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6 views

Teamwork01

Uploaded by

Ge EM
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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TEAMWORK

Almost everything you do in life requires some kind of teamwork: relationships, sports,
education, travel, work, etc. And most of that teamwork you will undertake without thinking
much about it … until you run into problems. One of the aims of this course is to make you think
about working in teams with the intention of learning about this very important skill in your life.
Your professional life will benefit notably from actively participating in activities that enhance
your teamwork skills, particularly if you are to become an engineer applying holistic approaches
to the search of solutions that do not burden the generations of tomorrow with the
shortcomings of today. By now it should be clear that achieving sustainability requires a whole
system design approach that can only be attempted when working together with a wide gamut
of specialists in very varied fields of endeavour.
Working in teams is not always easy for several reasons. According to Kayes et al.:
“Students complain about being forced to work in teams with other students who do
not pull their weight when their grade is dependent on their team’s performance
(Chen, Donahue, & Klimoski, 2004; Hall, 1996). Small group research has identified
a number of factors that negatively affect team performance and member
satisfaction. These include phenomena such as overdependence on a dominant
leader (Bion, 1959; Edmondson, Bohmer, &Pisano, 2001), the tendency to conform
known as “groupthink” (Janis, 1972), over commitment to goals (Staw, 1982),
diffusion of responsibility (Wallach, Kogan, &Bem,1964), a tendency to make risky or
more conservative decisions than individuals acting alone (Clarke, 1971), social
loafing (Latané, Williams, &Harkins, 1979), and the Abeline paradox (Harvey, 1988),
in which groups take action that most members disagree with because they fail to
express their true feelings.”
They also argue that teams learning from experience can overcome these and other problems
by intentionally focussing on learning.
REFLEXION EXERCISES

1
First reflect on whether your group, or member of your group, was affected by the issues in the
list below and then discuss strategies, tasks, actions, etc. that can be undertaken to address
those issues.

ISSUE YES NO

Do we have effective communication

Do we listen to each other

Do we constantly interrupt each other

Do we keep repeating arguments instead of moving on

Do we have difficulty getting started

Do we not seem to be able to focus on the task

Do we just push our own views instead of developing and encouraging


other’s ideas

Do we allow dominant members to dominate

Are some of us not contributing adequately

Are we not compromising enough

Are we concentrating on making impressions rather than getting the job


done

Do we have clear tasks or objectives

Are we making clear what has been decided

Are we making it clear who was to take action on decisions

Are we putting each other down

Are we recognising that others have feelings about what is happening in the
team

Are we having conflicts between team members

Have each member of your group fill their own table with yes/no ticks to each of the issues and
them come together to discuss as a group possible solutions.

2
Discuss possible solutions to the issue of some groups members:
 feeling that other group members are not contributing fairly
 concerned that individual contributions will not be recognised and/or assessed fairly
3
Discuss possible solutions to the issue that some students may not see the importance of
working in groups and might not show enough interest in the work

4
Discuss possible ways to address cultural differences within diverse groups.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING


Bion, W. R., 1959. Experience in groups and other papers. New York: Basic Books

Chen, G., Donahue, L. M., & Klimoski, R. J., 2004. Training undergraduates to work in organizational teams. Academy of
Management Learning and Education, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 27-40

Clarke, R. D., 1971, Group-induced shift to risk: A critical appraisal, Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 76, No. 4, pp. 251-270

Edmondson, A.C., Bohmer, R.M., & Pisano, G.P., 2001, Disrupted routines: Team learning and new technology
implementation in hospitals, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 46, pp. 685-716

Gibbs, G., 1994, Learning in Teams: A Student Manual, Oxford, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford Centre for Staff

Hall, J., 1996. Training in teamwork for students of library and information studies. Education for Information, Vol. 14, No.
1, pp. 19-30

Harvey, J. B., 1988, The Abilene paradox and other meditations on management. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books

Janis, I. L., 1972, Victims of groupthink. Boston: Houghton Mifflin

Kayes, AB, Kayes, DC, and Kolb, DA, 2005, Experiential Learning in Teams, Simulation & Gaming, Vol. 36, No. 3, pp. 330-354

Latané, B., Williams, K., & Harkins, S., 1979, Many hands make light the work: The causes and consequences of social
loafing, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 37, pp. 823-832

Staw, B.M., 1982, The escalation of commitment to a course of action. Academy of Management Review, Vol. 6, pp. 577-
587

Wallach, M. A., Kogan, N., & Bem, D. J., 1964. Diffusion of responsibility and level of risk taking in groups, Journal of
Abnormal and Social Psychology, Vol. 68, pp. 263-274

https://student.unsw.edu.au/groupwork

https://teaching.unsw.edu.au/develop-students-group-work-skills

https://teaching.unsw.edu.au/identifying-group-work-issues

http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/html/icb.topic58474/wigintro.html

http://www.uq.edu.au/student-services/learning/problems-associated-group-work

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