Group Project- American Second Harvest
Lisa
groupprojects.pptDynamics of Group Projects
Dr. WJ Mueller
Why Give a Group Project?
- I remember being in college and not liking group projects
- Many times I remember feeling it would be so much easier to do it myself
- Now I am asking you to do a group project, Why?
Who Uses Group Projects?
- I have talked to a number of former students and many are required to do the equivalent of group projects in their work
- I have talked to executives who use the “teams” approach to problem solving and for completing projects
- Another name for groups is: multidisciplinary environmental problem-solving (Shaw)
Why are Companies Going to Groups?
- They are finding that:
- creativity increases
- Tasks are more likely to be completed on schedule
- It is a way of working through a task that is too complex for one person to do
- Productivity increases
- Job satisfaction increases (hard to imagine at first)
(Glick, Shaw)
If this is happening in the real world, then I need to be teaching it, so you go into the real world better prepared
How does it apply to this class—a web class?
- I know several people who are working on teams comprised of individuals from different parts of the country. Some never meet their group members personally, but do everything electronically or by telephone.
- A friend is an engineer and is working on several projects at a time. He commonly has projects going in such places as Russia, Washington DC, and Los Angeles all at the same time
How does this apply to this class, a web class (cont.)?
- He often works with people from different companies
- He assembles his teams according to expertise, without regard to where the physical location of these experts are
- A lot hinges on these groups succeeding; all are multi-million dollar projects
Objective
- The objective of the group project for this class is to develop the skills needed to work effectively in a group setting
How do you go about it? Follow these steps…
- Establish and maintain communications
- Gather information about the subject
- Communicate
- Outline the process
- Steps that must be taken to complete the task
- Outline when each task must be completed in order to complete the assignment by the deadline
How do you go about it (cont.)?
- Communicate
- Use the information gathered to outline the project
- Communicate
- Find out who in the group has what strengths
- Communicate
- Divide the tasks evenly among the group members
- Communicate
- Set deadlines
- Communicate
- Develop Conflict-resolution skills
Communication
- This is the key
Conflict Resolution
- Most groups will have conflict or experience problems
- The problems need to be addressed
- Glick, et al, suggest that people take one of three approaches to conflict resolution
- Smoothing and avoiding
- Confront and resolve (Try this one)
- Bargaining and forcing
- It is worthwhile to go to the web and read more about it (see Glick, next slide)
Literature Cited
- 2004. Research-Group Projects. http://www.bren.ucsb.edu/research/group_projects.asp
- Glick, LJ. Surviving the Group Project: A Note on Working in Teams. http://web.cba.neu.edu/~ewertheim/teams/ovrvw2.htm#Introduction
- Shaw JD, MK Duffy, EM Stark. 2000. Interdependence and Preference for Group Work: Main and Congruence Effects on the Satisfaction and Performance of Group Members. Journal of Management. Vol. 26 No. 2 pp. 259-279
