Personal Perspective Paper
The author Ken Lakuta (date unknown) once wrote, “Opportunities exists in the air for just a few minutes. If you don’t obey your gut feeling right away, you’ve lost your chance” (Brown, quoting Lakuta, date unknown, p.3). I do not want to miss my chance! I intend to seize the moment and finish the courses necessary to obtain my master’s of business administration for many reasons. With the tools the University has made available to me such as “rEsource”, learning team environment, and problem-based learning I will successfully complete this program and achieve my goal.
The Value of rEsource
Research for information became easier with the creation of the Internet, just ask anyone who has conducted a manual library search for information. The University has taken the research process one step further by creating “rEsource.” Now any student can seek and obtain information from an endless collection of materials necessary to help one succeed in his/her degree program. All resources are available on-line and accessible from any location with an Internet access. Time is maximized allowing students to accomplish their objectives in half the time. The “rEsource” tool is only one leg of the three-legged stool provided to students. The second support system assures all students the ability to work as part of “learning teams.”
The Value of Learning Teams
When working with a group of people one is exposed to a variety of knowledge, backgrounds and experience. The value of learning teams is extremely beneficial. No one person possesses the knowledge necessary to cover every circumstance; however, as a group you are a link in a chain of knowledge with a wealth of experiences and resources. Each team member brings unique strengths, perspectives and working styles (Innergize, date unknown). For teams to be successful, they need to establish a common purpose and to become familiar with each members strengths and weaknesses. Establishing some basic ground rules is also essential for success of the group: 1) know your team members, 2) clear roles of responsibility, 3) effective communication, 4) accepted leadership, 5) accept and support one another, 6) check for understanding and agreement, 7) resolve conflicts constructively and quickly ((Innergize, date unknown, p. 1) and (Page and Donelan, 2003, p.126)).
Successful teams need a balance of task and relationship roles. My experiences with team learning and problem-based learning (case studies) have been beneficial and I have enjoyed the opportunity and exposure.
An effective team typically develops through several stages. Tuckman and Jensen developed a model for how teams should develop that includes five stages: forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning (as cited in Martin ,2006 and Fulk, Bell,& Bodie ,2011). In forming, the first stage in team development, team members are introduced to the team’s purpose and goals(Martin, 2006 ; Fulk et al. ,2011). Fulk et al. (2011) explain that members are usually motivated and excited about working together to accomplish the specific goal, but they point out that interactions among team members can be affected by uncertainty about purpose, anxiety, mistrust ,and reluctance to share ideas and opinions. Nevertheless, despite such uncertainties, team members usually avoid conflict and move on to the next stage, storming(Fulk et al.,2011). Unlike the forming stage, the storming stage is marked by conflict (Martin...
For a team to be successful there are several factors that have to be addressed in order for a fluent, functioning group of individuals combined to achieve a certain goal. This goal can be a variety of different endings from producing minor results to making decisions that create a major impact on a large scale. Within a team environment conflict is always presence. Conflict is essential to the advancement of teams and must be managed in a proper way to avoid destruction and division amongst the group of individuals. From sports, to education, and the workplace teamwork is present in everyday life. As a human race we all work in different team oriented situations in order to accomplish a variety of tasks.
Upon completion of these assessments, the work place team is then formed, acquiring team members based upon the needs of the project, mission or goal of the team. The team then proceeds to learn about each other. In learning about one another, individual learning styles must be identified to gain an understanding of how to maximize team performance by capitalizing on team members' strengths via learning styl...
Tool is an object designed to do a particular kind of work. Nevertheless, not everything that is work comes with a designated tool, or maybe it does. Maybe not all tools are as common as others are, for instance: for a nail, you would use a hammer, and for a screw, you would use a screwdriver. What if you are a student, its after hours, you forgot your syllabus, you have an assignment due, and your only means of communicating is via the internet. On the other hand, maybe you are at your work place and your boss informs you of a project he needs you to complete with your co-worker not only does she have a bad attitude, but she does not communicate efficiently. Nevertheless, upon successful completion you will receive that promotion you have been waiting for. Perhaps you are that person whom always manages to avoid conflict but this time its staring you write in the face and you do not have a clue on what to do. The rEsource, working in learning teams, and problem-based learning are tools that can fix these scenarios. These tools can benefit you throughout your college education, in the workplace, and throughout your life.
As individuals we make our own choices, decided on what we agree and disagree on, learn from our mistakes, and learn to evaluate a situation when we are wrong. However, in a group the same approach can be taken but it doesn't necessarily mean it will work. Teams are made up of a large group of individuals who each have their own opinion and whose opinions others might not see. Instead of making your own choice, a group choice has to be made where compromises must be formed and unfortunately not everyone will agree with the decision at times. This Organizational Psychology course really tested individuals “teamwork skills” in the most challenging of way, that being to depend on the cooperation of the members in your group because a major part of your grade depended on your groups’ success. On the day groups were assigned the first thing that popped into mind was “Great now I have to do all the work” and that was followed by “please don't let there be any social loafers in my group”. Once a group is assigned its permanent members the real evaluation begins.
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.
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
A group of people working on a team means a group of different sets of minds working together. Thus, it is inevitable that there may arise conflicts on a certain topic within the team, as certain viewpoint may seem right for the circumstances for some teammates and may different for others. However, it is not that they are not solvable.
Skills and knowledge possessed by every member is also important for a team to become high performance. Although it is among the most important factors, however, it must be coupled with a good working relationship with every team member and good collaboration with every team member. The members who possess the good skills and wide knowledge will be a useful resource to the team if that team member can share their strengths with the other team members and vice versa. It is usually misconstrued that having skillful and intelligent team members is already enough to make a team work right. This kind of thinking is the reason why most teams, despite all of those competent members they have, fail to achieve their goals. A team should establish one common goal, not to think that way and develop a good working relationship with each member. (retrieved from: http://www.strictlysuccess.com, August 18, 2005) This can be done by self awareness exercises, like the DISC assessment and other assessments or any other kind of self awareness exercises regarding communication style differences. Then these factors and important pieces of information should be taken into full consideration before the actual project is begun. These exercise or assessments can be great ice breakers and mark the difference between a group of individuals merely assigned to a team, as opposed to functioning as...
Tarricone, P., & Luca, J. (2002). Successful teamwork: A case study. (pp. 640-646). Milperra: Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia, Inc. DOI: www.herdsa.org.au
One of the most widely used technologies is the Internet, or also known as the World Wide Web. “In August 1981 about 200 computers hosted Web servers. By July 1998 there were over 36 million Web servers, that are hosts to approximately 150 million people” (Strauss). The Internet proves to be very beneficial to education, since students have unlimited access to millions of websites with tons of information. There are only so many newspapers, journals and magazines that you can find in libraries or subscribe to. Therefore, the Internet offers an unlimited pile of information that students can always have. Moreover, students are enriched with the most current information in any subject, along with regular updates. Students are able to use the Internet anytime of day, as long as they have a computer at hand. The research process will not have to end when the school day is over (Wissick, 82).
The team members not only share expectations for accomplishing group tasks, but trust and support one another and respect one another's individual differences. Your role as a team builder is to lead your team toward cohesiveness and productivity. A team takes on a life of its own and you have to regularly nurture and maintain it, just as you do for individual employees. Teambuilding is important for several reasons. It facilitates better communication and it motivates employees. The more comfortable your employees are to express their ideas and opinions, the more confident they will become. This will motivate them to take on new challenges. Team building also promotes creativity and develops problem solving skills. It also breaks the barrier because team building increases the trust factor with your employees. The first rule of team building is an obvious one: to lead a team effectively, you must first establish your leadership with each team member. Communication should be clear and manager should describe team values and goal. Trust and cooperation is also important when building effective team. Opinions of all group members are important and all of them are equal. One of most important thing is encourage listening and
Working in teams provides an opportunity for individuals to come together and establish a rapport towards others within a group. Teamwork is classified as people with different strengths and skills who work together to achieve a common goal. When a team works well, specific objectives are fulfilled and satisfied. Teamwork plays a crucial role in implementing and fulfilling a common goal in a team project. Each member plays a role and takes on different responsibilities combined together. In different stages of teamwork, conflicts and arguments may occur for as members have different standpoints which need to be harmonized within the team. The key to having an effective teamwork is to explore each member's unique abilities to motivate them.
A College also provides a useful online library that can be access to help students with their studies. This library offers three different databases which students can use to research class assignments. The three databases are EBSCOhost, Gale Power Search, and ProQuest. Here I can find articles, journals, and other sources of educationally based on the material in my search I conduct.
In order for teamwork to be successful in the workplace it involves building a relationship and working with other people. The ability to work as part of a team is one of the most important skills in today’s job market. Working cooperatively and contributing to groups with ideas, and suggestions benefits everyone. A key to team effectiveness