Group Presentation Analysis

Tara Harrington

Business and Professions

Paul Hoffman

15 November 2018

        When preparing for this presentation, I assumed it was going to be a breeze. At first, I thought we would pick a topic and just go on from there. However, there was a lot that came with presenting, especially as a group. Some of the things I will discuss is the cohesion of our group, the roles and tasks of each member, power and leadership, and conflicts. I will be honest. When I found out who was in my group, I was a little uneasy, but like everything else, when you work hard, things will get done.

        First, the cohesion of my group was interesting. The first in-class work day, we settled into groups and that was when I realized I was the only female in my group. A little background about me is that if it were up to me, I would never work in groups because I am an extreme introvert. I prefer working by myself because then I do not have to worry about the responsibilities of others. Also, I would not have to stress over doing someone else’s job because they are too lazy or they do not show up to group meetings. However, for this particular project, I was not only working in a group, but a group with three other guys! At first, I felt a little inferior, but that changed later on while preparing for the presentation. In my opinion, I believe our cohesion as a group was one of our biggest strengths. Even though all of us had different backgrounds and views, we all got along very well. Also, having the same goal enhanced our cohesion as a group. We all knew that this project was worth a lot, so we all had the mindset that we wanted to do our best. On page 122 in the textbook it states, “Research has found that cohesive teams are usually more effective than noncohesive teams.  In a highly cohesive group, the members feel a high degree of loyalty to one another; the goal of the team is also the goal of the individuals” (Beebe, pg. 122). On page 110, it discusses the differences of a group and team. It states, “To be a group, people need to be united by a common goal. They must all seek the same thing” (Beebe, pg. 110). As a group, we knew that everyone would be coming from different backgrounds. That is why we chose to pick a topic such as discussing the timeline of technology. With technology as the topic, we were able to research various subtopics on what we could use in our presentation.

        Once we assigned the roles and tasks, everything started to fall into place. We decided that Andres and I would cover the old and new versions of the TV/Movie industry. Then Grant and Tyrell would discuss the old and new technology of the music industry. The issue we ran into was that everyone was able to present a topic that they were passionate about, except Matthew. For a while we did not know what topic Matthew should talk about. Finally, Matthew made the decision that he would talk about the automotive industry with technology since he was passionate about cars. I realized a weakness after we presented. One of our weaknesses was that we should have evened up things more with topics. Our presentation was longer than expected because we spent too much time on the movie and TV industry. This concluded with Matthew having to rush his presentation part. I would recommend that we should have practiced and cut out unnecessary parts. Our presentation should have been more direct which would have made more time for Matthew’s topic, and additional time for any questions.

        As a group, we all developed referent power. For example, just as it says in the textbook, we all developed a likeness for one another which also created an amount of respect. We all wanted to make sure that everyone had equal amount of work and tasks. I believe that is why there were not as many conflicts within our group. Also, one our strengths would be that our group had a good level of communication. Whenever someone had a question about something or was uncertain, we would immediately text our group chat to sort everything out. On an individual base, I would say that I also developed legitimate power. We often joked about it in our group that since I was the only female of the group, I felt more authoritative. Usually, I would be asked to be the one to turn the assignments in and make the outline copies for the class. That made me feel good because I like when people rely on me because they know I will get the job done.

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