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In this activity, please share your own experiences as a resource for learning by establishing relevancy and immediate application of knowledge (Merriam 2001, Ber 2001). You will use the information from the readings to apply task, maintenance, and individual roles to analyze and evaluate goals, social, and interpersonal aspects of your colleagues' experiences (Ber 2001).

Creating a New Post:

Click on the Plus sign in the lower right hand corner to create a new post.

In the post, create a title with your name

First Task - Share:

In the body of the post, please share your prior group experiences using the following criteria:

Share a time when your group worked very well together. Please include how working in the group made you feel and what aspects of the group made the experience positive and functional. What is your definition of a functional, successful group?

What is your definitive of a dysfunctional group? Share a time when a group in which you worked was dysfunctional or difficult to work with. Please include how working in the group made your feel and what aspects of the group made the experience negative.

Please finish this post by Oct 19th, 2019 to allow time for your colleagues to read and comment.

Second Task - Comment:

For each of your colleagues, please read the post and comment using the following criteria:

For both the positive and negative group experiences, identify task, maintenance, and individual functions/roles/effects that may have contributed to those experiences. Use information from the readings to help you develop your response.

For the negative experiences, please identify task, maintenance, or "tips' that one could use to address or improve the group environment. Could this have been prevented? Use information from the readings to help you develop your response.

Please finish this response by Oct 23rd, 2019.

Addressed Cognitive Level and Theory:
Understanding: Comprehends, explains, gives an example

Analyzing: Troubleshooting, gathering information and selecting appropriate responses

Applying: Applying knowledge to solve problems; demonstrates, solves, and uses

Evaluating: Selecting most effective solution

Please contact me with any questions or issues: anguyen031@gmail.com

Ber R, Alroy G (2001) Twenty years of experience using trigger films as a teaching tool.  Academic Medicine, 76(6): 656-8.

Merriam SB (2001) Andragogy and Self‐Directed Learning: Pillars of Adult Learning Theory, New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 2001(8): 3-14

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Functional group:
My best experience with a functional group has been that of working with my business partners.  This group makes me feel fulfilled even when I am frustrated with any one of them or the situation.  The group development started over 14 years ago.  In the first year, we were in the process of planning for the new business.  During this time, we came to realize that each of us had strengths and weaknesses that we brought to the table.  Over the first year of the business, we did a great deal of storming. What made the storming successful was regularly scheduled regrouping to make sure that we all wanted to go in the same direction.
The ability to develop and modify our relationships over time has enhanced our functionality as a team.

Dysfunctional group:
In a previous employment arrangement, I worked with a team that never seemed to be able to find time to speak with one another.  There would be emails, occasionally text messages but only rare face to face discussions with one another.  We saw each other in the same office space every day and yet were rarely able to have a true conversation.  I found that I struggled to understand my place in the group and left work feeling unsuccessful and frustrated. I was not sure of the direction that we were looking to achieve.  It is likely that I could have done a better job in communicating with the other members of the team but reached a level of frustration where I could not regain my confidence.

I look forward to reading everyone's comments.

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Functional group

In my previous role as a new anatomy demonstrator I worked very closely with a small team within the anatomy department.  Everyone just seemed to click and there was a dynamic energy about the group. When I think back to that time one of the key things that stood out was that I felt incredibly supported. Everyone seemed to have a positive ‘can-do’ approach and there were great role-models. Everyone had a common goal which was to deliver excellence in teaching and to create an environment to enhance the student learning experience. I had a particularly good working relationship with two members of the group, and during these few years together we managed to undertake and deliver some quite substantial projects. Everyone seemed to know what each others’ strengths (and perhaps, weaknesses) were, and so we were able to play to those strengths.

A functional group is one which promotes equity among its members, identifies common goals and fosters a supportive, enjoyable working ethos.

Dysfunctional group

In my mind, the definition of a dysfunctional group is one which lacks social or professional cohesion and common goals.

I don't think I've ever worked in a totally dysfunctional group such that differences or difficulties were impossible to overcome. A recent tutor group of mine showed some quite obvious tensions in working approaches in directed learning tasks. One particular mature student (Student A) struggled during the first year, particularly with terminology (second language difficulties) and also with grasping some of the course material.  A second mature student (Student B) in the group had already completed a PhD prior to vet school and took a much more relaxed approach to group work.  Student A became quite stressed by apparent relaxed stance that Student B (possibly) was promoting among all other group members.  To resolve this we had to discuss and work through the different approaches to learning and to reinstate the common ground rules that they were supposed to have agreed at the beginning of the year. It think the fact that they all approached the problem with maturity helped to advance the group through this difficult patch, although I don't think the group ever really gelled completely.

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Emma's comments on Rebecca's functional group

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Emma's comments on Rebecca's functional group

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Rebecca, for your description of your functional group, I got a very really sense of the Maintenance operations of the group, but less so of the Task operations. These were as follows:

Task
Coordinating – in the early days this group held plenty of storming sessions which likely helped to seal ground rules and establish a group working ethos.
Developing procedures – by regularly scheduling regrouping

The fact that a lot of “storming” took place over the first year implies that many of Task elements were likely to have been covered in these meetings. For example,  to establish group direction, there needs to have been an element of Opinion Seeking.

Maintenance
Compromising – Rebecca shows a sense of compromise in her statement “…makes me feel fulfilled even when I’m frustrated with any one of them…situation”.  Also, the fact that this group has a great ability to modify their relationships suggests an ability to compromise.
Listening – storming sessions were regularly held to reassess direction.  This cannot be done successfully without listening.
Encouraging – The team members sound like they are very encouraging of one another.
Following – This group recognises one another’s strengths and weaknesses, therefore it follows that they are able to accept and appreciate one another’s ideas.

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Rebecca's comments on Emma's functional team

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Rebecca's comments on Emma's functional team

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Functional group
Roles of the team members:  you identify that the team had role models and that each member brought something to the team. Individual team roles such as the coordinator, elaborator,  or opinion giver are not identified.
Emma identifies the key components of the successful group as able to identify common goals, promotes equity and is supportive.  These qualities support the presence of the roles described above.  The team member roles allow the feeling of support provided by the individual.
It is implied that during the early tasks together you were able to accomplish substantial goals.  Emma does not state proceeding through a storming phase to reach the performing segment.  Tasks are centered around the common goals of delivering a good student experience.
Constructive tasks would focus around developing learning opportunities for the students.
Development tasks for the team are not clearly described but likely would have enhanced the social and structural bonds within the team.

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Emma's comments on Rebecca's dysfunctional group

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Emma's comments on Rebecca's dysfunctional group

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By definition, this did not look to be a team at all.  There was no ‘social’ element to the group structure and therefore it did not appear that any ‘interdependence’ had developed in which members become cognitive coordination between them.  By the fact that Rebecca struggled to find her place in the group could imply that there was some Status Differential Effects, although more details of individual group members is needed. Could it be that a higher status group member did not have interest or faith in the task, and this therefore led to a ‘‘Ganging up on the task’ effect?

It seems that there was a distinct lack of almost all Task and Maintenance roles, particularly Facilitating communication.

Establishing ground rules of the group (e.g., defining communication rules) and then sticking to them would have been a clear first step towards turning this group into a functional one. Establishing roles would have helped Rebecca feel part this group and then some commitment to monitoring progress would have been useful.

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Rebecca's response to Emma's dysfunctional team

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Rebecca's response to Emma's dysfunctional team

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In Emma's dysfunctional team, it would appear that their was a need for a return to the foundational activities to re-establish the social norms for the group.  By agreeing to the social norms, and clarifying the roles within the group, these students would have the opportunity to identify acceptable and mutual goals that may allow the success that each is looking for.

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Functional group.
I've had several relatively recent experiences working in a 'functional group'. Both of these occurred when I was assigned to a group for one of my online classes. So in both cases, we met 'virtually' for our synchronous meetings and also used Google Docs to work together on our project. In both cases, the group was together for a few weeks, and terminated once the project was complete, so the time frame was relatively short - several weeks. In each group, a leader emerged within the first meeting. This person was organized and helped to keep the group on task during the meeting, as well as set the action items at the end of each meeting. For both experiences, we also identified everyone's individual roles and responsibilities within the first meeting. I think this really helped to ensure everyone knew what to do, and so everyone contributed equally to the tasks. In both cases, we also established contact information so we were able to communicate by text and email when things came up between our meeting times.  In both cases the groups made me feel energized and empowered. The projects could have been very difficult, but working with the groups made it manageable and less intimidating. I think the keys to a successful group are good communication, and setting guidelines for individual roles/responsibilities and timelines early on. Formally establishing the 'norms' really helps the group work together quickly.

Dysfunctional group.
I am not able to think of a dysfunctional group experience, although I know I've had them! Right now I have a class of students who are doing some small group work on their own - meaning that there is no one available to sit in on their meetings. Last week I had everyone reflect individually and privately on how their group was functioning. It was quite interesting. In some groups, everyone was happy. In about half the groups, one or two people were very unhappy, while others were quite happy. There were no groups in which all members reported being unhappy. One student commented that she had done the entire group assignment last week by herself. This makes me wonder whether the problem lies largely with her - that she is not letting others contribute, or doesn't trust their work. Many individuals commented that communication was a big factor related to how well their group was working. Many other students commented on timing issues - where some students wanted to hand the assignment in early in the week, while others wanted to wait until the deadline. I can see where this could cause issues when people who function differently are in the same group - especially if they don't communicate those desires. I would say it's very frustrating to work in a group where people don't respond to your emails or don't submit their portion by deadlines. (like this post! My apologies for being so late - it's been a really rough week!)