Assessment item 3 – Personal reflection

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Value: 20%Due Date: 13-Sep-2021Return Date: 07-Oct-2021Length: 1,200 words (maximum)Group Assessment: NoSubmission method options: Alternative submission method

TASK

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Reflect on your experience of working in a group on Assignment 2. Reflection is not a description of events, but analysis of specific situations that are meaningful to you (e.g., virtual collaboration, conflict management, group leadership, decision-making, your confidence or trust, etc.) so you can explore them and learn from them for the next time you take part in a group work. Choose four relevant concepts and theories from Topic 6: Groups & Teams to analyse your group work experience. Reflection facilitates deep learning through the use of both, theory and personal experience.

This assignment should be written in the first person as it is based on your personal experience.

The structure of this assignment needs to follow the three steps(three headings):

1. What happened?: Identify and introduce an aspect of your group experience in Assignment 2, and how it affected you/how you reacted to it (include your thoughts, emotions, and/or assumptions that affected your participation in the group, or that were triggered by the specific situation you are reflecting on).
2. Analysis: Analyse and explore the identified group experience in depth by applying 4 relevant OB concepts/theories from Topic 6.
3. What I’ve learned?: Explain what you have learned about yourself and the group dynamics as a result of this reflection exercise (this is not a conclusion section).

If you are not sure what to reflect on, the following questions may provide an inspiration:

• What group maintenance challenges/advantages did you experience when working in a group? For example, how did the group interact? How were group’s emotions or concerns voiced and managed?
• What task performance challenges/advantages did you experience when working in a group? For example,how did the group discuss and work through the task? What were the group discussions like? Were they regular, focused and relevant to the task? How did decision-making and leadership affect the group’s task performance? What about the contributions of group members to the group goals?
• what was your role/contribution to the group? Did you take on a leadership role or why not? What inspired you to not/collaborate or not/contribute to the group?

Please see the “Presentation” section below for more information on the formatting requirements for this assessment item. Additionally, please use appropriate headings for each of the three steps guiding your reflection: What happened, Analysis, What I’ve learned. Using appropriate headings will increase the readability of the paper.

Use at least 4 journal articles to support your reflection. There are journals that specialise on the topic of groups such as Small Group Research, The Journal of Group Theory, The Journal of Group Dynamics, Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, and Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice. Apart from these journals, research on groups and teams has been published in a range of other journals, such as Journal of Applied Psychology.

If you are using a model of group development in your reflection, use only one: Tuckman’s stages of group development orGersick’s punctuated equilibrium model. Use only one to two stages of group development based on their importance for exploring your experience, not all of them.

Engage with the marker

In order to receive more meaningful feedback on your assignment, please add comments/questions for the marker on the first page of your assignment. This can include your thoughts on what was done well or not so well in your reflection or questions on how to improve certain aspects of your reflection.

Assessment 3 is based on Topic 6.

Note: Please take time to identify one meaningful aspect of your group experience, rather than trying to explain everything that took place within the group. This will ensure that your reflection and analysis has depth.

RATIONALE

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SUBJECT LEARNING OUTCOMES

This assessment task will assess the following learning outcome/s:

• be able to reflect on your own behaviour and that of others within organisations based on OB theories and concepts.
• be able to assess the role of work teams and groups in an organisation and recommend strategies to manage performance of teams and groups.

GRADUATE LEARNING OUTCOMES

This task also contributes to the assessment of the following Charles Sturt Graduate Learning Outcome/s:

• Information and Research Literacies (Knowledge) – CSU Graduates demonstrate that disciplinary knowledge is developed through research and evidence.