Essay on Working in Groups and Social Loafing

In this paper I will describe and analyze my experience working in a group situation, writing a paper on the movie 12 Angry Men. I will address therapeutic communication techniques used in our group situation. I will address any conflicts that arose in our group. Utilizing Tuckman’s group process theory, I will also address the effectiveness of our group process.

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

Successful teamwork and collaboration directly affects the efficacy of interdisciplinary communication. When effective communication is achieved within the healthcare team, this increases the amount of positive patient outcomes. Nurses and physicians must cooperate in order to attain a synergetic relationship. Their roles are integral to creating a safe environment for their patients. When all of these elements combine, the quality of care improves and collegial relationships are strengthened.

“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...”

Stephen King was quoted as saying, “The scariest moment is always just before you start.” A plane crash is bad enough; throw into the mix that the plane crash landed in a vast desert far away from anyone and anything. The team showed great cohesiveness in its ability to get through the groupthink and group shift behaviors. In this paper, groupthink and group shift behaviors will be discussed. This paper will cover points to show how through both behaviors the group will remain cohesive and put aside any individual needs and focus more on the needs of the group. Even though the situation will be tough, the team will plan, find harmony and put their brains together to find ways to survive.

“One very important aspect of motivation is the willingness to stop and to look at things that no one else has bothered to look at. This simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity.” (Edwardo de Bono 2016). Susan Cain wrote the book Quiet which is about introverts as well as extroverts in today’s society. This chapter, chapter three, is about how working in groups instead of by yourself ultimately kills creativity along with everything that creativity brings to the table. Susan uses pathos, logos, ethos, values, and stakeholders to demonstrate her main ideas which are: solitude is essential for creativity which is a key trait in introverts and groupthink damages our society.

Social loafing – someone decides to take a free ride and let the group do the work

In the article “Myna Birds Don’t Benefit From Brainstorming” Sarah Zielinski explains how Myna birds don’t work well in groups but how they work better on their own. People work the same way, group work is not necessary but excessive and hindering to the actual work that needs to be done. This work seems credible because Zielinski is a science writer and editor.

To be perfectly honest, I didn’t have a clue as regards “Forbidden Island” and wasn’t too familiar with many board or card games. My initial

There are several factors that can increase social loafing which includes: lack of identifiability, no individual evaluation, no individual or group standards of evaluation, task is easy, boring or same as others, individual contributions not necessary, no individual or group incentives, large group and unfamiliar group. On the other hand, there are also factors that can reduce social loafing such as: individual identifiability, individual or group evaluation, individual or group standards of evaluation, task is difficult, interesting or different from others, individual contributions essential, individual or group incentives, small group and familiar group (Kendra Cherry,

In order to become successful in life, one must work hard. This means practicing for countless hours, specifically 10,000 hours to become an expert: for instance a piano player to practice everyday for hours to become a perfectionist. Without pain, and determination there is no gain on any field in life.

Group work has been a cornerstone of the social work profession and requires a variety of facilitator skills and awareness of group processes. The SSLDTM Group Program for People with Difficulties in Social Situations (Socialwork1914, 2017) provides an excellent example of a psycho-educational group co-facilitated by two female social workers, Jane and Karen. After viewing the 6th session of this 8-week program, I began to understand how the concepts of group formation/development, interpersonal dynamics, and leadership styles contribute to successful group work outcomes.

Realizing that a group can become a high performance team is important. Accomplishing this goal is invaluable, advantageous and profitable. Once able to operate from a group to the high performing team is a great step into preparation into the big business world. Leaders and members must also realize not only how to accomplish this but that some problems will and can arise from different demographic characteristics and cultural diversity. That is if one is in such a group, which the probability would be quite high.

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.

“Group work is a form of voluntary association of members benefiting from cooperative learning that enhances the total output of the activity than when done individually”.