Small groups and community are two inescapable aspects the American workplace and the college environment in which small groups exist within a community and communities may function as small groups in a broader community. Both withstand because it is believed that each may produce good results. However, the negative aspects of community and small groups are sometimes overlooked. Rebekah Nathan’s excerpt, “Community and Diversity,” discusses the failures of community and the student struggle against the fear of conformity and isolation from others with community and the longing for the sense of belonging that comes with a community. In James Surowieki’s excerpt, “Committees, Juries, and Teams: The Columbia Disaster and How Small Groups Can Be Made to Work,” Surowieki writes about the failures of small groups in which people are often unable to express their opinions because of issues such as polarization and “confirmation bias”. Yet at the same time, Surowiecki claims that when small groups function correctly they can provide great collective wisdom (440-450). Nathan and Surowiecki both argue that there are flaws to the withstanding forms of community and small groups, however by implementing strategies to diminish the threats that social hierarchy, polarization, lack of diversity, and individualism pose within the small groups and the community, we can create a better and more collective work environment. One of the many problems of small group malfunction is the ever present threat of social hierarchy, that may be resolved by implementing new strategies to reduce its effects. Social hierarchy tends to define speaking time and determine which individuals are the decision makers in communities and small groups. Consequentially, ... ... middle of paper ... ... opinions more freely. Employers can defy the rules of social hierarchy protocol by asking for encouraging employees to express their opinions, asking for the thoughts of all individuals at a meeting, and also by conducting polls. Diversity should also be encouraged. Employers should not only strive to create ethnically and educationally diverse small groups and community, but should also seek to create galas that reflect the community. Employers and administrators should also offer seminars to educate people on the effects of polarization along with attempting to depolarize small groups. Employers can increase a sense of community unity through mandatory events, but should also recognize that an increase of unity stifles the benefits of individualism. Through application of these strategies, employers will be capable of producing a more collaborative environment.
An aspirational goal for any department is for all members to hold and support the same values at all times. However, that is almost impossible due to the diversity of its members. Members have different backgrounds, different experiences,
In 1972, Irving Janis presented a set of hypothesis that he extracted from observing small groups performing problem solving tasks; he collectively referred to these hypotheses as groupthink¹. He defined groupthink as “a quick and easy way to refer to a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members’ striving for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action²” A successful group brings varied ideas, collective knowledge, and focus on the task at hand. The importance of groups is to accomplish tasks that individuals can not do on their own. The Bay of Pigs, Watergate, and the Challenger disaster are all forms of failure within a group. Specifically, you can see the effect of groupthink of Americans before September 11, 2001. The thought of harm to the United States was unfathomable, but only after the attacks did they realize they were not invincible. When a solid, highly cohesive group is only concerned with maintaining agreement, they fail to see their alternatives and any other available options. When a group experiences groupthink, they may feel uninterested about a task, don't feel like they will be successful, and the group members do not challenge ideas. Stress is also a factor in the failure of groupthink. An effective group needs to have clear goals, trust, accountability, support, and training. Some indicators that groupthink may be happening are; making unethical decisions, they think they are never wrong, close-minded about situations, and ignore important information. Many things can be done to prevent groupthink from happening. One way is to make each person in the group a “critical evaluator”. The leader must ...
Group formation or formation of cliques is typically seen as the stereotypical jocks, cheerleaders, geeks, or nerds. But what most do not necessarily take into consideration is that members of each group have an existing commonality between them even if most of the members do not know what that common trait is. Being a part of a group can have an impact on an individual. Through group discussion, individuals only strengthen their beliefs due to the fact that they know that they are not alone in those beliefs since they have friends
A community can be defined as a group of people, who live, learn, work and play in an environment at a given time. (Yiu, 2012, p.213) There are many factors that may influence the community’s development and health status. These can include resources available, accessibility, transportation, safety, community needs etc… These influences may combine together to form community strengths and as well as community challenges or weaknesses. As a community health care nurse, it is significant for us to assess and identify these strengths and challenges within the community in order for us to intervene and provide the appropriate needed health care services for the community members. This individual scholarly paper will explore and focus on one challenge issue identified from our group community assessment.
My analysis is on the film The Goonies. While I view the movie and determine the various norms, behaviors, roles and interaction between group members, as well as individuals the examination within the realm of film can present many of the same components. Thus, our group selected this movie to analyze based on its formation of a cohesive problem-solving group full of unforgettable characters. The Goonies portray many different theories and aspects of small group communication.
Global and local communities seek the greatest opportunities for prosperity and self-fulfillment, but there exists certain criteria that must be met in order to achieve those ends. The most successful communities incorporate the inherent values and virtues of a specific group of people. Communities ought to establish goals to be attained by their members, giving them a sense of cohesion and cooperation. Ideally, communities dictate a rule of law to lead them towards some elements of justice and mutual benefit.
According to social psychologists a group is composed of more than two individuals who depend and interact with each other in some manner (Lessing). Examples of groups include a class, a football team, a cult etc. Groups normally have various similar features including: norms that determine the right behavior, roles assigned to individuals, which determine what responsibilities and behaviors people should undertake, a communication structure and a power structure, which determines how much influence and authority group members have. For example, a class has norms, like the time people should arrive in class. The role of the professor includes teaching, administering exams and inviting discussions. The ro...
Estlund, Cynthia. Working Together: How Workplace Bonds Strengthen a Diverse Democracy. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2005. 256. Print.
...ate its employees’ attitudes and their work with colleagues. This should be incorporated into their assessments and reviews, and any issues that are identified should be addressed promptly when delaing with their perfomance in their assessment. Such issues include an employee who only delegates work to specific individuals based on their race or an employee who disregards ideas from certain work colleagues due to their age. However, a manager who identifies diversity-related issues should not adopt a confrontational approach when discussing the issues with an employee. A good approach would be to encourage the employee to work with colleagues from different generations and backgrounds. The initiation of such interactions will encourage the employee to learn more about their objectives, talents, and communication styles and how they compare or contrast to their own.
The first chapter of “Working in Groups” focuses on group communication, the first aspect being the key elements of group communication (Engleberg and
... that areas of expertise can be exploited, different people are good at different things. Groups can discuss material, and that discussion can improve the quality of the decision. Groups are less likely to suffer from judgmental biases that individuals have when they make decisions. People are more likely to follow through on decisions made by groups that they are connected to. Also, more monumental decisions can be made in groups, because one member will not be singled out for blame, making the entire group responsible.
Moreover, this equivalent opportunity concept in workplace diversity is aimed for guaranteeing that business organizations make the most out of the difference from workforce varieties rather than to losing ability which may help the businesses to be more proficient and effective. Workplace diversity carries with the heterogeneity that should be sustained, developed and acknowledged as method for enriching organizational effectiveness in this modern society (Henry & Evans, 2007). In order to make sure organizations achieve the diversity goals, businesses should take the appropriate actions to boost culturally diverse employees. Thus, businesses need to gain progress toward multiculturalism, which should incorporates to avoid employees ' impression of the degree of separation and bias, the equal rewards and punishment, the openness of critical information, and the chances for employees to stepping up for their career goals in future (Brown, 2008). Truly, develop and implement multiculturalism in the workplace is not an easy thing to do for businesses. It needs a certain numbers of policy and regulations to follow and adjust before businesses or organizations are actually considering diversity. Also, work diverse group come from people that has different ages, ethnicity, and sexual orientation working together to form a multicultural workplace. There are some
...tly creating an internal racial divide, and giving off a sense of superficial diversity. Organizations can overcome these challenges by administering a company wide survey to collect the thoughts of the employees and by giving the employees a means for anonymous opinion sharing during meetings. The challenges of implementing a diverse workforce structure more than outweigh the problems that arise from a racist and sexist organization. It is necessary for companies in our society to be diverse, and for that reason, overcoming the challenges that occur is something that organizations simply have to deal with. In my personal experience, working for companies that are diverse in their culture are immensely more successful. Having unique insights from males, females, African-Americans and whites lead to the most collaborative and successful organizations in the country.
people who are different from each other to diverse the company culture to find different viewpoints and ideas to gain Competitive advantage (Simmons, 1996). Organizations that are lacking diversification and which are also being exposed to the general approach of minimizing the discrimination and injustice will unfavorably affect both customer and employee while diminishing the relationships with both parties (Kundu, 2001). Peters et al. (1982) conveyed that OC should create a diverse body of employees, customers and stakeholders that are being valued and integrated in to all dimensions of the work where that particular company may learn from the people they serve, by listening internally and externally to them.
Several experiments and researches have been conducted that have focused on how people behave in groups. The findings have revealed that groups affect peoples’ attitudes, behavior and perceptions. Groups are essential for personal life, as well as in work life.