Team Development and its effect on Group Decision Making
Team size is a factor that bears upon group dynamics. Our team of 4 members is relatively small and that helps in creating strong bonds between members. Aleksandar, Rocco, Kuir and I are not only classmates but also good friends. This helps create an atmosphere of camaraderie during our discussion. The odd personal jibe or a practical joke lightens the burden of our projects. Speier et. al. have brought new understanding to group dynamics. Their work on ‘interruptions’ reveal that for cognitively simpler and space-oriented tasks interruptions do not have a negative effect. On the other hand, for complex tasks interruptions prove to be a hindrance. Our group project is neither too simple nor too complex. Hence it is fair to assume that on the whole interruptions will slightly undermine our work. But thanks to a strong team ethic that we’ve built over the course, the numbers of interruptions were minimal. If I was giving a presentation to the group, Aleksandar, Rocco and Kuir would carefully pay attention to what I have to say. They would raise their questions at the end of the presentation. I would return the favour during their presentations.
Future Improvements
I am fairly happy with how our group has performed its coordinative tasks. However, there are areas for improvement also. While our communication skill in the conventional sense is quite solid, we do lag in terms of English language proficiency. This is an area all four of us must improve, for we all recognize how language is the vehicle for thoughts and expressing ideas. Even the best co-ordinated of our efforts will only be as good as our language level allows it to be expressed. Other areas where our team can do better are planning and organization. At times during the project we found ourselves acting and taking decisions in an ad-hoc manner. It betrayed a lack of professionalism in our approach. This we want to remedy in upcoming group activities.
References:
Turban, Efraim, Decision Making, Systems, Modeling, and Support, Chapter 2, Decision support and business intelligence systems, pp. 38-69. Boston : Prentice Hall, c2011.
Cheri Speier, Iris Vessey, Joseph S. Valacich. The Effects of Interruptions, Task Complexity, and Information Presentation on Computer-Supported Decision-Making Performance, Decision Sciences, Volume 34 Number 4, Fall 2003.
Bazerman, Max H. & Moore, Don A., Judgment in managerial decision making, Ch. 11, pp. 179-199, Improving decision making, Hoboken, NJ : J. Wiley & Sons, c2009.