Management Accounting: Reflection on Group Project Experience

Running head: MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING
Management accounting
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1MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING
After the completion of any project, it is imperative for all those involved to reflect on the
entire process and evaluate it for improvement in the future. Group projects usually demand a
degree of collaboration and coordination between the various members of the team (Cheruvelil et
al. 2014). I too was part of a group project, where we were asked to make a presentation based
on a topic that had been provided to us. The group project turned out to be an enriching
experience for us because we acquired a number of skills in the due course of the process. I will
be discussing that in details in the following sections. The paper will focus on the role I played in
the team project,, my personal observations and a critical evaluation of our performance.
Our team comprised of five members and each member was assigned a different
role that would help us in developing our presentation and conducting research for the
same. I was entrusted with the role of the coordinator. This meant that I had to coordinate with
all five members of the team and ensure that they were all pulling their individual weights in the
assignment. I was expected to maintain a record of the work completed and the work still
remaining so that we could finish the project within the given deadline. Fir and Pinnington
(2014) had opined that the role of the coordinator is of supreme importance within a team
because it would determine the performance levels of the group and eventually lead to project
success. I believe that I was perfectly suited to the role of a coordinator. From a very young age,
I had always been a perfectionist and believed in accomplishing tasks in a certain way. In all my
endeavors, I strive to have a specific plan in mind which would help the project proceed towards
success. However, there were quite a few challenges I had to face during my tenure as the
coordinator. For instance, there were occasions when my team members seemed to work
according to their own plans, which often resulted in conflicts. I found it challenging to

2MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING
coordinate five people simultaneously, especially when people preferred to work according to
their own schedules.
As such, it is important to stress on the concepts of leadership and communication
when it comes to team work. According to Kyllonen (2013), soft skills, which include effective
communication skills, are of the utmost importance in group projects. Without proper
communication between each member of the team, the group project is bound to fall apart.
Moreover, since all our roles are interconnected, it was important to stay up to date on the
individual progress of each member. In order to maintain team dynamic, it is important to
maintain open lines of communication. I believe that the role of dialogue is essential in team
work. I encouraged all my team members to voice their opinions and express their own ideas. I
did not follow a bureaucratic style of leadership and communication because I believed that such
styles would inhibit the flow of creativity. I ensured that each team member took part in the
project in a proactive manner and was able to communicate effectively. We met up more than
thrice every week to update the other members about the work that had been accomplished and
strategies for finishing the remaining work. I also tried to incorporate a transformational style
while coordinating my team members. Avolio and Yammarino (2013) believe that such a
leadership style would be most suited to group projects because it encourages participation from
all team members and makes sure that no single team leader has supreme authority. I must admit
that such a policy certainly helped us finish our project within the deadline.
I used the Tuckman’s model to understand the concept of team development and team
building. This model can be used to study the cohesiveness of a team (Humphrey and Aime
2014). According to this model, there are four stages in team work, namely forming, storming,
norming and performing (Raes et al. 2015). Another stage has been added which may be called