FREE ESSAY ON PARTICIPATION

PARTICIPATION

Chapter 9- Effective Participation (Wilson 253-255)
What:
I will go through each of the five categories under effective participation and tell what
I observed on our group for each one.
First- I think each member of our group was committed to do their best as time and
resources allowed. Each contributed to the group in meetings and in presentations. Keith
often was the leader behind our group presentations. I would say that he always was but
I'm not sure that my memory is accurate. He came up with the ideas for the presentations
that we ended up using, he coordinated them, made sure that everyone knew what they were
doing and that they were going to do their part and be there on the day of the
presentation. Charley did his part well and helped contribute ideas and suggestions for
ways of presenting. Jessica and Salena came through and completed every assignment that
they were given. When given parts to do for presentations they did them. 
Second- In our group members had differing goals that they wanted to accomplish. Though
as it became closer to the due date of the final I think those goals became more the same
but because of these differences it is difficult to determine for sure if every group
member was committed to the good of the group or not. Over all I think the common goal of
the group especially towards the end was to complete the final. This goal was shared both
as a group and individually and the group was used to help all of the individuals
complete the final.
Third- Our group did not deal much with facts and opinions that would cause much tension
as it might have had it been formed in an organization. But when it came to how to do the
final conflict arose as different members had different ideas of how to do the final. As
individuals expressed the way they saw that it was supposed to be done conflict ensued.
Fourth- the best example I saw of possible competition in our group, though it didn't
damage the group, was between Charley and Keith. They often competed on ideas as to whose
idea would be used, or whose was the best, what ever it may have been. I'm not sure of
any other examples of competing.
Fifth- I think everyone at one time or another in our group has not been as good a
listener as they could have been. I recall on one occasion when one member of the group
accused another member of not listening to them. The best listener in our group though
would have to be Jessica whether she chose that role or not that was one that she played
often.
With in our small group there was strong cohesiveness between the females and between the
males. Besides the gender issue I think this cohesiveness was stronger because from the
beginning of the semester the girls usually sat together and the guys usually sat
together. Though there was cohesiveness between these two there was not strong
cohesiveness between the group as a whole. As a group, things that contributed to our
cohesiveness were: similar interest in the mission of the group, success in giving our
presentations, and most members of the group were successful in completing the group
goal, which was to complete 5 evaluations of our selected groups. 
Why:
Each member was committed to do their best because of the people we were and because at
least half of the group felt that there was pressure to be as close to a perfect group as
could be. This idea pushed us to be committed to doing our best and in a sense it hurt
us, in that we felt hindered to do anything that might break that shell of behaving and
being as close to a perfect group as possible.
In our group there was not enough discussion about our goals, regarding what we thought
needed to happen in our group, other than completing 5 evaluations of our groups. Because
we didn't make sure, that as a group there was consensus, as to what needed to be
achieved, in our group, we had separate goals that didn't always agree with each other.
This caused difficulty in the group, which undermined group cohesiveness. 
How:
A lot of the difficulties that arose in the cohesiveness of our group could be helped by
more communication between the members, a clearer goal out line, and the use of better
listening skills. 
If we as a group made clear and concise goals, and took the time to make sure that
consensus was achieved it would increase that success of our group and help minimize
possible sources of confliction which would help in our group cohesiveness.
Better and more communication coupled with good listening skills, would help clear
problems with differing ideas between members. If we listened to each other the way
described by Gerald Wilson, in his book Groups In Context, we would have to step out of
our selves and our own ideas, and really look at the other person's idea. Communication
would improve greatly which would also help our group cohesiveness. Professor Van Den
Bosche gave a chart that illustrates how these ideas work in a group.