Impacts of Working with a Group of Individuals - Essay Example

Executive Summary Theories of reflection, culture, decision making, group dynamics, strategy, leadership, communication and co-working are essential for any group of individuals which is working to achieve the same goal. This paper aims to present reflective techniques in order to analyze my personal team work experience. Working with a group of individuals mostly has some negative and positive impacts which are experienced by the team as a whole and on individual basis as well. First of all the team work, leadership, communication and other similar theories are discussed. These are then associated with my personal team work incidents which affected my team and me as an individual. Since all the incidents have some or the other consequence therefore the results of the mentioned incidents will also be discussed. Moreover, development of different tranferable skills including influence, power, team roles etc. will be mentioned. I have conversed about two events in this paper. First event relates to the huge marketing activity which I was supposed to conduct with my fellows within three different university campuses. As part of our marketing course we were given different products which were to be sold sometime later. During the project work I encountered different situations which are highly relatable to different group work and team building theories. Secondly I was asked to coordinate with other group members to organize a school trip for the kindergarten and primary students. Here, I experienced entirely different situations which actually relate to some other reflective theories. Eventually I developed certain transferable skills which helped me in performing later jobs and group assignments in a better way. Table of Contents Introduction 4 Description 4 Critical Incidents Analysis 7 Conclusion 9 References 10 Introduction Reflective techniques are highly significant in offering us different ways of doing something while making a sense and opportunity out of every uncertainty. These are also important in transforming us into a competent and ethical individual who can easily manage chaos and the edge orders (Ghaye, 2000, p.7). Reflection techniques are specifically based upon thinking and doubt. It may also be understood with the concept of perplexity and hesitation about the personal experience. It plays a vital role in comprehending the real complex situation by acting carefully and considering all the involved elements. Furthermore it emphasizes upon continuous learning while performing different tasks. In broader terms it can also be distinguished into reflection-in i.e. thinking during the event and reflection-on action i.e. thinking over the consequences of events (Finlay, 2008, p.3). Reflection is directly associated with critical thinking as it enables an individual to think about an issue from outward perspective. Eby has explained that reflective practice develops when self awareness, critical thinking and reflection are all integrated (Eby, 2000). This clearly explains that a reflective person would have to be aware about his strengths and weakness. He must be able to critically analyze different things while making reflective decisions. Description Bruce Tuckman presented the most important theory in 1965 about the team building process. According to him every team undergoes four fundamental processes which includes forming, storming, norming and performing. At the first stage the group members are decided along with their ultimate task to be achieved (Forming – Storming – Norming –Performing, 2014). Here, individuals began to understand each other while working independently. Then the group enters the stage of storming where it starts to acknowledge each individual’s ideas while building good relationships. Storming might also initiate few conflicts which should be handled carefully in order to keep the group united. Finally reaching to the norming stage the group develops harmony whereas each individual respects others’ view points. Once this is achieved then the group begins to perform its specific tasks while attaining beneficial outcomes (Forming – Storming – Norming –Performing, 2014). However, every individual has entirely different decision making styles which actually impact the group performance. Russo and Schoemaker explain the idea of decision making as a comprehensive process. According to them a group starts making decisions at the stage when it first frames all the concepts. Thereafter it enters in to the phase of gathering information related to the task. At this point few individuals working in the group share their personal experiences, working styles and beliefs which are incorporated with the gathered information so as to come up with substantial conclusions (Russo, 2002). Ignoring any of the decision making steps can result in to various conflicts and misunderstandings. Hence it is always highly recommended to relate the gathered information with personal experiences and knowledge. Turpin and Marais further explores the decision making styles and came to a conclusion that decisions should be made on the basis of intuition, sensitivity to small and ignored ideas while considering the presentation of information (Turpin, 2004, p. 143). Porter’s Generic Strategies are important in gaining competitive advantage on individual and group level. He has presented three fundamental strategies including the differentiation strategy, cost leadership strategy and focus strategy. In order to make use of all three of them a group has to first make the SWOT analysis i.e. evaluating its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (Porter’s Generic Strategies, 2014). Thereafter the individuals are required to comprehend external working environment, for instance, political, economic, social, technology and legal. This finally leads to the implementation of decision making styles. For example, either the group should increase its resources or decrease them. Moreover, critical aspects such as motivation and interest of group members have to be considered (Porter’s Generic Strategies, 2014). Kolb’s cycle of learning gives four basic learning stages which explain the learning procedure of individuals. This is extensively helpful in achieving better learning outcomes even from poor group performance. The four learning stages include concrete experience i.e. the situations in which people are personally involved. Concrete experience enables individuals to concentrate over feelings rather than the systematic approaches (Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory and Learning Styles Model, 2013). Then there is reflective observation. At this stage a person tends to consider different point of views while also relying on his internal feelings. Abstract conceptualizing deals with logic and ideas more than any other aspect. Hence this involves substantial thought processes while making different decisions. Active experimentation makes the learning process comparatively practical. It helps an individual to take necessary steps with respect to changing situations. Moreover, it facilitates in defining solutions for future problems (Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory and Learning Styles Model, 2013). People working in the same group do not necessarily have the same cultural background and therefore they might encounter different conflicts and complex situations with respect to differentiating cultures. Culture defines the intellectual abilities, life patterns, beliefs, artistic activities, social norms, customs etc. (Smith, 2011). All of these can be beneficial for better group performance as people belonging from different cultures can present wide range of ideas. However, the cultural difference can be harmful too as it can initiate conflicts while destroying the group harmony. Few people in a group also have the innate or inborn leadership qualities which includes the physical characteristics, personality and intelligence. However, there is another concept of leadership which defines it somewhat differently. It says that it can be learned as it is based upon interactions between leaders and followers (Northouse, 2010, p.4-5). Leadership plays a vital role in the group success and therefore group members are extensively required to recognize leaders within them. They must identify an individual who has innate leadership qualities while also having the learning ability. Critical Incidents Analysis During my marketing course we were given the task of marketing the newly launched toothpaste in our three university campuses. This was a huge marketing activity as the three campuses were based in different cities where they were catering to hundreds of students. We had a group of 20 people from different cities and therefore the most difficult part was to build coherency among the group members. The duration for project completion was six months and we actually moved through all the stages of Tuckman’s team building theory. Most of the group members belonged to entirely different cultures so the first issue was to tackle the cultural differences. Although I personally believe that cultural does not impact the group performance as long as people are motivated enough to work with each other but our group leader had another approach. He decided to identify each issue while independently working over it. Soon other members realized that this approach was incorrect and that we cannot move ahead of storming phase if we continued with the similar practice. Eventually new group leader was elected while considering the leadership characteristics such as personality, intellect, learning capacity etc. (Schyns, 2005). After working with this group I developed different transferable skill which were not a part of my personality, for instance, I began to think critically about different situations while focusing more towards the external factors, past experiences and knowledge. Consequently I was able to communicate things in a better way which increased my efficiently as a team member (Severin, 2010). I also gained the technical knowledge and capability to plan and organize things on mass scale. Once we entered the stage of performing then the larger group of 20 people was divided in to two groups of 7 individuals and 1 group of 6 individuals. This actually helped us in better understanding with each other. Development of the transferable skills later facilitated me in working within my campus. Although in the sub-group the number of members was only 7 but the responsibilities were much more than before. As part of our marketing plan we were given the task of promoting the unique brand of toothpaste. It actually required extensive planning and executing a large scale marketing strategy. There were around 2000 students at my campus all belonging to entirely different social and cultural backgrounds. Hence introducing toothpaste which does not conflict with their beliefs, for instance, in terms of ingredients was a major task. Problems which we encountered during the project execution were entirely different from my previous experience. We were required to have training related to decision making, communication skills, persuasion and sales. Here, decision making was important because all the group members were supposed to work on their own. For example, while executing the project they were responsible to respectfully deal with the customers and also registering their complaints. Several issues came up during the execution of marketing strategy, for example, group members started to have internal conflicts and some Arab students began to develop cultural concerns about the project. However, I as the campus group leader tired to turn up all these conflicts in to distinctive ideas which later proved beneficial for the marketing activity. In this experience I actually went through the last phase of Kolb’s experiential theory i.e. active experimentation. During the six months time we developed plans and performed functions as per the changing situations whereas we also experimented the idea of hiring external volunteers. Hence it gave me and my group members a clear perspective on implementing the theoretical concepts in real life situations. Here, I developed the transferable skills including quick decision making, problem solving, influencing, coaching, coordinating and multi tasking (Worth, 2009). Conclusion Above discussion and research related to the team building theories reveals that the development of transferable skills is the most crucial element for the successful group performance (Box, 2012). Each individual working in a team is required to increase his/her knowledge and skills by the end of the task. This not only benefits in the overall group performance but it also facilitates in using similar skills in solving future problems. Hence one of the basic characteristics of transferable skills is that they remain consistent in every given situation while making an individual more competent, efficient and effective. During the course of work and after evaluating my performance in both the incidents I developed different transferable skills including planning, organizing and executing. This helped me in making a clear career choice of entering in to the field of event management. Additionally, I learned to critically analyze different situations and work processes while also communicating things in the right manner (Hardina, 2002). Each team member is actually needed to acknowledge each others’ cultural differences while motivating all the team members towards better performance. This should be further incorporated with the idea of decision making and problem solving. After conducting the marketing activity and the field trip for school children I become competent enough to influence and coach others. References Box, S 2012, Transferable skills training for researchers: supporting career development and research, OECD Publishing, Paris. Eby, MA 2000, Understanding professional development, Sage, London. Finlay, L 2008, ‘Reflecting on Reflective practice’ Practice Based Professional Learning Centre, no. 52, pp. 1-27. Forming – Storming – Norming –Performing 2014, The Team Building Company, UK, viewed 25 February 2014, Ghaye, T 2000, ‘Into the reflective mode: bridging the stagnant moat’ Reflectice Practice, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 5-9. Hardina, D. 2002, Analytical skills for community organization practice, Columbia University Press, New York. Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory and Learning Styles Model 2013, James Cook University, Australia, viewed 25 February 2014, Meindl, JR & Schyns, B 2005, Implicit leadership theories: essays and explorations, Information Age Publications, Greenwich. Northouse, PG 2010, Leadership: theory and practice, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks. Porter’s Generic Strategies 2014, Mind Tool Ltd, UK, viewed 25 February 2014, Russo, JE & Schoemaker, JH 2002, Winning decisions: How to make the right decision the first time, Piatkus, London. Severin, WJ & Tankard, J W 2010, Communication theories: origins, methods, and uses in the mass media. Addison Wesley Longman, New York. Smith, P & Riley, A 2011, Cultural Theory An Introduction, Wiley, Chicester. Turpin, SM & Marais, MA 2004, ‘Decision Making: Theory and Practice’ Orion, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 143-160. Worth, R 2009, Organization Skills, Infobase Publishing, New York. Read More