My Role Within Our Group

Upon reading the anonymous feedback I received from my peers in our Group Dynamics course, I have realized my role in the group as a whole. I definitely seem to be a opinion seeker and giver according to my peers. Many of my peers noticed that I am not afraid to ask questions and that I give very valid input when necessary. Although I somewhat disagree with many of their assessments that I am shy and quiet, I guess that shows that I have more confidence in myself than others seem to recognize or notice. That confidence is definitely shown though in my ability to ask questions and give valid input towards a situation. Since I joined the class quite a few weeks after everyone else, it was a bit hard to fit into the whole scheme of things at first, but after a while, I began to become acquainted with the group and its members and therefore felt more comfortable offering feedback and input to the process. Someone also pointed out what I knew: that I had made substantial contributions to the “content” group as well, offering up many different ideas of what we could do with the coursewiki. My knack for creativity is evident in comments from my peers where they blatantly say I am very creative and have a lot of good ideas. Were this a group where we actually held elections for leadership positions, I would have surely ran for an officer position. I do tend to speak a lot more when I know people have their complete focus on me, as opposed to when there is no power structure at all. Even if I was not at the top of the power structure, I would speak more than I do in class simply because there is a power structure. I like hearing opinions from everyone and giving my opinion on every issue it is necessary to provide an opinion on.

Where Do I Stand?

4. Goal-setting is a responsibility that I share by listening to different peoples’ opinions, factoring them into plausible and feasible goals, and working with those people to achieve those goals.  While our group is very much different than other groups because of its structure and framework (a college classroom), I have still displayed this in our class through participating in the “Content” group at the beginning of the semester and actually being the one to suggest the original idea of a “survival guide for UMass”, which is eventually what we did, minus the term “survival”. It was an achievable goal that will soon be achieved, as the semester comes to a close.

 

5. I have been instrumental in marshalling resources for the group, especially the music group. I am a musician and know fellow musicians and places where we can play music.  Therefore, I took the lead in recognizing the ability to actually play and record an actual song and organizing meeting times outside of class time.  I also was the one that took the lead in circulating a class-wide e-mail list so that everyone could have each other’s contact information, since Steph could not legally pass around a class e-mail list herself.

 

10. Our class does have all the roles necessary to achieve optimum productivity and growth as many different people have taken on many different functional roles, as was shown by the “Reminder: After Dachau” exercise.  There are so many different functional roles going around, with many people becoming natural leaders and many becoming natural followers.  It is obvious that this is occurring because we are so close to finally completing our final product, and it would not have been possible to do had we not had leadership within the classroom pushing us to do more.

 

11. I have been playing the role of the “coordinator” in the classroom. I have made sure that people are keeping in contact and communicating with each other and that things get accomplished in the most efficient way possible.  It’s a job I feel I fit into easily in all the other groups I have ever been involved with as well.

 

15. I do have role flexibility as I can also be an information giver and information seeker.  I use my experiences and perceptions in order to gauge where the group stands as a whole, but I also am always looking to learn more about why the group is where it is and what we can do to continue moving in a positive direction.  I am always open to other peoples’ perceptions and ideas about moving forward, and try to incorporate them into a general plan for group success.

 

16. The three roles I flex among most are coordinator, information giver, and information seeker.  My decision to flex is based upon my knowledge that everyone in a group is just as important to a group’s success as everyone else.  If one person too strongly tries to take everything under his or her wing, he or she will just get worn out very quickly and that “leader” will lose his or her desire, thus having a domino effect on the whole group. It’s important to flex between roles in order to recognize the concerns and ideas of other members of the group.

 

18.  I definitely find myself resisting the retraining required to be a functional group member.  I don’t think it has too many ramifications as far as this class is concerned because I do recognize it as exactly that—a class. I have been in many groups before and consider myself to be a natural-born leader.  While I do recognize there is always something to be learned, I feel like a lot of the things we do in this class are contrived and forced upon us.  There definitely is a certain framework for the class, and should we stray outside that framework, we probably would not receive a good grade.  In most other groups, the members are not striving for a grade, but rather for self-perpetuation and continued success in the future.