Loblaw/Joe Fresh Collapse: Group Analysis

It was clear that our agreed upon norms placed a significant level of responsibility on the group leader. In this instance, Kristian served the role well. Due to the variance in time zones the use of Google Docs as a collaborative effort, was helpful to ensuring that each member was able to participate effectively. One member of our group, had difficulty accessing the internet on a regular basis and email the group portions of the assignment for the leader to incorporate into the draft. While this allowed the individual to contribute, it placed an additional burden on the leader to incorporate the suggestions into the final draft of the assignment. Additionally, during one assignment, the leader formatted the document early in the day and email it out prior to allowing everyone to contribute. This created confusion regarding whether the Google Doc or the emailed draft was the current working copy. Through email communication, this small obstacle was overcome and the group was successful over

Description of the situation, After receiving the IDs for the students in my group, I sent regular mail to arrange a meeting.The initial procedure of performing a role-play required a meeting among the individual participating. As explained by Tuckman and Jensen (1977), there are five stages of group development. These steps are determined as forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. Based on the Tuckman and Jensen (1977), development theory it is essential for a team to be coordinated when there is a task to be accomplished at a collaborative level. The purpose of the meeting was to allocate roles to everyone and introduced to each other. The people involved in the group were Consultant, dietarian, physiotherapist, occupation therapist, social worker, discharge nurse, (Mary’s daughter and son-in-law), adult nurse and diabetic nurse.

Since the formation of group 4 (High on Health), we have established that we would meet every Tuesday at 6:00pm to 8:00pm in the library. There was a mutual agreement that I would book the rooms and email the confirmation Monday or Tuesday nights for a room in Martin Luther Kind Jr Library. On the very first day, we got together in class, and exchanged email addresses and numbers. We wanted to be able to communicate outside the classroom not just in the classroom. On our first meeting, we introduced ourselves and from there, we learn a bit about each other’s cultures. We all come from very different backgrounds, we talked about our culture, and how far along we are in our degrees. We also took the time to get to know each other

As we analyzed these things that worked and didn’t work, I decided to see what we will change in future collaborative groups. Firstly, we decided as a group that the tower crashing down was a result of us not using our plan correctly. To change this we decided that we needed more communication which we had and needed more of as well. Secondly, as a group I think we need to in the future make sure we are not off topic and to focus on building the tower because that is one of the reasons why our tower came crashing down, it felt like we were working

However, despite this, actually working together was extremely difficult to do. Every person did their portion of the work, and were incredibly nice, but it took them far too long to complete their slides. To begin, our group did not have a solid concept for our presentation for quite some time and nobody was pitching any ideas. We started out wanting to discuss women’s clothing as well as part in society throughout time; however, we eventually settled on westernized ideas of Arab women. Yet, even after finally deciding what topic to research, the group was fairly disorganized as well as unwilling to meet. I had suggested meeting times quite often and nobody would respond. However, when we did eventually meet and work on the project, my group members were nothing but efficient and hardworking. I suppose this problem was just based on different work ethics, yet I still wish they were more responsive to my messages and

We had a group chat with all the members participating in our group and it helped communicate and send messages we needed to say. We remind each other about what needs to be done or what we should complete during a span of days, so we could be on track of the deadline. My group worked together to finish the powerpoint because it was considered one of our main priorities. Understanding the importance of our grade made us work towards our goal and made it easy to move towards the next step in our process. The communication throughout the process made it easy to contact our members if we had questions or trouble along the way. We didn’t encounter any problem, but the group chat was held for decision-making or scheduling a meeting. It benefited to take the next step in our

There are many techniques that can assist in overcoming the barriers and improve group communication. Offering

Communication is possibly the most obvious entity in working towards a cohesive group. Without proper, constant, and effective communication transmissions between you and your group can easily get lost (Hamilton & Creel, 2011). Messages often become lost when an ineffective channel is utilized to transmit messages. This complicates communication because the receiver of the message may decode the original message to something less desirable. When messages are inaccurately decoded they can cause a communication breakdown and contribute to the inability to perform well the duration of the course. Communication appeared to be simple when our

A couple things I found frustrating when working with others is the lack of being able to meet up when needed. I like to meet face to face to get a general idea of what everyone’s objective is for the group. I also like to meet to get to know everyone and because being face to face is an easier way to communicate. Everyone had different schedules and things going on. I met up with Katie and Craig. They were both very nice and we got a lot done working with each other face to face. Another thing I found frustrating is when not everyone communicated within a reasonable time of things being due that week.

communication. And example when my group wanted to meet up it wasn’t a good time for me

Communication is key in any group work; communication enables group members to know what to do and when to do it. The method of

Small groups: Only a few people, face to face interactions and better communication is possible

The group process was not as smooth as I was expecting it to be. It is humorous how friendships are jeopardized when one’s grade is on the line. I would admit that most of us had research done way ahead of time, however we did not put the presentation together until the night before the due date. Everyone was not on the same page, and everyone was not working at the same pace which stressed people out, and produced an in-subgroup. At first, Christina and I talked about how we were both concerned that we will not do a good job because not everyone was on the same page. Then the first sub-group formed when Diana and Christina were uncertain that Stavros will be able to finish his portion of the presentation. They were irritated because he wanted to finish his work the next morning and everyone wanted to be done the night before. That tension shortly faded away when everyone got really busy. Ironically, Stavros was done before Diana. She was still working on her portion of the presentation up until ten minutes before the class. That was not a problem since she made her part of the presentation look very lively and interactive with the audience as well. We monitored each other’s progress through the use of Google Docs. I was able to see where everyone was at because we were all working on the same file simultaneously. Our performance standards were not strict, since we the only thing we wanted to make sure of is that we did not go over

Our group was form not because we knew each other from previous classes, but from the proximity of our seats to each other. Throughout this group member are learning what to do, how the group will operate, what is expected from each other, and what is acceptable and not. We were all motivated to achieve the goals and overcome any hurdles that might arise

For group works to be as success, much patience and understanding from all the group members is required. All people are different and have different working styles and opinions and this has to be acknowledged within the group. Adding to this the struggle of working in online transnational groups and across different time zones makes it even more difficult.