This week’s tutorial was a sort of continuation of last week’s topic on working in groups, with this week focusing on group roles. We began with a questionnaire on roles in a group and I scored highest for Harmoniser and Cooperator, with Concept Developer not too far behind them. This is accurate because when I do group work I always focus on getting the group together as a team first before we do any work; a cooperative team will work much more efficiently and produce better work overall. If there is any conflict or confusion over something or some role, I will always aim to resolve that first and I will occasionally ask for updates on everyone’s progress and help anyone in the group if possible. However, I can see how my roles will change depending on the group I am in – if there is someone else in the group who is especially good at organizing and bringing the team together, then I will let him take that role and I will play the role of the Concept Developer.
We were then given a sheet with a list of the types of people who can bring negative impacts upon a group: Nola No-Can-Meet, Do-It-All Dottie, Seldom-Seen Sam, Always-Right Artie and Quiet Quentin. I have had experience with all of these types of people except for Do-It-All Dottie throughout my high school years. In the case of Quiet Quentin, I was able to help him contribute more to the group discussion by asking everyone to get into a circle and contribute one idea each, no matter how ridiculous the idea was. Quiet Quentin was able to communicate his ideas through this process (as well as via online group chats), and the problem was solved. However, a different approach was required for the case of Seldom-Seen Sam, who obviously wanted to do the least amount of work possible while wanting to receive the same mark as other people in the group who had contributed much more than he did. We tried to solve this in many ways such as by creating a group chat since he couldn’t make it to group meetings, but he would not check it often and wouldn’t contribute anything to the group. Hence we had to solve the problem by letting the teacher in charge of the project about his inability to cooperate with our group and he was subsequently told that he would receive a lower mark unless he was able to show proof of substantial contribution to the group. He ended up contributing an equal amount as us and thus we were able to solve the problem.
From these group tasks, I believe that a group agreement goes a long way in helping a group with members such as the ones listed above, as it encourages responsibility as well as each member knowing exactly what their role is. Overall, being able to work well with groups is an essential skill in life and so it is important that we know how to manage difficult members.
SCIF1121 Journal - Kengo 