INLS 131:  Management for Information Professionals

Week 5: February 5-11, 2002
Group Dynamics;
Self-Managed Work Teams

Assignments

By this date, you should have completed Tasks 1-9 and be almost finished with Task 10, which is due by the end of the week.  (I told you it would be a fast pace and an intense experience--don't fall behind because it's difficult to catch up once you lag.)   I know you are also working in collaboration with your assigned group on the Case Study 1 analysis, which is due February 18.

This week we introduce the exciting idea of self-managed work teams as we ponder the dynamics of group process, a topic that sometimes occupies whole classes and about which a mountain of books and research reports have been written. We will do our usual overview (all that we can do in a survey course).  I will ask you to build on your individual and collective past experiences and reflect on them in light of the theoretical material provided to you in Chapter 9. You should end up with an action plan. This approach matches our learning model for this class; do you recognize it? (experience followed by reflection followed by conceptualization followed by an action plan for improvement).

Our learning objectives for the week are to:

• characterize and recognize the stages that successful groups pass through
• use the "forming-norming-storming" model to create a high-performance group
• recognize task, maintenance and self-oriented individual behaviors in a group and to understand the effect of these behaviors on overall group effectiveness.

Task 11: Group Process--Part I

Read Chapter 9: Group Dynamics and Work Teams. Analyze a group experience that you have recently had. Select one where your experience extended over a period of four to six weeks, if not more. In your analysis consider the following questions:

• Did the group successfully accomplish the task assigned to it? (You may need to define "success.")
• Did members of the group find the group process individually satisfying? (If some did and some didn't, why do you think that might be so?)
• Did the group follow the stages described in the text [forming, storming, norming, performing, closure (adjourning)]?
• If the group was successful, was there "mourning" at the end, that is, some sadness that the experience was over?
• What were the patterns of communication in the group?
• How were decisions made?
• Of the eight task behaviors, five maintenance behaviors and the self-oriented behaviors described in the text (pages 196-199), which of these behaviors did each of the different group members exhibit? What effect did these behaviors have on other members of the group?

Write up your analysis--it may be fairly long. Begin by providing the context for the group experience and the assigned task. Refer to members of the group by fictitious first names (but identify yourself). Submit your analysis as a posting to the Communication forum with the subject heading "Task 11--Group Process, I." Submit your analysis by or before February 18.

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Task 12: Group Process--Part II

You are currently working with an assigned group on the Case Study 1 exercise. Answer the questions listed above in Task 11 as they relate to this "virtual group" and compare the experience you described in Task 11 to this experience. In addition, categorize how group members (please use first names and report factually rather than critically) behaved relative to the task, maintenance, and self-oriented behaviors described on pages 196-199. Did your group develop any group norms (for example, what the group defined either expressly or tacitly as "good behaviors" and "bad behaviors")? In a virtual group experience like the one you just went through, group norms relating to frequency of postings and speed of acknowledgement/response tend to be seen as "good behaviors". Would you characterize your group as a productive team? (Compare it to the list on page 209 under "Tips for Managers.") Include a self-critique and a suggestion about how you might act differently in a future group to improve group effectiveness. Send your response directly to me via email on or before February 25.

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Week 6