Reading Response 9

1) I do not believe I have taken any of these roles in any of my projects. However, I may be predisposed toward being "The Martyr." Not in the way that role complains about everything, but if there is someone like The Deadbeat in one of my groups, I would most likely not directly confront him/her; I would be more likely to try and push some tasks onto him indirectly, such as saying "Hey I'll work on this now, you do _______ and we can see where we are at by ______" instead of saying something like "Hey, you haven't done anything on this project; either find something to help out with or I am going to talk to the professor."

2) The Suggester - Someone who is always there to help revise, or come up with suggestions for, another person's given work when asked. Always providing good feedback and going the extra mile in order to help accomplish the suggestions given. (I suppose there would be a fine line between this and the bully, but this character would not try to control, but instead try to give new ideas and let the other group member decide what he/she likes)

1 – It is difficult to see myself playing any of these roles described in the reading. However, I am more leaned towards the bully character. Although I am not rude and subject my perspective upon everyone, I do make my opinions very clear and tend to hint, ‘I prefer this way’. Making my partners feel dumb is also not one of the things that I do, however, I will do my best to explain why I feel my way is better; if I am proved wrong though I gladly submit. Generally I do my best not to fall into any disruptive roles but again, I am most susceptible towards being The Bully. As the reading explains, there are many preventive strategies to stay away from playing a disruptive role. These strategies are namely the ones I plan to follow to avoid falling victim to disruptive behavior. The reading explains that in order to avoid that behavior we should follow three rules which are the exact actions that I wish to follow in order to stay away from those roles. These three points are to clearly state the division of responsibilities, not blindly accept problems, and not take responsibility for the happiness of others.

2 – I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist so curving this habit into a positive manner I hope to be able to spot little mistakes within our project. Rather than criticizing these mistakes I plan to take a supportive role and help fix the problem in a way that will keep our spirits up and not dent our progress. So in general, I hope to take a supportive role and at the same time keep the progress of the group in constant motion.

1. I think I've been pretty close to the saboteur, before. I have the habit of scanning a paper/project endlessly right up to the time it's due and tend to make changes at the eleventh hour, so-to-speak. This doesn't fly so well in a group project, as a lot of times everyone's just happy to have the thing done. Even as an editor, then, I think I tend to keep most of the changes minimal or get some group input to get everyone together on the editing. Even if people don't care, it's better to offer the inclusion rather than getting a complaint after the fact.

2. Editor is definitly a good role to have in the group, I guess that would be something like quality control or fine-tuner. It's good to have some work in the group after each part is done and put together, basically proofreading and cleaning up everyone else's work while they tune your own. It's not just "Here's my section" and "Here's mine" and dump them into a .doc file (or html in this case, I suppose.) That and an organizer, keeping everything on track and using the wiki to keep the latest versions posted. Good stuff.

In my experiences working with groups, I don't believe I ever assumed any of the roles discussed in "Feuds in Student Groups." However, were I to describe myself as one of those groups, I would most likely be the Martyr. I appreciate it when other people recognize my work and when they understand how much I have worked to accomplish a specific task. However, I do not really expect acknowledgement, instead I expect a little bit of respect. I like to think of myself as a problem solver and one who can find a solution to most problems. I am a bit of a perfectionist and I hate leaving a problem unsolved. Also, I never complain openly about the taks I perform in a group, although I might not really appreciate them inside. If I feel the task is to simple for my abilities I might be offended with the assignment because I do take pride in my work.

A positive role I would try and adopt would be the Optimistic Solver. Sometimes I feel as though group work can be easily bogged down with solutions that will not work. Sometimes I feel as though groups spend far too much time attempting to fix existing material when it cannot be fixed. My method of problem solving is to introduce another solution, perhaps one which is easier to implement or better suited for the needs of the project/group. In any case, I am optimistic and believe there are many ways to solve a problem. When there is a roadblock in one path, the solution is not necesarily to blow through it. Perhaps you can take a different road.

I cannot identify with any of these, at least not in their entirety. I suppose I most closely resemble the Martyr. The distinct difference, however, is that I tend to take on extra burdens willingly, simply because I know that if I do them or at least play a role in them, they’ll be done to my own satisfaction. If I do more work than another member because I wanted to, I certainly don’t consider that to be a “burden,” nor do I expect a trophy for it.
I do not like to boss people around, yet I like to maintain a certain level of control over things that will determine my fate –– or in this case, my grade. Due to my type-A personality, I tend towards perfectionism, which can be frustrating for some other group members. For instance, I was once in a group with a deadbeat who failed time and again to do his/her part, and I finally confronted him/her about his/her lack of participation. (This incensed the deadbeat, who probably considered me to be a bully.) When the deadbeat continued to fall far short of the group’s expectations and even threatened the integrity of the overall project, I martyred myself into performing his/her tasks for him/her. It was an abysmal situation, but definitely a learning experience.
I think that ultimately, successful group work depends on the success of communication between group members. As long as each group member has a good idea of his/her role and is willing to put forth the effort to ensure that the expectations for fulfilling that role are met, everything should run smoothly.

I would be most useful serving in an editorial capacity –– that is, making sure that all group members’ contributions form a cohesive whole. Each member’s contributions are written in that member’s writing style, making it imperative that someone go through the finished product and edit it for consistency.
I am hesitant to assume an official “leadership role,” but I have some experience serving as project manager, so I could also be of use in dealing with the client and coordinating things between group members.

• I am often most likely to become a martyr. I want everyone, especially people in my group, to know just how much I am doing so that everything runs smoothly. Fortunately, I do not feel as though I have turned to an extreme form of this where I disrupt our group’s efficiency, but I have definitely felt that “monster” lurking within me.

So that our group will run smoothly, I would like to see that we distribute the roles according to each person’s skill set. Our resulting product will be the best it can be if everyone contributes to the best of his or her ability. Personally, I will try my best to keep my “martyr-ness” at bay by keeping an eye out for moments when I feel like I am doing all the work, even though that most likely is not the case.

• One positive role would be that of a leader. A leader of a group is a person who keeps the group on task. He keeps an eye out for whenever their project seems to be heading the wrong direction. He also makes the rest of the group aware of deadlines and important dates of interest. Another important aspect of the leader would be to make sure all the members feel included and useful. I feel this may be a role I will take within our group.

I can not think of any specific instances of when I was in one of those roles, but I can see my self filling the role of the martyr. I often feel that I have been given too much work when compared to the rest of the group memebers. To prevent this from happening in my current group, it will be necessary for us to make sure all of the roles are evenly divided with people completing tasks that best suited to their skills.
A positive role that I will try to adopt is one of explaination. I know that my group memebers are not as familiar with web development as myself, so it is very important that they understand what is going on in that stage of the project.

I think that if I were one of these roles in a previous project, it would have been a martyr. I don't think that it would have been as bad as the martyr is described in this article, but I think martyr is the most fitting of the choices. I often times end up doing the most work in groups because I care about the grade and don't want to turn in something that may be considered low quality. I don't think that I would necessarily confront others if they weren't pulling their weight because I don't like the confrontation. I don't think that I will end up being a martyr in this particular project because I'm currently working on my senior project which is a much larger group project. At this time it's a much higher priority and is consuming the majority of my time. My senior project will be the strongest bullet I can include on my resume, and for that reason it outranks everything else at the moment.

Leader - I think that groups can benefit from somebody who tries to lead the group in the right direction and keep them on task. This person doesn't have to be all knowing or assign tasks, but instead try to guide the groups progress and keep things open to discussion. The leader needs to make members feel that they can speak freely about ideas. The leader is not one to try force their ideas on the group and think they have all the answers, but instead keep the group productive. Chances are that I will have the most web design experience of all the group members, so I will try to be the one that leads the group down the right path based on my experiences with designing for the web.

1) This is a pretty hard question to answer because you're forced to attribute yourself to a negative role, but I guess if I really had to choose one, it would be the martyr. I don't remember necessarily going as far as complaining to the group or the professor about so and so, but I know of at least one time that I felt that I had more work than the other students, and carried more of a burden. In this case I tended to complain about it in my head as opposed to openly calling someone or some group out.

2) Hopefully I can be a good teacher to the other classmates in the group. I never really saw myself as a definite leader, but hopefully because I know a bit about html, css, etc. that I can help others to learn how to create and format a website and that they will get something useful information in the process.

I am probably one of the few that would say that I fit into at least part of each of the negative roles, other than Deadbeat (usually). I won't elaborate entirely on the occurrence or occurrences, but I have on at least one occasion used a combination of the Martyr, the Saboteur, and the Bully, but with positive results. My personal results may have been been better than the rest of my group but I didn't leave them to rot. I guess I would be more predisposed towards the Saboteur, but I usually inform my group members of any changes I've made or would like to make and usually have some sort of reasoning to back up my modifications. I also may have a tendency to be a bit of a Bully, but I don't foresee that happening unless there is a real idiot or a Deadbeat in my group. Sometimes I actually prefer a deadbeat to be in the group because that's one less possible idiot who's pointless and nonconstructive arguments might detract from the groups performance. Of course the negative side of that is if you have to rely on the Deadbeat, that's a bad situation, and I would probably be more likely to Bully them into getting them to do the necessary work, and then allowing the Sabatour to take over to fix the Deadbeat errors that they are too incompetent to realize even exist. Well, that's one situation at least... there are ad infinitum different scenarios and how can we really know which category we will be or resort to in order to get the best result that we can. I guess the first step to preventing be a disruption in the group is to recognize when I think I'm slipping into one of the roles described. But then comes the moral dilemma of doing something that is perceived as "bad" by the social majority in order to fulfill "the greater good" Dramatic sounding, but if fulfilling one of these roles leads to higher grade then "trying to keep the peace" in the group, then won't that be considered a good thing?

I would say that I am predisposed towards these two positive group roles.
--> Evaluator/Critic – Evaluates the proposals against a predetermined or objective standard. Assesses the reasonableness of a proposal and looks at whether it is fact-based and manageable as a solution.

--> Co-ordinator – Identifies and explains the relationships between ideas. May pull together a few different ideas and make them cohesive.

Arrangement: emphasis on label
I believe that I do not hold any of the positions listed in the paper. However, I am probably predisposed to the Martyr position. I will not complain to the group, but I often feel that other group members are inadequate in desire to finish a project. I will do my work and try to do my best in the different cases assigned to me. With my portion of the job done, I hardly see how I can create a problem.
Overeager helper:
This person likes to get things done. They will accomplish their job quickly, and then seek out the other members and ask how their project is going. They might be a little annoying, but can quite often help to produce results quickly, and then spend time going over those results. The helper takes on a managerial role, and checks up on the other students regularly.

It's difficult to pinpoint qualities of myself that group me into one of the group-disrupting roles. Of course I wasn’t able to identify myself as fitting exactly into any of the roles. I’m not sure if anybody can evaluate themselves that well. If they could, then they probably would change something so that they don’t fit directly into a negative group role. However, I do see myself as identifying with some of the characteristics of deadbeat and martyr. Freshman year, when I was an Engineering major, group work was commonplace in my life, and in some of the groups I was assigned to, I was hard to get ahold of, and I felt like the group met at inconvenient times. I wasn’t extremely vocal about this, but I can remember expressing it to the group in a whining fashion. Currently, for one of my activities outside of class, I take on a large amount of work, and don’t really ask for help from others. This is caused by a desire to feel appreciated, which fits in the role of martyr. To make sure these do not show up in group work for this class, I will be open to meeting whenever we need to, and not complain about it, and our group will log hours worked on the project to make sure everyone is contributing equally.

Since my group is 75% computer science majors, and 25% physics teaching major (me), I will act as a facilitator – someone who ensures that the group is communicating with each other, and if the three others have a conflict about things of the technical nature, since I would be unbiased and unknowledgable, I will try to help them work out the conflict.

1.I don't believe that I have played the role of any of the ones listed. Unless it is necessary for me to take a leadership position and have people do what I tell them, I just do what is asked of me and try to minimize the conflict that could occur. I might be predisposed to possibly the lazy bully, I'm not sure. I wouldn't consider myself lazy at all in a group but if I see something that I disagree with, I voice my opinion. I dislike conflict so I try my best to avoid it. Honestly, one of the best things to do is be as flexible and open-minded as possible.
2. I was reviewing other students' roles, and I could potentially see myself as an editor or suggester. I tend to do those roles anyways, but I wasn't aware that those were official terminologies for group members (if they are). I do tend to make suggestions on what to do, and I look out for mistakes.

I would say I have taken the roles of both the Deadbeat and the Martyr at times. While completely opposite roles, the Deadbeat was not by choice. I was very busy with a lot of work, and was unable to meet certain deadlines, and even missed a few important meetings. However, I do believe it was an important experience, because I nearly got kicked out of the group, and although I didn't have control over the work load I had, I was able to better manage my time coming out of the experience. I ended up doing a whole lot of work toward the end to impress the group and finally get back in.

I have also been the Martyr at times. In the past, on certain projects, I have not asked people for help when needed. Although I would say it was far from doing all the work, I felt like I still needed to do the chunk that I said I would do, whether or not it was more. I didn't even bring it up really, I just kind of took the burden and kept it private.

I am going to take steps to make sure I do not exhibit signs of either of these roles in this project, and I believe it is very important. I will make sure I meet every deadline, and meet it well ahead to ensure I can keep utmost quality, to avoid being the Deadbeat again. If I need help on a specific part of the project, I will talk with group members and see if a few parts of the project work can be reassigned, or if a little more of it can be done together, instead of in pieces separately, to avoid being the Martyr.

A positive role that I may try to adopt is some sort of leadership. Although I may not be the actual leader of the group, I will put forth an effort to, and not be afraid to, make decisions and present and/or suggest them to the group. I will also try to give constructive criticism on portions of the project, in effort to keep standards high without putting anyone down.

In past groups, I don’t recall having a problem with any of the mentioned student group types. However, I could definitely see myself falling into the whiner category. I could see myself saying “I hate group projects,” or “None of our group meetings are ever at a time that is conducive to me.” Not only do I think it is important that I do not say these when I am with my group, I think it is important that I do not let these thoughts cross my mind or say them to other people, because then it could affect how I act when I am trying to work on the project. I will also try to be a good listener, instead of consistently voicing my opinions, when others opinions could be better.
I would create the IDEA-MASTER role. This is the person who may not have the technological skills, but has the vision in their mind on what they would like to create.

1. If i had to choose one it would be the Saboteur. Though I have never had a lower grade because I change a part of a project because most of the changes were things that we thought we wouldn't have time for not things that I just out and out changed. What i would do to make sure I don't take on a distruptive role is just make sure everyone gets a say in the project and also has a choice in what role they would like to take in the project.

2. A positive group member role is the reliable one - a person who you always shows up at the assigned meeting. They also always have their work done and complete when it was due. They also are always willing to help other members at any time to make sure the project is getting completed on time.

In thinking about my previous group experiences, I may have been perceived to have played the role of The Bully in a few cases. In the future in order to prevent this perception from arising, I will make an effort in contributing to and advocating equal distribution of work amongst the group members. Also, I will make an effort to ask group members of their opinion regularly on important issues.

The active listener is a positive group member role I will try to adopt. The active listener takes all things pertinent into consideration that are presented by group members and actively attempts to incorporate these suggestions into his portion of the group work.

1) I do not really identify with any of the groups listed. I am generally a leader. If anything that is my problem - I have a tenancy to look for weaknesses in other peoples leadership roles above me and attack them if I think it will make the end result better. I think that any and all of the different groups of people listed can be handled effectively. I also think that most people who are in those groups are not always in those groups. With good leadership the people with those tenancies should still work well.

2) Leader and organizer. With good planning great things will happen.

I know that there are certain times when I have taken at least one of theses roles described in the reading. I can see that I have been the deadbeat sometimes but once I realized that I'm being one of these roles I try to change to be more productive and play my part in the group. I will make sure that I do what I am trying to accomplish in order to not take any of these roles.

Some positive roles that people can take would be a leader or manager, a director and so on.