Attributes of Venture Teamwork in Tertiary Entrepreneurship Programs - Case Study Example

As we have decided as group members after our first meeting to write about group work, setting the main lines and structuring down the workshop, it was missing a guide line to follow where it comes the role of the TNA, we found the training need analysis (TNA) is really important and efficient, lets you know what to do and focuses your effort in the right way following the student request and what are they missing, showing you what they are poor of. As Tobey (2005: 2) observes Zemke and Kramlinger’s words that the process of training needs assessments is, “the art and science of finding the right problems and understanding them fully. He further observes that the purpose of training needs assessment can help add value, provide a broader perspective to the problem, gather information to support the training needs and identify and rectify other issues not being covered by the training and hence give recommendations”. It can be observed that finding the problems faced by the students is the key to framing new methods to address them and the effort in training the students on these problems helps them face and overcome them effectively. The first step is to give them awareness about the problem and then an analysis of the problem. Once the problem is analyzed, ways or methods to solve these problems have to be framed and this can be the core activity of the training needs assessment program. Further, the proper solutions to rectify the problems identified are needed to be charted out and planned systematically. The methods are then reinforced and improved by feedback and observation. As Rouda and Kusy, Jr. (1995) note, “a gap analysis is to be performed, priorities of activities are to be identified, causes of problems are to be identified along with the possible solutions and finally communicate the results and improvements needed” for a training needs assessment activity in an organization or a group. To start with the process that we went thru as follow 1- documenting the problem as in our case when we asked the student the impacts of this problem over them groups and why its important that they should train and get over this problem 2- we should investigate the problem as we have done searching and collecting data from different sources thru good references and highly used websites of an international college well recognized in communication context 3- plan the need analysis where we have identified the urgency of our workshop and when to set the agenda based in our turn in week 13 , and for our next meeting to distributed the work over the whole group to collect the data and consider which is the appropriate source and data that could help the student in the class more better considering the international class and the different cultures\background that they came from ,and to make it more easily accepted and possible to implement when they go back to them origin countries . 4-selecting the analysis technique where we found the best way by surveying because of the lack of time and large classmates numbers 5- after we conducted the analysis and the feedback of the survey we initiate the workshop and sit the work surface of the activity. Based on our study in this subject (7405 mgt learning and development) we learned how to use different learning style that could help the facilitator to facilitate the information to his/her classmate member in the best way with a highly professional way. Dunn (2000) notes that “there are differences among the individual learners and the different learning styles have to be taken into consideration when designing a training activity”. Based on that our group decided to use the Sequencing of the learning cycle of KOLB, where is Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle dimensions are thru four main stages : 1- concrete experience ( doing) 2- abstract conceptualization (thinking) 3- reflective observation (digesting experience) 4- active experimentation (changing reality) . Kolb’s experiential learning model is unique from other learning models in that it proposes learning as a continuous process and that there are four different ways of learning and based on the individual learning style, students can start at the appropriate stage of learning for maximum effectiveness” (Dunn, 2000). Luwin (1942) further observes that “learning according to experiential model can happen within a day, week or a month and even repeat continuously”. Well go in more details and how we linked it with our work shop later on in the next part. Reinforcement theory in our case we have used the contentious reinforcement where the effect part is rapid learning and frequent answering , where we set a related question with our topic and activity at the end of our workshop and we asked the student to answer the question, to encourage them we decided to use the reinforcement theory by giving them candies as being reworded constantly after each right answer, which make some students that they were hesitating to answer contributing with them colleges trying to fined the right answer to win the candy , which make also the class more interactive and the student work really hard to find answers. As the reinforcement theory is one method of learning, and since the repeated learning of a thing can become a habit or behavior, learning can be achieved in the students by reinforcement, which can be positive or negative reinforcement based on the individual. Dunn (2000) also notes that Burns stresses on “reinforcement as a major force in training but argues that it is often considered repetitive and rigid” as it establishes possible approaches to particular situations or problems that the learner is exposed to repeatedly, the solution of which may not apply to other situations or problems. However, it can be noted that this method of learning fine tunes all other learning in a particular situation or to a specific problem and is quite effective as we see in the following activity that is described. Also as feedback that we get from the other group who assessed us they have notice the Good linkage between the TNA and our workshop. as motioned earlier that the objective of the work shop is to get the student over two major problem that we conducted out of the TNA, thus are communication and teamwork we will be talking about in more details later on in the next part., feedback was good and the assess group had notice the relation between our workshop and the objective that has been declared in the introduction of our presentation. Activity During several meeting we were discussing how to work the activity ensuring that the entire students participate to contribute and take the maximum benefit of the workshop. seating arrangement at the training site should be based on an understanding of the desired type of trainee interaction and trainee-trainer interaction … If the training requires both presentation and total-group instruction, the horseshoe arrangement will be useful Raymond A.noa (2008) , in our workshop we set the room before the workshop started in the horseshoe shape ,in order to give the student instruction were they are in a place that give the facilitator to be close of them all plus to give a space/ activity spot allowing them a convenient way of moving and returning to them seats after the activity to start the presentation .in our work shop we focused in Kolb’s theory were we started with the exercise and the point of that is because student will experience the involvement, surprise, critical thinking during the exercise while we didn’t give them anything except the introduction, name of the game and the instruction and for the first round , they faced a problem trying to follow the rules, one of them was unclear about the rule hes classmate corrected him, and so on. Different opinions came up, they managed the communication very well although they came from different cultures, which is one of our objective , the rule made the whole round start over again, eventually they manage the game and then we started the first round which was 17 second , second round took them 14 second , third round took 12 second , after that they played the next round challenging them self to break this limit but they couldnt , one of the student suggested that they need to reform to eliminate the time ,so they form in two line facing each other , which was really smart move ,it gave them advantage over 4 seconds by finishing in 8 seconds , now next round must be less than that, the facilitator challenged them , one of the student said "we should get closer to each other by that we will save some seconds" , and that was totally right were they finish in 4 seconds only , good communication and a proper team work could get them the one second that they have seen that its an impossible mission , some of our workshop members loss the faith in the classmates and that was me, but seriously it require a smart teamwork to meet the targeted time ,last round they get really close and form a pipe line by the two hands vertically the ball launched from the top of the pipe and landed in the end of the pipe in only one second ! As in KOLB theory first, abstract conceptualization (thinking) where we gave them the rules and the instructions and they initiate a plan to follow the rules second active experimentation (changing reality) where they set a plan and follow it either by different forming or a quick process third, was concrete experience (doing) as we seen the group evolving them way of thinking and contribution quality in a way of smart teamwork finally, reflective observation (digesting experience) in the debrief we have seen and listen to them comments about the experience that they just had and how effective it is on them future group works , Tuckman suggested that when moving through these stages, members are concerned with resolving both interpersonal relationships and task activities, and the model describes these two types of activities as group members progress through the four stages Diane, LM. (2003). after that light presentation showing the stages of team working by Tuckman they where forming, storming, norming, performing lastly adjourning & transforming. Group performance is positively associated with socializing outside the class for group tasks that require frequent interaction among group members Bernice, K., & UCE, B. (2007). that what will make the different cultures group efficient , in the end of our workshop member used a learning style that we have learned from the semester called reinforcement theory , last slide had questions about communication and teamwork as the answers could be found in the presentation , we reinforce by giving them candies after in right answer , which gave them the reason why to think and remember the presentation and find the answer to get the candy , for a good reason form our said is that we want them to remember this tips when they are going to work here or in them origin countries in the future. Based on Skinners work on reinforcement theory, the students were offered positive reinforcement in the form of candies for every right answer which encouraged them to actively participate in the learning process. The reinforcement theory states that “reinforced behavior will be repeated and behavior that is not reinforced is less likely to be repeated” (Montana, Charnov, 2000: 248). It can be observed that there can be different reasons for the team’s success in achieving the goals and doing the task in lesser time. Improvement As in feedback that we got from other group, they where pretty pleased by what they learned and found it interesting, the only part that they critics was not explaining to them the process of the KOLB theory in the presentation it self and we didn’t link it to them during the debrief, It is necessary for the learner to be aware of his learning style, which can reduce the effort and enable him to learn faster and use any of the stage of experiential theory to achieve the teams goals. For the next time defiantly there will be some changes in introducing the theory and explaining it during/after the exercise which will make them more comprehensible about the exercise and the theory that we are pointing, next time also will try to set the game based on exact number of players to give the maximum benefit for each individual in the class by going thru the whole KOLB circle and understand smoothly. Effective groups comprise three to five students, as larger groups encourage free-riding and invite unfair labor divisions, allowing some members to shirk responsibility Bernice, K., & UCE, B. (2007). Here, it is noted that there are different aspects like, motivation, reinforcement and leadership involved in the team effort and one or the other plays these roles at times but all effectively contribute to the team’s goal. As the team is challenged to achieve the goal in lesser time, it is observed that situational leadership qualities have been exhibited and the motivation to achieve the goal is also a reason for improvement in the learning process by the students. Quoting Maslow, “only unsatisfied needs are prime sources of motivation” (Montana, Charnov, 2000: 237). The team’s need to achieve the target in 1second was the need and it required the students to have a leadership to give an idea or a strategy to steer towards that direction. Hence, these aspects like motivation and leadership also need to be considered in designing the training programs. While the above discussed is the outcome with the student learning, adults have a more specific and clear learning styles. It is noted that if the goals are realistic in nature, learning is structured and has a feedback system that can have a direct impact on the outcome, etc. (Speck, 1996), adults can also be effectively trained by the various learning styles to achieve the goals of the team. Conclusion Talking about your personal reflection and how far I learned in the workshop and what advantage that I am going to implement when I will go to my origin country and change. The usefulness of the Experiential learning theory is demonstrated by activity where different styles of learning are utilized effectively by the students to achieve the goals of the team. There is continuous improvement in the applied technique by each of the team member to form strategy and steer in the direction of the goal. This exercise can be taken home to establish the fact that team work is important and can be fostered by effective communication and clear needs and learning styles assessment. Further, the awareness of the existence of different learning styles and accommodating the same for the benefit of the different team members to work together to achieve the common goals of the team is also important. Motivation and reinforcement also have been demonstrated effectively and by the team in the activity and a need to include the concept of leadership is also noted in the above work. References Bernice, K., & UCE, B. (2007). Teaching the attributes of venture teamwork in tertiary entrepreneurship programmes. Education & Training, 49(8-9), 634-655. Diane, LM. (2003). The stages of group development: A retrospective study of dynamic team processes. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, 20(2), 121. Jane, LF., Amanda, JG., & Leanne., MW. (2006). Groups Work. Australia: Australian Academic Press. LEWIN K (1942) "Field Theory and Learning" in D Cartwright (ed.) Field Theory in Social Science: selected theoretical papers, London; Social Science Paperbacks, 1951 or ATHERTON J S (2009) Learning and Teaching; Experiential Learning [On-line] UK: Available: http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/experience.htm#Experiential Learning Styles Accessed: 18 June 2009 Dunn, Lee (2000) “Theories of Learning”, Oxford Brookes University, . Rouda, H. Robert and Kusy, Jr. E. Mitchell, “Needs assessment- The first step”, Published by Tappi Journal, Revised on May 04th, 1996 http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~rouda/T2_NA.html#other_articles. Montana, J. Patrick, Charnov, H. Bruce (2000), “Management”, Published by Barron’s Educational Series. Speck (1996), “Adult Learning Theory”, Learning Point Associates, available online http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/technlgy/te10lk12.htm Tobey, D. Deborah, (2005), “Needs Assessment Basics”, Published by American Society for Training and Development. Read More