Reflection on chapters presentations and chapters presented

    To Begin, I want to start by reflecting on my group and this assignment. My assigned group was group two and I want to say that I felt quite comfortable working in this group assigned to me because I had a very positive experience with group two because first and most importantly we created a way to effectively communicate with each other which was by creating a group chat. In addition we as a group were able to effectively and fairly split up the group work and everyone agreed easily on most things despite the fact that there were disagreements on some things we all were able to get to consensus at the end. Therefore, everything in the group went by smoothly and everyone was also respectful with each other as well as collaborative. In my opinion, I thought that working in this group was going to be much harder not just because of bad group experiences in the past but also because we are virtual and the interaction between us as a group would not be the same as in person but fortunately every thing worked out great and because of that I would more than delighted to keep working with this group in future projects.

 

 

            The first chapter presented by group one was chapter three. I found the presentation and the chapter very interesting because I was thought many new things I did not know before. For example, this presentation shocked me because I learned that the united states of America is not mostly Christian nor catholic but protestant. This chapter is particularly interesting to me because it describes different parts of the human and of the human life and this affects the socioeconomic status and ability to live their lives. Another part of chapter three that I liked was how it described individualism and collectivism because it reminded me of certain countries and the global geopolitical fights because individualism brought to me head a country like the united now in recent times mostly during the presidency of former president Donald trump. This is because mostly during that specific presidency the united grew more isolated from the world and wanted to protect it own companies and protect its economy at all cost. On the other hand another country that comes to mind when they talked about collectivism is china because this countries ideology is everyone gets the same and everyone is equal therefore tending to make everyone work together. Another on how collectivism represents china is how china wants to get involved every country to expand its deadly grip. Also how this individualism and collectivism is is sown into countries cultures. For example, Us and German cultures are cold and individualistic meanwhile cultures from China, Japan, Korea are a very collective culture. To continue, the presentation for chapter three also made me reflect on who I am and how I can use the things learned in chapter three in my own life. For example, I realized that the country that I come from which is Colombia has a short term oriented culture because my original culture tradition is very important and social hierarchy is very highlighted as well as fulfilling each persons social obligation. On the flip side where I currently live which is in the united states and this country has a very long oriented culture focused on the future because people here study graduate get married have kids and eventually buy a house and persist along the way.

 

            

Furthermore, the next chapter that was presented was chapter nine communicating in groups and this chapter was assigned and presented by my group which is group two and myself. Personally I found chapter nine to be the one that struck me right on the spot because I loved it as soon as I saw the title and that was because when we first told by the professor we were going to permanently be in groups I honestly was very skeptical about it because first I’d prefer to work by myself and secondly because the group was virtual and the classes were virtual and all of the logistics of the project were virtual and I thought it was going to be a pain to get everyone to finish and complete the project. Turns out it was not as bad as I imagined because I put into practice and took into consideration what chapter nine talked about applied to my own group I was working with on this specific project. The first thing I paid close attention to in the chapter was to the stages of group development because I found that interesting and I wanted to see it in action in my group. Therefore, I used Bruce Tuckerman’s 1965 model to help me keep track of the stages as they went developing in my very own group two. The stages were pre-stage, forming, storming, norming, preforming and lastly adjourning. Something I want to point out is that preforming in my opinion is like the climax of the entire process because after that it starts going down hill. The stage of performing was done when we presented the chapter to the entire class. I also learned about all of the other types of groups from families to virtual groups.

 

 

Lastly, Group three did chapter ten group leadership and problem solving. This chapter got into more detail of procedural roles which are who make the group function properly. Furthermore, without those roles most groups would not function correctly and would eventually disintegrate. Another key pillar of groups talked about in this chapter was forms of communication in a group which is vital for a group. To continue, something I already knew but that this chapter reinforced was shared leadership responsibilities which basically means every gets their fair share. Moreover, those responsibilities are be committed to group goal, keep the discussion on track, complete individual assignments, encourage input from all members and lastly manage conflict among members. Lastly, I believe that chapters nine and ten go hand and hand in regards to the topic they both touch upon.

Juan Garcia

Spc. 1017 T/Th 8:25-9:40a.m. Ref.# 5773