Individual Reflection

MGT636
June 1, 2012 Francis Paolo Figueroa Meria - 2011001975 Tutor: Sam Young

Applied Management MGT636 Assignment 2(a) Individual Reflection on Working in a Team

Student Name: ID: Francis Paolo Figueroa Meria 2011001975

Assignment 2(a) Team Rating Form

Please place a number in the most appropriate box below from 1 to 5 (1 is poor; 5 is excellent) for each of the fourteen pairs of adjectives that best describes your feeling about your team. Do not give any individual assessment, do it collectively. Do not name individuals or give separate assessments on this form.

Negative
Unco-operative Selfish members Unfriendly/reserved Passive Incompetent Not planned & measured in actions taken Unreliable Not cohesive in direction Not innovative Not inclusive of members Mainly ineffective followers

Score (1 to 5)

Positive
Co-operative Unselfish members Friendly Interactive Competent Planned and measured in actions taken Reliable Cohesive in direction Innovative Inclusive of members Shared leadership / effective followership Would want to work with the team again Decisions well made Happy with the team recommendations & implementation plans

4 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 3.75 4.75 4 3.75 4.5 4 4 4 4

Would not want to work with the team again Decisions not well made Unhappy with team recommendations & implementation plans

Under the headings below, using examples from the semester, meeting minutes and PRM minutes, justify your team rating (500-700 words).

Co-operation: Every member has been very cooperative right at the outset. Despite other assignments and commitments, everyone always gave their best in everything they did. There was not really much support or encouragement from members. At times or most of the time, everyone was working in isolation. However, the team was rather considerate and very sensitive about how much one can handle. They wont give you something they feel or think is too much for you. Unselfishness: None of the team members only thought of their own advantage. We all knew right from the start that its a team work and that everything we do affects everyones grade. Friendliness: The team has been very warm and friendly to one another. One reason could be because they were all in the same two courses the previous semester. Theyre always open for opinions and ideas and they give praises and tell you face-to-face that you really did a great work. They acknowledge your hard work, time and efforts. This team creates a very healthy environment. Interactivity: The team, being so welcoming, always involves and encourages the only slightly passive member to participate during team meetings. Face-to-face or not, the communication has always been open. Everyone feels free to share their thoughts and express anything and everything at all times. Competence: This is one of the biggest strengths of the group. Each member works really hard to meet a high standard. The team comprises quality and academically excellent students. Every one has really good strengths that contributed to the success of the team. Planning: Planning was done strategically and remarkably well. The team makes sure that every written report is finished and ready to be proofread and submitted by the team about 4-7 days before its deadline. We always review and run through our lists of things-to-do and to-be-done-by toward the end of every meeting. When we get home, one sends and email and a Facebook post on the private groups wall to remind everyone of the task s that need to be completed including their corresponding owner and deadline. Reliability: The team is very reliable. You can trust that everyone will have anything done a week before the planned deadline. Right at the very first meeting, we all had agreed that we would all aim for A. This goal, apart from a members slight officiousness and being a little condescending (matched with being so organized, planned and structured, which, as a matter of fact, did a lot of help for the team as well) has caused every member to really work hard and take everything very seriously. Cohesion: Although there had been several occasions where some members had begun behaving more tenaciously, digging their heels in and sticking to their guns, the team has been relatively united. They still try to compromise, try to control their emotions, appear diplomatic, be civil, polite, professional, and respectful as much as possible. Innovation: Some members are undoubtedly incredibly smart and intelligent. However, imagination and innovation within the team is fair to middling and satisfactory. At times, great ideas strike when their hearts are into it, when they feel like it, or when theyre all in the zone and not too stressed by other factors. The team has found really interesting facts and information. One member discovered Coca-Colas Happiness Truck while one came up with the idea of using Coca-Cola as a case study. These not only helped narrow down our topic but also made our presentation more captivating and compelling.

Inclusivity: The team has a very good positive climate. It has never made any member feel like an outcast. Everyone has always been treated fairly and equally and their opinions always welcome. Shared Leadership/Followership: We all shared the same vision. There was a deeper sense of teamwork because we all intended to work and improve ourselves in an effective manner so our level of participation and contribution are at their fullest potential. Work with the team again: Maybe yes, maybe no. It depends. Yes, because its great to have team members who are very structured, who know what they are doing, who may be a lot better than you are in terms of organizing and dealing with things. However, one member may end up being a constant follower and a silent contributor just because no matter what his/her input is, leaders think that their ideas will always be the best and will always be what needs to be followed by everyone. Sometimes you want to do something your own way and learn from your mistakes but its just not possible because one personality dominates over the other. Sometimes you just follow and obey as much as possible to avoid conflicts, to not make others feel slightly offended (in case they take you the wrong way), or just to make them feel good about themselves leading the team. Sometimes its all about whos got the stronger personality and who knows more about the subject. Decision-making: Decision making was pretty good until toward the end. At times there were a few healthy exchanges of thoughts during meetings and on Facebook. However, conflicts had risen between the two members who are quite too insistent and immovable in terms of their own strategies and the way they do and would like to do things. But overall, it was still relatively pretty good and well even though sometimes one member tends to lose patience and injects sarcasm time after time. The rest of the members had been able to deal with this quite well. Happy with team process: Spending the entire semester working with one another has truly helped us get to know more about and understand one another. Weve learned to give way, act more appropriately and acknowledge not only our strengths and weaknesses but also the other members. Weve learned to be more flexible, to be less stubborn, to be nd and stretch for the sake of someone, and most importantly, to help, encourage, inspire and motivate other members. One of the most amazing things and one of the biggest accomplishment I think our team has is that we hardly had issues about inability to attend the meeting. Despite having the seldom reasonably late for a few minutes, every member had always been present no matter what. It shows how dedicated and committed everyone was. We knew we would and could do anything for the team.

Assignment 2(a) How You Rated Yourself

Your Name: Francis Paolo Figueroa Meria

Complete this Rating Form for yourself. Please place a score in the most appropriate box below from 1 to 5, (1 is poor; 5 is excellent). You need to be able to justify your opinion of your own performance in your narrative of 300-500 words, using examples; ill-considered opinion is not good enough.
Enter a number: Poor (1) to Excellent (5)

Attribute

Score (1-5)

1. Quality of contribution to team discussions 2. Quality of initiative when things needed to be done 3. Reliability in completing assigned responsibilities 4. Amount of effort put forth 5. Commitment to the team 6. Leadership or followership inspiration provided to the team 7. Emphasis on task functions 8. Emphasis on relationship functions 9. Would want to work with again 10. Overall contribution to the successful team outcome

2.5 3.5 4 5 4 5 4 4 4 3.75

Under the headings below, using examples from the semester, meeting minutes and PRM minutes, justify your individual rating outlining the positive and challenging aspects of how your team operated.

What part you played in planning/job allocation to ensure tasks completed? Tasks: The amount of task given to me has always been good. They probably knew I had been pressured because Im not a straight -A student but they know I work hard to accomplish anything. I would love to do a bit of editing and maybe a huge chunk of formatting but it was already someone elses job. Besides, the level of eagerness of the other two members to help with the editing and formatting skyrocketed so they ended up doing it anyway. I tend to always just give way and step back when I feel like someone wants to do something even though I would like to do it too. It felt like they believed I couldnt do it or that they could do it better than I do. Its not right to assume but Im sure it happened for a reason (a matter of perspective). Probably I had enough on my plate already. During meetings, I didnt have much to say really. They seemed to have everything planned out so well and knew what they were doing and everything they were talking about. At times, some members would receive a straightforward face-to-face harsh comment about their ideas so it could be hard to speak up when you know that any idea will be turned down. You just end up being a follower. So Ive learned that I should be more assertive and firm next time. There was no favoritism in the team but having a couple actually resulted to some minor biases. It sparked some tension, not very visible, but very much felt.

Overall Contribution: My contribution may not be straight-As objectively, I may not have contributed much in terms of planning or during group discussions, but it is satisfying enough knowing that I spent a great deal of time, effort, dedication, commitment and hard work in everything I did for the group, and that I performed and completed whatever was assigned to me to the best of my ability at all times. How did you ensure the work was done properly? Reliability, Effort and Commitment: Most of the time, I met all the team deadlines and handed in everything that is of high standard as much as possible. Since I was too pressured about having team members who really badly want an A and I was worried about letting the team down, I worked very hard for any task assigned to me to the point that I dedicated all my time, effort and commitment to the group project as though it was my only paper that my three other subjects ended up suffering and going downhill. I come up with a quality work except that it sometimes takes me some time or a long time which depends whether or not my heart is into it, or whether or not Im passionate about it. I did not anymore study for my Law test out of fear of disappointing the team. There were times I couldve been studying for something or working on an assessment whose deadline was nearly approaching but I still spent most of my time working on a task assigned to me because I wanted to give the team something that would somehow meet the standards I had expected them to have. What do you think you could have done better to help the team work more efficiently (Discussions; Initiative): I had attended 99% of the meetings and I had always replied to every text, email and Facebook post right away to acknowledge receipt or understanding. Most of the time, I had whatever was expected of me before every meeting despite being late at times. I couldve been more assertive, more confident, less intimidated, and less passive. Theres always a better way in anything and everything. This is a great learning experience. Although I might not have been able to defend a team member against the other two during the worst stage of the process because I kept silent knowing that arguing with a tenacious person could be useless or pointless or could be like coming up against a brick wall, I was able to comfort, encourage, empathize and sympathize with the person by sharing a lot of my time through a long conversation through text. I didnt not really volunteer so much. Most of the time I just waited for them to give me tasks as though I had settled for being controlled. I know I have to be more proactive next time. How did you influence the team and how did the team influence you? Leadership/Followership: Rebecca and Richard were already there. Rebecca is an excellent leader. She wanted to take charge and we let her do it. No one had issues about it. She led our team to success. In this team, Im a follower and a silent contributor. Im good at following directions and Im okay with it. I also know how to work hard to get it done on time. I just get the job done without saying much. I complete the tasks assigned to me and dont really create conflicts. However, this is balanced because my team members are not afraid to speak up. Even though I did the same two papers with them last semester, we dont really hang out often. However, the three of them have been pretty close since high school so theyd felt comfortable right at the start. They were all from the same school and were at the same year level so there wasnt much of a need to break the ice or tiptoe around one another. Most of the time, Ive been passive. I hardly talked. That was because I could feel that everything was flowing really smoothly already. So I just did my best to every task assigned to me. Relationships: I dont think I influenced the team that much nor did they influence me greatly. I was passive most of the time. I avoided conflicts as much as possible although Id talk to Rebecca for a long time through text even though it could be really frustrating trying to talk to someone like her. I just said say yes to anything, not objecting at all. When the team finalized the PowerPoint

the day before the presentation, I spoke up and told Rebecca in the nicest and most professional manner how exactly I wanted to make minor changes, i.e. reorder my bullet points. She flew off the handle, told me I had not been speaking up (when I actually did, except that she cut me off and told me All changes have to be emailed to me by 6pm tonight, scripts at 7pm. Sharp. and directed her anger at me because she felt like the whole team ganged up on her that afternoon insisting that she cut down her 8-minute speech. Richard was very insistent, Abbey followed, but then I got their point about going over time. I also understand how much time and effort Rebecca spent on her speech and how she badly wanted to deliver all the information. However, I just remained quiet because Abbey and I could feel that there was enough tension and heated argument already. Both sides had a point but maintained an intransigent position. I just didnt feel the need to join the conversation because we all knew that almost nothing and no one could change Rebeccas and Richards mind. I did not like how Rebecca used to reply to me (and then to everyone else later on) with sarcasm, making every idea I said in front of the group seemingly the most asinine thing shed ever heard. Thats why I stopped talking. I just did not feel like talking anymore. I just felt like I was not needed. Whenever she was not feeling great, out of the blue, shed randomly crack a sarcastic half-meant joke that criticizes me or Abbey or Richard. We would play along and laugh with her but the three of us could tell that Rebeccas comments were very satirical and that she was really trying to insinuate something. Every time Rebecca would find mistakes in our work, she would not say it in the most professional and constructive way. She would say it the way she wanted to. She could be constructive if she wanted to but more often than not, it was more harsh than constructive. We managed to ignore it and to take it all in stride as we did not want to create more conflicts throughout the process. I gave it the benefit of the doubt. Probably she was too stressed out or maybe she had other things in her mind. She probably was too worried about our final report so she was often in a bad mood and rather cranky. She had other more difficult subjects. Perhaps she just isnt very good at handling her emotions and stress sometimes. Despite all these, I love this group because it definitely improved my skills in dealing with different kinds of people. You just learn it along the way, by instinct. Every time I feel the dark cloud over us during meetings, I try my best to be happy, to look positive, and be fun when everyone else feels stressed out. Fortunately, I managed to look jolly at times and pull it off without them affecting my mood.

Assignment 2(a) Team Member Ratings

Student Name: Rebecca

Complete one Rating Form for EACH OF YOUR TEAM MEMBERS. Please place a score in the most appropriate box below from 1 to 5, (1 is poor; 5 is excellent). You need to be able to justify your opinion of each team members performance in your narrative of 300-500 words, using examples; ill-considered opinion is not sufficient.
Enter a number: Poor (1) to Excellent (5)

Attribute

Score (1-5)

1. Quality of contribution to team discussions 2. Quality of initiative when things needed to be done 3. Reliability in completing assigned responsibilities 4. Amount of effort put forth 5. Commitment to the team 6. Leadership or followership inspiration provided to the team 7. Emphasis on task functions 8. Emphasis on relationship functions 9. Would want to work with again 10. Overall contribution to the successful team outcome

5 5 5 5 5 5 5 3.5 2.5 5

Under the headings below, using examples from the semester, meeting minutes and PRM minutes, justify your rating of each individual team member outlining the positive and challenging aspects of how your team operated.

Discussions: Despite being bossy and harsh sometimes, Rebecca never runs out of brilliant ideas. She always has the drive. She is one of the best leaders Ive known. She takes charge, she delegates fairly, she may not be the best when it comes to motivation and encouragement but shes a natural born leader. Very impressive. She knows what shes talking about. The way she does things, her organization, planning, leading and controlling skills are terrific! She s been a great role model to us after all. Initiative and Tasks: Rebecca has great judgment in making decisions. At times, we felt like she wanted to do everything just so the team would get an A or that it would appear as though she had done the most contribution. She had too many other things on her plate too but even so, she did more than she could handle and still managed to accomplish everything at a very high standard and on time. Some of us offered to help not only because we didnt want her carrying most of the burden herself but we also wanted the tasks to be equally distributed. Nonetheless, sometimes she would insist that she would rather have it done her way to achieve the highest possible mark. The rest of us didnt like how several times she insisted on doing most of the work but ended up using it against us, looking grouchy and saying things along the lines of Guys. Ive had enough. Ive done this and that. You have no idea how long it took me to do this and that.

Sorry. I cant do this anymore. Abbey would reply, Well, we offered you some help but you insisted and wouldnt let us help. Reliability: There seems to be nothing she cant handle and accomplish on time. Rebecca is very reliable and her efforts are commendable. Everything she did was of high standard in terms of quality and quantity. Rebecca and Richard are academically excellent. Effort, Commitment and Leadership/Followership: She spent so much time and effort editing and proofreading our work, correcting each error, every little single mistake. Her commitment and dedication for this project was exceptional. Her leadership skills outstanding. If not because of her, we wouldntve done so well. She allocates tasks fairly and equally too. She definitely has great management skills. Relationships: Rebecca is most of the time diplomatic and professional. She frequently gets very moody and sometimes her mood swing and subtly rude and sarcastic comments just drive every member nuts. Everyone in the team has flaws but looking at the bigger picture and considering everything Rebecca has done for the group, her flaws become insignificant. Work with again: Maybe Ill work with her again. A lot of people may dislike her personality and attitude, she may talk behind her team members back and tell everyone else and her family the flaws of every member in her group, but truth is you can never ever change a person. But you can always change yourself, the way you deal with them, the way you handle or manage or talk to them. And I think it will only take some time before Rebecca and I completely get to know each other and learn how to deal with each other. We get along pretty well when were not talking about the group project. When we talk about life and the most random things and I become her shock absorber, things go very well and we realize we have so many things in common. Overall Contribution: Need I say more? Rebeccas overall performance and contribution is stellar, peerless and superb.

Student Name:

Richard

Complete one Rating Form for EACH OF YOUR TEAM MEMBERS. Please place a score in the most appropriate box below from 1 to 5, (1 is poor; 5 is excellent). You need to be able to justify your opinion of each team members performance in your narrative of 300-500 words, using examples; ill-considered opinion is not sufficient.
Enter a number: Poor (1) to Excellent (5)

Attribute

Score (1-5)

1. Quality of contribution to team discussions 2. Quality of initiative when things needed to be done 3. Reliability in completing assigned responsibilities 4. Amount of effort put forth 5. Commitment to the team 6. Leadership or followership inspiration provided to the team 7. Emphasis on task functions 8. Emphasis on relationship functions 9. Would want to work with again 10. Overall contribution to the successful team outcome

5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 5 4.75

Under the headings below, using examples from the semester, meeting minutes and PRM minutes, justify your rating of each individual team member outlining the positive and challenging aspects of how your team operated.

Discussions: Like Rebecca, Richard also has the most sensible, clever ideas. He and Rebecca are highly opinionated. There was always a great exchanges of thoughts and ideas between the two of them. Richard had always been present and was hardly ever late. Initiative: Because he knew that social media is the current trend, and that people are likely to be on or to check Facebook rather than DropBox or emails, Richard created a private Facebook group for the team. This private group page was used to share videos, articles and exchange ideas. Richard also use this to post the agenda the night before every meeting, which was good because all members own an Android phone that pops up every Facebook notifications right away. Reliability: Richard always turns in a quality work and always meets the deadline. He is good to work with. He does not brag about his abilities not does he talk much about trivial matters. Like Rebecca, he talks with sense all the time and just gets the work done incredibly swiftly at a high standard. Effort: Richard is the kind of person who can have fun while doing a big group research project. It only takes him a very short time to accomplish anything so he gets a lot of free time to do other things. He never got frustrated nor stressed out. He was always chilled but hard working at the

same time. He gives his best in everything. It may not seem obvious only because he can produce something of high standard for a short period of time. Commitment, Leadership/Followership and Tasks: Richard always made sure that everything was planned and organized well. He thinks fast and comes up with solutions quickly. He is easy to work with because he knows how to compromise and knows exactly how to get his point across without sounding offensive, impolite, too demanding or abrupt. Sometimes he would take over and lead the team. Hes a very effective and efficient leader and follower. Relationships: Richard never makes a big deal out of petty little things. He never let his emotions get in the way. Hes constantly maintained his professionalism and diplomacy and performed every task the best he could all the time. Work with again: I will definitely work again with Richard. He is a good leader and a good follower and does analyze people and deal with every situation really well. Overall Contribution: Both Richard and Rebecca have a great eye for detail. They both led and guided the team toward its success. I would say that about 50-70% of the overall research project was because of their quality work and brilliant ideas.

Abbey Student Name:

Complete one Rating Form for EACH OF YOUR TEAM MEMBERS. Please place a score in the most appropriate box below from 1 to 5, (1 is poor; 5 is excellent). You need to be able to justify your opinion of each team members performance in your narrative of 300-500 words, using examples; ill-considered opinion is not sufficient.
Enter a number: Poor (1) to Excellent (5)

Attribute

Score (1-5)

1. Quality of contribution to team discussions 2. Quality of initiative when things needed to be done 3. Reliability in completing assigned responsibilities 4. Amount of effort put forth 5. Commitment to the team 6. Leadership or followership inspiration provided to the team 7. Emphasis on task functions 8. Emphasis on relationship functions 9. Would want to work with again 10. Overall contribution to the successful team outcome

5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4.25

Under the headings below, using examples from the semester, meeting minutes and PRM minutes, justify your rating of each individual team member outlining the positive and challenging aspects of how your team operated.

Discussions: Abbey may not be as academically excellent as Rebecca and Richard but she always thinks very critically and analytically. She does may not have the brightest ideas but shes always engaged, she asks questions, gives a lot of comments and suggestions and expresses herself freely. Tasks, Initiative, Effort, Commitment: Abbey takes down a lot of notes, she s great with details and accuracy, she does the minutes, reviews the minutes and what needs to be done by who before the meeting ends to ensure we were all on the same page. She is the very committed facilitator who puts everything into structure, she organizes meetings and the documentations and did all the formatting in the proposal, progress reports and final report. She makes things run smoothly and makes sure that everything goes according to plan, on schedule and in order. This kept the team from being chaotic. Abbey managed to control the team so well. Reliability, Leadership/Followership: Abbey is a good follower and can be a good leader too. She had submitted everything on time and of good standard while juggling work, other subjects, the research project and managing the team. Relationships: Abbey is the only person who has always been there for me when things go wrong. She comforts me through text all the time and always offers help. She empathized with me and told me how she felt that it was only Rebecca and Richard doing most of the contribution and how she felt left out too at times. It is deeply touching and moving when you get comfort and offers of help from the person you least expect to get it from. Sometimes she would just randomly send a text message asking how things are going, how my progress report or literature review is going, how I am doing with my other subjects and other assessments. I am very grateful for all the times Abbey encouraged me and motivated me. Work with again: Ill definitely work with Abbey again. Both Abbey and Richard know how to work effectively with people without letting their emotions get in the way. Overall Contribution: She may not be a straight-A student but knowing how committed, dedicated and driven she is, by assessing her work and performance, you can tell she has other much more important skills which plain A grades will never ever measure up to. I believe that a sufficient level of hard work, determination and superior performance combined with substantial knowledge will always overpower high marks alone. Abbey impressively and admirable took as many tasks as she could. She is a good role model. From this, Ive learned that if you want to be really really useful, you have to do something about it. You definitely have got to do something and be more proactive. Just dig in and grab anything you can before it s too late and there nothing much left for you to do.