A Systems Approach to Small Group Interaction

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A Systems Approach to Small Group Interaction

Introduction

For the purposes of this assignment I will be discussing a group of which I am a part of in my place of employment. In my career as an employee of the State of California working for the Department of Transportation—CalTtrans, I am involved with district-wide accident prevention committee. This committee referred to as the DAPC, is comprised

Of members of management, as well as, the rank and file and is charged with accident evaluation and procedure development to ensure a safe working environment for all employees. Per the assignment the following topics will be covered as they pertain to the group which will be referred to as the DAPC: the relevant background factors, environmental factors, leadership styles and behaviors, communication factors, decision-making processes, and conflict styles and processing.

Relevant Background Factors

As stated previously, the DAPC is comprised of 15 members of both management and rank and file employees. Its membership is varied and will be outlined at length in the paragraphs to follow.

• Personality—The members of the group have varying personalities. They come from different backgrounds and find themselves in this group setting again for a number of reasons. To evaluate the personalities from the perspective of the Extended DISC personality profile would yield results that would be dramatically different form the results this class experienced. This class grouped is formed from individuals with somewhat common interests and goals while the DAPC is made up of individuals with diverse motivations, goals, and agendas. I think the distribution would be all over the graph. There are certainly strong D-dominate types....

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...e because I again am lead to the importance of speaking to people in terms that they can accept, which takes us back to knowing our audience and using accommodating language. There was other important information in that unit as well.

The work in Unit 17 on conflict resolution I also found particularly helpful. I found Weeks’ Eight Essential Steps to be useful. I plan to hang on to that handout for use a later time. It utilizes an effective method for resolving and clarifying the factors in conflict.

To conclude, I have enjoyed this course very much. I think I may have benefited personally by taking this course at this point in my career path with Hope. I understand why it’s the first course in the program, but for me starting the third semester, I have had some background and instead of this course wetting my appetite, I was able to dine on the content.

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