ORDER DESCRIPTION
PART 1
READ QUESTION AND ANSWER IN MIN 150 WORDS.
What do you think: are groups generally considered effective or ineffective? What experiences have you had with good groups? What sorts of characteristics are involved in a good group? Do you have any experiences with bad groups? What caused this group to be ineffective?PART 2
READ FOLLOWING AND RESPONSE PEERS POST IN MIN 120 WORDS.
Are groups generally considered effective or ineffective? Experiences with good groups. Characteristics involved in a good group. Experiences with bad groups. Causes of this group to be ineffective.
I think that groups generally should be considered to be effective because everyone is on their different learning level and even baby steps should count as effect. In my experience good groups generally are those members who feel that their own behavior and perception could be expressed without being criticized unconstructively. Good groups members have a sense of what is right over what is wrong and they have good standards and moral values. They have a basis of understanding a system (p. 133) to build upon and are engaged in keeping others in line with the topic and staying in tune with what needs to be accomplished.
Most of all good groups make significant progress and have good listening skills, repeating agenda points to keep focus amidst incoming content. Good notes and resources (p. 132) and meeting structure to follow as this shows organization. I have been in a work group meeting when the manager complements and praises others for their achievements; this has been the highlight of the whole meeting (encouragement). Overall a good group realizes that being critical can be a good thing by the establishment of goals and objectives (p. 127) as these can show what needs to be accomplished, while using reflexive monitoring (p. 133) that analyzes the actions of group members with the analysis of future results and upcoming changes needing to be made.
I think that bad groups show a lot of social loafing, not adding to the group meeting or trying to make progress. Bad groups use belittling behavior and do not listen, meaning taking into account that someone has been heard and that the information might need to be considered. In general groups can become ineffective if members do not show up on a regular basis. This can also be revealed when they do not do their part. Like if a college group class assigned out different task topics for a written paper and someone drops the ball and does not do the work. This creates a delay on everyone because someone has to finish the extra work and maybe time is not on their side to do so.
Most of all bad group types are unorganized and unprepared without good leadership and without established rules (p. 132) that would indicate appropriate activity. Overall I think a group will stay a bad group if understanding the problem (p. 127) in the group is not recognized and taken care of. Bad groups can fall into the category of Groupthink (p. 129-131) which can cause the group to place an abundance of value upon itself, lacking in critical judgment while using unnecessary pressure to conform.