The first passage that I really stuck out to me is located on page 198 paragraph 2. The “college boy” is supposed to be this smart and higher educated member of the manual labor working group. However, his group members mess around with him when they discover he can’t do some of the job requirements as well as they can. The reason this passage stuck out to me is because I think schools in general (whether it be highschool or college, private or public) don’t teach students practical skills. Instead, they teach students important dates in history, special math formulas, and expect students to memorize all of that for tests and quizzes. Schools should incorporate classes that teach life skills and lessons. For example, laundry, cooking, and money skills.
The next passage that I found particularly interesting can be located on page 202 paragraph 5 and continues to the first paragraph of the following page. This passage discusses the notion of task leaders and socioemotional leaders. I agree with the authors when they say these types of leaders can coexist with each other in the same group dynamic. I think it’s probably better to have two separate individuals taking on the two separate leadership roles. This way they can help out each other when necessary. Furthermore, if one single leader had to take on the responsibilities of both the task leader and socioemotional leader, they would probably get overwhelmed by the workload eventually.
DISCUSSION QUESTION: Do you think it is more effective in a group setting to have one person as both the task and socioemotional leader or is it better to have two separate leaders and why?
One of the passages that really stood out to me was the Interdependence section. “That is, everyone relies on everyone else to do a specific part of the overall job well. A group cannot function properly if its members do not work interdependently… Rather, it works as a transacted outcome of the communication between group members” (Pg 194 Par 3). When groups get projects sometimes you get person who doesn’t want to do the work. That can make the other workers more stressed and angry which will start conflicts between the group. Best way to not have this happen is have everyone come together and form a game plan that everyone likes so the work gets done by everyone.
Another passage that I thought was helpful was Leadership Styles. What I thought was useful about the passage was it shows the different ways people take stride throughout projects. “Task leaders focus on the performance of tasks to ensure the achievement of the group goals. Socioemotional leaders focus on group member satisfaction and well-being” (Pg 202 Ch 2). Not everyone thinks or is sociable as the other person, so people use their strengths and strategies to make sure the group does well and the task gets executed to perfection.
C: I found the section related to interdependence not only to be very interesting but I think that it applies to all of the projects that we need to accomplish here in college, and later in life as well. Most of our lives we will be relying on the work that we produce to satisfy requirements in our careers. We will be asked to make deadlines and spend time doing work outside of the workplace. The book references sports teams, coaches organize their players by communicating and players make calls on the field to communicate with their teammates. The chain is only as strong as the weakest link, so when one person isn’t being productive it slows other group members down.
Q: Can a project still sound good and be cohesive if it is only accomplished through interdependent work?
Q: PG203, PR3
C: This section I found slightly confusing but in general I understood the information being conveyed. There is not a simple cut and dry definition or style of leadership. It is rather more of a spectrum, a leader can be formal or informal, they can prioritize tasks over group morale and vice versa. The best group leaders are able to accomplish both the tasks at hand and ensure that the morale of the group is high. Also a group does not necessarily have to have only one leader a group can have two or more leaders. This can become overwhelming if directions are coming from multiple different sources.
Q: Is it possible to fairly delegate the work that needs to be done without a group leader to make decisions?
Altirique McElveen
Professor Miller
Journal 12 Communications
18 Oct 2023
The first passage that stood out to me was the “Commitment” because the word itself is misinterpreted nowadays and isn’t represented the right way. (page 195, para 3) This paragraph touched on that individuals that partake in a group must commit to each other for all to succeed. When you’re committed to something you’re 100% on board without looking back. It also touches on the fact that some group members don’t always trust each other and want the best for the others which is really messed up. I feel like you should never feel that way about somebody you’re working with that’s not causing any problems. The second passage I’m going to touch on is “Leadership Power”.(Page 203, para 2,3 and 4) This topic stood out to me because it explained the stages of having power. Basically it states there’s 2 types of leadership : “Formal Power” and “Informal Power” , formal power means allocated by a system to particular people and informal power means things operate through relationships. This passage shared new information to me about the ways of power I needed to know while communicating.
Q: “A person’s first thought about leadership is that it involves a formal position in which a specific person has power over the others in the group”.
C:
Q: Why isn’t the topic of leadership and the abuse of power brought up more oftenly?
Comment (at least 75 words): Something I’ve always taken note of when in a group project is how commitment is of key importance. In a group project commitment ensures that everyone in the group not only flows together but that we’re also dedicated to completing the project at hand. What I’ve seen in group projects is that when every person of the group is committed to the project, everyone is more likely to contribute ideas, put in the required effort, and complete their assigned tasks on time.
Question: How can I make sure I’m doing my fair share of work compared to others?
Quote: page 200, under Group Decision Making is About Relationships
Comment (at least 75 words): In relationships with multiple people, it makes sense to involve everyone in making decisions that will affect everyone involved since it wouldn’t be pleasant to deal with the aftermath of not telling one person or everyone. Relationships always deal with emotional and personal factors, and because of this it’s nice to be considered in one, whether that be as a friendship or a romantic partner. Or even a teacher-student relationship, it’s always nice to be considered.
Question: What are the of group decision making compared to individual decision making?
Journal 12:
The first interesting passage in this chapter of CEIL starts on the first page, 4th paragraph. The section is labeled “What is a group?”. Unsurprisingly, the passage goes on to explain what being in a group means in all sorts of contexts. There are simpler definitions of what a group is in the passage as well as some deeper thoughts. One of these more complex ideas I found important was the idea that even though being apart of a group that is cohesive is important, being so in-tuned with your group members can also negatively impact the group as groupthink may begin to take over. Lastly, the figure labeled “Table 10.1” was extremely helpful in understanding what signifies what type of group a group is.
The second section I found interesting in this chapter was the passage labeled “leadership ethics” and is found in page 205, paragraph 2. This was interesting to me because I have never really thought about how a leader of a group may have to be aware of more than just the objective on hand. Thinking about ethics essentially means that you have to be keenly aware of every aspect of your groupmates. This is crucial to your success as a group as knowing who you are leading is the best way to make sure everyone is accommodated and treated equally.
Q: How far do the ethics of the leader of a group extend? What type of context could be used to make sure the leader still is respecting personal boundaries?
This section was about one of the different sources of power that leaders have over their subordinates. This section specifically was about informal power, which is the kind of power that one gets from day to day interactions and casual conversations. What I wanted to say is that to me, this sort of power is by far the most important for one simple reason. It garners loyalty above all else. Loyalty is the single most important tool in a leader’s arsenal towards maintaining power. If you are not loved, then people won’t obey you. They will even break the rules if you are disliked enough, which in extreme cases can make formal power null and void. If someone is good at naturally obtaining informal power, then they have my respect. Which I suppose means they have informal power over me.
Page 197, Paragraph 5
In this section, “Disruptive Roles”, the text very very (pretend the second very in is bold. I don’t know how to access bold/italics on this site) briefly goes over, well, disruptive roles. Disruptive roles are “those functioning in opposition to group productivity and cohesion”. But my question is what is the point? Doesn’t that go against the whole idea? Perhaps that is the point? I don’t know. They mentioned some examples in the text but they were very vague and did not elaborate on them at all whatsoever.
I’ll make my question short and simple. They listed several different sources of power a leader can have in this chapter. In your opinion, which one is the most important?
The idea that I liked in this passage is the difference between a group and a group. This means the difference between the groups in class for project #2 and a group of people that are waiting for the bus, truly completely different. A group is a collection of people who will recognize shared membership and who have a common purpose for the forming of the group. Although the group at the bus may complete the requirements for having a common purpose, communication is a key factor in the decision of it being a group or not. Also, the bus group lacks the shared sense of membership.
page 196, para 6
I like the unique thought process of there being different member roles of a group. The passage goes on to talk about roles in the sense of movies, where people act out things that fit with other people acting out things. Group roles are placed into 5 categories: formal roles, informal roles, task roles, social roles, and disruptive roles. All or some of these roles could fit into a single group, however, some of the roles are opposites of each other like formal roles are the opposite of informal roles and task roles seem to be the opposite of disruptive roles. I like how these roles can change the dynamics of the group and either create a good or bad group environment.
In this paragraph there was one part that really stuck out to me, and it was that everyone relies on everyone else to do a specific part of the overall job well. When doing group projects, sometimes your partners may not be into the project like you are. This may lead to you relying on them to do something, but then your groupmate may not do any work leaving it all to you. When things like this happen I get stressed out because I am not sure if I am able to do all the work on my own and there would be a lot of it.
Page 198 Paragraph 2
In this paragraph the author talks to us about the college boy. The college boy being talked about is someone who went through higher education and assumed to be this smarter guy among the other manual laborers he is working with. Knowing he is the smarter one, the other workers in his group mess around with him because they see that he cannot do all the jobs that they can do or as well as them. This made me think about the fact that schools teach us things like molecules, fractions, and the French Revolution while on the other hand some people will go into a trade and learn how to be a carpenter which is something they will be doing every day for the rest of their lives.
Q: “Although cohesiveness has been found to assist group effectiveness, a negative consequence of cohesiveness has been identified. An attempt to be cohesive at the expense of anything else can sometimes get in the way of a group’s effective functioning. If everyone wants to keep everyone else happy rather than make tough decisions, this leads to a special kind of conformity. Sometimes, people would rather preserve good relationships than make good decisions.”
C: This passage stuck out to me because I have personal experience with being in groups where it feels like it’s more important to keep good relationships with the members rather than be effective at working together as a group. Whether it be working with friends and not wanting to get into any arguments because you care about them, or working with strangers that you don’t know well enough to gauge what will and won’t upset them, it can be very inefficient to keep everyone in the group happy. People-pleasing can also lead to unfair distribution of work in a group, which is never good in a group.
Q: How can a group be cohesive without this kind of conformity? What can be done to prevent this ‘negative consequence’?
Q: “In that case, the other member of the group may be said to have informal power. This type of leadership power has not been formally granted but rather has developed through the group’s interactions. This power is often based on liking, relationships, and communication competence. There may be a formally designated group leader, but group members generally go along with the wishes and direction of someone else in the group. In other cases, a group may not have a designated leader, but someone rises and is able to exert influence on the other members.”
C: In most groups I have worked with, no one has necessarily been assigned the role of ‘leader’, but rather someone has naturally fallen into the role. In some situations, certain kinds of people are most effective at dividing the work and giving instructions, especially if they know the group well. It also doesn’t have to be the most outgoing or talkative person, for example I have fallen into leadership roles despite having no desire to lead groups–it just sometimes happens naturally.
Q: Is it more effective to have an appointed leader or to let people fall into their roles over time? What situations may require one or the other type of leadership?
This chapter was talking all about group work and how to work well with others to create a healthy group environment. I really liked this chapter because it highlighted how to work well with others in a group setting. And specifically I feel like it helped prepare me for how our group project is going to go.
One section that I really liked was the second paragraph on page 190. This paragraph talked about the composition of groups, and I just really liked it. I liked how it was talking about groups being between people with a shared interest and in some cases you could have close friends as part of those work groups. I really liked how they talked about the composition of a group due to us getting split into groups. In a classroom setting you all are on the same page of understanding and learning material in order to help better yourselves and get a good grade. So having that as our area of interest made it hard, but being able to see how a group is supposed to be uncomfortable through the beginning stages and then evolved once you know one another better was really cool to see. My question for this section is, the friendships that you form in groups do they last outside of the group work?
The second section that really stood out to me was on page 203 para 4. This section talked about informal power. I really liked this because informal power is something that is so real in group projects. No one is assigned as a leader at the beginning, you just start to understand one another and start delegating and taking over roles as it seems fit. Informal power just highlights that because it is someone who is in charge without being formally appointed, and they are in charge because of how they developed and worked with their peers. My question is, without delegating a leader of the group could there be tension and create an environment that doesn’t encourage work to be done?
These passages stuck out to me the most because they talk about how an overall group or team’s successfulness is based on a feeling of being connected or together as one. These feelings can stem from the employees’ relationships outside of work, but it can also come from their abilities to communicate and their actions while working together. This sense of connection or “cohesiveness” is the primary source of the groups emotional exchanges and communication has a huge role to play in these exchanges as well. The same goes for the opposite where any negative connections can cause harm or affect a groups effective effort or get in the way of production.
Page 196 Paragraph 3-6
I found these discussions about group norms to be very interesting because groups sort of designate certain behaviors for people in each group. These group norms effect how teams operate or communicate in any setting, whether it is a very open space to freely communicate or whether there is a hierarchy of power within. These group norms show us the values of the groups, where if a group is open to discussing all issues, low ranking employees may fear retribution from more respected employees for saying something wrong. It can indict a level of fear or worry where employees fear to speak out and express their concerns.
Page 197 Paragraph 4
I chose this passage because it talks about the social roles of being in a group and this can help with my group. One thing that I mentally highlighted was the communication piece. It is important to maintain a positive relationship with your group throughout the whole process. As soon as the relationship deteriorates then the group could deteriorate as well. It does not have to be anything crazy with positive relationships, it is just small encouragement. If a person notices one member may seem out of the loop or maybe just a little quiet because they do not know the rest of the group as well reach out and try to build that connection. Also recognizing accomplishments will help the morale of the group.
Page 203 Paragraph 2
The next paragraph I looked into was one about leadership power. It goes on to talk about how power is distributed. It talks about how there are two different types of power. One being formal power and the next one being informal power. It talks about how power is distributed through communication and recognizing the relationships you have within your group. If one person is fairly confident they can take on the role of the leader and have the most power then you can communicate that with your group and give that power to that person. However, the quietest person in the group may not have all the power.
Question: How did you decide who was going to have the most power in your own group?
One passage that stood out to me was on page 194 para 3. This passage stated “That is, everyone relies on everyone else to do a specific part of the overall job well. A group cannot function properly if its members do not work interdependently”. This stood out to me because it shows how group projects can’t function if everyone in the group does not participate. In a group project you can’t have two out of the three people doing all the work because it won’t be a good project. Another passage that stood out to me was on page 205 para 2. This passage stated “leadership ethics”. This stood out to me because there always has to be a leader in the group project who is going to keep everyone on task. It is a hard role to play and even harder to keep the group on task. Many people might not want to listen to the leader of the group or some people in the group will listen better then others. I wonder out of both of these passages I pulled how do leadership ethics affect a group? Another question I have is how can you make sure everyone does their part in a group project?
“Informal roles… for example, a group member may be a joker…” (pg 197, para 2)
I thought it was kind of silly but true for the book to mention this. I think having someone or multiple people be able to lighten the mood can honestly help a lot in a group. The stress in a group project can be a lot more so than in a solo project as you have many people counting on you to do your part. Both formal and informal roles hold equal value in a group dynamic, even the “joker.”
Would a “joker” be more frowned upon at a professional business level?
“Just because a person possesses formal power does not mean this person will be effective…” (pg 203, para 3)
I’m sure many people can attest to their boss being terrible and undeserving of their role. Just because someone is a leader, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re the best at it. They might just be the most charismatic and confident person in the group. Don’t get me wrong, those traits are valuable in a leader, but if they can’t keep the whole group’s interests in mind, that’s where the trouble arises. People want their leaders in any situation to be fair.
How are you supposed to confront someone who’s not doing well leading/organizing the group?
The question in the section about group culture, that asked whether being a disruptive group member could be considered ethical, really struck me, because typically my immediate answer would be “no”, especially because similar questions or statements are often without good intent. For example someone saying “I’m just playing devil’s advocate” when they’re really just being a jerk. However, sometimes disruptions can have a positive impact, especially if the group is going down a path of continual mistakes, or is acting with unwarranted hubris.
The question, after the sections on task leaders and socioemotional leaders asked “Some say that leaders must use authority to mobilize people to face tough decisions when the followers are struggling with change and personal growth. Others stress that leaders should take care of and nurture their followers. What do you think?” I have a lot of thoughts on this, but my two biggest one is that a good leader needs to know 1) how to do both and 2) when to do each. It can be very complicated, especially considering the variety among individuals and how they would respond to different leadership approaches.
page 195
In this paassage i liked how the talked about the group dynamic and the way that things can occur with multiple people in a group and how that leads to certian things going one way and some going the other when trying to satisfy everyone. All of this has to tie in with relationsips and personal feelings. You have to take into account the personality of the people involved. The last thing you would want is to put someone in a place where they feel sad, hurt, or embarassed.
The next passage i thought was important to discuss is the paragraph 4 on page 203 when discussing the informal power applied in business and in most grpup settings. I believe in any situation involving a group you have leaders by example and elected leaders through the use of informal power. This power is used by these people to hopefully try to help others without taking on that role of having to be the “mean boss”. These types of people show up in athletics and in projects.
question- How do you identoify these people?
While doing the reading I discovered a lot of helpful information about groups and leaders. The first half of the reading was stuff I mostly already knew more or less, however the second half is where I really started to learn some things. On page 200, paragraph 1, it talks about how group decision making is about relationships. This stood out to me because I knew that groups need to develop some sort of relationship with each other to get the task done, however I never understood how important developing a good relationship with your group members is. If everyone in the group has a trusting relationship with each other, then there should be no issues with not getting the project done on time, or someone not pulling their weight. The second passage that stood out to me was on page 205, paragraph 1, in which it talk about leadership ethics. This stood out to me because I see myself as a leader, and normally choose, or get elected to be, leader when in a group project setting. As I read deeper I learned that although books and teachers may say that ethics matter, it sure doesn’t matter to many business, political, and social leaders. This made me kind of upset because I feel like relationships are built on trust and ethics, and if we can’t even trust the leaders that we elected to be ethical themselves, then what is even the point of voting. This made me think of a question about ethics, that question being what would you do if your group leader, or just another peer, in your group said or did something unethical? I know I would certainly talk to the other peers in my group separately and ask for their thoughts and opinions on the subject and maybe even bring the teacher in, if needed. All in all this reading had a lot of good points on how to work as a group as efficiently as possible and it will definitely help my group and I succeed with our project.
18 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 12”
The first passage that I really stuck out to me is located on page 198 paragraph 2. The “college boy” is supposed to be this smart and higher educated member of the manual labor working group. However, his group members mess around with him when they discover he can’t do some of the job requirements as well as they can. The reason this passage stuck out to me is because I think schools in general (whether it be highschool or college, private or public) don’t teach students practical skills. Instead, they teach students important dates in history, special math formulas, and expect students to memorize all of that for tests and quizzes. Schools should incorporate classes that teach life skills and lessons. For example, laundry, cooking, and money skills.
The next passage that I found particularly interesting can be located on page 202 paragraph 5 and continues to the first paragraph of the following page. This passage discusses the notion of task leaders and socioemotional leaders. I agree with the authors when they say these types of leaders can coexist with each other in the same group dynamic. I think it’s probably better to have two separate individuals taking on the two separate leadership roles. This way they can help out each other when necessary. Furthermore, if one single leader had to take on the responsibilities of both the task leader and socioemotional leader, they would probably get overwhelmed by the workload eventually.
DISCUSSION QUESTION: Do you think it is more effective in a group setting to have one person as both the task and socioemotional leader or is it better to have two separate leaders and why?
One of the passages that really stood out to me was the Interdependence section. “That is, everyone relies on everyone else to do a specific part of the overall job well. A group cannot function properly if its members do not work interdependently… Rather, it works as a transacted outcome of the communication between group members” (Pg 194 Par 3). When groups get projects sometimes you get person who doesn’t want to do the work. That can make the other workers more stressed and angry which will start conflicts between the group. Best way to not have this happen is have everyone come together and form a game plan that everyone likes so the work gets done by everyone.
Another passage that I thought was helpful was Leadership Styles. What I thought was useful about the passage was it shows the different ways people take stride throughout projects. “Task leaders focus on the performance of tasks to ensure the achievement of the group goals. Socioemotional leaders focus on group member satisfaction and well-being” (Pg 202 Ch 2). Not everyone thinks or is sociable as the other person, so people use their strengths and strategies to make sure the group does well and the task gets executed to perfection.
Sawyer Ohman
CMM110-A
10/18/23
Journal #12
Q: PG194, PR5
C: I found the section related to interdependence not only to be very interesting but I think that it applies to all of the projects that we need to accomplish here in college, and later in life as well. Most of our lives we will be relying on the work that we produce to satisfy requirements in our careers. We will be asked to make deadlines and spend time doing work outside of the workplace. The book references sports teams, coaches organize their players by communicating and players make calls on the field to communicate with their teammates. The chain is only as strong as the weakest link, so when one person isn’t being productive it slows other group members down.
Q: Can a project still sound good and be cohesive if it is only accomplished through interdependent work?
Q: PG203, PR3
C: This section I found slightly confusing but in general I understood the information being conveyed. There is not a simple cut and dry definition or style of leadership. It is rather more of a spectrum, a leader can be formal or informal, they can prioritize tasks over group morale and vice versa. The best group leaders are able to accomplish both the tasks at hand and ensure that the morale of the group is high. Also a group does not necessarily have to have only one leader a group can have two or more leaders. This can become overwhelming if directions are coming from multiple different sources.
Q: Is it possible to fairly delegate the work that needs to be done without a group leader to make decisions?
Altirique McElveen
Professor Miller
Journal 12 Communications
18 Oct 2023
The first passage that stood out to me was the “Commitment” because the word itself is misinterpreted nowadays and isn’t represented the right way. (page 195, para 3) This paragraph touched on that individuals that partake in a group must commit to each other for all to succeed. When you’re committed to something you’re 100% on board without looking back. It also touches on the fact that some group members don’t always trust each other and want the best for the others which is really messed up. I feel like you should never feel that way about somebody you’re working with that’s not causing any problems. The second passage I’m going to touch on is “Leadership Power”.(Page 203, para 2,3 and 4) This topic stood out to me because it explained the stages of having power. Basically it states there’s 2 types of leadership : “Formal Power” and “Informal Power” , formal power means allocated by a system to particular people and informal power means things operate through relationships. This passage shared new information to me about the ways of power I needed to know while communicating.
Q: “A person’s first thought about leadership is that it involves a formal position in which a specific person has power over the others in the group”.
C:
Q: Why isn’t the topic of leadership and the abuse of power brought up more oftenly?
Colette Murphy
Professor Miller
CMM 110
10/19/2023
Journal #12
Quote: page 195, under commitment
Comment (at least 75 words): Something I’ve always taken note of when in a group project is how commitment is of key importance. In a group project commitment ensures that everyone in the group not only flows together but that we’re also dedicated to completing the project at hand. What I’ve seen in group projects is that when every person of the group is committed to the project, everyone is more likely to contribute ideas, put in the required effort, and complete their assigned tasks on time.
Question: How can I make sure I’m doing my fair share of work compared to others?
Quote: page 200, under Group Decision Making is About Relationships
Comment (at least 75 words): In relationships with multiple people, it makes sense to involve everyone in making decisions that will affect everyone involved since it wouldn’t be pleasant to deal with the aftermath of not telling one person or everyone. Relationships always deal with emotional and personal factors, and because of this it’s nice to be considered in one, whether that be as a friendship or a romantic partner. Or even a teacher-student relationship, it’s always nice to be considered.
Question: What are the of group decision making compared to individual decision making?
Journal 12:
The first interesting passage in this chapter of CEIL starts on the first page, 4th paragraph. The section is labeled “What is a group?”. Unsurprisingly, the passage goes on to explain what being in a group means in all sorts of contexts. There are simpler definitions of what a group is in the passage as well as some deeper thoughts. One of these more complex ideas I found important was the idea that even though being apart of a group that is cohesive is important, being so in-tuned with your group members can also negatively impact the group as groupthink may begin to take over. Lastly, the figure labeled “Table 10.1” was extremely helpful in understanding what signifies what type of group a group is.
The second section I found interesting in this chapter was the passage labeled “leadership ethics” and is found in page 205, paragraph 2. This was interesting to me because I have never really thought about how a leader of a group may have to be aware of more than just the objective on hand. Thinking about ethics essentially means that you have to be keenly aware of every aspect of your groupmates. This is crucial to your success as a group as knowing who you are leading is the best way to make sure everyone is accommodated and treated equally.
Q: How far do the ethics of the leader of a group extend? What type of context could be used to make sure the leader still is respecting personal boundaries?
Page 203, Paragraphs 4-8
This section was about one of the different sources of power that leaders have over their subordinates. This section specifically was about informal power, which is the kind of power that one gets from day to day interactions and casual conversations. What I wanted to say is that to me, this sort of power is by far the most important for one simple reason. It garners loyalty above all else. Loyalty is the single most important tool in a leader’s arsenal towards maintaining power. If you are not loved, then people won’t obey you. They will even break the rules if you are disliked enough, which in extreme cases can make formal power null and void. If someone is good at naturally obtaining informal power, then they have my respect. Which I suppose means they have informal power over me.
Page 197, Paragraph 5
In this section, “Disruptive Roles”, the text very very (pretend the second very in is bold. I don’t know how to access bold/italics on this site) briefly goes over, well, disruptive roles. Disruptive roles are “those functioning in opposition to group productivity and cohesion”. But my question is what is the point? Doesn’t that go against the whole idea? Perhaps that is the point? I don’t know. They mentioned some examples in the text but they were very vague and did not elaborate on them at all whatsoever.
I’ll make my question short and simple. They listed several different sources of power a leader can have in this chapter. In your opinion, which one is the most important?
190-206, Groups and Leaders -CIEL
page 192, para 4
The idea that I liked in this passage is the difference between a group and a group. This means the difference between the groups in class for project #2 and a group of people that are waiting for the bus, truly completely different. A group is a collection of people who will recognize shared membership and who have a common purpose for the forming of the group. Although the group at the bus may complete the requirements for having a common purpose, communication is a key factor in the decision of it being a group or not. Also, the bus group lacks the shared sense of membership.
page 196, para 6
I like the unique thought process of there being different member roles of a group. The passage goes on to talk about roles in the sense of movies, where people act out things that fit with other people acting out things. Group roles are placed into 5 categories: formal roles, informal roles, task roles, social roles, and disruptive roles. All or some of these roles could fit into a single group, however, some of the roles are opposites of each other like formal roles are the opposite of informal roles and task roles seem to be the opposite of disruptive roles. I like how these roles can change the dynamics of the group and either create a good or bad group environment.
Page 194 Paragraph 3
In this paragraph there was one part that really stuck out to me, and it was that everyone relies on everyone else to do a specific part of the overall job well. When doing group projects, sometimes your partners may not be into the project like you are. This may lead to you relying on them to do something, but then your groupmate may not do any work leaving it all to you. When things like this happen I get stressed out because I am not sure if I am able to do all the work on my own and there would be a lot of it.
Page 198 Paragraph 2
In this paragraph the author talks to us about the college boy. The college boy being talked about is someone who went through higher education and assumed to be this smarter guy among the other manual laborers he is working with. Knowing he is the smarter one, the other workers in his group mess around with him because they see that he cannot do all the jobs that they can do or as well as them. This made me think about the fact that schools teach us things like molecules, fractions, and the French Revolution while on the other hand some people will go into a trade and learn how to be a carpenter which is something they will be doing every day for the rest of their lives.
Q: “Although cohesiveness has been found to assist group effectiveness, a negative consequence of cohesiveness has been identified. An attempt to be cohesive at the expense of anything else can sometimes get in the way of a group’s effective functioning. If everyone wants to keep everyone else happy rather than make tough decisions, this leads to a special kind of conformity. Sometimes, people would rather preserve good relationships than make good decisions.”
C: This passage stuck out to me because I have personal experience with being in groups where it feels like it’s more important to keep good relationships with the members rather than be effective at working together as a group. Whether it be working with friends and not wanting to get into any arguments because you care about them, or working with strangers that you don’t know well enough to gauge what will and won’t upset them, it can be very inefficient to keep everyone in the group happy. People-pleasing can also lead to unfair distribution of work in a group, which is never good in a group.
Q: How can a group be cohesive without this kind of conformity? What can be done to prevent this ‘negative consequence’?
Q: “In that case, the other member of the group may be said to have informal power. This type of leadership power has not been formally granted but rather has developed through the group’s interactions. This power is often based on liking, relationships, and communication competence. There may be a formally designated group leader, but group members generally go along with the wishes and direction of someone else in the group. In other cases, a group may not have a designated leader, but someone rises and is able to exert influence on the other members.”
C: In most groups I have worked with, no one has necessarily been assigned the role of ‘leader’, but rather someone has naturally fallen into the role. In some situations, certain kinds of people are most effective at dividing the work and giving instructions, especially if they know the group well. It also doesn’t have to be the most outgoing or talkative person, for example I have fallen into leadership roles despite having no desire to lead groups–it just sometimes happens naturally.
Q: Is it more effective to have an appointed leader or to let people fall into their roles over time? What situations may require one or the other type of leadership?
This chapter was talking all about group work and how to work well with others to create a healthy group environment. I really liked this chapter because it highlighted how to work well with others in a group setting. And specifically I feel like it helped prepare me for how our group project is going to go.
One section that I really liked was the second paragraph on page 190. This paragraph talked about the composition of groups, and I just really liked it. I liked how it was talking about groups being between people with a shared interest and in some cases you could have close friends as part of those work groups. I really liked how they talked about the composition of a group due to us getting split into groups. In a classroom setting you all are on the same page of understanding and learning material in order to help better yourselves and get a good grade. So having that as our area of interest made it hard, but being able to see how a group is supposed to be uncomfortable through the beginning stages and then evolved once you know one another better was really cool to see. My question for this section is, the friendships that you form in groups do they last outside of the group work?
The second section that really stood out to me was on page 203 para 4. This section talked about informal power. I really liked this because informal power is something that is so real in group projects. No one is assigned as a leader at the beginning, you just start to understand one another and start delegating and taking over roles as it seems fit. Informal power just highlights that because it is someone who is in charge without being formally appointed, and they are in charge because of how they developed and worked with their peers. My question is, without delegating a leader of the group could there be tension and create an environment that doesn’t encourage work to be done?
Tyler Richards
CMM 110
Journal #12
Page 194 Paragraph 1-3
These passages stuck out to me the most because they talk about how an overall group or team’s successfulness is based on a feeling of being connected or together as one. These feelings can stem from the employees’ relationships outside of work, but it can also come from their abilities to communicate and their actions while working together. This sense of connection or “cohesiveness” is the primary source of the groups emotional exchanges and communication has a huge role to play in these exchanges as well. The same goes for the opposite where any negative connections can cause harm or affect a groups effective effort or get in the way of production.
Page 196 Paragraph 3-6
I found these discussions about group norms to be very interesting because groups sort of designate certain behaviors for people in each group. These group norms effect how teams operate or communicate in any setting, whether it is a very open space to freely communicate or whether there is a hierarchy of power within. These group norms show us the values of the groups, where if a group is open to discussing all issues, low ranking employees may fear retribution from more respected employees for saying something wrong. It can indict a level of fear or worry where employees fear to speak out and express their concerns.
Page 197 Paragraph 4
I chose this passage because it talks about the social roles of being in a group and this can help with my group. One thing that I mentally highlighted was the communication piece. It is important to maintain a positive relationship with your group throughout the whole process. As soon as the relationship deteriorates then the group could deteriorate as well. It does not have to be anything crazy with positive relationships, it is just small encouragement. If a person notices one member may seem out of the loop or maybe just a little quiet because they do not know the rest of the group as well reach out and try to build that connection. Also recognizing accomplishments will help the morale of the group.
Page 203 Paragraph 2
The next paragraph I looked into was one about leadership power. It goes on to talk about how power is distributed. It talks about how there are two different types of power. One being formal power and the next one being informal power. It talks about how power is distributed through communication and recognizing the relationships you have within your group. If one person is fairly confident they can take on the role of the leader and have the most power then you can communicate that with your group and give that power to that person. However, the quietest person in the group may not have all the power.
Question: How did you decide who was going to have the most power in your own group?
One passage that stood out to me was on page 194 para 3. This passage stated “That is, everyone relies on everyone else to do a specific part of the overall job well. A group cannot function properly if its members do not work interdependently”. This stood out to me because it shows how group projects can’t function if everyone in the group does not participate. In a group project you can’t have two out of the three people doing all the work because it won’t be a good project. Another passage that stood out to me was on page 205 para 2. This passage stated “leadership ethics”. This stood out to me because there always has to be a leader in the group project who is going to keep everyone on task. It is a hard role to play and even harder to keep the group on task. Many people might not want to listen to the leader of the group or some people in the group will listen better then others. I wonder out of both of these passages I pulled how do leadership ethics affect a group? Another question I have is how can you make sure everyone does their part in a group project?
“Informal roles… for example, a group member may be a joker…” (pg 197, para 2)
I thought it was kind of silly but true for the book to mention this. I think having someone or multiple people be able to lighten the mood can honestly help a lot in a group. The stress in a group project can be a lot more so than in a solo project as you have many people counting on you to do your part. Both formal and informal roles hold equal value in a group dynamic, even the “joker.”
Would a “joker” be more frowned upon at a professional business level?
“Just because a person possesses formal power does not mean this person will be effective…” (pg 203, para 3)
I’m sure many people can attest to their boss being terrible and undeserving of their role. Just because someone is a leader, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re the best at it. They might just be the most charismatic and confident person in the group. Don’t get me wrong, those traits are valuable in a leader, but if they can’t keep the whole group’s interests in mind, that’s where the trouble arises. People want their leaders in any situation to be fair.
How are you supposed to confront someone who’s not doing well leading/organizing the group?
The question in the section about group culture, that asked whether being a disruptive group member could be considered ethical, really struck me, because typically my immediate answer would be “no”, especially because similar questions or statements are often without good intent. For example someone saying “I’m just playing devil’s advocate” when they’re really just being a jerk. However, sometimes disruptions can have a positive impact, especially if the group is going down a path of continual mistakes, or is acting with unwarranted hubris.
The question, after the sections on task leaders and socioemotional leaders asked “Some say that leaders must use authority to mobilize people to face tough decisions when the followers are struggling with change and personal growth. Others stress that leaders should take care of and nurture their followers. What do you think?” I have a lot of thoughts on this, but my two biggest one is that a good leader needs to know 1) how to do both and 2) when to do each. It can be very complicated, especially considering the variety among individuals and how they would respond to different leadership approaches.
page 195
In this paassage i liked how the talked about the group dynamic and the way that things can occur with multiple people in a group and how that leads to certian things going one way and some going the other when trying to satisfy everyone. All of this has to tie in with relationsips and personal feelings. You have to take into account the personality of the people involved. The last thing you would want is to put someone in a place where they feel sad, hurt, or embarassed.
The next passage i thought was important to discuss is the paragraph 4 on page 203 when discussing the informal power applied in business and in most grpup settings. I believe in any situation involving a group you have leaders by example and elected leaders through the use of informal power. This power is used by these people to hopefully try to help others without taking on that role of having to be the “mean boss”. These types of people show up in athletics and in projects.
question- How do you identoify these people?
Ryan Kelly
Prof. Jessie Miller
Communications 110
20 October 2023
Journal 12
While doing the reading I discovered a lot of helpful information about groups and leaders. The first half of the reading was stuff I mostly already knew more or less, however the second half is where I really started to learn some things. On page 200, paragraph 1, it talks about how group decision making is about relationships. This stood out to me because I knew that groups need to develop some sort of relationship with each other to get the task done, however I never understood how important developing a good relationship with your group members is. If everyone in the group has a trusting relationship with each other, then there should be no issues with not getting the project done on time, or someone not pulling their weight. The second passage that stood out to me was on page 205, paragraph 1, in which it talk about leadership ethics. This stood out to me because I see myself as a leader, and normally choose, or get elected to be, leader when in a group project setting. As I read deeper I learned that although books and teachers may say that ethics matter, it sure doesn’t matter to many business, political, and social leaders. This made me kind of upset because I feel like relationships are built on trust and ethics, and if we can’t even trust the leaders that we elected to be ethical themselves, then what is even the point of voting. This made me think of a question about ethics, that question being what would you do if your group leader, or just another peer, in your group said or did something unethical? I know I would certainly talk to the other peers in my group separately and ask for their thoughts and opinions on the subject and maybe even bring the teacher in, if needed. All in all this reading had a lot of good points on how to work as a group as efficiently as possible and it will definitely help my group and I succeed with our project.