Effective Group Discussion Essay

     What is groupthink? There is a simple definition for it, but is it truly that simple? The term groupthink refers to the inclination of group members to have the same opinions and beliefs; it frequently leads to mistakes. It often occurs without an individual being aware of it. Conflict is considered to be a harmful element when related to groups, but conflict is good when considering groupthink because it helps to eliminate the existence of a groupthink. The explanation sounds simple enough, but it is more complex than the description given.

The leader must be sure to take the group dynamics into consideration. It is important to make everyone involved feel that their needs are important. For the project to be a success, everyone participating must feel as if they are contributing and that they are being valued equally.

2.2 Explain how you prepare an environment that is conducive to the functioning of the group

of the members were given and we were asked to finish a project on a

You are in your third year as an accountant with McCarver-Lynn Industries, a multidivisional company involved manufacturing, marketing, and sales of surgical prosthetic devices. After the fiscal year-end, you are working with the controller of the firm to prepare supplemental business segment disclosures. Yesterday you presented her with the following summary information:

In an organization, meetings take place on a regular basis. Today’s organizations are built around people, so interaction among team members, inter-team, inter-department etc. are very common. The meetings cost organization in terms of time, money, and manpower utilization. Hence, effort is made to make the meeting process more effective.

Q1. Using the current exchange rate, what is the initial purchase cost per unit (in US dollars) paid to Dong Hai Supply? (Do not include transportation costs)

Every participant should be clear about expectations and intentions of the group and about what is expected from her/him.

This stage sees group members begin to confront each other as they begin to vie for roles within the group that will help them to belong and to feel valued. Thus as members begin to assert their individual personalities, the comfort of the forming stage begins to come under siege. Members experience personal, intra and inter group conflicts. Aggression and resentment may manifest in this stage and thus if strong personalities emerge and leadership is unresponsive to group and individual needs, the situation may become destructive to the

(1) The formation of groups by the leaders lacked the consideration of the non-expert members’ skills. The leaders, groups and their members had different sets of goals in their minds. The teams’ goals did not fit well with the overall goals of the organization. There was an imbalance between the perceptions of the team members, guides and the leaders.

3. As a group Sophia, Cassy, and I worked very well together. We all completed our jobs and didn't miss any assignments. I always did my job and eagerly participated in the group discussions. However, I did occasionally get distracted talking to members of other groups. Sophia was always prepared for class and she greatly contributed to the group discussion and comprehended all of the stories very well. She helped organize the group, but sometimes she would get overly upset with me for little reasons. Cassy did not contribute to the group as much as Sophia and I did, but she made up for this with the effort she put into her work. She tried her hardest to do all of the proper assignments and did a good job. Towards the end of the group, she

Working within a group or team is unavoidable for most people. We are involved in sports teams, assignment groups, work teams, social groups and a variety of other groups and teams. Each of these groups share one thing in common, that is each requires us to communicate in some way in order to reach a shared goal or target. Therefore, it is imperative to know and understand how to work and communicate effectively with others to maximise outcomes and productivity.

Planning stage was the first step in the process of leading a group and I have acquired the skills in that part of leading a group when it was my time to be a leader, I correlated all the planning processes and challenges in the planning phase in groups. Although all parts of planning are important, I think the most important in that process is the purpose of group and clarity is paramount. Having an unclear purpose and how it can affect the group structure and dynamics was observed in one of our last session during the exercise.

On the evening of this meeting as usual, the agenda was made available to all in attendance. The Toastmaster was introduced, who explained the theme of the meeting and all the components of the group agenda. In all, there were 24 members, not including the two guests and myself. There were three major sections to the meeting: the ice-breaker, the speeches, and the evaluation of the speeches. Following the ice-breaker, three speakers followed who conversed on different topics, none of which actually dealt with the theories to be discussed, however, the interaction of the group illuminated the theories to be discussed here. After the three speeches, the members would take notes about each one separately. Time reports were performed and then members voted on which of the three was the most effective speech performance. The third part of this event was the evaluation of each speaker

A group should consists the following attributes: good leadership, good status/reputation, resources, sources, social skills and a positive rapport with decisions makers