Notesale: Turn your study into money

Document Preview

Extracts from the notes are below, to see the PDF you'll receive please use the links above

---

Liverpool John Moores University

Individual Reflective Report
Word Count: 4209

27th April 2020

Contents
1

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
...
3

3

4

2
...
3

2
...
3

2
...
4

2
...
5

2
...
6

2
...
6

WORKING WITHIN A TEAM
...
1

DESCRIPTION
...
2

FEELINGS
...
3

EVALUATION
...
4

ANALYSIS
...
5

CONCLUSION
...
6

ACTION PLAN
...
15

Page 1 of 18

1

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The following report provides an in-depth reflection of personal understandings
during the project
...

The structure of this reflection will be based on the six key elements of the Gibbs’
Reflective Cycle (1988); description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and
action plan alongside Kolb’s (1974) Learning Cycle to reflect in, on and for action
about working in a team on a live business case
...


Page 2 of 18

2

CHALLENGES OF ENGAGING WITH A BUSINESS OWNER
2
...
From the brief the team agreed some
of what was requested was unattainable due to time and resource limitations, however,
throughout the process Dr Tully remained steadfast on his requests due to the beneficial
outcomes his company would gain
...
There was
limited information coming from Dr Tully in regard to the sector of industry his company
operates within, and this combined with the minimal knowledge the team of, the lack
communication the team received, both factors made it difficult for the team to go ahead
with set tasks
...
This meant when questioned, we as the team received
somewhat repetitive responses and were therefore provided with minimal additional
information to utilise
...
However, as time progressed,
the team worked hard to ensure work was being completed and targets were being
achieved
...
7 hours per weekday (Berger, 2018)
...
With poor
communication comes low morale (Grossman, 2016)
...
2 Feelings
At the beginning of the process there were mixed feelings of anticipation and excitement
...
Gratification and a sense of
accomplishment were common feelings throughout
...
Dr Tully was easy-going, yet quite engaging
...
The team had a clear respect for Dr Tully, yet due to his relaxed nature, there
was a consistent delay in his response to our emails and text messages
...
This
caused negative consequences for both parties, as we were reliant on him for our end
grade result, and the work for the business couldn’t be completed to the highest standard
possible
...
Having little knowledge of each
sector of your business seems astonishing
...
The outcome of the two face-to-face meetings the team had with
him and the level of ensuing communication alone, made it a challenge to complete the
work to our aspired standards
...


2
...
Given a distinctive
business case, the team needed a significant amount of contact and support from that
business
...
According to Nokes and Kelly (2007), some
focal principles of project communication are knowing what you’re talking about,
recognising the tensions in the need to communicate, letting others know what is going
on and listening and asking questions – you should understand communication is a twoway process
...

Being a strong leader means having perceptive communication, being approachable,
showing consistency and being confident and knowledgeable (Pareto, N
...
In the case of our partnership with Scenegraph Studios
it was felt leadership could have been more substantial
...
4 Analysis
Whether they realise it or not, leaders are role-models and can influence behaviours
...
Without
efficient communication a message can be misunderstood or can even turn into
frustration by being unsatisfactory or misinterpreted (Herford, N
...
When people feel
engaged and have a sense of connection to an organisation, they are keen to work
harder and be more committed to that workplace (Grossman, 2016)
...
However, dealing with a CEO who has a proportional knowledge around
the technology sector created struggle for the team
...

Team members are likely to lose focus or become unproductive if goals are not clearly
defined (Whatissixsigma, 2019)
...
Initially claiming not to have received them, he later realised he actually had –
small oversights such as this, delayed the process and development of the project
...
The relationship between
the leader and group members is considerably more than an internal approach (Miner,
2007)
...
It is advantageous as it
creates an environment where self-belief and independence will flourish with an
individual’s opportunity to develop their own leadership skills
...


Page 5 of 18

2
...
Working with the CEO of a company for the first time was an
eye-opening experience, witnessing how the company operates and getting an insight
into a CEO’s day-to-day activities granted a deeper understanding of all aspects of the
company
...
It allowed
for us as a team to recognise various challenges and opportunities, most apparently
communication, and how important it is to have effective business communication
Communication is key in every aspect of life, however effective business communication
builds trust, increases drive, productivity and commitment, facilitates innovation and
enables leadership to better perform, overall contributing to the growth of the company
...
6 Action Plan
If this project were to begin again, it would be suggested to be more consistent and
encourage Dr Tully to fully dedicate himself to the task without distractions
...
Face to
face communication should be pressed, meeting face-to-face helps to ‘build stronger and
more meaningful business relations’ while allowing opportunities to bond (Fusion, N
...

Face-to-face communication is better for persuasion, engagement, decision making and
engagement
...
Overall, a better communication strategy
is fundamental, from the start a specific date for meeting or emailing should have been
set
...
1 Description
Tuckman’s (1965) theory of team development’s first stage is forming
...

Forming as a group had evolved quickly into the norming stage, this enabled the team to
get ahead and make a start on the project tasks
...
Immediately a schedule was written up arranging when and where to
meet weekly
...
Quickly, the group seemed to pass to the
performing stage (Tuckman, 1965), here, the team began working cooperatively on
delegated tasks discussed during meetings
...

As for our first team meeting out of regular workshop hours, one member was late, this
was an infringement in the contract the team had collectively created, agreed and had
signed
...
D)
...
However, when completing the assignment, conflict had
appeared to become more routine
...

Nevertheless, we all had the same ambition and purpose for needing to come together
and work as a team, with mutually committed goals rather than a group who organised
individual efforts
...


Page 7 of 18

3
...
Fortunately, the team already seemed to be
working well together and were inspired to achieve our goals; we were excited to be
working with a live business case and felt hopeful about the upcoming weeks ahead
...

Over the 12 weeks a wide range of feelings were experienced, from excitement to
disappointment, to being optimistic to unhappiness from frustration
...
The
mutual feelings of vexation were caused mostly due to breaching the contract where each
individual had stated what behavioural, specific or qualitative agreements they would
work on in order for the team to advance (Baril, N
...

As a naturally introverted individual, occasionally it is difficult talking to relatively new
people – often this can appear as though I am standoffish, or it may come across as
being rude or indifferent
...
As we progressed with this
piece of work, I felt a lack of cooperation and support from my team member
...
This was another breach of the
contract, and at this time feelings of being let down and disrespected were experienced
...

The team had continued in the performing stage until around week 8, we were confident
and familiar with the project to feel we didn’t need supervision, but after speaking to a
university advisor the work came to a standstill when we were recommended to evaluate
what the team had done, what we should have done and what we need to do
...

The feelings of stress came about approaching completion of the assignment
...

The submission of the group assignment could be described to be an anti-climax of what
should have felt like a true achievement
...
Earlier in the process
this member had volunteered to put our work together into a proper document for it to be
submitted
...
Although as a team we
were clearly appreciative of this offer, we had to rush through elements of our work in
order to respect their wishes of submitting our assignment ahead of schedule
...
This was in fact untrue as within an
hour of the original communication two members of the group had responded, although
their comments were not acted upon before the individual concerned submitted the
assignment on the group’s behalf
...
This individuals’ actions meant that we were unable to read
through the final document as a group
...
Upon assessing this situation, a simple
quote from Blanchard (2000) came to mind, “None of us is as smart as all of us”, in the
case of working within the team it seemed as one member would disagree
...
Frequently, this member would
complete excess work without informing the rest of the team, resulting in the members of
the team who were actually assigned that piece of work not being able to contribute, this
often led other members of the team feeling disrespected, discouraged and
overshadowed
...
3 Evaluation
“A team is a specific type of group composed of members who are interdependent, who
share common goals, and who must coordinate their activities to accomplish these goals”
(Northouse, 2013, p
...
Maslow’s (1943) Hierarchy of Needs is appropriate to this
instance as each member of the team had situated themselves contrarily within the
‘triangle’
...
Over the course of the project this member
undeniably showed no traits of a leader, qualities such as, eagerness to accept
responsibility, the capacity to motivate others or perseverance are required to even trying
to be a team leader (Cherry, 2019) – this member had neither shown great input,
participation or most importantly, leadership itself
...
The team included an array of personality types,
as noted from the Myers-Briggs personality test undertaken at the start of the process,
simple personality types ranged from confident, encouraging and reliable to lazy, bossy
and impatient
...
D)
...
D)
...
communication; good communication should be frequent, open and direct between
members
2
...
balanced contribution, where all team members are able to input what they
understand
4
...
effort, whatever the level required, it is important that team members know it and
accept it
6
...

Lombardo and Eichinger developed the T7 model in 1995 to comprehend what factors
affect team effectiveness
...
In order for a team to be high performing,
each five internal factors must be present, in the case for imperial consultants there was a
lack of teaming skills, whether this was due to different personality types standing in the
way of properly forming as a group or caused by undefined roles in the team is
undetermined (Valdellon, 2016: Leonard, 2019)
...
In terms of focusing on who is doing what
and for when it needs to be done, and overall interaction from all members could have
been better
...


3
...
Teams are not fully functional from the
beginning; teams can change in terms of how members approach task (Arnold et al,
2016)
...
Definitions of
teamwork include, ‘a group of people working collectively towards a common goal with
each member contributing to the project or program’ (Grayson, N
...
Watson (1995) says
teamwork is not a smooth path, individualistic behaviour, competitiveness, personality
imbalances and cultural, philosophical, gender differences are all risks of a team not
connecting
...

More often than not, communication issues are about different personalities
...
If communication is open, honest, direct and used both
horizontally and vertically throughout, projects will experience less stress and have a
much higher success rate (AMA, 2019)
...

During the final two weeks of the assignment work, conflict was at its highest; team
conflict generally arises from how people see the actions of others and from differing
views of the teams work and how it should be accomplished (Boundless, N
...
Having
joint responsibility for completing tasks means that workers need to interact with one
another to support each other to complete tasks (Joiner, 2007)
...
Carron, Widmeter & Brawley (1985) define task
cohesion as “a general orientation towards achieving a groups goals and objectives”
...
Observing the team’s development over the twelve weeks, it can
be noticed a form of leadership was required, leaders streamline the decision-making
process while keeping projects moving forward
...


3
...
D)
...
As per Belbin (1993), “Team performance is influenced by the kinds of
people making up a group, and testing indicates that certain combinations of personalitytypes perform more successfully than others
...
This often meant that not
everyone had the same end goal in mind as each other
...
The main problems we faced were
dominant and reluctant participants, looking back, one way to discourage dominating
people in a group could be the use of humour, or private discussion outside of the group
environment
...
Group leadership helps to work more effectively (Mindtools,
N
...

Communication within the team was a small setback, however it is noted that we would
not have been able to achieve anything if we did not work well as a team, but there could
have been many improvements to the way in which we did work, which may have added
further success of the project
...
6 Action Plan
Stevens and Campion (1994) argued there is a set of individual-level abilities that
influence an individual's performance in teams, and thus overall team performance
...

This resembles to McGregor’s Theory X and Y of human nature (McGregor, 1960),
Theory X assumes individuals usually dislike work, are irresponsible and often require
close supervision to do their jobs (Barnett, N
...
Clear weekly goals should have been set
in order for each individual to understand exactly what they needed to achieve before
meeting again, Locke’s Goal Setting Theory specifies goals should be clear and specific,
commitment is important and realistic timescales should be attainable (Young, 2017)
...

If an opportunity as such were to happen again, a GRPI model by Beckhard (1972)
should first be evaluated
...
(whatissixsigma, 2019)
...
, 2012
...
[online] The Art Of
...
theartof
...

Analytictech
...


2020
...


[online]

Available

at:

...
com/mb021/motivation
...

Arnold, J
...
, 2016
...
6th ed
...

Baril, M
...
d
...
[Blog] Resoblog, Available
at:

...
com/resologics-blog/2017/7/12/team-agreements-a-key-to-high-

performing-happy-teams> [Last accessed 23 April 2020]
...
, n
...
Theory X And Theory Y - Organization, Levels, Style, Manager, School,
Model, Type, Company, Hierarchy, Workplace
...
com
...
referenceforbusiness
...
html>
[Last accessed 23 April 2020]
...
com
...
d
...


[online]

Available

at:

...
com/about/belbin-team-roles/> [Last accessed 23 April 2020]
...
, 2018
...
[online] CNBC
...
cnbc
...
html> [Last accessed
23 April 2020]
...
, 2014
...
[online]
Entrepreneur
...
entrepreneur
...

Cherry, K
...
Do Great Leaders Share Certain Traits? See What The Research Says
...
Available at: ...
com/what-is-the-trait-theoryof-leadership-2795322> [Last accessed 23 April 2020]
...
lumenlearning
...
n
...
Conflict Within Teams | Principles Of Management
...
lumenlearning
...


Page 15 of 18

Evanish, J
...
Why Managers Need To Take Notes To Be Successful
...


Available

at:

...

Fusion, J
...
D)
...
chron
...
html]
...
, 2018
...
[online]
BrandonGaille
...
Available at: ...

Golemiewski, R
...
(1962)
...

Grayson,

L
...
d
...


[online]

Work
...
com
...
chron
...
html> [Last accessed 23 April 2020]
...
, 2016
...
[online]
Yourthoughtpartner
...
Available at:

Title: Reflective Report on a Group Project
Description: 1st Attained Third / Final Year Module ESSAY ON REFLECTION BELBIN / BUSINESS METHOD THEORIES APPLIED BUSINESS MANAGEMENT BUSINESS STUDIES

Buy These NotesPreview