August 2019 archive

Managing group tasks

Last week, we submitted our first group task for Case Study 3. This task provided us as students with the opportunity to work as part of a group in order to achieve the goal of submitting our collective thoughts about Case Study 3. Given that we were juggling this with our first assignment, I was anxious to complete this task so I could direct my energies into the assignment so I kicked things off in our group. I’m not a natural leader so this was challenging for me. I was quickly aided by another member who volunteered to collate the first task, which I felt grateful for.

Something that was obvious from the get-go was that there was quite a difference in the way that we all work. While several of the group were keen to thrash out a plan of attack and get things moving, others were less inclined to do so and took longer to contribute. One member did not contribute until after our group response had been submitted and if I am completely honest, I felt that it was unfair that this student had their name listed first in our group of contributors, given that they if fact, had not contributed to the task. Nevertheless, the rest of the group worked well together.

For the next case study, I have volunteered to collate the group response and I am hopeful that the people who were least active in our group last time might have more input moving forward. As someone who does not like conflict, but also believes in teamwork and equal contribution, I am hoping that for the sake of our group, there is greater input from all members.

One thing that I have enjoyed doing through this task is using the Wiki as a collaborative work space. I have never done this before and I can see definite value in this as a way of communicating between members in an organisation.