Introduction
In this particular paper, I will comprehensively give a description and also analyze my working experience in a class group project that was on conducting a case study on The Superintendent Directive, from the book, The Leadership Experience by Richard Daft. In the paper, I will focus on and address some of the communication techniques that were used in the group in the course of conducting the case study. I will also comprehensively address the issues that emerged in the group, the functional roles of the group members and I will also be commenting on the effectiveness and the efficiency of the entire group project.
Learning how to effectively work in group situations is actually one of the keys to success across all professions and indeed across several social situations (Pines 2007). Groups are of different natures and their variance is based on the members of that particular group .Every single one of us at some point in our lives belong to a certain group. The role of each member in the group varies from one group to the other and they may even be different at different time periods during the existence of the group (Pines 2007). In this paper, I will try to analyze the general interaction and the communication process of our group in the course of conducting our case study on The Superintendent Directive.
As stated earlier, the task of our group was to conduct a case study on The Superintendent Directive. The case study was concerned with aspect of leadership development particularly focusing on the communication of skills a leader. In this particular study, Mr. Porter who is a Superintendent of a number of schools in a certain district, Carville City Schools District, passed a directive to all the principals of all the schools within his communication range. This directive was that every teaching staff member was supposed to prepare a performance objectives set for every class that that particular teacher taught. These objectives were then supposed to be forwarded to the Superintendent. Mr. Weigand, a principal of one of the schools called Earsworth Elementary School, and then passed on the message through a memo to his teachers who to say the least were not pleased at all with the Superintendent’s direction. To add salt to injury, when the teachers tried question Mr. Weigand about the directive, he told them to forward the issue to the Superintendent himself. The purpose of this group study was therefore, to study and examine the communication skills of the two gentlemen that, is The Superintendent, Mr. Porter and the school Principal, MR. Weigand.
Our group did not consist of a lot of members. Since it was a relatively small group that was focused on tackling a single and specific task, there was actually no conflict at all within the group and the cohesiveness level was very high. Our can therefore be described as a secondary group since our relationship nature was impersonal and was also goal oriented.
Every member of the group definitely had a functional role to play. According to Malcolm Pines (2007) some of the functional roles in the group were related to the task perspective while others were oriented towards promoting social interaction. In every group, these function roles are usually manifested in the individual members behavior modules and they significantly affect the dynamics of the group. Some of the task oriented functions include the identification of tasks, clarifying, summarizing and coordinating. Social maintenance functions include behaviors such as gate keeping, harmonizing, compromising and encouraging. In our group, all members ensured that they fulfilled their roles within the group.
For example, we made sure that the different aspects of the case study were equally divided and everyone was given a part to analyze. There was one group member who was charged with coordinating all the functional roles of group members to ensure that no one deviated from the topic. After each member had completed his task, he or she then passed on his findings or argument to the task manger who proofread them before combining them with the inputs of other members. Finally, the group then sat down for a meeting of minds where we went through every aspect of the group project to come up with general findings and conclusions. Where differing opinions arose, we ensured that we reached a compromise. The communication between the group members was one of a friendly and respectful nature. Everyone treated his fellow group member with uttermost respect and this is indeed one of the reasons why there was virtually no conflict within our group. There was a chain of communication process between al group members, for example, a member who had an issue passed it to the communication manger who then communicated to the other group members. The leader of our group was also very effective in coordinating the group, members and his communication skills were quite exemplary. All these factors made our group project to be very effective and successful in deed.
I have definitely learnt a lot from my participation in this project. I have learnt that for a group project to succeed, each member’s role within the group must be clearly defined. There must also be very clear and efficient communication patterns within the group. The leadership of the group must also be very effective and efficient if the group is to succeed.
There is however some aspects that I feel could be improved in this particular group processes. For example, the leader of the group should be more actively involved with the individual roles of the group members. For example, he should go around ensuring that every member is in line and there is no one who feels alienated. In addition, the group members should be given more freedom to undertake self initiatives that they feel could aid the whole group project (Pines 2007). The members should also be allowed to select group project aspects or functional roles that they feel most comfortable with. The communication patterns should also be adjusted to ensure that the mode of communication chosen is one that is available to every member or one that every member is comfortable with. Changing or adjusting these aspects could play a very huge role in improving the performance level of the group.
References
Pines, Malcolm. The Evolution of Group Analysis. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 2007. Print
