Group Activity and Management

Running head: GROUP ACTIVITY
Group Activity
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note:

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GROUP ACTIVITY
Introduction:
Group activities have emerged as one of the most implemented learning methods in
imparting knowledge to a group of trainees. Bell and Bell (2018) mention that group activities
are one of the non-traditional learning methods which enable the participants to get involved in
the entire process of acquisition and transfer of knowledge. In fact, the technique, instead of
merely transferring knowledge from trainers to trainees, creates experiences which trainees gain
while gaining the knowledge. Dean, Gibbons and Perkiss (2019) strengthen the opinion by
pointing out that participating in the group activities develop several managerial skills among the
trainees like collaborative skills and competitiveness which help them in their future careers..
Participating in group activities has both strengths and weaknesses. I would be reflecting upon a
group activity in which I participated. I would analyse both the challenges as well the benefits
which I have experienced while participating in the group activity. I would draw on the reflective
model proposed by Graham Gibbs which is commonly known as Gibbs Reflective model and
used widely in college educational as well as corporate training (Al-Jubouri and Al-Jubouri
2019)
Management of the group:
I can reflect on my experience and say that I have faced several challenges as well as
derived several benefits while managing the team I was a part of. As far as describing the
experience of the group activity is concerned, as per the Gibbs reflective model, I can point out
that the experience has been extremely enriching (Chen et al. 2018). I would first discuss on the
challenges which I have faced while managing the team. The first challenge which I faced was
the challenge to maintain punctuality. I can reflect on my experience and say that that most of the

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members always came late for the weekly group meetings. In fact, some of the members did not
attend the classes on a regular basis. As a result, they were not able to gain knowledge about the
lessons covered on the respective days. Khalil and Ebner (2017) point out that continuous
communication, including communication on the electronic media is extremely important to
attribute group learning activities with success. I can reflect upon on my experience of managing
the group activities, and say that this is where I have encountered the biggest challenge in the
entire learning process. According to a report, managing groups comes with both advantages and
disadvantages (St Pierre, Hofinger, and Simon 2016). The communication among the members
on the WhatsApp group created to facilitate discussion on the assignment was not too effective.
The result from the lessons and the WhatsApp group was that some of the members have not
been completing the slides they were assigned. Some of the members have not been updating the
slides on weekly basis. I can surely say that the completion of the group assignment was a result
of these delays that took place. According to a study, communication is the key to leadership or a
key to do any task properly which requires a group to do teamwork (Nancarrow et al. 2013). The
lack of communication among the members has affected the commencement of the group
assignment to the extent that some of the participants working on wrong tasks. According to a
report, miscommunication leads to misinformation and misunderstanding which result in chaos
(Cardon and Marshall 2015). Some of the members have worked based on their assumptions and
misinterpretations which ultimately have affected the quality of assignment delivered. There
have also been ‘personal issues’ among certain members which have contributed to the
communication gap between them. Therefore, on the whole has been lack of focus owing to the
previous issues.

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GROUP ACTIVITY
I can point out from my experience that I have gained some positive learning by
participating in the group assignment. First of all, the group assignment has helped me develop
management skills. I have learnt how to manage teams of participants, especially participants
who are reluctant to participate in group activities. I can reflect upon my experience to point out
that I have learnt the importance of communication in ensuring smooth operations. One can point
out that the group assignments in which students participate during the course of pursuing
professional degrees are analogous to team activities and come to play in business organisations
to achieve business targets. According to a study, communication plays a pivotal role to ensure
that business teams achieve their targets (Russ et al. 2013). I have also learnt from my experience
that collaboration among the members of the corporate teams is very important for ensuring that
the teams and the respective organisations achieve high levels of performance. Secondly, the
experience has enabled me to increase my productivity. I have learnt that the productivity of the
teams depends on the individual productivity of the members. In fact, participating in the group
assignment has enabled me to identify my strengths and weaknesses. Thus, I would be able to
take steps to enhance my strengths and reduce my weaknesses to the feasible extent by
undergoing training. The fourth benefit which I have derived from participating in the group
assignment is that I have been able to sharpen my creative skills. This is because; preparing the
slides required not only presentation of facts but also creativity to present the facts. Thus, while
working on the weekly slides, I used to take part in the brainstorming sessions. These sessions
have enabled me to express creative ideas which would be used in the slides. Thus, working on
the slides has enabled me to sharpen by creativity which I would further sharpen by taking part
in presentations as an employee in the future. The fifth benefit which I have derived from

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participating in the group assignments was that it has strengthened patience and interpersonal
skills.
Individual role:
As per a report communication can make any tem work like a pro and facilitate
cooperation (Leavitt, Keegan. and Clark 2016). I made sure proper communication took place
between the members and that it facilitates proper coordination. I can point out that I as an
individual member, have contributed to the performance of the team to a great extent. I first of
all, managed the team and enabled it to complete the assignment. Secondly, I enabled the
participants to communicate on regular basis to share the lessons learnt which were to be
incorporated in the slides. I urged members to communicate on the WhatsApp group on a regular
basis. I have also participated in the brainstorming sessions and used to encourage the other
members to participate as well. Therefore reflecting on my experience, I can say that I
participating in the group assignment have contributed towards clearing inappropriate
assumptions and misinterpretations among members to a great extent. Thus, I can summarise that
on the whole my role in the team has been that of a manager and a facilitator.
Impact on the group:
I can reflect upon my experience of managing the group assignment that I had positive
impacts on the team work of the team. The first positive impact which I had on the team was that
I ensured stronger communication among the members. As I have already pointed out, most of
the members did not communicate regularly on the Whatsapp group. I used to encourage the
members to communicate more frequently on the group chat. In fact, I used to call the dissenting
members personally to persuade them to be active on the conversation. The second positive
impact which I have on the group was that I enabled the members to do the assignments

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GROUP ACTIVITY
correctly to a great extent. I used to circulate the learning from the weekly lessons in the group.
This to some extent has enabled the members to do the slides correctly on weekly basis.
Conclusion:
I can conclude and say that my reflection on the experiences I have gained while
managing the group assignment team has enriched me in several ways. First of all, I have learnt
the importance of communication in management of teams. Secondly, I have learnt the
importance of collaboration and creativity from the team members in order to achieve targets
(group assignments in the case). I would use the experience while operating as an employee in
the future.

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GROUP ACTIVITY
References:
Al-Jubouri, A.H.H. and Al-Jubouri, M.H.M., 2019. The Effectiveness of Teaching in the Gibbs
Model in the Decision-Making to Solve the Environmental Problems among Students of College
of Education. Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development, 10(1), pp.732-736.
Bell, H. and Bell, R., 2018. Applying enterprise: active learning environments for business
Higher National Diploma students. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 42(5), pp.649-661.
Cardon, P.W. and Marshall, B., 2015. The hype and reality of social media use for work
collaboration and team communication. International Journal of Business
Communication, 52(3), pp.273-293.
Chen, M., Zhang, S., Tenbhomer, M. and Tate, D., 2018, May. Evaluation of Learning and
Teaching Practice for Design-oriented Engineering Modules. In 2018 4th International
Conference on Humanities and Social Science Research (ICHSSR 2018). Atlantis Press.
Dean, B.A., Gibbons, B. and Perkiss, S., 2019. An experiential learning activity for integrating
the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals into business education. Social
Business, 8(4), pp.387-409.
Khalil, H. and Ebner, M., 2017. Using Electronic Communication Tools in Online Group
Activities to Develop Collaborative Learning Skills. Universal Journal of Educational
Research, 5(4), pp.529-536.
Leavitt, A., Keegan, B.C. and Clark, J., 2016, May. Ping to win?: Non-verbal communication
and team performance in competitive online multiplayer games. In Proceedings of the 2016 CHI
Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 4337-4350). ACM.

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Nancarrow, S.A., Booth, A., Ariss, S., Smith, T., Enderby, P. and Roots, A., 2013. Ten principles
of good interdisciplinary team work. Human resources for Health, 11(1), p.19.
Russ, S., Rout, S., Sevdalis, N., Moorthy, K., Darzi, A. and Vincent, C., 2013. Do safety
checklists improve teamwork and communication in the operating room? A systematic
review. Annals of surgery, 258(6), pp.856-871.
St Pierre, M., Hofinger, G. and Simon, R., 2016. Crisis management in acute care settings:
human factors and team psychology in a high-stakes environment. Springer International
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