TCT's Chapter 4 describes different positive group member roles. It defines the role of the editor as one who takes on the responsibilities of the organization and style of the document. In past group projects in school, I find myself taking on this role. I recently had to work in a group of four for a communications project. The purpose of the project was to research a famous speech in history and analyze it in a six page paper using what we had learned in class. We all wrote different parts of the essay, but i found myself reading over it again and again to make sure everything was in place and that the essay was organized correctly. If i felt that some parts needed more information, I either added it myself or made sure that more information was put in. I think my experiences with this role will help make a positive contribution in the upcoming group project. I will help to make sure the project stays on track and that we are working to achieve the purpose of the project. When we are writing the documents such as the memo, I will make sure that it is organized in such a way that the message we are trying to get out is properly conveyed.
"Feuds in Student Groups discusses five different negative group member roles. The martyr is described as one who believes that they are getting the worst assignments and do not have the best group members to work with. They will be the ones to say, "don't worry about it, I can do the paper myself", or may complain to the members or to the teacher. Not all of the martyr traits apply to me, but sometimes in groups I tend to take on variations of some of them. I may at times believe that I am getting the harder of the group tasks. Also, I sometimes offer to just do a job by myself because I am afraid that the other group members won't do it correctly or to the best that it could be. During our current group project, it would be good to discuss beforehand what is expected from each group member so I will be less prone to thinking that I am getting a "bad" part of the work. I will stick to what it is I am expected to do and do that to the best of my ability.

For the group roles TCT's Chapter 4 describes the five different roles that the group members take on. In a recent project for engineering I took the role of the Coordinator. We had to build a functional crane as a group. In the group I was the one to set up deadlines for the different parts to be built and to set up the meetings to discuss and design the project. I also gave out the tasks for the others in the group to outside the group. Throughout the project I set the date and time for the group to meet throughout the project and we were able to complete and test the project a week before the deadline was to be met.

In the other reading, "Feuds in Student Groups”, it talks about five negative roles. In a recent project for engineering I took the role of the Bully more than anything else. I had several of these traits but not all of them. I wasn’t shy about the changes that needed to be made but I didn’t make them feel dumb or useless. Though not like the Bully I didn’t belittle those whose ideas differ from mine. I was like the Bully but I was not the Lazy Bully because I was there for every meeting and a part of the project every step of the way.

During every group project I have done in high school and college, I almost always took on the role of the editor. I am a perfectionist when it comes to layout, structure, and grammar of documents. Editing is something my group members usually hated to do, so I was happy to take on that responsibility because it comes easily to me. I think my perfectionism will contribute to whatever group I am a part of because it will make our project look professional and polished. I am good at putting the finishing touches on things and making sure they are ready to present or turn in.

However, I can see my perfectionism has another side to it; it could lead to me being a saboteur. I like to have things exactly the way I want them, and I think that is part of why I like to edit things. I can't think of any situations where I have substantially changed the content of a project without the consent of the other group members. I have made little tweaks to projects here and there because that is what editing is, but it was never anything major. If the situation presented itself where there was something about a project that I really didn't like, however, I could potentially have qualities of the saboteur if I really wanted to change it.

Chapter 4 provides a lot of useful insight on how to run group projects effectively and efficiently. Teams are broken down into individual roles that allow the group to function better as a whole. In my last group project we were given the task of building a robotic arm that can lift a soda bottle over a wall and set it on a specified target. This assignment not only involved the design and construction of the arm but also required detailed reports on each step of the process along with a final write up. I took the role of the coordinator in this project. I was responsible for setting up meeting times and keeping track of deadlines. My role also involved keeping everyone on track and dividing up different projects. Everyone made a different component of the arm so making sure that each part was compatible with the other was up to me. I wasn't really appointed to this roll but felt that if i didn't do something no one else would. I feel this experience will help me make a contribution because if I again fall into this role i will know what to do, and if I play a different role i can respect the coordinator's decisions.

I am not sure really which one of these roles I have played. I have probably done some of each. My number one concern in a group project is fairness to each member. I feel it is important for everyone to pull their weight. If they don't want to pull their own load that's fine, but their grade should reflect this. In most cases i guess I relate most to the bully. If someone is not pulling their weight I will call them out. I have had bad experiences in the past with being too pliable in a group project and getting walked on. I don't mind picking up the extra slack as long as I am rewarded and the slacker penalized.

Though I have had experience playing the role of each team member described on pages 69 and 70, I most often take on the role of coordinator. I have a keen eye for the big picture, a sense of urgency when faced with deadlines, and a calm demeanor when faced with pressure. An example of my taking the role of coordinator is during a recent Business Writing project, I was the group leader. Leader was the title given by the instructor, but I certainly saw myself as more of a facilitator as described in the book. Our task was to create a business proposal complete with promotional documents for the renovation of an historic building. After those in our group shared our strengths, I found that my area of expertise was going to be in logistics and making sure that the talents of others were maximized. We ran on schedule and turned out a high quality product.

I like to think that I am a good and cooperative team member. I cannot think of a recent situation when I fell into any of the negative group member roles as defined by Jalajas and Sutton, but I must guard against falling into the role of The Bully. It could be a potentially short trip between my self-confidence and an attempt at dominance. I do think that I have much positive input to contribute, but am also very aware that teams work best when everyone is allowed to express themselves freely and the group is allowed to arrive at the best option. I do not see this as being a problem for this project.

Last semester, we had a group project in mgt 356 about business etiquette. When looking back at the organization of the team, I mostly consider I was a plant. We only had 2 meetings, but they finally became very productive at the end of the project.

Those meetings always kept running this way: I suggested ideas that I had by trying to stimulate my creativity, and the other group members followed them and improved them. This project has been one of the most pleasant to accomplish because each team member was satisfied of his role. It ended up like a perfect example according to the team roles description in TCT Chapter 4, and I think I could use this experience as a grid for the current group project.

After reading "Feuds in Students Groups", I could not find an exact situation where I had a negative member role as described in the document.

However, I might be prone to act as a bully in the group project because I really know what I want, especially as my corporate crisis has been chosen. I can sometimes be very determined due to the fact that I have confidence in my beliefs.

But I always had this trait of character and it has never brought any problem when working in group, so I am not really expecting this to happen. Nevertheless, I will do my best to listen to other people and avoid any negative attitude.

To be honest, I generally do not like group work. But when I have to work on a project with a group, I like to feel like I have control. I would classify myself as mostly a “coordinator.” I don’t like a lot of unnecessary meetings, so I like to divide the work up and then collaborate when we need to. Most group meetings turn into chatting sessions and are usually, in my opinion, a big waste of time. I like to keep everyone on task during these meetings and get down to business as fast as possible.
It’s sad to say, but after reading Jalajas and Sutton’s “Feuds in Student Groups,” I realized that I am the whiner. I’ve had bad experiences with group work in the past in which I had to do all of the work or delegated tasks to others that were not completed. I now have a negative attitude towards any work I do not have complete control over and this may hurt my group in the long run. In the future, I will have to trust that my teammates will complete their work and try to see everything in a positive light. I know that group work is not as much of a hassle as I believe it to be, but my past experiences have tainted my views on working with others. I will try not to be such a negative Nancy during this group project and maybe it will help me in the future.

In working in groups, my past experience has proved that I have the traits of a group’s plant. In the high school project groups I was in, I brought the new ideas and originality to the table. In the book, it does say that the ‘plant’ stressed the bigger picture more than smaller details, and there I would have to say I was different. If I am truly committed to a project then I am a total perfectionist.
Unfortunately, being the perfectionist I am, that also causes me to become the martyr of the group. In my previous semester I shared a group project with two other students. When all the information was totaled together, I was not satisfied with the information they had (they knew they had nothing), so I ended up fixing the entire power point until 2 am. (The day before it was due, of course).

When Chapter 4 identified the editor role in group projects, I immediately recognized it as the title I usually assume. “Working in Teams” defines the editor position as someone who is responsible for the style and organization of a document. I had an experience with this role just a week ago. I work at the Wilmington Star-News and I went to a high school girl’s basketball game to cover a matchup between two local rival schools. A fellow Star-News reporter and I worked on pieces of the game and when it was time to put everything together, not everything flowed. This is to be expected so I volunteered to edit both our pieces. It included some adding and subtracting of information (some things were repeated and other info was just redundant). I am definitely a perfectionist and I’m sure my picky tendencies can be obnoxious at times but this contributes to my editing skills. Because I had this experience where I was forced to organize and edit information, I will be bringing those tools to the table when contributing to my specific group project.
“Feuds in Student Groups” identifies negative group roles. Referring back to this game, I displayed traits similar to that of a whiner. Although I do not feel like I “hampered the effectiveness,” I complained a few times about the task in general. I was not too thrilled about covering a high school girl’s basketball game. No offense to those participating players, but I would’ve much rather covered something a little more significant. Because this project is a big portion of our grade (and because there are team as well as individual grades), I am confident I will not be a whiner in my group. This significance will prohibit me from doing so.

Editor is a role that I am very familiar with. I have taken on the responsibility as editor for many different reasons; it does not matter if it was for my high school’s student newspaper or for a group project. I am very big on detail, therefore I like to see the project before it is turned in to look over it and see if any information is needed. This is a position that I will gladly accept in my group project. I am a perfectionist and love detail. My contribution to the group will be that I will make sure that our project is detailed and professional before we turn it in.
I don’t think that I have many of the qualities listed in the reading. But I guess that the role that I can most relate to is the Martyr role. I am the person who will do the entire project while the rest of the group did nothing. I don’t really feel it as a burden, but simply I wanted to make sure that the project was done right. I have done this before, especially if it is in an area that I am strong in. I will make sure that I don’t take on this role by, communicating with my group members and offer insight, but most importantly listen to what they have to say about the project.

As a filmmaker and a writer, I've often had to act as the Plant and find creative solutions during the edit. For example, I take part in a 36 hour film competition in town. The goal is to write, shoot, and edit a short film in a 36 hour period with a list of stipulations to assure it is shot during the period of competition. The last short we shot was a very simple concept a friend came up with, limited locations, improvisational dialogue, an all-around easy shoot. The issue arose during the edit. We had these very long dialogue scenes where our actor, as a crazed street preacher shouting about armageddon, would ramble on for a long time. These scenes ran far too long to just have a single shot with no cutaways. The solution came to me as I looked through my extra footage (as a cameraman, I have a tendency to role longer than necessary) and found several in-between moments where the actor was psyching himself up for the performance. This along with some other shots intercut with the main action, dialogue running continuously over all the cuts, created a visual that matched the characters muddled mind and really drove home the concept the director was looking to deliver.

On the other end of the spectrum, I have been the Deadbeat in past groups. I don't remember the class or the project, but I know the situation was one where I was in a group I did not agree with on any point. The other group members would not see my point of view or listen to my opinion, so I simply stopped participating. As for this current project, I will ensure I don't slip into this role again by keeping on schedule and keeping an active role in all group meetings and parts of the project.

Unfortunately, since my first semester in college i have had a negative attitude towards group work in classes due to a psychology group project that almost lead to my failing the course. Since then, i have done many group projects in various classes, and while reading these descriptions, the one that jumps out at me is the coordinator. I am definitely a planner by nature and have always felt like i am the only one in a group that can delegate and plan meetings, remind people to come to the meetings, and make sure the ones who were not present know they're not off the hook. I feel that this will help me in the upcoming project because it is always nice to have someone who can keep a schedule together and keep the work rolling. There is not a specific instance where i have taken this role more than any other group project, it just seems that i am always in this position. Due to my awful experience in the psychology project, i am sadly a whiner according to "Feuds in Student Groups." I always think that i will be left with all of the work at the last minute and have to make up everyone's slack. The first project i had to do after that one was in an english class and i spent the whole first week of the project dreading working with a team and voicing my objection to the "group project" idea. I have learned since then that group projects are not a bad thing, and the one bad experience was just a rare occurrence.

I have been a firefighter with Magnolia FD for about 3 1/2 years now and one role that I have learned to play is the Coordinator. This isn't a "project" team, but riding on the first out engine, everyone works as a team under the coordination of one crew member. Several times I have found myself in the Captain's seat giving orders based on the situation and my knowledge of what each crew member is capable of and experienced in. This will help in the current project when tasks must be split among the members so the tasks are completed by those best fitted to do them.

Reading the "Feuds in Student Groups", I learned what to call my group members in a past project, Deadbeats. If I was to classify myself as one of the characters it would be the Whiner because I remember whining about having to do the project by my self. My first year in the engineering program, I was assigned with a team to design and construct a robotic arm capable of accomplishing a certain task. The project was to take the length of the semester to complete. Out of three other group members, only one met with me a few times. That member didn't even help build the final product so I finished building the robotic arm at home, finishing at 4:00 the morning it was due. On this current project, I will put forth my equal amount of labor and encourage others on their ideas and work so I'm not whining again about having to complete the project alone.

Of the roles listed in chapter 4, I would choose my role as being a mixture between the researcher and the designer. As the previous engineering students mentioned, my previous group work involved building a robotic arm that could lift a soda bottle. I did research on how we could accomplish the task most efficiently and then also laid out the design plan for how we would make our arm. My group made a beautifully functional robotic arm that performed above par.

Of the character traits I have to choose from, I would probably say I am most susceptible to being the whiner. I might not like how the group is doing something and speak up. I don't think I would really be whining to much rather just speaking up. I might also just think some assignments are worthless and a waste of time. To ensure this not happening I'm going to make the best of the project and see that it gets done well.

My ideal career choice is to be an editor, therefore in group work I normally take on that role. My most recent group projects have been in my journalism class last semester. For every story that was due, I would do all the editing. Although this class focuses on other areas of professional writing, like the memos and PR releases, the editing work will be along the same lines as what I did in journalism. Editing is something I have a passion for, so I feel like I can make a really good contribution to the group work though this outlet.

I think the role I would most likely adopt would be that of the Martyr. I don't necessarily mind doing extra work if I know that it will result in a good grade at the end. However, I like it to be acknowledged that I put in the extra effort. I always try to empathize with other group members if they didn't contribute as much, because there could be external reasons that I don't know about causing them to not do as much work. During this group project, I think communicating effectively with every group member will help all of us from becoming the "martyr." If everyone can agree on how to delegate responsibility, nobody will be left with too much of a work load.

In my past project experiences, I have often filled the cerebral roles of monitor/evaluator, plant and specialist. During one project, my group was told to make a powerpoint slide show about raccoons. Instead of just putting up facts and pictures, I acted as the plant and selected a picture of a raccoon disco dancing to put on a slide about a charity dance. This innovative idea helped the audience become more involved with the presentation and livened up the project. I think it is very important to come at projects with a creative and fresh point of view to reach a wide audience and get information across. During this current project, I plan to take the subject of NBC and really explore some of the more quirky problems, like YouTube videos and propaganda, to create more interest in the subject. I think I can make the group work very positive also by assessing issues within the project and figuring out creative solutions that will satisfy everyone in the group.

When identifying myself through "Feuds in Student Groups," I came to the conclusion that out of the categories, I am most like a whiner. As work starts piling up, I can become very overwhelmed. Instead of rising above the stress, I often just shut down and have a hard time gaining the motivation to complete tasks. I also have trouble finding motivation when I have group members that fit into the "Bully" category. During one group project I was involved in, the "bully" of our group finished all of their work over a week and a half in advance. I was the group leader and felt that I was filling my position inadequately and lost the desire to work because they had done a better job at finishing their work. I realize that according to the reading, the whiner is more concerned with inconvenience and other group members, so I don't feel that I fit perfectly into this category other than the pessimistic thoughts about the projects completion and quality. To avoid taking on this negative role, I plan to try and work out my time so that everything is not piled on at once and I feel able to complete the tasks set in front of me. I also need to analyze if there is a "bully" in my group and try to deal with that person effectively instead of shutting off.

I like to be more in control of things when working in groups because I feel that allows me to have more control over my grade. Therefore I often take on what I feel is a more important role in the group, such as the editor. It allows me to have direct influence on the outcome of the product itself. For example, I worked on my high school's yearbook staff and enjoyed everyone coming to me for advice from things like formatting and layouts of pages to helping make creative titles or editing their articles.

Unfortunately, my controlling nature is not always beneficial. I have also taken on the martyr role before, mostly in elementary school, because I knew the other kids were lazy and I did not want to be penalized for their lack of effort. I was the one who would work during recess to ensure my grade was good, even if it meant assigning undue credit to my other group members as well. I did not care if they helped or not, and I made sure they knew it. I just wanted to do the best I could and sometimes my 9 year old logic meant excluding the deadbeats and working on my own to get things done the right way.