Whenever an individual works in a group, that person already knows they are going to have that one individual who barely ever responds, hardly contributes, is late on deadlines within the group. They are also aware of there’s always going to be that other individual who takes the role as leader right away, because each person is how they are. It is the fact when one gets in a group and has to work with others, they experience the ideology that “groups are living systems based on interdependence interrelationships.” The whole meaning and point of the word “group” is about having each member contribute something and when you put what everyone in the group did, it becomes a whole and that was established based on interdependence and having the interrelationships.
When parts of the system do not function well, the small group starts to fall apart and they lack the communication, the openness, the interdependence; all the parts of a system that are all somewhat needed for a small group to function well. As far as two examples goes from my own small group experiences that show the importance of interdependence and interrelationships, one I can think of that happened somewhat recently, which was this past summer when I took Comm 41 online which is the GE version of small group communication and we had two assignments where we were put in small groups and had to coordinate who will do what for each essay and when working online in small groups especially one of the key things to be a successful small group is constant communication. Making sure everyone is always one the same page, and at one point in one of my groups, when one individual stopped responding to e-mails, did not end up e-mail their part of the assignment they said they were going to do, the rest of our group had to take over their part fast in order to have everything ready to turn in on time to our Professor. So I felt both the groups I was in ended up being successful because we had that interdependence that we were relying on each other and working together and sharing the responsibility to meet certain dates and such and we had that interrelationship.
Another example would be in an organization I’m in on campus, we had our semester retreat right before school started this semester and we had this activity where we had to act out a skit and as a small group we were assigned to, we had to figure out who was doing what quick however at the same time we had to make sure each of us was up to par on what we were going to do, we brainstormed ideas together and came up with solutions (interdependence) and we were able to relate our own ideas to the topic at hand and we accepted each others’ ideas and built that interrelationship.
Hi Mary (of lil miss daisey) :),
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post! I think that we have experienced very similar situations where people didnt always participate as they should in a group project. I completely agree with you that every group at one point or another will have to partner up with the "control freak" who wants to take charge of the group, or the team member who doesn't pull their weight. I think that in order for everyone to succeed in a project, they must really stay connected and communicate every step throughout the project. I defenitly think communication is key to a groups success! Talk to you soon!
-Jessica
(jstoltz89)
I also enjoyed reading your post because you touched on topics that I hadn't thought about. I've definitely been in groups where one person has been the control freak, and those groups while frustrating tend to be successful since that person keeps everyone on track. Those control freaks tend to get all the jobs establish and ten to keep in touch with everyone to make sure their portion gets completed. I also agree that when working in a group constant communication is key because if you don;t communicate with your group then its set up to fail. The group will just fall apart because no one in the group will be dependent on the other group members.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I laughed while I read your examples because I was to afraid, I guess you could say, to bring up how in every group you always have that one person as the leader, the one who doesnt care then everyone else. I also liked how you talked about building that interrelationship. I think I may have over looked that thought a little and you bring up a good point, as in any relationship you must buid to get to a stable point.
ReplyDelete=)
nice job. I see we've had similar experiences in our small groups. I really liked what you said about having someone in the group who is a control freak and having someone who doesn't care or tried to get the easiest tasks! I find it extremely irritating when people do not respond to e-mails when working on projects. I feel that if they are not going to do the work, they could at least let the rest of the group know so they don't stress out about it.
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