W16 - Discussion Question # 3

One concept in the book that I would’ve liked further discussion on is the chapter on leadership. The chapter discussed different leadership styles, necessary qualities of a good leader, leadership theories and small section on handling conflicts within the group as a leader. However, I strongly feel that a group is as strong as its leader and a leader has the potential to help a small group in meeting its goals and objectives or tear it apart, which is why I think so much more could have been covered. There was only about a paragraph about managing conflict and it did not really offer too much into what a leader can do to help solve conflicts within the small group dynamic. In addition, crossing over to the group feedback chapter with the different surveys, I would’ve liked to see more samples of different leadership surveys and feedback forms as well. Lastly, because leadership is important in my opinion, I think that the chapter could have been a bit longer and more in-depth.

W16 - Discussion Question # 2

Honestly, I had mixed feelings about the Observation of an Outside Group Project. I enjoyed being able to apply what I have learned in this class in a real-life setting as an observer and being able to see firsthand how groups work. The part I didn’t like about it was how we had to find a group outside of our normal realm to observe because I personally don’t know a lot of people who are part of outside groups as most of my friends and colleagues are also working students like myself. The reason why I chose the group that I did was because of the convenience in that it happened to be one of my friends who lead a Bible study small group and also the fact that the meetings took place Monday evenings. To be honest, I am not a religious person and so the fact that I was observing a Bible study was a little bit awkward because the participants in the small group were really enthusiastic. In addition, I felt a little bit guilty because although my friend and I knew that I was there for a project, the other group members were unaware of my intentions and thought that I started attending for my own personal spiritual growth. I would’ve liked it if we were allowed to observe a group that we might have already been a part of. If that were the case, I would have written about my colleagues at work because even though I work with them, since they are my direct reports, their group dynamic is a lot different than when I spend time with them outside of work. All in all, I do think that the Group Observation Project was a good learning experience except for the stringent requirements of actually being able to choose a group.

W16 - Discussion Question # 1

I think that the main difference between CMC and f2f communication is that it allows parties to feel less inhibited and therefore it can help to promote honest feedback. In addition, CMC is more flexible because it allows people to communicate at their convenience as they do not have to arrange to meet in person. The downside to CMC is that sometimes, things that are said can be taken out of context as emotions are not conveyed through electronic mediums. Also, while it is more convenient than meeting face to face, some people may procrastinate more than others and it can be harder to illicit immediate responses when needed. However, in response to both concerns, I think that as long as participants are direct and clear in their messages, everyone can benefit from using CMC. Personally, I enjoy CMC more than I do face to face because of my work schedule and since I have Internet and e-mail access through my phone, I am able to communicate with everyone, virtually anywhere without having to worry about adjusting my schedule.

W14 - Discussion Question # 2

Every day we encounter conflict and how we handle the conflict can determine the health of the relationship between our small group members. Personally, I think I deal with the most conflict at work because of the group dynamic that is there with all the different personalities. There are eight staff members and three management team members, including myself. Every month we are given goals to meet both individually and as a branch team. In the first quarter, business was really slow and we were unable to meet any of our assigned goals. This caused concern for our upper management and we were told that we needed to increase our sales and meet at least some of our goals in order to substantiate our staffing size. As a team we worked together and collaboratively tackled the issue of our poor sales numbers head on and tried to find new ways we can increase our business. Because of the combined efforts of everyone, we were able to make a dramatic turnaround within the first two weeks of April. Everyone was happy because we were able to work together and reap the rewards as a whole.


On the other hand, there have been times at work where instead of collaboratively working with my team, I have turned to a more competitive conflict resolution style. Every week, my manager, the supervisor, and myself would get together to discuss what was going on with the staff and the branch. There would be times when we would have to discuss certain issues, operational or human resource items that would come up and my manager would leave it up to us to see how we would like to handle the situation. I feel like because it is just the two of us, it causes more of a competition, where we both want to be able to present our manager with a better idea and in some ways outdo the other person. Sometimes, we may even be blindsided with our own pride and more focused on the competition than on actually solving the problem at hand. I think that under all circumstances, collaborative conflict resolution is much better than competitive conflict resolution because everyone wins and feels better knowing that they helped to contribute to solve a conflict and leaves feeling satisfied with the overall outcome.