So we all came to class wondering how we did on our first management test. I for one, got the grade I was expecting. Not too bad for not really studying I must say.
Within the first few minutes of the class, I had a feeling our professor had something up his sleeve, and sure enough he did.
The group project for the day was to agree unanimously on what type of "gift" we were going to receive from our professor regarding test 1 and a possible future test. It was a daunting task, but I felt like 50 minutes was ample time for 75 people to agree.
We needed 49 minutes and 59 seconds. You've got to be kidding me.
I made the apparent mistake of thinking I could organize the proceedings from the start. Apparently my democratic vision wasn't shared everyone. To be blunt, we have a lot of immature people in our class. I heard a lot of whining when things weren't going their way, and I heard a lot of people simply trying to talk over people. Honestly, it was one of the most stressful classes I have ever attended. I can only hope for their sake, that the immature students we have don't act that way in the business world, because if they do, they won't get far.
Now, back to the assignment...
Ultimately, the group did use collaboration to come to an agreement, although it came at a cost greater than what we should have paid (i.e. stress, raised tempers, etc.) Multiple insights were used, and there was a level of bargaining (if you can call it that) involved.
Interestingly, a mixture of competition, avoidance, compromise, and accommodation were also used.
A few students (in an attempt at a utilitarianism approach) offered to go along with the groups request and not hold the decision back. Many avoided participation all together, and many people clearly "competed" to get their voice heard.
I think collaboration is the best approach. However collaboration is only as good as the collaborators involved. People need to negotiate and discuss in an orderly, professional manner. We're all adults (I think), and I think we could have reached the agreement we did a lot sooner if we simply acted like one.
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6 comments:
I agree that collaboration is the best approach for any problem. It is a little bit hard to collaborate with so many people talking over one another. I give you credit for trying to mediate the class in the beginning. You had the right idea, but needed another lion tamer up there with you. I also go the grade I expected to recieve for the amount of time I put in for preparation. The professor has been very generous with bonus points and exam extra credit. He is doing his part, and we must do our part. Most of the class needs to realize that a bad grade is not the end of the world. They are all so consumed with grades and gpas that they forget to actually study for the exams. This material is not that tough that we needed to be given any additional help, but it seemed like many of us learned more about management during this exercise that we do from the textbook.
First, I'd like to agree that I did notice that there were various immature students in the class being disrespectful towards other peoples opinions. Honestly, they must have gotten a pretty low grade and had a lot to speak about. I also agree that it was one of the most stressful environments because it literally was like a zoo where people were yelling left and right. I knew that it would become of that and that's partly why I decided to avoid the situation at first and wait until people got tired of arguing. I also agree the test was very fair and there shouldn't be any changes towards the format. Possibly, it was not crystal clear as to what exactly would be on the test because like I had mentioned in class, I felt everything mentioned on review day was exactly to say "read the textbook"
I agree with the thought of collaboration being the best method on how to get things done. Yes, it does depend on the people which whom you are collaborating. If you have someone who is trying to push their opinion forward with force then this method doesn't work properly. Over all i think everyone was pretty civilized (its all relative). When you go to a ball game, grown men paint their chests and booing, screaming, and profanity flows through the air. To me this exercize had the feel of "the power of the mob" which made it fun in a sense. When it came down to crunch time though, I was impressed of the ability of our class to come together as one, realizing that there was work to do which effects our personal grade, and matters to others. In the end we all came to a conclusion which proves that our class is able if willing.
Hi, just want to say that I was actually expecting what kind of leading style you would bring about to this discussion when you stood out to the front in the beginning of the class since I think you and some other students always give very good opinions in class. The two leaders after you did a fairLY good job, but I would expect different insightS you would take into this activity. Also,I totally agree with Joshua. I meant word by word. Although I would hope I had spoken out my reason so that some students wouldn't see my objection as with no good reason.
I definitely agree with you that the decision making ability in our class looked more like snack time at Gymboree than a class comprised of college students. Our different backgrounds usually permit us to have a well rounded view on some topics but, as seen in this task the lack of good communication really hurt the main idea. The decision wasn't really important, either way we were getting something better than we had, but the maturity as a whole lacked during crunch time.
your right the class did use collaboration and i think everyone in some sense did a great job trying to come up with a decision. Though we did have problems having to convince everyone because they thought we were taking advantage of the professor which is so wrong when we all know that he was doing this for a reason.
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