Social Loafing And Conformity Within Teams

It is both an unarguable and undesirable fact that we live in a society completely remote from our fellow man. There is no longer a sense of community between friends and neighbors — no brotherhood in the presence of coworkers in the commercial workplace. Even the higher, spiritual presence that had once bound together all things in worship and praise has faltered in the face of this profound apathy. It is not that mankind has lost its ability to communicate — modern technology provides us with the ability to speak to one another over tremendous lengths and sustain friendships in staggering amounts. The reason for this chasm of communal indifference stems from man's lost desire to understand one another, as well as the divine presence around

In today’s world teamwork is being utilized by companies across the globe. Employers are seeing the value of teamwork and what can be accomplished when people put the strengths together. These teams consist of people from different cultures with different personalities. Conflict is inevitable when it comes to group dynamics. Conflict resolution is necessary to keep the group functioning efficiently. This paper will analyze group dynamics and focus on conflict resolution by way of communication.

“Social skills are particularly important in team settings because working in teams increases the interdependence among workers, typically producing greater conflict, workload sharing, and coordination demands than work that is performed independently...”

SOC/110 TEAMWORK, COLLABORATION, AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION WEEK 1 - TOPIC 1: TEAMS IN THE 21ST CENTURY

After working in this position for a while working in groups and introducing new group members is a key ingredient in building teams and relationships. In groups and teams, relationships are the feelings, roles, norms, statuses, and trust that both affect. They reflect the quality of communication between a person and others. The variables that have an important effect on relationships are made with others in small groups. These are the roles a person assumes, the norms or standards, the group develops, the status differences that affect the group's productivity, the power some members have, the trust that improves

Teams are formed when individuals with a common taste, preference, liking, and attitude come and work together for a common goal. Teams play a very important role in organizations as well as our personal lives.

City Youth is a non-profit organization in downtown Jonesboro that provides programming for youth in Jonesboro. This semester I had the privilege of volunteering my time to further their vision of “developing Christ followers while building strength, wisdom and character in young people.” (“Mission and Vision,” 2001) As an after school and summer program, City Youth reaches children who would be engaged in little to no activity if they did not attend this facility. Throughout this experience, I discovered the emotional benefits of participating in physical activities with Jonesboro’s youth.

For example, many parishes feel the need to compete and dispute with each other on what is good for their people, but if they would just work together than they would be able to accomplish anything. As John Kristoff, a Catholic Register Special, explains how “building this community requires hard work and common sense. First, it obligates us to see the importance of this relationship and strive to make it work. It means abandoning traditional ways of doing things… [and recognizing] our strength when we work together, acknowledging each other’s importance” (Kostoff). This quote explains how whenever two different groups come together to form a single group, it allows everyone to see the strengths and weaknesses of their peers which allows the weaknesses to be triumphed with strength because they are able to work together and figure out diverse techniques to fix the problem. Furthermore, this quote shows how working together means putting aside their normal way of doing things and working hard, together, to get the construction workers to feel as if they are part of a team. When two people work together, it would result in good communication skills and maybe even encourage them to help each other more like a team, instead of an individual. Overall,

For this paper, I observed a staff meeting on March 8th at The Journey Metro East, the church I attend. Six people attended the meeting, including the pastor, worship leader, and children’s ministry coordinator. Throughout the two hour run time of this meeting, the staff demonstrated numerous concepts we have covered in class. Six small group communication concepts they displayed most prominently were the procedural model of problem solving (P-MOPS), group roles, group socialization, Tuckman’s model of group development, types of groups and, lastly, systems theory.

In this book, Ortberg discusses how important relationships with other people are. In chapter 16, he states, “God uses people to form people. That is why what happens between you and another person is never merely human-to-human interaction¬—the Spirit longs to be powerfully at work in every encounter.”182 What is so powerful about this, is how much it relates to a Trinitarian view on teamwork. It shows that we were not created for one man alone to get the job done. The Spirit so desires to be a part of each interaction we have with another human being. We were not created to be alone. This is why God created a woman for Adam. God is not alone; therefore we were not created to be alone. Two humans cannot truly achieve much good without the

I find myself in a daily struggle with God, fighting through my worldly mindset and constantly questioning and justifying certain aspects of my life. Personally, it drives me to seek wisdom in the scripture but I can see in large groups where the many predispositions might get in the way of a very personal growth opportunity. I know personally when it comes to group discussions I shy far away from being the center of discussion. I leave that business for those braver and more confident than I.

The Bible teaches us that we have to work together to find success and happiness. First Thessalonians says, “Therefore

Having tasks that are too difficult or are unfamiliar are likely to incite social loafing because they group member lacks the ability or courage to provide input. Robbins and Judge (2011) theorize that another cause of social loafing is an uneven equity. When two people are putting in different levels of input and receiving the same level of output the larger contributor will adjust their input to reduce cognitive dissonance. Another reason they believe is “dispersion of responsibility” group members cannot be held responsible because tasks and roles are not clearly assigned. (Robbins & Judge, 2011). In research by Worchel and others (1998) it was found that groups with friends or familiar members are far less likely to loaf when compared with groups made up of strangers (Worchel, Rothgerber, Day, Hart, & Butemeyer, 1998) Most people have been in a group made up of friends and colleges they are familiar with and seen that in these types of groups social loafing is drastically reduced.

Thirdly, our communication skills were better enhanced and we were able to build up on our synergy levels. In such an environment where communication is open and free-flowing, people were able to bring in new ideas, concepts and attitudes which benefitted the entire group. The problem with ineffective communication, especially where diverse groups are involved is that issues such as stereotyping are bound to crop up. This, in turn, caused team members to become increasingly self-conscious and often kept to themselves for fear of being judged. Much to it, the aspect of self-disclosure becomes almost elusive because no one is willing to step out of their comfort zone and steer a relevant discussion to the project at hand. In a scenario whereby team members are free to talk and express their ideas and feelings without being judged, the fear of revealing one’s true self is diminished tremendously (Peri et al., 2000). This is because such an environment fosters trust, values and ethics. Contrary to this, an environment that is characterized by prejudices and presumptions about others disintegrates this trust and often results to reduced productivity among the members. Cooperation and trust are two aspects that often determine the overall performance of a group. Where there is trust, team players become

What are the advantages and disadvantages of working in teams? By reference to relevant theory show how can the disadvantages be reduced or avoided.