Whether you get to choose your fellow group members or are placed into a group of random classmates, there are always going to be issues that arise, despite the fact that you have a common goal i.e. the assignment. A group assignment requires more time and resources then an individual one. There is also a demand for communication and interpersonal skills for effective group work, but consideration for the following issues can make group work far more efficent and enjoyable for everyone.
Group Formation and Roles
Establishing roles early on in the formation of the group is important for a group to gain momentum and begin working together as a team. Choosing a group leader or project manager is an important first step, ensuring that this choise is based on expertise, ability and access to information, not on personality or authority is key to an effective group. Various roles within a project group can vary depening on the type of work involved, but it is important to ensure early on that all group members are sure what their roles in the group are. During the inital formation, sharing knowlege of the following - phases of formation - can be very beneficial to the group, especially members that aren't used to working in a team.
The Phases of Group Formation
Forming: Members are just starting to get to know eachother and are uncertain about one another.
Storming: Ideas are being expressed, and some conflict can occur as early decision are being made.
Norming: Members adjust their behaviour to making working together easier. Trust is established and commitment increases.
Performing: The group become proficient in working together and are productive, achieving their goals.
Adjourning: The group disbands.
Decision Making in Groups
Decision making is an intergral part of group work, but disagreements or the inability to come to a decision can waste time and make a group less productive. The most effective way of making a decision is usually by consensus, which seeks the agreement of group members for an unanimous decision. Consensus encourgages discussion and is different to majority rule, where the decision is made based on which decision has more than half of the votes. Choosing the right method of decision making for each individual issue that arises during a project needs the following considerations:
- Availability of time and resources.
- Size and seriousness of the decisions.
- Amount of member commitment needed to implement the decision.
The Decision Making Process Involves 6 Steps:
- Define the problem
- Gather the information
- Identify alternatives
- Evaluate alternatives
- Select the best alternative
- Implement the selected alternative
This process was found to work very effectively within groups that communicated online.
An example of where these 6 steps could be undertaken is at the very begining of the project. Defining the problem could refer directly to the brief of the project i.e. the guidelines provided to the group by the lecturer or teacher. An important step here is to make sure each group member understands the assignment. The next step is to gather the information neccessary to begin work on the project. Identifying alternatives relates back to the concept of defining the problem, with regard to your assignment the alternatives are the different methods of tackling the brief - the writing strategies to be employed or dividing tasks up amongst members. The next step is to evaluate the methods outlined and selecting the one best suited to the assignment. The final step is implenting the plan of action formulated during the decision making process.
Problems and Challenges
- Teams can fall apart.
- Alot of time is spent organising the group and planning action - but online communication can help with organisation and planning.
- Some people are able to work better in groups, and some people find it difficult.
- Some groups stop working well when the preservation of the group becomes more important than the task at hand or the ideas. This is known as groupthink. Decisions can start being made based on solidarity with group members, rather than considering the facts in a realistic way.
Links to Further Reading
Collaborative Writing Strategies
Explore the principles, theory, practice and development of work with groups
Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing on Wikipedia
Comments (1)
avril.burgess@... said
at 11:03 am on Jan 8, 2009
Right Sinead, I'm going to be brave and throw a spanner into your beautifully constructed and presented work above. Have Tuckman, Johnson, Jonassen, Irving et al really tidied up and explained how human groups work? Is that what we're all about?
Margaret Boden's (1995) argues in her article on Creativity and Unpredictability that unpredictability is inescapable in an individual. "The human mind, and human experience, is too richly idiosyncratic", she concludes after a complicated articulated journey through concepts of creativity, constraints, conceptual spaces, artificial intelligence, chaos theory and jazz.
If individuals have propensities to avoid predictable behavioural boxes, surely the chances of unpredictability increase expedientially when individuals band together in groups?
See ....http://www.stanford.edu/group/SHR/4-2/text/boden.html.....I'm ducking away!
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