Introduction

This report reflects on my personal experience that I have faced with one of my group
members in Organization, Behaviour and Change class. Through the six weeks of
observation, I have learned that it is very important for us to understand the behaviour
of a person and maintain the internal relationship within an organization. Therefore,
the fundamental element of a successful project management understands the
organizational behaviour. This report consists of 4 sections which are the followings:

i: Experience
ii: Reflection
iii: Application of theories
iv: Experimental
Concrete Experience

When we were discussing one of the exercises about the driver's case in the
tutorial class given by the lecturer, one of my group members fails to respond on the
question that I asked. During the discussion, I asked Miss A "who will she defend if
in this kind of situation?" However, I was ignored by Miss A and I was wondering if I
have done anything wrong towards her that make her ignored me? After a few
minutes, I realized that it was because of the email that I send to her for the last
couple of days.

It started when we (all fellow members) were to identify which club that we
were going to observed. At the end, we chose the Swinburne Music Club. Miss A was
assigned to do one of tasks which were to get permission from the president of the
club since she was one of the members of the club. Two days later, when we were
going for an event, I asked Miss A for any updates. She said have not email them
about the proposal yet. So I tell her to let everybody know what the president decision
is.

Two days later, I did not receive any news regarding to the music club from
Miss A. So I assume that the music club president is hard to approach and maybe he
did not open his email or whatsoever. Therefore I was worried and started to think of
other alternative.

At the end, I found out that Miss A did not make any effect to email the
president of the Music Club. Then she emails us back, giving us the president’s email
address. I was so angry and email to everyone and said we might as well change the
observation club to Cookery Club because I know the president of the Cookery Club
quite well. Therefore, I tend to tell the lecture that we were going to change the
observation club. Thank God he was not in his office when I was on my way home, I
saw one of my members and I told her the whole incident. I called her Miss B. Thus,
Miss B suggests to wait for another few days to see is there any response from the
Music Club. On the other hand, I was so angry and email every of group members
about it and even Miss A by asking her: “Did you even make a move to talk to the
music club president?” Because as it was stated in the minute of the meeting that was
the one that had been assigned to get permission from the president. However she did
not reply my email but thank God that everything was solved and one of our group
members. I called him Mr. A, he went and approaches the president of the Music Club
personally. Finally, we were still going to observe the Music Club.
Reflective Observation

I felt so annoying because every time when I asked Miss A questions during
our discussion, she tend to ignored me and talked with other group members.
Therefore, it can be seen that Miss A was in fact unhappy with me. Besides,
sometimes I felt so angry because Miss A did not complete the tasks which had been
assigned to her and although I did remind her from time to time, she did not even put
an afford into it. In our group, Miss A was assigned to contact the president of Music
Club but she failed to do it. Maybe she do not have the guts to approach the president
or busy with other assignments.

Furthermore, I am worrying too much about contacting the president of the

music club because in my opinion, I thought that without the permission from the
president, our group could not proceed to the next task which is to observe the club.

Besides, I did not receive any news from other group members too and nobody
wants to take actions towards it. This might cause our group to miss the music club
meeting or any event.

On the other hand, I think that it is ineffective to communicate with Miss A

through email because she might be very busy and do not have the time to check her
email or the email which I sent to her was probably went to her spam box.

Finally, I did not try to make a move to contact the president of music club
and depends fully on her. If I make a move for it, maybe problems would not occur
between me and her. I thought that it was her responsibility to contact the president of
music club because she had been assigned for it during our group discussion and it
was also stated in the minute. Besides, she got the president contact so I thought that
she can get him easily.
Actual Conceptualization

Conflict process Model

Conflict
escalation

Manifest conflict Conflict outcomes

Positive
Source of Conflict
Better Decision
______________ Conflict Conflict Style
Incompatible perceptions
Responsive
goals and emotions Decision
organization
Different Overt behaviors
beliefs Team cohesion

Interdependence Negative
Conflict Stress/morale
Scarce Resources escalatio
n Turnover
Ambiguous
rules Politics

Poor Communication Lower performance

Distorted information

Model 1: Conflict Process Model, (McShane et al. 2009)

• Source of conflict: I have lack of communication with Miss A about obtaining

the permission from the music club president. We depend on Miss A to get the
permission and by common sense, I though that she know it is important and
without her completing it, we cannot proceed to the next task.

• Conflict Perceptions and emoticons: I get angry at Miss A because she did not
complete the tasks and thought she must be a lazy girl base on her personality.
Besides, I get worry too of missing to observe the music club meeting.

• Manifest Conflict: When I saw no action taken towards Miss A and also to the
music club, I emailed everyone to change to cookery club because I feel that
there is no more hope for music club.

• Outcome Conflict: I was so stress of what Miss A did to me of not completing

the tasks. Thus, this causes me to lost interest towards music club. Besides, I
was ignored by Miss A when I asked her question in class and email too.
Interpersonal Conflict Handling Styles

High Forcing Problem

Solving

Assertiveness
(motivation to satisfy
one’s own interest) Compromising

Yielding
Low Avoiding

Low Cooperativeness High

(motivation to satisfy
other party’s
interests)

Model 2: Interpersonal Conflict Handling Styles, (McShane et al. 2009)

From the interpersonal conflict handling style above, it can be seen that I tend to force
Miss A to complete the task by contacting the president of the music club because I
think it her responsibility and I keep on reminding her from time to time.
MARS Model
Role
Perceptions

Values Motivation
Personality
Perceptions Individual
Emoticons Behaviors
Attitudes and Results
Stress
Ability

Situational
Factors

Model 3: MARS Model, (McShane et al. 2009)

• Ability is the natural aptitudes and learned capabilities required to successfully

complete a task. (McShane et al. 2009)

I feel that Miss A have the ability to complete the task of completing the president of
the music club so we just relied on her because she was one of the club member and
can easily obtain information from them.

• Motivation is the forces within a person that effect his or her direction,
intensity, and persistence of voluntary behaviour. (McShane et al. 2009)

Although problem did occur among me and Miss A, my friend keep on motivating me
not to give up because I am the one who is going to get the benefit at the end of the
day as this will affect my result and Grade Point Average (GPA) at the end of the
semester. As for Miss A, there are lacks of motivation for Miss A probably because
she thinks that this subject (Organization, Behaviour and Change) is not as important
as there are not final exam. Therefore, she did not put any afford in completing the
task which had been assigned to her.

• Role perception

Even though I did remind her few days later after the discussion to contact the
president of music club, she tends to ignored it. Therefore, she did not know how
important her role is because without her completing her task, we will not be able to
move to the next tasks. Although we have a group leader but as one of the group
member, I feel that it is my responsibility to ask Miss A to contact the president of
music club and keep on reminding her from time to time as it was stated in the minute
meeting;.

• Situation factors

When I found out that Miss A did not contact the president of music club, I tend to
give up easily and jump to cookery club.

• Individual behaviour and performance

I felt that Miss A was angry and try to avoid any contact with me after I emailed her.
Besides, she tends to ignored me in class and do not answer any question which I
asked her. However, she did gave us the email address of the music club president and
at least this can gave us a chance to contact with the president.

Attribution theory

Internal Attribute

Frequently Frequently Seldom

Consistenc Distinctiven
Consensus
y ess

Seldom Frequently
Seldom

External
Attribution

Model 4: Attribution Theory, (McShane et al. 2007)

Got two internal attribute- one is external the other one is internal attribute. For my
case it was internal attribute.

Internal attribute- if the employees usually make poor - quality products on this
machine (high consistency), other employees produce good quality products on other
machine (low distinctiveness). (McShane et al. 2009)

• Internal attribute

o I feel that Miss A was a free rider in our group because she did not
contribute anything even did not make any afford to complete a small
task for our group. Besides, Miss A also did not attend the meetings
and contribute anything for our pass Organization and Management
major assignment. However I thought that she will change for this
semester but in fact she is still the same.

• Self-serving bias

o When we successfully contacted the president of the music club, I

thought that this is all because I make a moved for it but in fact all this
while, I was putting all the blame of Miss A and did not consider about
her time with other assignments and clubs.
Active Experimentation

After I went through this situation, I found out that there are several factors
which I need to change in order to cope with people especially during my working life
in the future such as the following;

I must change the way I communicate with people because I found out that I
have difficulties in communicating with Miss A. I cannot fully depends on email in
communicating with people just like between me and Miss A because not everyone
will check their email daily. Therefore receiver might miss important things from
sender and lead to conflict among each other. Therefore what should do is to meet
face to face with her and discuss about it or call her more often and follow her
schedule so that we won't do last minute work.

Besides, I must not too worry about a particular matter or think negatively as
there is a solution for each problem we faced in life. Therefore there is an idiom
“Whenever there is a will, there is a way”. From the experience with Miss A, I found
out that I get angry at her just because she did not make an afford to contact the
president of the music club but I found out that in fact this can be settle with me
approaching the president personally just like Mr. A did. If I did thought of
approaching the president personally, maybe the conflict between Miss A and me
would not happen and last until today.

Apart from that, I should not make any decision before discussing with the
group leader because I am not the group leader and should not make the final decision
to change to cookery club. It can be seen that I am too responsible for the whole major
assignment compared to other group members and this had lead to trouble. For
example I keep on chasing Miss A to contact the president of music club but why
others don’t? Therefore, this had caused me to get angry at her.

On the other hand, I should not wish things to be prefect because I tend to give
up too easily. When I did not receive any news from the president of music club only
just a few day after the tasks had been assigned to Miss A, I tend to change the
observation to cookery club. So it can be seen that I did not even make an afford to
figure out what is the problems I did not receive any news from the president of music
club and without thinking twice, I give up music club and look forward for cookery
club.

Furthermore I should figure out individual ability and understand the current
situation before assigning task to him/her. When we assigned Miss A to contact the
president of the music club, I did not try to understand her current situation or ability
to complete the task because she was very busy with other assignments and joined 5
clubs this semester.
Conclusion

In conclusion, I realize that both Miss A and I had done some mistakes but I
tend to blame everything on her. However, this report helps me to realize my mistake
as it is difficult for us to find out our own mistake by ourselves. Finally, I would like
to thanks to the lecturer and friend (especially the one who help me to critique my
behaviour towards this incident) for helping me for this report because it gave me a
preparation of facing this kind of situation in the real world.
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