Polish my essay

Yifei Li

Yifei Li

Professor Hartley

MGT 456

12/15/2014

What Makes an Effective Team?

Our team is composed of Michael Singletary, Shahar Aframian, Alina Sarkissian, Dain Valdes, Kyle Duncan and I. The goal of our team is to shoot a film to finish our team project. Unfortunately, our group disbanded because one of our team members, Shahar, wanted to leave the group. His reason was the result of our film shooting failed to reach his expectation. Without consulting us before his departure, he emailed his decision to the professor directly. This action made us so surprised, because he did not express any intent to leave on the day we filmed. Few hours later, another group member, Alina, informed us she wanted to leave the group too. Her reason was that it is wise for her to finish independent project rather than group due to her family emergency. Then we had a meeting with professor after Monday class and decided to finish this paper.

Conflict in groups is common. Sometimes conflict is a positive element. Without it, people would not be challenged to think beyond their everyday, routine boundaries. Everyone hold different perspective, values and interests because of their different background, lifestyle or education. That diversity can enrich the discussion the ideas and project goals if the conflict and tension that emerge are resolved and the group uses the learning to improve its work. However, conflict can also be negative and adversely affect the success of the group. Obviously, our team’s conflict is negative. We failed to resolve the conflict and it seems that Shahar’s departure caused the dissolution. However, that does not just happen overnight. More potential causes already existed in our group.

First, group forming. Rothwell mentioned why we join groups and list the following reasons: need to belong, interpersonal attraction, attraction to group activities, attraction to group goals and establishment of meaning and identity. He also pointed out “the reasons individuals join groups have noticeable effects on the productivity and cohesiveness of those groups” (Rothwell, 2007, p.76). Apparently, our group lacks most of them. I remember we joining the Team 7 were not out of these above reasons; we are the only six people left in the class who are not join other groups, so we form the group automatically. Therefore, compared to other groups having been familiar with their group members, we spent more time to know each other. In further, I think we are the only six left, more or less, are a little bit introverted. Since if we good at talking, building connections with others, we will not be left.

Second, lacking cohesion. Last semester I took group communication class, the professor told us cohesion is a strong predictor in a group. And two typical forces for retention are attraction and involvement. Our group also lacks these two elements. Attraction can be interpersonal attraction and group attraction. For interpersonal attraction, as I mentioned before, most of our group members are introverted including me. We seldom talk about ourselves and share some interesting experience during the group meetings. It is likely we are not unfamiliar with each other, so it caused everyone behaves overly polite. And tension like long periods of uncomfortable silence or careful to avoid controversy are often occurred in our group meeting. Therefore, everyone’s expectation on the group is not very high. I remembered group communication class told us if the expectation is not met your level, the cohesion will be lower. For another, involvement is another problem in our group. Everyone is very busy with their work and has different work schedule. We did not have a formal meeting until the virtual class day, which means it only three weeks away from our presentation day and we need finish all of it. It seems everything in a rush and time conflict in our group adds to the difficulty.

The last but not the least, the project should be a group work rather than individual work. In this filming project, we need finish multiple tasks, such as deciding topic, coming up film plot, writing script, borrowing filming equipment, choosing filming location and so on. Among all these tasks, topic and plot are very important, because an interesting plot and proper topic can increase the involvement of group members. However, we just split up the tasks and each one finishes his or her task. We lack communication and cooperation during our task completion. I remembered one time Michael emailed us his finished script and asked our opinions, no one answered it for some reasons. It resulted in we found some problems on the day we acted. That is why Shahar said it did not reach his expectation after the filming day. We made a mistake here-- coming up film plot and dialogue should not finish by one person, it should be a group task, because it is a brainstorming step, and everyone express their opinions to enrich the diversity of the film, and if problem comes out, we can solve it immediately.

When we received Sharhar’s email and told us he wanted to leave the group, the conflict management we used was avoiding. It is likely that everything happened in a sudden. We did not know Shahar’s leaving intent until we received his email, and he insisted to leave before we finding a solution. From my perspective, Shahar should contact us before he emailed the professor. If we fail to resolve the conflict, then he can tell his decision to professor. Now his action shows that he avoided communicating with us. And for the rest of our group member, we avoided contacting Shahar as well. We did not take any action to response Shahar’s leaving. Both parties sidestepped the conflict until to Monday’s class. In addition, I emailed my thoughts to Michael, Kyle and Dain and asked them opinions; Michael and Kyle were neutral on this issue and Dain did not response me. No one stand out to try to find a way and solve the conflict. Until that time I just realized how weak cohesiveness our group had. In the following I will apply our difficult conversation into three conversations.

First，“What happened” conversation. When I got Shahar’s email, I tried to recall what happened on filming day. From my point of view, the conflict looks happened in a sudden, but some clues have shown that Shahar’s intent. I remembered he complained about he had time conflict of next filming day; he said he had marketing project, management test and paper due in the following week. However, we did not take his complaint into account, and we thought maybe he just complained.

Second, the feelings conversation. When I knew one of our group member wanted to leave, I feel lost. My brain was completely blank at the moment, because I never met the situation before and no idea how to react it. So did Michael. I came across he on compass and talked about this issue, he expressed he was so frustrating. At the time he got email, he closed laptop and light in the room, sitting and contemplating for a long time. No doubt it is a heavy blow to our group. Shahar’s leaving means we were at the risk of disbanding and all the effort we put before would be in vain.

Third, the identity conversation. I doubted myself for a long time after the issue happened. Am I good team member? Did I do something for the group? I looked back all my behaviors in the group and found that I did make a mistake. In this project, I was in charge of to act, so I thought what I should do was only participate on time, memorize all the dialogue and that’s it. I neglected we were teamwork. It is necessary for me to know other people thoughts and feelings and if they have some problems, we should come up solutions together. For example, if I took seriously Shahar’s complaint and help him found solutions with other team members, perhaps he would not leave.

I reflected on myself for a long time since the conflict happened. Conflicts occurred in teamwork are common, but it is my first time facing dismiss. In my past group work experience, many a time had I met challenges or difficulties, the group I joined always can get over it and complete task finally. I thought this time was no exception. Unfortunately, this is not the case. I spent a lot of time on seeking what is the difference between this group and the past group I attended, and the answer I think is about role-play. I used to play an information giver in the group. Since in the past teamwork, the majority of content was about business case analysis. I am good at data analysis and solving statistical and economic problems, so what I did most was calculation and data analysis. My work played an important role in business teamwork because the following recommendation and solution for a case are based on my data. Therefore, I never doubt my ability in a group. However, my advantage fails to exert well in this conflict management class group. Since filming project is not related to business, and my introverted personality and language barrier make me become a worthless people in the group. In this group I am like passive person. I tried to play my function but I failed. Writing script, coming up filming ideas, skills to shoot are not my strengths, so I always try to avoid it. I admit I should be blamed in the issue, but it will always remind me avoiding cannot be a solution to a problem and it could be worse in some cases.

Two suggestions I have for the future group work. First, be active to choose your group members. Having good and cooperative team members is key factor leading to success. If the professor assigns teamwork at the beginning of the semester, you need build connection with your classmates as soon as possible. It will help you know their personality and their strengths and choose one who can complement with you. Second, communication is important. From my mistake, I realize communication is crucial between all members, regardless of what role each person plays. Effective communication not only can finish task smoothly but also establish kind rapport with other members. It helps creating a good working environment and contributes to conflict solving.

This issue brings me frustration, stress and self-doubt for a long time. At one time, I put all the blame on Shahar, because his reckless decision made all other team members into trouble. But now I am grateful for the tough situation, it gives me a chance to reflect on myself. And it did teach me a lot and it will always remind me how to be a good team member in the future.

Work Cited

1. Rothwell, J. Dan. In Mixed Company: Communicating in Small Groups and Teams. 5th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2007. Print.

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