In one of my accounting classes, I worked with four
other group members all together to do the accounting projects throughout the
whole semester. At the first project, everyone met in the BIF in order to get
familiar with each other. Since this was the first time we formally met each
other, we had no idea about each others personalities and working styles.
Hence, we started to read and analyze the case altogether and brainstorm after
finishing readings. Since I was the first one who finished the readings at
home, I brought out my ideas about the whole contents should include in our
group projects. I designed three main bodies which focused on different areas
of the company and listed corresponding bullet points under each topic. After
listening to my plan for this project, all the other group members agreed on my
version and no one came up with new ideas. Hence, we started to assign those
three body parts and one introduction and one conclusion. Each group members
would pick any part they wanted from above five components. One of the group
members showed up late so he picked the conclusion part and volunteered to do
the proofreading. From the first work, I realized that if someone came up with
full ideas while others did not know much about the case contents, it is hard
for them to came up with their own ideas after listening to other’s thoughts.
In order to avoid this kind of limitation of ideas happened in the future, we
made an agreement that everyone needed to read the case before showing up in
the meeting and all group members needed to contribute thoughts for the
project. In addition, we elected one person as our liaison who was responsible
for checked the due date of all projects and contacted everyone one week
earlier to set up the meeting schedule. Moreover, we also elected one person as
proofreaders who were also responsible for printing out every final project
handed in class and uploaded via compass 2g.
On the second time, everyone showed up on time as
requested by our liaison. This time, our class required each group present in
front of the whole class. Thus, we need to practice the group presentation
after completing the work. Then, we elected one person as the timekeeper to
monitor each member’s speech length and warned when the member talked longer
than the expected time. Moreover, we also elected one person as a recorder to
write down all the ideas proposed by group members to make sure we did not miss
any good point. Lastly, we assigned one group member as questioner who was
responsible for collecting any question asked by group members and going to
office hour to ask either TA or professor and then gave feedback to us.
At this point, every group member had his or her
own role and particular responsibilities in the team. For each project, we would
have five parts and assign the task by following first come first pick rule. If
one of the members felt challenged in selected parts, he or she could still ask
help for all the team members or switched the part with the approve of the
other team member. For the presentation part, if one team member need more time
than the assigned minutes such as three minutes for everyone, we will discuss
all together to see who did not need to present for three minutes or whose part
was less important would share out his time to the needed person. Therefore,
our group worked very effectively and unitedly. Everyone would help each other
to solve the problems. Most time, we kept the tradition of democracy to achieve
consensus. We shared the risks and rewards equally, which created a friendly
and collaborative working environment.
It seems implied by what you said that the team members were assigned by the instructor of the course. Is that right? If not, it would have been good to include a bit on how the group was formed.
ReplyDeleteI have found that students don't really understand how to write a paper and think of it as a division of labor problem, which is probably a bad way to consider it. (Ask yourself whether you could have done the entire thing yourself on the first project.) Much more important is to get multiple perspectives on the issues. But then there will be redundancy of effort. The redundancy is not inefficient in this case, because people will come at the questions the paper address differently. Those differences need to be hashed out. The group effort is found fundamentally in that type of negotiation. So each member of the group then owns the whole paper, not just the particular segment that they worked on. If people only contribute on one piece of the paper, how the pieces tie together becomes a real problem.
In class presentations are a different matter because (a) some people are comfortable in front of an audience while others are not, (b) some of the team members may not speak English as their first language, and (c) it may be easier for the audience to get used to one presenter than to listen to several different presenters in sequence. On the other hand, if the presentation is done as an interview with a moderator, then multiple presenters can be more engaging.
I did like at the end your talking about a friendly environment. Absent a boss to make decisions for the group, collaborative decision making needs such an environment to make progress. Otherwise the group can get stuck by not knowing how to resolve differences in point of view.
The instructor would assign by team members with particular considerations. You mentioned a very important point that how the pieces tie together. We have worked out this problem at the very beginning. It is actually very simple to solve. First, during group discussion, we already determine the contents of each part in order to make sure we did not cover the same point and avoid redundancy problem. Second, we have one proofreader who is not only responsible for checking the grammar and content structures but also for integrating everyone’s part to make sure the paper looked like finished by one person. In fact, it is inefficient to complete the whole project on their own because it is too time-consuming probably take one person’s entire week to do the research, write the paper and prepare for the presentation. Instead, all these work could be completed by the team probably only in three days.
ReplyDeleteFor class presentations, I do understand it is hard for international students to present fluently and confidently, but as a student in college of business, everyone was forced to present several times per semester for each class. Maybe at first, some students feel awkward to present in front of the whole class, eventually they will get used to it as they were forced to practice over and over again. In addition, as we needed to work together for the whole semester, we were getting to know each other more and more. When any accident such as forgetting the contents for presentation, the other team members could actually cover you and replace you to talk about your part. Because we have been practiced for many times privately, we were very familiar with each other’s part. Hence, we felt very relaxed and confident to present in public.