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Factors in team cohesion
Group cohesiveness and performance
Factors in team cohesion
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The CESIM simulation game provided a forum for both practical and intangible learning. I was a member of the Ubiquitous Mobile team. From the beginning I felt that we had a strong team and a good chance to win the game. Jose and I graduated together in Mechanical Engineering and we knew Chico as a grad student in the Mechanical Engineering department. Chico knew Lucho from a previous class. When you allowed us to pick our own groups, we gravitated right to each other.
Group projects in the MBA program can be miserable. I understand the purpose of working with other disciplines, but working with people that you do not know and have no reference for their level of effort can be frustrating. Unfortunately I have been a part of a few miserable teams. I was on teams that fought and teams that were lazy. Luckily however our team for this project was composed of similarly focused people that shared tasks and supported each other.
We chose to make decisions together rather than have one person in charge or rotating through responsibilities. Each of us may have focused on an area where we were more comfortable, but we discussed every decision and came to a consensus as a group. This was the first lesson that I learned through this game. I usually take more responsibility on directly. Within the first few minutes of the first practice round meeting, I realized that any one of us would be able to lead the group. Groups with many leaders can sometimes trip over each other when people try to have their point win. To prevent this type of counterproductive action, I decided to take more of a worker bee role in the group. When we were making points about direction or decisions I would speak up if I thought we were getting of...
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...alistic experience with manufacturing to which I had not previously been exposed. In other classes we learn about predicting demand and forecasting but there is a correct answer. The game did not have any set values which is more realistic. I think exposure to this type of uncertainty is necessary and helpful in my future career.
Overall I enjoy these types of games more than projects or presentations. I think working together against groups promotes positive competitive behavior. Kevin and I played a similar style, but much less involved, game in a Marketing class. We won that game also. He and I are now joking about who would win between the two of us. I am sure that winning the game helps with my overall attitude towards this game, but I think it is a good way to have people work together and use learned but up to this point theoretical business skills
In the workplace, the team leader's job is to make decisions that benefit the team and the whole company. This places them with a lot of responsibility. They must contemplate the options and consciously select the decision-making strategy most appropriate for the circumstances in which the decision will be made and implemented. Often the decision-making style chosen is among the most significant roles of the project manager. Communication and interpersonal skills of the group members influence the decision. The incorrect approach can cause problems within the group. "Research conducted by Wheelen, Murphy, Tsumura and Kline (1998) demonstrates a clear correlation between positive group dynamics and team productivity". There are many decision-making strategies available. Three of the most common styles are when decisions are made by the group leader alone, decisions by the leader after group discussion, and consensus by the whole group.
As soon as the four members of my team entered the breakout room, we had begun the stages of team development. As Bruce Tuckman (1965) observed in his research, teams often undergo a five-stage process of team development: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. During my team’s forming stage, we defined what our objective was and planned a general outline of how this was to be accomplished. Because we didn’t know each other very well, a quick introduction was given so we could get to know each other a little better. Next, we had a brief stage of storming which caused a bit of inefficiency. This was our initial five minutes of confusion due to not knowing each other’s strengths and who was better suited to answer which question. Our norming and performing stages melted together as we quickly gained our footing on the task at hand and settled for an execution strategy which would allow us to perform at a fairly efficient speed. Our performing stage was very encouraging and helped the team push through the questions...
One way this would heavily influence product development is the employees have a personal trust their peers. When the workers of the project have a sense of trust with each other, more ideas will be put on the table because a person would not be feeling like their idea is superior or inferior to all the others that have already been discussed. Another reason this would influence product development is the employees should be willing to spend more time with their team after playing this game as an icebreaker. Most projects, trying to cram everything in a normal workday will be extremely tough, and to really excel in having the best idea possible employees should be willing to go above and beyond the basic minimum give everything their all. With the bond the employees should benefit from this game, they should be willing to spend some of their own time with their team since they have a personal bond now with their team and know that they can have a fun time while also working. Playing Family Feud will give the manager’s employees a much needed break from work before they learn about a project they are assigned to, by playing this game a manager should see major improvements in effectiveness and efficiency of their
Our team did really well with making sure everyone’s ideas were heard, but conversations with another team, who did not successfully complete the simulation, was because one or two people took the lead, and other group members were hesitant to speak up. Compared to other teams, our team managed group thinks effectively. One other team saved more money than us when they completed the challenge, which confirms the assumption we should not have made in trying to implement as many tasks as we did. Every team had challenges with time constraint which was due to a number of factors such as: brand new teams, unclear instructions, and a drop in team morale when the system gave negative feedback at a wrong task. While the successes and challenges were magnified because we were living the experience, and outside observer would have a difference of
...and show an open mind to everyone’s ideas. I’ve found that this makes for a lighter and more fun environment and we’ve shown success in completing our task. Most times I’m put into groups, I don’t know the other people very well. This is common at school with my classmates. I’m used to having no leader in the group and everyone fighting to have their ideas chosen. Once a leader was chosen in the group we started discussing openly everyone’s ideas with the chosen leader voicing their opinion on which idea to choose and why. Usually when it comes to my friends I take the leadership role and make an try to hear everyone’s opinion before making a decision. I believe that for a team to find success and reach their goal someone needs to take leadership and voice an unbiased opinion. The team needs to hear everyone’s ideas and choose one based on which will lead to success.
When working on a group project, there are certain skills that are required to make sure that the tasks are being carried out smoothly. With that in mind, it is critical to keep an open line of communication as well as an understanding of the other individuals in the group. The following scenario is of a group project I was a part of that had a breakdown in the two points expressed above.
...the motivation and attentiveness of the students and specifically, games can become a facilitator for self-directed study and research; when students enjoy a specific area in a game, they become more inclined to search it online, read a book about it, or watch a documentary on it (Rapini, Sarina 2012).
In a team-oriented setting, everyone contributes to how well the group succeeds overall. You work with fellow members of the group to complete the work that needs to be done. Having the right people in the correct roles is an important factor in measuring the success of a team, where you are united with the other members to complete the main goals. Every group is made up of definite strengths and weaknesses. Our team's 3-5 major strengths necessary to work accordingly consist of Informer, Summarizer, Orienter, Piggy-Backer, and Encourager. One of our strengths as a team is that we get input from everyone involved. Every member of our team is a leader in some way. Part of being a good leader is knowing how important it is to receive the best ideas from each member of their team. We attend group meetings where we discuss any challenges, issues, and problems. At these meetings, we often exchange ideas or brainstorm new ones with each other and come up with the best and most creative team solutions as potential answers to those perceived problems.
After completing the group task of preparing a presentation on, transferring individual facilitation skills into a group work setting I will critically reflect upon my own participation. I will evaluate my self-awareness while working in the group, as well as those around me. The way that I personally dealt with any issues that arose within the group and how that affected the group dynamics. I will also briefly discuss the roles in which each member of the group took and how role allocation affected, the group dynamics and the working relationships. Finally I will evaluate my work having discussed it with my fellow group members.
From the beginning, where we were unfamiliar with each other and became a team, my team and I had started to learn each other name and getting to know each other. Throughout each meeting, we slowly start to feel more comfortable and open minded with each other. Not only are we getting familiar with each other, each meeting that was held we progress of becoming an effective team member, we learn our strengths and weaknesses of everyone. During the meetings, we learn many concepts from the textbook, “Communicating in Small Groups: Principles and Practices” by Steven A. Beebe and John T. Masterson. We were able to learn different types of concept in the textbook and utilized it as a team to complete certain tasks. The three concepts that impacted my team and I are human
If we can harness/utilize the energy, motivation and sheer potential of their game-play and direct it toward learning, we can give students the tools to become winners in real game of life.
Realizing that a group can become a high performance team is important. Accomplishing this goal is invaluable, advantageous and profitable. Once able to operate from a group to the high performing team is a great step into preparation into the big business world. Leaders and members must also realize not only how to accomplish this but that some problems will and can arise from different demographic characteristics and cultural diversity. That is if one is in such a group, which the probability would be quite high.
A group can be define as ‘any number of people who (1) interact with one another; (2) are psychologically aware of one another and (3) perceive themselves to be a group’ (Mullins, L, 2007, p.299). Certain task can only be performed by combined effort of a group. Organisation can use groups to carry out projects, which will help to achieve its overall aim. However, for the group to be successful they must understand what is expected of them and have the right skill to complete the task. . (Mullins, L, 2006)
Working together with other people for an assignment can be a challenging task in some cases but luckily, I worked well with my group members. The decisions we made were anonymous although we paced ourselves individually when it came to completing our separate parts of the essay. As a group I believe that we connected well on an interpersonal level as all four of us were able to make alterations to any problem together . Furthermore, we did not give each other a chance to get angry at one another as we knew that this would only cause conflict that would disrupt our flow as a group. There was an equal divide in the amount of work that we all did; our contributions were fair and no one was lacking behind. In addition, my group members were great at keeping each other informed if one of us were not able to attend a group meeting; emails were sent out informing us what we missed and ideas that were formulated. Everyone in my group worked according to deadlines and in synchronization with each other; we did not have to nag anyone to complete work or wait on a member to complete their task.
Throughout this group project, I had an opportunity to observe and reflect how my personality traits contributed to and hindered the success of the team. According to the Big Five Model, I identify myself as low on extroversion, moderate on neuroticism as well as openness and high on agreeableness and conscientiousness.