Reading Response 4

jtirrell's picture





After reading "Feuds in Student Groups," respond in a comment to the following two prompts:
  • Think of your previous group work experiences, both inside and outside of school. Can you identify any times when you might have taken on one or more of the roles described in the article? If not, are there any that you might be predisposed toward? What will you do to make sure that you don't take on a disruptive role in your group?
  • The article is only about disruptive roles. Name and define a positive group member role that you will try to adopt.
twykoff's picture
Compilers

For my compilers class we worked in groups of 2. I ended up with working with someone I didn't know who turned out to be pretty ridiculous. The fourth project was by far the hardest and he had decided before the semester began to leave for New York the Thursday before Thanksgiving, and the project was due the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. We had all but one part done, but it was pretty difficult. Although I didn't complain to him, I did complain to other people in the class. I guess that made me the martyr, but since I didn't complain to him, it didn't affect our group's ability to work together.

Submitted by twykoff on Wed, 03/26/2008 - 11:21.
twykoff's picture
2nd prompt...

I didn't realize I had to write on both prompts. One positive role is the worker. The worker doesn't have great design or planning skills, but he makes up for that by quietly doing more than his fair share of work. I can't really design very well, so that's the role I need to take.

Submitted by twykoff on Wed, 03/26/2008 - 12:30.
aalbert's picture
reading Response 4

I once had a group project for my Indonesian Student Association club. It was called IndoFest. I was assigned a role in researching songs that relates to Indonesia culture. I was not aware that the task was assigned to me at the meeting until the last week before the event. I guess that makes me The Deadbeat. I learned my lesson.
I will pay more attention in a meeting.

For the positive role, I think it is good to have someone active to encourage the group to move forward and challenge the group to take one step further. I will call this The Encourager. I think it is important to put each individual to do his/her best. In this project, I will try my best to adopt this role.

Submitted by aalbert on Thu, 03/27/2008 - 15:08.
answer

I have been the Martyr in a group before for a lab project. My partner wanted to socalize while we waited for out gel to run, but I wanted to get our work done as soon as possible just so that it was done. So I told her to just keep chatting and I'd do the rest of our project. I wanted to get it done, but at the same time I wanted her to kind of feel bad for not wanting to get it done. I will not take on a disruptive role with my group because I will try to do everything I can in order for the group to be successful, but at the same time try to make it so that everyoen is doing an equal amount.

A positive group member role that I can assume is information gatherer. I can look up information for the website and relay it to the group and see if any information could be useful for the group project.

Submitted by matt33172 on Thu, 03/27/2008 - 18:21.
XxscxX's picture
.

I don't really recall being any of the roles the article discusses. If I have a problem, I provide input when I feel it is necessary or something is bothering me but I'm not one to whine. If I had to be predisposed toward one I would say the Saboteur, but minimally. I would only make changes by letting the group know first. If I was certain that the changes I were planning on making were better, I would justify my reasons and try to convince my group as best as I could so that the decision to make changes would be mutual. In regards to making sure I don't take on a disruptive role, I'm a quiet person, I do the work I am assigned, and give my opinion when necessary so I don't really see myself as being a disruptive member.
As a positive group member role, I will make suggestions as to what should be done. I will be able to assist in the creation of the website coding and design. I will acknowledge the other groups members opinions and ideas.

Submitted by XxscxX on Thu, 03/27/2008 - 21:49.
zmcnulty's picture
Response 4

Last semester I was in a video compositing class and we had a group project for project 1. I was always busy and gone every weekend. I become like the Deadbeat. I felt bad about never being around, and I'm sure they didn't appreciate it. I did end up making up for it by doing a lot of the green screen work.

I would say that the optimist would be a good role. I feel that the optimist is good at increasing people's spirits. Its easy for groups to get overwhelmed, and when you have the optimist, it makes work nicer.

Submitted by zmcnulty on Thu, 03/27/2008 - 21:52.
lcsnare's picture
High School English Project

In my junior year of high school, we had to make a video. We based our movie on "The Turn of the Screw." I would probably have taken the position of the martyr in that group. I do not believe that I have taken any of the other roles. I did not complain to the teacher, but I complained to a friend of mine in the group that I had to do most of the video work. I didn't really do much to change the situation either. I will suggest we set up a timeline and divide the labor early on and keep each other up to date on what the progress of each group member is.

I would have to say 'dynamo.' I like to help organize a timeline and help divide the labor so that the job can get done the fastest and easiest. I like to work with energy in a group so that others can match or perhaps surpass the energy. In that way the work gets done well and very efficiently.

Submitted by lcsnare on Thu, 03/27/2008 - 23:21.
Girl's picture
I admit it...I was a bully

1) It was junior year of high school. It was English class and we were assigned the infamous binder projects. You had to pick a theme for the binder and create all this literature that would go into the binder. It was a group of four and I served as the group leader. Two of the members were great. We each had our parts and they always turned them in on time. The last member though never had anything done on time. I had yet to receive his section and it was the night before the project was due. The next day in class I come to find out that he has nothing done. Now I must say in my defense that this project was 80 percent or so of our grade, and I was in this phase in my life where I thought I was the coolest thing EVER. So I'm standing here with this binder that I had devoted my junior year to, and it is missing an entire section. I went off on him. No one was around, but I was pretty angry. I made the boy cry. Everyone else in the group was pretty pissed so we all gave him low scores on the evaluation and he received a D, while the other members received an A. Okay, I should not have made him cry, but it was high school. Um, yes. It was not my proudest moment.

Since then I have been in a number of groups where I have had people that refuse to do anything. Luckily, though, I'm not a major brat anymore. As a team member I will avoid being bully by offering help when I see someone is behind. Maybe they are having a hard time or they cannot think of anything to do. I ask now instead of demanding, and making high school boys cry.

2) Good roles. Most of the time I play the role of a team leader. Currently I am the leader of an all male engineering group for EPICS. It is difficult, but its been rewarding. I play the non-leader role just as well. Overall I think I'm good at project planning. I prefer not to wait last minute, so I beleive that planning is key. Thus, I have always been good at making sure everyone is on track and that our project is going at a moderate pace.

Along with being a good planner, I am good at contributing creativity to the team. I come up with good ideas randomly sometimes.

Submitted by Girl on Fri, 03/28/2008 - 08:39.
physicschic's picture
Reply to Feuds

I've noticed that I can sometimes take on the ability of the Whiner. It depends on the project and the class for me. I seem to end up one of the people that has to deal with who is responsible for what and then I worry that everything won't get done. I've been in many projects such as this, one was just recently in my Linear Algebra class.
Yet, sometimes I don't mind the responsibility of being the organize. It is something I have always enjoyed doing and am good at. So when I can bring together each component from the other people in the project and turn out one complete, whole project, it turns out very well.

Submitted by physicschic on Fri, 03/28/2008 - 09:52.
bfawaz's picture
The explicit allocation of

The explicit allocation of responsibility, as touched on in several forms over the course of Jalajas and Sutton's article, has remedied any group uncertainties I've had in the past without fail. While I can thankfully say I've never had to work in a group with a detrimental individual, the early allocation of tasks assigned primarily through group negotiations has made for very orderly and efficient collaboration efforts. There were times however that I've traversed across the borderline of what would most commonly be associate with what is described as "The Martyr." Though never explicitly harboring ill intent or feeling towards my group, my academic proficiency has at times made me feel alienated, and somewhat under-appreciated, but I've taken it as a natural thought process and have never let it interfere with group activity. Writing entire papers, conducting the editing process, and tweaking research by other group members for rhetorical consistency may at first seem like the biggest task. It contains the majority of initial project work in order to lay a foundation for further production, but it is by no means any more or less of an effort than design aspects of a project. I keep this in mind whenever finding myself staring at a word document at 3am, but more importantly that my efforts go into making everyone satisfied, which is my primary goal in a group project.

In terms of a positive group role, I very much prefer the role of mediator. Bridging group ideas through communications and the translating of ideas, when successful, can bring a strong foundation to the entire project and among its contributing members. This not only includes suggesting compromises on group suggestions and activities, but to remind and maintain definitions of group tasks to fellow members in order to stay synchronous with initial design plans. As communication plays a vital importance in the group process, this is a valuable role a group member should be willing to take on if necessary where technical proficiency alone is incapable of producing strong deliverables.

Submitted by bfawaz on Fri, 03/28/2008 - 11:23.
aculp's picture
I was in a video editing

I was in a video editing class a couple of semesters ago and I ended up doing 80% or more of the work for all three projects. The first project two members didn’t do much work while my roommate and I did (didn’t really need more than two). This was to be swapped then on the second project but never was. The second project my roommate and I again did the bulk of the work, yet this time my roommate was always “busy” with a different class.

Originally the syllabus said we were doing only two projects. After the second, for fun I shot another short video with some of my friends and edited it by myself. The professor finally said towards the end of the semester that we were doing three projects. This wasn’t bad news to me because the third video I shot met the requirements for the third project. Yet my members thought that just because they were my group members for the first two projects that I wanted them as members for this project, even though I already had it finished (members were not required to stay with members of past projects, could do video alone).

My members informed the professor that they were in my group for this video. I informed the professor that I shot this video by myself and with no help from anyone else. The professor said he would give the other group members zeros, yet never did since my roommate ended up with the same grade as me. To this day I am still frustrated with this situation.

Submitted by aculp on Fri, 03/28/2008 - 11:35.
CatTail1986's picture
My response

I always play the person that keeps everyone on task when digression becomes too intense. When others start to slake I talk to them at a personal level and then in a professional level. If the individual is having personal problems then we try to work something out. If it is lack of motivation they get one more shot and they are out.

I had a group speech presentation Junior year and the teacher design the group with categories, Lion, otter, beaver, and golden retriever qualities. It was a bad idea because I had three otters (that liked to play and not work) and one golden retriever. The teacher tried to place the group with at least one from each category in the group.

Outside of school when it comes to hanging out with friends. I usually am the one that would suggest a list of possible things or places we could do to prompt a final decision.

I will try to be the conductor as much as I can. Communicate with our employer and be there to help others with their jobs to get things run as smoothly as possible. Incorporate my artistic creativity to the design plan of the webpage.

Submitted by CatTail1986 on Fri, 03/28/2008 - 12:15.
Silento's picture
Feud Fuel

There have been many groups that I have been in where I have seen people play muted forms of the roles listed in the article. Personally, I have a disposition towards the deadbeat, primarily if there are alot of people using a more bullyish demeanor. If they want to do all the work themselves, then I am more than willing to let them. Otherwise, i try to make sure that I let others try and have a say but at the same time voicing my own opinions and contributing regardless. A positive role I would like to fill is that of a special ability user. I feel that I can do a an excellant job in retrieving and modifying pictures and will use that ability to help the group as a whole.

Submitted by Silento on Fri, 03/28/2008 - 12:23.
iamaustin's picture
I have had a lot of

I have had a lot of experience being the leader of small groups, both in an educational and professional environments. Along with the perception of being a qualified leader comes the assumption that you are a bully. I try to avert from being predisposed to this quality by extending my support to others and being personable. I plan to incorporate everybody and ensure that all ideas are being openly expressed.

I believe the role of leader can be very positive, and I am going to try and take on this roll in my group.

Submitted by iamaustin on Fri, 03/28/2008 - 12:27.
Soho's picture
Many groups I have been in

Many groups I have been in end up having one or two people doing the whole or most the project. A fight never really erupted but there were a few jabs(things said) here and there that created tension. For this project I'm hoping to get everyone involved by giving them something to do that is in their interest or related to their field of study.

For this project I plan on being an ideator...trying to brainstorm ideas and concepts to take our project to the next level. I also hope to develop a tightly knit network between our group and the client by learning their needs and wants while also trying to make them feel more like friends rather than clients!

Submitted by Soho on Fri, 03/28/2008 - 12:40.
glmaster's picture
asdf

I've been in several groups geared towards completing class projects. I recall one situation I was involved in where our groups goal was to complete a lab write up for a chemistry class. There I was the deadbeat. I was least knowledgeable on the subject matter and therefore didn't contribute much. The other group members had already picked up on this and as a result weren't delegating me tasks. So it was sort of a double whammy in that I wasn't able to contribute much because I didn't know much, however I wasn't able to fix my mistakes and learn the material because I had no real tasks to complete and therefore no motivation to do so.

One positive role that I will try to adopt in the future would be the one who the others can refer to in any situation. The "expert" so to speak.

Submitted by glmaster on Fri, 03/28/2008 - 12:42.