Utmost Good Faith - Report Example

Group process report Student’s name Institution Date Group process report Name of the group An appropriate name for this group is Utmost Good Faith. This is a perfect name for the group as the issues discussed are sensitive and are supposed to be highly confidential as stated by the group leader at the start of the meeting. Purpose of the group This is a group that comprises of students and its main purpose is to discuss topics and issues that affects them and all people at large. For instance, in the first meeting, the group discusses the topic ‘stress’ in terms of how stress occurs among them, what they do when stressed as well as ways of relieving stress (Hackman & Johnson, 2013). The group ensures that every member is highly engaged during discussion periods and that everyone is expected to participate. Stress is a psychological issue that affects people and this makes it relevant forming such a group so as to help discus on how to relieve and afford stress. Basically, the group’s aims are based on discussing topics that affect them, for instance, stress. At the end of discussions of every topic, various recommendations will be given, which can be applied by other people who are not members of the group. For instance, the group comes up with ways of reducing stress, such as doing what one loves. For example, members of the group state that they can relive stress through reading, cooking, sports, and visiting friends among other ways (Levi, 2016).  Type of group This is a treatment group whereby every member is encouraged to openly communicate their ideas and feelings and are allowed to participate at all times, unlike task groups which are more rigid and specific on one particular thing. In task groups, members are only supposed to participate at given specific times (Hackman & Johnson, 2013).  In a treatment group like this one, roles of members evolve throughout the process, unlike in task groups whereby roles are assigned depending on ability or expertise (Toseland& Rivas, 2014)  Description of the group The group comprises of 6 members, 2 male and 4 females. The group leader or moderator is a female and her role is to guide others during group discussions. The lady guiding them may be their teacher or moderator. In terms of ages, the approximate age of the moderator is late 20s or early 30s whereas for the rest of the group, the approximate ages are basically 20s and early 30s. This means that the composition of the group is basically the youth (Hackman & Johnson, 2013). Length of observed group interaction The video is approximately 9 minutes long and I have watched the whole of it several times. The video basically starts with short introductions and then goes into the main topic which is ‘stress.’ General description In the video, the group talks and shares about stress; causes, effects, as well as ways of reducing or avoiding stress. The group’s moderator welcomes all the members at the start of the video, explains the purpose of the meeting to the rest of members and invites everyone to introduce themselves. This happens at the start of the video. Afterwards, she introduces the topic and then invites everyone to participate. She talks of sensitivity of the issues discussed and encourages members to ensure confidentiality (Urania 2009). The first thing discussed in the video is three major questions which are written down and are shared to the member. One of the things discussed are the ways of relieving stress whereby the first members says that she likes cooking and cleaning when stressed. The second one talks of doing exercise, sports and reading so as to avoid focusing on the stress itself (Zastrow, 2012). Others talk of shopping, cooking, going out with friends among other ways of reducing and relieving stress. Basically, members of the group share personal experiences as far as stress is concerned for the most parts of the video. They also discuss on the situations when they feel stressed, what makes students to feel stressed among other things related to the topic. Estimated stage of the group According to the video, I think that the group is at the beginning stages of its life. This is because introductions are done at the very first stages of a group unless there are new members. Members start by saying their names, and the moderator shares the basics if the group. For example rules and regulations, level of participation etc (Hackman & Johnson, 2013). Group dynamics Group dynamics are the processes involved when people meet and interact in a group such as the one being discussed on this report. As the video indicates, the group is a treatment group as all members have equal chances of participation. The role of the moderator of the group leader is to give guidelines on the topics being discussed as well as provide order as far as participation from members is concerned (Zastrow, 2012). The role of the rest of the members is to ensure that the group keep on moving through participation. They are supposed to share their views and experienced on the topic being discussed. For instance, in the current video, the topic being discussed is ‘stress’ and we see members participating fully and this makes the group lively. From my observation, two members are highly involved in the group than the rest. These are the lady on the right side and the third guy from the right hand side. This is expected in any group whereby there are members whose contribution is more than for the rest. The quite member among all is the lady close to the moderator(Toseland& Rivas, 2014)  In terms of leadership, this group advocates for democracy whereby every member has equal chances of participation. Thus, the leadership styles used here are the democratic style of leadership and the Laissez-faire style. In these two types of leadership, leaders give team members a lot of freedom and are expected to share their views and experiences without any restrictions. At the start of this video, the group leader states very clearly that she expects members to contribute equally and this is the best style of leadership for such a group (Hackman & Johnson, 2013).  Strategies and techniques As stated in the previous section, the group leader uses the democratic and Laissez-faire styles of leadership whereby she encourages members of the group to participate fully in all sessions. Democracy is a very basic technique in such a group which discuss issues and topic that touch on human life. For instance, the topic on stress requires members to share their personal experiences on what stresses them as well as what they do when stressed so as to relive it (Levi, 2016). The leader is also directive in that she directs the rest of the team on what to discuss and the time frames for each discussion. This is a very efficient techniques as it ensure that the group does not waste a lot of time on irrelevant issues. What the group leader does is to set the topic to be discussed, initiates it and then allows all members to participate fully (Hackman & Johnson, 2013). Unlike other leaders who use the autocratic or authoritative style of leadership, the democratic style used in this group is very effective as it ensures that members are exhausted of all their points, rather than keep quiet and allow only some members to contribute. An effective group depends on the moderator or the facilitator who guides the rest of the group members. In this particular group, the leader guides them through an open forum and she only choses the topic. I believe that for some other topics, the group members will be allowed to choose the topics themselves. The strategy used here is that everyone has an equal chance of participation and no one is supposed to dominate. The group is democratic and collaborative (Hackman & Johnson, 2013).  Assessment of the group’s effectiveness From the video, I can say that the style of leadership used by the group leader is one of the best and this makes the group to be lively and effective. Every member is encouraged to share their experiences, one of the best ways to learn and hold discussions. The group works majorly for the benefit of the members and for those watching the video (Toseland & Rivas, 2014). Almost every person undergoes periods of stress and can utilize the lessons learnt from the video on the ways of relieving stress. These way depend on what one likes doing. For instance, some group members states that they do cooking, cleaning, shopping, sports and sharing with friends among other strategies. If I was the leader to this group, I would basically follow the same techniques and strategies aimed at making the group as lively as possible. However, I would ensure that the members come up with the topics to discuss. Topics proposed by members will attract a higher contribution than a topic selected by the moderator (Zastrow, 2012). The use of democratic and Laissez-faire styles of leadership in a group considered very effective and is mostly used by most leaders of a team. People have changed from the authoritative and autocratic styles of leadership where only some selected, members of the group were supposed to contribute. For this group, I can term it as effective. References Hackman, M. Z., & Johnson, C. E. (2013). Leadership: A communication perspective. Illinois: Waveland Pres. Levi, D. (2016). Group dynamics for teams. California: Sage Publications. Toseland, R & Rivas, R. (2014) Introduction to Group Work Practice. 7th Ed. New York: Pearson Education, MA. Urania G. (2009). Group work: A humanistic and skills building approach sage sourcebooks for the human services series 13. US: Sage Publications Inc.   Zastrow, C. (2012). Social work with groups: A comprehensive work text. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning. Read More

The video is approximately 9 minutes long and I have watched the whole of it several times. The video basically starts with short introductions and then goes into the main topic which is ‘stress.’ General description In the video, the group talks, and shares about stress; causes, effects, as well as ways of reducing or avoiding stress. The group’s moderator welcomes all the members at the start of the video, explains the purpose of the meeting to the rest of the members, and invites everyone to introduce themselves.

This happens at the start of the video. Afterward, she introduces the topic and then invites everyone to participate. She talks of sensitivity of the issues discussed and encourages members to ensure confidentiality (Urania 2009). The first thing discussed in the video is three major questions which are written down and are shared with the member. One of the things discussed is the ways of relieving stress whereby the first member says that she likes cooking and cleaning when stressed. The second one talks about doing exercise, sports, and reading to avoid focusing on the stress itself (Zastrow, 2012).

Others talk of shopping, cooking, going out with friends among other ways of reducing and relieving stress. Basically, members of the group share personal experiences as far as stress is concerned for most parts of the video. They also discuss the situations when they feel stressed, what makes students feel stressed among other things related to the topic. According to the video, I think that the group is at the beginning stages of its life. This is because introductions are done at the very first stages of a group unless there are new members.

Members start by saying their names, and the moderator shares the basics of the group. For example rules and regulations, level of participation, etc (Hackman & Johnson, 2013). Group dynamics are the processes involved when people meet and interact in a group such as the one being discussed in this report. As the video indicates, the group is a treatment group as all members have equal chances of participation. The role of the moderator of the group leader is to give guidelines on the topics being discussed as well as provide order as far as participation from members is concerned (Zastrow, 2012).

 The role of the rest of the members is to ensure that the group keeps on moving through participation. They are supposed to share their views and experience on the topic being discussed. For instance, in the current video, the topic being discussed is ‘stress’ and we see members participating fully and this makes the group lively. From my observation, two members are highly involved in the group than the rest. These are the lady on the right side and the third guy from the right-hand side.

This is expected in any group whereby there are members whose contribution is more than for the rest. The quiet member among all is the lady close to the moderator(Toseland& Rivas, 2014)  In terms of leadership, this group advocates for democracy whereby every member has equal chances of participation. Thus, the leadership styles used here are the democratic style of leadership and the Laissez-faire style. In these two types of leadership, leaders give team members a lot of freedom and are expected to share their views and experiences without any restrictions.

At the start of this video, the group leader states very clearly that she expects members to contribute equally and this is the best style of leadership for such a group (Hackman & Johnson, 2013).   As stated in the previous section, the group leader uses the democratic and Laissez-faire styles of leadership whereby she encourages members of the group to participate fully in all sessions. Democracy is a very basic technique in such a group which discuss issues and topic that touch on human life.

For instance, the topic on stress requires members to share their personal experiences on what stresses them as well as what they do when stressed to relive it (Levi, 2016).

Read More