ORGANIZATION AND PEOPLE

Organization and people

Organization and people

Introduction

The topic under study is a personal essay, which addresses the group project; how it went, group dynamics amongst the group members, the experiences gained by individual group members during the project such as planning, investigating, analyzing, and group development and evaluating. The project that the group made, involved individuals to work in groups for an extended time. Furthermore, the essay includes a focus on an aspect that reflects individual experience during the group assignment. Certain other activities that were experienced include thinking, persuading, negotiating, testing and encouraging.

Further, the essay discusses the implication of learning in the context of effective management of people within an organization. The aspect that is learned and discussed is decision making within groups.

Discussion

As the nature, of the project demanded, almost all the activities in the project carried out in a group by all the members in groups. Working in groups provided expansive learning, which includes the practices of Group Development, planning, investigating, analyzing and evaluating.

Group Development

There are different phases of group development, which include, three stages of the project group activity, two dimensions of activity and the process dimension and its phases (Bales & Strodtbeck, 1951, p. 485). Working in a group was richly rewarding with members of successful groups identifying strongly with one another, however; it was a challenging and a time consuming task because of the complex nature of the project that the group finalized.

In order to be successful, it was important to establish and maintain secure, reliable and continuing patterns of group development, which the group achieved through four procession phases of development. The characteristics of four key phases in the development of the project group process Phase includes managing of interpersonal relations and operational activities (Tuckman & Jensen, 1977, p. 419). Figure 1 (in Appendix) illustrates four steps of Group Development by Tuckman.

Planning

The group development stage further categorizes in three stages, namely; Planning and preparation, Data generation and analysis, Resolution and writing up. These stages are important for any academic activity that needed to be done in the form of a group. Furthermore, individuals in the group learned the processes of management which involve planning, decision-making and organizing. Typically, the group operated simultaneously on two dimensions that are task and process. Task often represented as the obvious requirement of the assigned task a group has set and grounded in legal rationality. Process encompasses the personal relationships which group members engender in seeking to fulfil the group's tasks. Process is dynamic and volatile; sometimes it referred to as 'group dynamics'. In practice, process and task tend to be bound up with one another (Fisher, 1970, p.53).

Analyzing and Evaluating

Analyzing and evaluating performance throughout the project was a crucial part of the whole activity. Continuous analysis and evaluation of performance leads to achieving success. The successful accomplishment of the project was due to the continuous analysis and evaluation in the group development phase. During the project, the group found some of the advices set out as ...