarding anything to develop my presentation she is there to help me. Thus, I used the opportunity and send her my minutes of the presentation by hearing which she informed me that it is absolutely awesome and I am very good to present it. This activity of Ivy indicated that she wore the Yellow hat as per de Novo’s theory. This is evident as yellow hat indicates positive thinking and being optimistic (Guazzaroni, 2017). Ivy was positive about my presentation as well as motivated me through optimistic belief that I was well to present my part in the group presentation.

The Toegel’s theory about conflict prevention in team indicated within the group all has to look, act, think, speak and feel properly to avoid conflicts. The look indicated to spot differences in team members (Toegel and Barsoux, 2016). This aspect of the theory well fitted in the sense that Ivy looked that all of us were different and spoke with each other in different manner by charting emotions to avoids conflict. This is evident as the way she talked with me to resolve my fear of presentation was not in the same way when she communicated with Lorna to be serious about our group activities. However, her proper look, act and speaking differently with one another avoided to raise conflict within the team which helped all of us to present the group work successfully.

Me in the Group

In the group, I was offered the role of a team member as per the Belbin’s team role theory. This is evident as I executed the roles and duties asked by other team member and leader to be followed to accomplish our group activity which is the role of a team member (Senaratne and Gunawardane, 2015). Further, I remained neutral while acting within the team and avoided to provide any form of opinion and judgement regarding the activities being performed within the team. This is because I thought this way I may be able to avoid getting into conflict with other team members. It indicated that I took the role of the white hat of de Nono which informs a person to have neutral feelings and avoid hunches or raise judgement within team (Aithal and Kumar, 2017). One of the principles of STS theory is that proper information flow within the team is to be maintained (Asif, 2017). I effectively followed this principle by remaining connected through phone and email with all of my group members. This was done so that all the information related to the group activity flows in properly manner within the team and no one remains confused about my role and progress in the group work.

Learning from the Task

The task led me to develop knowledge that during the initiation of group work it is normal that conflicts between team members are able to rise as they do not know one another. However, I also learned that through effective communication and polite conversation team members can be made understood regarding the way they are to participate in the work so that all the team members are able to perform their task effectively to reach the determined group goal. The task leads me to understand that proper information flow is to be maintained and assistance can be taken during problems from teammates to execute the group work effectively. I also learned that trust, respect and communication are few of the key things required to establish effective group or team management.

Conclusion

The above discussion informs that during the development of group work all the members of the group were not cooperative. However, with time and effective establishment of communication within team and taking assistance from team building theories, a proper group was formed to accomplish the activity of creating and presenting group presentation at the class.

Bibliography

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Appendix

Appendix 1:

In the norming stage, the roles are clearly informed to one another and the commitment becomes more profound within the team members (Benoliel and Schechter, 2018). This aspect of the theory well fitted with the group because with the progress in the tasks we each were clearly knowledgeable about the roles to be performed by one another and were stronger and unified. Tuckman's theory informs that in the performing stage the team members assist each other (Peralta et al. 2018). This aspect of the theory also well fitted out group work as in the last stage before the presentation I being introvert seek assistance for Ivy regarding what I could do to properly present the facts. She understood and assisted me by motivating that I will be fine and even assured me after hearing my presentation that I sent to her that it was absolutely ok and I need not worry.