Group Leadership and Conflict Summary Essay

I had started a thread for group discussion on Wednesday of this week. I did note to the team that I would not be on much due to a family memorial but I encouraged the team to start the discussion. A couple of days later Kimberly, wrote a small post and a charter. Tonight one other member wrote on the discussion. Other than this there was not communication at all within the group. There was discussion, per se, so there was no way for others to share their point of view. Now Kimberly did finally post her answers to the questions that were asked, but when I responded to her post there was no more discussion with me. In order for this team to increase group cohesion, there would actually have to be a group discussion. This team needs to start communicating and discussing what needs to be discussed. Because of the other members not actively participating in this discussion it made it hard to do this assignment. I will hope for a better team discussion next week. Planning a Playground While watching this video I noticed quite a few issues with this meeting. This committee got together without an agenda and without any planning. There was no cohesion in this team. At first, when they were introducing themselves, I felt they kind of isolated the lady that had just moved there. When she stated that she joined the committee to meet people, Dave made it clear that the rest of them were there to discuss a playground. This meeting was to be about discussing a new playground. No one had done any real research on playground equipment. Iesha stated that she had looked  at some playground equipment and let them know that price ranges. She had no real research to show the rest of the committee so that there was something for them to discuss. She then stated that she thought a good target price goal would be $35,000. She did not say why she thought that was a good price nor did she have any research on the type of equipment that could be gotten for that price. When the budget was being discussed the one guy thought that that they should aim for a higher budget, the other thought they should aim for a lower budget. There was no discussion on either part as to why they thought this. In fact, there was no discussion on this at all. Dave just decided that they would go with Iesha’s figure. Then when they were â€Å"discussing how they were going to raise the funds, again there was no real discussion. No one had a plan or any real ideas. When the new lady suggested a bake sale, they all just basically laughed at her. Iesha had brought up the idea of fund raisers, but she had no input on the type of fund raisers that should be done. Only the new lady had an idea, but the rest of the group wouldn’t even discuss it. They all basically made fun of her. Then the idea of fundraisers was not discussed again. Dave just brought up the ideas of grants and companies contributing. Again the only person in this group that had an idea was the new lady. If I were to have been on this committee, I would have sent out emails to each person on the committee explaining exactly what this meeting would entail. I would have set up an agenda for the committee to follow. I would have asked each person to research and make a proposal for the type and cost of the playground equipment. Also to make up a proposal for their ideas on how to raise the money for the equipment. Each person would be given a set amount of time to discuss their proposal. There would be a question and answer time at the end of each person’s proposal. After each person had their time and all questions had been asked, there would be more discussion on the subject so that each person could give their input. Politics of Sociology In this meeting the committee met to discuss which courses to eliminate and which courses to add. This meeting was doomed to fail from the beginning. There was no leadership, there was no agenda and everyone just talked over each other. This meeting was led by pure emotion. Each time the one guy tried to get the meeting back on track and get the other members to respect the perspective of the other members, he was just ignored. The only things that were done well in this meeting is that there was brainstorming done prior to this meeting. Also there was one person that did try to keep the meeting on track. I did noticed that the committee members did seem to have done some research and had the facts to back up their research. This was really not relevant because the other members did not want to see or even here about the research. I didn’t really see any constructive conflict in this meeting. It seemed that three of the members were only set on adding a specific class and cutting Trevor’s class. This immediately caused animosity amongst the members of this committee. Trevor refused to listen to anything that involved the cutting of his class and the other members wouldn’t discuss cutting any other class other than Trevor’s. Also, no body but the one lady wanted to talk about the issue of the enrollment numbers. To me this is relevant in determining which classes should be eliminated. Also, they needed to discuss classes that would attract more students so that enrollment would increase. If I would have been running this meeting, I would have made sure that each member had a list of classes they felt could be cut and a list that they would like to see added. They would need to explain why they felt that those particular classes should be cut and the reasons they felt that adding the other classes would benefit the school. Each person should have been given a specific amount of time to give their proposal. At the end of each proposal there should have be a set time limit for questions and answers. Nobody should have been allowed to interrupt another member while they were talking and nobody should have been allowed to put anyone’s ideas down or make them feel that their ideas had no merit. At the end of the meeting  they should have had a discussion where they narrowed down the classes that should be eliminated and narrowed down the ones that should be added. Reference Engleberg, Isa N., & Wynn, D. R. Working in Groups Communication Principal and Strategies (6th ed.). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database. http://media.pearsoncmg.com/pcp/pcp_82303_engleberg_uop_pos/ http://media.pearsoncmg.com/pcp/pcp_82302_engleberg_uop_pp/