Teamwork is the buzzword in
today’s workplace. Employers want groups to generate synergistic dividends.
Individuals largely believe that group work allows them to sync their lifetime goals and
ambitions. But, alas, groups could be very excruciating to a lot of people.
That’s why a lot of people end up with grouphate. They feel groupwork is a form of
oppression or exploitation. Tell us why group work sucks: why is it that
sometimes "[you have to] shrink yourselves so that other people won't feel
insecure around you"? (quoted from "Our Deepest Fear" by Marianne Williamson)
A lot of reasons why group work exacerbates negative feelings towards people have to do with the individual themselves. People have to realize that what makes a group, are the individuals, and if the individuals aren't invested and interested in the group, then it wears the body down. A group does function like a human being, it needs all the parts to properly function to its peak limit.
ReplyDeleteSorry to jump around but when I was in Boy Scouts I learned the basic outline of how a groups timeline normal functions. It's an acronym actually, FSNP (Form, Storm, Norm, Perform). I believe this to be an accurate model of how groups are typically laid out, and that the reason that people think group work sucks, is because they're still at the storming stage. It takes time for a group to work together and go through each of these stages to finally get to the performing stage, where a group can be a well oiled machine to pump out a product or idea that's satisfactory to it's function. We know that every person is an individual, so based on that, every single group is different, and those differences determine the amount of time it takes for a group to get past that storming stage to the norming and performing stage.
Of course, even at the performing stage a group will always have struggle and strife, but that only strengthens the group (especially if they're stuck with each other) because the group differences can allow each member to think differently, and grow in themselves.
So back to the question of why people think groupwork sucks. To summarize, groups come together and are formed. Then people assume groupwork sucks because individuals don't recognize others differences, and they do not appreciate each persons opinion, so they turn to hatred toward each other. They storm with each other. For some groups this stage can take a very long time, for others, depending on their background, can be very short. Sometimes groups are stuck in this storming stage and individuals see that as a gridlock between ideas, which is why people dislike groups.
Hopefully people can recognize their individualism though, and get to that normalization stage and finally perform as a well oiled machine. This is what companies are aiming for, not to oppress or exploit people, but for them to function as a family and as one body.
Thank you,
Steven Greene
In my group work experience, the biggest problems are usually the result of uncommitted members and/or a lack of communication. Working in a group can be fun because you build ideas off each other and accomplish more then working solo. However, nearly every group I have participated in has one or more "weak links" who simply don't put in the effort. Instead of taking the opportunity to grow and expand their horizons, weak members drag the team down by doing poor work and communicating as little as possible. This is aggravating for strong group members because you now have the tasks others should be doing on top of your tasks on top of trying to reach out and include the weak members. In addition, this often means the project is a shadow of its potential successes. Not only do weak members hurt themselves and the team, they actually increase the amount of effort required. This process teaches hard workers to rely only on themselves and slackers to continue riding on the efforts of others.
ReplyDeleteIt appears that most everyone whom has made comments towards this question has had pretty much the same experience with working in a group. Myself as well has had an experience being in a group when it sucked. It has been a while since I have encountered that issue however the experience still seems fresh. Participating in a group project and having one person who is the slacker, anticipating that the other members of the group carry that person.Having that persons be uncooperative with the group or they don't want to contribute the same quality and or quantity of work as the other members do. I took a class a few years ago at Portland Community College and are assignment pertained to working in a 4 person group. We were to do research and establish a power point presentation for the final paper. Soon after we were given this assignment I found out that there was a slacker among our group. This person was our "weak link" which required us to put in a little more effort in order to pick up the weakest links slack. Needless to say I prefer to work on my own most of the time or only have one other person team up with me. I am and always have been a hard worker in everything I do and try to do my best in everything I set out to do.Therefore it is trying at times when others seem to not put forth the same effort that I do, that seems to happen occasionally at my job with some of my co-workers. I try not to let it disturb me so it doesn't interfere with my performance so I rely on myself.
ReplyDeleteSo group work does not suck according to the government and the military. They encourage it to the point where they have squads, platoons, companies, battalions, brigades, and larger groups such as the army, marines, navy, and the air force. Now, when you're in one of these groups, you're suppose to obey your superiors and do as you're told. When I got to my first unit, I met one of my future best friends, PFC Edmond. He was in charge of signing soldiers into the company and assigning them where to go for each platoon, whether it was a medical platoon, ambulance platoon, or in my case specialty job platoon since I was a dental assistant. He brought me down to the Motorpool to meet my NCO(Non-commissioned officer), a.k.a. my platoon sergeant. Well, we showed up late for formation and our platoon sergeant decided to come look for us. He found us right outside the motor pool walking towards him. He came up and started yelling at us for being late. Well, Edmond decided he wasn't going to take the lip of his superior and yelled back at him. This opened my eyes to all kinds of bad things. Now I will explain why groups don't suck. I, and a few of my fellow soldiers got into a little skirmish outside of post at the local bar one night and had to pull extra duty that weekend. We were assigned to cut the grass around the company and the barracks, not with a lawn mower or even a weed eater.... but with scissors. yes, scissors!!! Let me tell you, this took all weekend to do and we only got about 200 yards of cutting done, but without us working together as a group, we'd never of gotten that far. Once monday came, our NCO looked at what we had accomplished and yelled at us because we got too much done. he hadn't expected us to get as much as we did done in such a short time. What he didn't know, is that he didn't tell us what type of scissors we had to use to cut the grass, so we went to home depot and got some hedge clippers and did it that way. Yes, we cheated a little but as a group coming up with a "better" way to do something, we got more accomplished and we felt better by doing it that way. He couldn't figure out how we got so much done, and we weren't about to tell him. He just thought we were working extra hard. This is why group work is beneficial and can definitely be better than it sucking. I know I'm kind of opposite of the topic, but I'm being the devil's advocate. This is how I feel about this subject.
ReplyDeleteGroup work does not suck most of the time. Group work only sucks when you're grouped in with people that you can't stand. One disadvantage to working in a group is the fact that you can only come to one decision, so some peoples decisions have to get cast aside. However, when you work in a group, you can come up with ideas that no one would have had individually. Working as a group is the only way that you can ensure that as few people as possible will be negatively affected by a decision. Group work can feel uncomfortable at times, but in the long run, it is very beneficial to everyone.
ReplyDeleteI think group work provides a place for people to gain experiences or achieve goals. It play's an essential role in the process of socialization from children to adults. But at the same time group work doesn't come natural to most of the people. Also sometimes some groups are more successful and others are not. I think most of the time people are not able to speak their true thoughts and feelings to keep the team at peace, because everyone has always the fear of conflict. Many times in group work no one wants to work or take responsibility for a task and some group members even avoid their own responsibility. Also when new group are formed group members wants to know their group and have a feeling of how it's going to work. This is a very stage where group members wants to know how much you are adding to the team and every time you have to prove yourself. Lack of commitment is also why groups fail because most of the time all group members can't get together, decisions are always made but then it turns to get changed and on group members seem to want any sort of agreement nor they want to commit to a common version. These are some reason why groups fail but great groups are not built over night. I think if we identify all mentioned problems in the group and then use the practical application to overcome them will sure make groups successful.
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