CAS102 Community Service Essay 4 Sample

CAS102 Community Service Essay 4

Word Count: 1800 words

Each student is to submit a written reflection on:

1. The dynamics and development of the student group you have been allocated (approx 900 words) 2. Your role as the facilitator of the role play (Approx 700 words) You also need an introduction and conclusion of the reflection. (100words for intro and 100 words for conclusion)

Reflect on the student group you have been allocated and consider the planning, leadership and group stages with explicit research and links to the theory (ensure you provide references) covered in the course - your weekly journal notes from week. Do not answer the below questions directly- these are to guide your reflective process. You can use headings in the reflective essay. You can use the first person Ensure you have demonstrated the following in your reflective essay (in relation to the student group dynamics and development of the student group through the stages/weeks): Awareness of the stages of group development that the group moved through (identify the stages of group development that your student group experienced) could include:

awareness of own participation in the group and impact on other group members awareness of different approaches to decision making awareness of group dynamics, stages of group development and how roles in the group emerged awareness of own leadership style and the leadership style of other group members awareness of challenges that arose and conflict resolution strategies awareness of strategies to support engagement from diverse members reflection on tasks/timelines

reflection on your experience to evaluate your own and others' facilitation skills. ensure you include your thoughts and feelings about participating in the student group.

Ensure you have demonstrated the following in your reflective essay (in relation to your role as the facilitator of the role play in your allocated week)

Awareness of own strengths, areas for development and facilitation skills (during the role play) could include:

· Did you demonstrate attending skills, expressive skills and focusing skills?

Which strategies did you use to ensure participation? To resolve conflicts?

Did your role play reflect the stage of group development allocated - why or why not?

What worked well when you facilitated the group?

What could have been improved/what would you change if you were to facilitate this group again?
How did (the role play) age, gender, diversity, background (trauma, mental health) impact on your facilitation and communication? Ensure you include your thoughts and feelings about facilitating the role play

How would you facilitate your sessions differently in future?

Solution

Introduction

Group work can be recognised as a common active learning strategy used in higher education win the goal is to improve deep learning and development skills. It will improve the abilities of individuals to work in a group in their future professional lives (Poort, Jansen and Hofman, 2022). In addition to these participating in culturally diverse learning groups is also valuable for students to encourage participating in a globalised world successfully in the future. Since it is highly essential to ensure continuous engagement and communication within the group activity that faster trust and ensure both behaviour and cognitive development of students. Cultural diversity and group formation are highly affected by the level of trust and engagement which part that influences the outcome in a group work. This particular essay for MBA assignment expert will engage with reflecting on the dynamics and development of the student group where I was allocated when I was in my first year of college. In addition to this, I have engaged with the role of being a facilitator which also enhance my abilities that could help me in achieving my future professional goals successfully.

Discussion

Reflecting on the Dynamics and Development of the Student Group I have Been Allocated

The group project to which I have allocated consists of members from diverse cultural and academic backgrounds which incorporate both challenges and strengths to our team. At the time of forming the team, I saw that everyone was highly polite and showed hesitation to share their opinions regarding making essential decisions. However by the forming stage as we started working together differences in the preferences and perceptions among the team members were quite evident (Jones, 2019). For instance one of our team members preferred quick decisions on the other hand another was very detail-oriented and considered researching different aspects and things before making specific decisions. However, over time while working with each other and transitioning into the norming stage as we have established clear roles and responsibilities for each member it has become quite easy to overcome the challenges related to communication. In the performing stage, all the team members were efficient as a team in order to fulfil the project within the deadlines and support each other continuously. However, there is tension in place related to early conflicts which further leads to some stressful moments as well.

In this team powered dynamics were significantly noticeable as some of the members were highly vocal and associated with influencing the decisions of the group. In this situation, I have made an effort for the purpose of encouraging other members to share their ideas and views by directly asking for their input. The primary rationally behind these is getting input from all the members can ensure the making of appropriate decisions without any sort of consequences.

Rather than any sort of external support I naturally gravitated towards a facilitator role and associated with ensuring that everyone stayed attracted to overcome any sort of consequences. It was also my role of setting group meetings and summarising the decisions for the purpose of making assurance that all the activities of our projects made the identified timelines. My strengths of conflict mediation and active listening have thoroughly helped me to maintain the harmony of the group. However, sometimes I felt that I have associated with dominating the opinions of some members just to maintain the peace in the group. It further occasionally encourages suboptimal decisions. Considering my emotional state it can be evaluated that I felt frustrated at the time of early conflicts however our group efforts and mindset of working cohesively overcame such consequences easily. It represents that all the emotions of the team members are motivated which maintains peace within the group and ensures continuous collaboration among the group members.

There is a structured decision-making strategy identified in the group project which supports overcoming any sort of confusion. By agreeing on a consensus approach of decision-making where everyone provides their agreement to a particular decision before finalizing it (Justice, Luke and Shaw, 2021). However, this particular approach of inclusivity was associated with causing delays in making a particular and small decision as all the team members were associated with spending over and our to debate about the project strategy and way of completing it. In this situation, I have engaged in playing a mediating role by summarising opposing views and suggesting compromises which help us to make one particular decision easily.

While working in the group I have associated with utilising the democratic style of leadership. This particular style of leadership is associated with focusing on facilitating decisions that ensure each of the team members feels valued. It also supports making each of the team members feel valued and fosters trust among all of us which supports making rational decisions (Devi, 2021). One of the team members emphasized using an autocratic style and pushing their ideas strongly. However, this approach has been associated with bringing clarity on some particular decisions while some of the team members failed this correct from participate. However, over time we have managed to balance each of the leadership styles and do a great on maintaining an appropriate harmony to avoid any sort of conflict (Caillier, 2020).

One of the situations took place when two of the team members disagreed over a particular task division as one of them failed that they were doing more work than others. In order to resolve this I have been encouraged to perform an open discussion to ensure everyone shares their perspectives and vision over these particular matters of task allocation and re-distributed responsibilities more equally. Along with overcoming the issue within the team, we have managed to improve that trust within the group.

There were also challenges that took place in engaging diverse team members in the team working process as some of the team members were quiet and struggled to contribute to the decision-making process as they were dominated by the individuals who were more vocal. In order to address this I suggest the strategy of giving everyone a particular time to share their vision. The language barrier is another major challenge that we have experienced as one of the team members was not fluent in communicating in English (Usher and Barak, 2020). In order to overcome this challenge we have associated with using more simpler language to ensure everyone understood and field in the teamwork.

Rather than starting the task having a vague deadline we have associated with creating a particular calendar outlining the deadlines for each task to avoid last-minute stress. By doing so we have ensured staying organised in the overall project that has been submitted within the deadlines.

Being a facilitator I ensure that everyone in the group is focused and ensure balanced participation in the project and instead of engaging in a conflict I encourage shifting the conversation to address the issue directly without any sort of consequences.

Reflection on My Role as a Facilitator of the Role-Play

As a facilitator, my strength reflects in creating and welcoming environment and ensuring focus during the role-play session. In this situation, I have associated with demonstrated strong attendance skills like active listening and understanding group dynamics (Olmos-Ochoa et al., 2021). For this purpose, I have associated with making eye contact and used affirming gestures and paraphrased participants' input to show my understanding towards them. In addition to this, my expressive scheme ensures clarity in the purpose and instruction for the role play. Moreover, I was effective in ensuring active participation from every member to ensure their contribution to the particular area of concern.

Though I have utilised the strategy of diversity and inclusivity I face challenges in managing time effectively as sometimes discussions were extended for a long time which lift less time for reflection after the role play. It represents the need to improve my focusing skills and maintain main objectives to ensure equal participation from every team member (Poort, Jansen and Hofman, 2022).

In order to ensure equal participation from each team member without any sort of conflicts I have engaged with utilising a structured turn-taking approach where each participant got the specific opportunity to contribute to the decision-making process. Moreover using guided rules at the beginning and respecting the opinions of others ensure them to feel valued in that role PlayStation. I also provide positive reinforcement for the continuous contribution which encourages participants to engage with the decision-making process actively. However, there are situations that took place where these agreements identified among the perception and preferences of participants which late to challenges in focusing on common goals (Blank, 2023). In such situations I have used the strategy of brain stroming to ensure collaborative approach rather than debating against individuals ideas.

In the role-play session, the team was in the storming stage of group development where participants were still confused about their roles and responsibilities which late to misunderstanding. As the session started and the group transitioned into the norming stage the team members became more cohesive by understanding their responsibilities and started collaborating with each other more efficiently.

I have identified some things at the role-play session that work quite well for instance presence of clear instruction as I have associated with breaking down the activity into different manageable steps (Rawlinson et al., 2021). As a result of this, each of the team members understands their roles and responsibilities in the team project. Also utilisation of open-ended questions during the time of debriefing session has significantly encouraged equal participation of everyone without any sort of consequences. Moreover, I have made an adequate effort to ensure preferences and perceptions of every one were noticed and valued to ensure increasing overall participation and enhance group harmony as well.

However there and need for allocating strict timelines for each face of the activity to ensure everyone becomes encodes to complete their task within time and get appropriate time for discussion and role play (Darby and Dowling, 2021). Providing continuous feedback to the participants also helps them to identify the areas for future improvement.

While working as a facilitator with diverse team members I have identified that young participants were more enthusiastic and encouraged to experiment with their roles on the other hand older members were more reserved and needed additional encouragement. The role of gender dynamics was also prominent as male participants are associated with dominating the discussion which needs balance by inviting female members to share their perspectives. The presence of cultural diversity also ensures better decision-making abilities as it leads to better preferences towards specific things.

While working as a facilitator I felt a mix of anxiety and Pride throughout the overall session as participants engaged continuously in the discussion. However, it increased my pressure to maintain group dynamics due to working in such a large group.

Meanwhile in the future, if I am allocated to similar roles I would like to conduct the strategy of building rapport among the team members to reduce my pension level. Also utilising some technology advancements like visual whiteboards or timers can be helpful to improve the engagement rate of participants and ensure managing time more efficiently.

Conclusion

The experience I have gained while working in a team taught me the value and importance of patience and adaptability in group work. I also realise that having appropriate collaboration within the group project ensures the building of positive relationships between the team members and ensures balance in completing the overall project. Maintaining structured communication also improves efficiency and supports balancing group dynamics without any sort of consequences. Facilitating the role play was a valuable experience which helped me to identify both my strengths and weaknesses. It also helps in refining facilitation skills which will help in improving confidence and adaptability skills in future sessions.

References

Blank, T.H., (2023). Do founding team motivation types matter for student startups’ survival? Self-oriented, other-oriented, and diverse motivations in academic incubators. The Journal of Technology Transfer, pp.1-18. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10961-023-10004-2

Caillier, J.G., (2020). Testing the influence of autocratic leadership, democratic leadership, and public service motivation on citizen ratings of an agency head’s performance. Public Performance & Management Review, 43(4), pp.918-941. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15309576.2020.1730919

Darby, F. and Dowling, L., (2021). Building MultiStories: Embedding the library services for inclusive teaching and learning in a diverse curriculum. Irish Journal of Academic Practice, 9(2), p.8. https://arrow.tudublin.ie/ijap/vol9/iss2/8/

Devi, A.D., (2021). Implementation of democratic leadership style and transformational head of madrasah in improving the quality. Nidhomul Haq: Jurnal Manajemen Pendidikan Islam, 6(1), pp.14-26. https://digilib.uin-suka.ac.id/id/eprint/55383/

Jones, D.A., (2019). The Tuckman’s model implementation, effect, and analysis & the new development of Jones LSI Model on a small group. Journal of Management, 6(4). https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3525281

Justice, S.B.A.C.C., Luke, K.L.K.M. and Shaw, D.R.L., (2021). ASGW Guiding Principles for Group Work. https://asgw.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/ASGW-Guiding-Principles-May-2021.pdf

Olmos-Ochoa, T.T., Ganz, D.A., Barnard, J.M., Penney, L., Finley, E.P., Hamilton, A.B. and Chawla, N., (2021). Sustaining implementation facilitation: a model for facilitator resilience. Implementation science communications, 2(1), p.65. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s43058-021-00171-4

Poort, I., Jansen, E. and Hofman, A., (2022). Does the group matter? Effects of trust, cultural diversity, and group formation on engagement in group work in higher education. Higher Education Research & Development, 41(2), pp.511-526. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07294360.2020.1839024

Rawlinson, C., Carron, T., Cohidon, C., Arditi, C., Hong, Q.N., Pluye, P., Peytremann-Bridevaux, I. and Gilles, I., (2021). An overview of reviews on interprofessional collaboration in primary care: barriers and facilitators. International Journal of Integrated Care, 21(2). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8231480/

Usher, M. and Barak, M., (2020). Team diversity as a predictor of innovation in team projects of face-to-face and online learners. Computers & Education, 144, p.103702. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131519302556