Reflective Paper on Group Project: Teamwork, Motivational Theories, and Personal Actions

This reflective writing discusses the experience of working on a group project and reflects on the importance of teamwork and motivation. It uses Tuckman's theory to describe the stages of team development and Maslow's hierarchy of needs to discuss the different needs of team members. The paper also uses the CVF matrix to describe personal actions during the project.

Individual Paper based on
group project

INTRODUCTION
The reflective writing is the self awareness approach to understand the own working
experience in a particular situation. For the effective working of the group project the two most
essential factors needed are the team working and motivation (Siregar, Pane and Ruman, 2018).
For this there are ample of teamwork and motivational theories. The report will outline the
reflection using the team work and motivational theories. Further there is use of Goal setting
evaluation CVF matrix for the describing personal CVF actions.
MAIN BODY
Reflection
The presentation in week 21 was the on the Queen Victoria which was a group project of
3-4 students. In order to reflect the team work during the presentation development and
execution Tuckman theory of teamwork id considered and discussed below:
The Tuckman's theory is comprised of 5 stages of development of team that helps the
team to meet goals of the project until the project ends. The five stages of Tuckman theory are:
Forming: the foremost stage in which we developed a team of 4 members for the presentation
and introduced to each other. Also in this stage we all allocated the task together. But as this was
the early stage all the team members were acting more independently but all were having good
intentions and spirit for the completion of project successfully (Pfutzenreuter, E.P.D. and Frega,
2020).
Storming: the second stage in which I examined that the grace and excitement in starting days of
the group formed has faded and everyone in team including me showing temper, ego,
disagreeableness and much more all resulting into conflicts. During the discussion on the layout
of the presentation there was huge contradictions between the group members regarding that
(Vesa, 2020).
Norming stage: the stage at which the conflicts and heated environment between the group
tends to settle down. As everyone of us gained the zeal to groove back into working in order to
prepare the best presentation in class.
Performing stage: a stage at which team hit its stride and working in cohesive and supportive
manner with each other and also issue were addressed politely to be resolved easily making easy
1

for group to meet the presentation goals. In this stage the team working was excellent and also
everyone seemed motivated and confident.
Adjourning stage: the last stage where the team has to be parted as the goal of making the
presentation is achieved. The team at this stage was feeling upset and mourning as all were
grown close to each other.
Motivational theories
In order to motivate the team during the norming and storming and performing stage
different motivational theories were implemented during the group presentation project
(CAOUETTE and O’CONNOR, 2019). The process and content theory used to motivate the
group members is discussed below:
Process theory- Goal theory of motivation
The goal setting theory is overall practice of motivating the team and its members
towards the established goals as the part of intrinsic motivation (Locke and Latham, 2019). The
goal theory was applied through by following the below mentioned steps to motivate the
employees in storming stage:
 Firstly the team members were asked to get equally involved in the goal setting.
 Then specific goal was set i.e. to preparer a attractive and informative presentation on
Queen Victoria.
 Then the each 4 members were allocated with their level of work and responsibilities.
 In between while preparing the presentation the ongoing feedbacks where collected
through group meetings.
 Also rewards were set for the desirable results of the team efforts.
This helped my team to stay motivated during the process of developing the presentation.
Content theory- Maslow hierarchy of needs
There is also another theory of motivation that was used to motivate the team members.
This theory of motivation states the five categories of the human needs that demonstrates the
individual team member behaviour. The five needs are discussed below:
Physiological needs: While the team was working there was appropriate amount of basic
necessities such a room for sitting, food and water that keep the motivated and satisfied (Schunk
and DiBenedetto, 2020).
2

Safety needs: the team members were motivated by the tea members in terms of emotional
stability so that the all can work effectively with mental well being.
Love and belongingness: also between the team members the love and belongingness was
maintained that motivated each other to work on the presentation precisely and with fun as there
was satisfaction of been cared and kinship.
Self esteem needs:
Self actualization:
CVF's model
On the basis of the data and information collected about my own tactics during the team
working for the presentation on Queen Victoria. I am using CVF matrix to describe my personal
actions during the project development and execution. The four dimensions of CVF matrix are
discussed underneath:
Collaborate
In the presentation I have worked in supportive and cohesive manner to collaborate with the
other members of the team.
I combined my efforts and work with one team member to gather the timelines of the Queen
Victoria era. This helped me in researching appropriate date and time of different historical
events.
I collaborated my knowledge of ICT skills in developing a presentation that is highly attractive
to meet the purpose of the project.
Create
I created the overall the graphical outline of the presentation such as gathering and placing of
images, structure of presentation and colours, templates etc.
I have also used my artistic skills in developing the presentation with appropriate colours, font
style, graphics etc.
Control
During the presentation there was one situation of conflicts between the team members there I
interrupted in between and asked about their issue individually in order to resolve issue.
I also through my management skills maintained the quality of work and presentation through
out the process by double checking the content and structure of presentation.
Compete
3

I set the rationale goals in the team to stay competitive from the teams.
I also added the motivational factors an acted like motivator to stay healthy in competition of
developing the best presentation in classroom.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that for the effective working in a group it is
important to have team working spirit for which team members must apply appropriate team
working theories. Also it is important to motivate the team members by using the motivational
theories. Also the CVF matrix also reflects the performance and actions of a individual in the
project.
4

REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Siregar, C., Pane, M.M. and Ruman, Y.S., 2018, May. The virtual team performance in solving
teamwork conflict problems. In Proceedings of the 2018 International Conference on
Distance Education and Learning (pp. 1-5).
Pfutzenreuter, T.C., Lima, E.P.D. and Frega, J.R., 2020, December. Building high performance
teams. In International Conference of Production Research–Americas (pp. 251-264).
Springer, Cham.
CAOUETTE, M. and O’CONNOR, B.N., 2019. T hrough impact of this group quasi-
experimental support systems field (GSS) study, on the we development investigated of
the two comparable corporate teams solving actual business problems. Tuckman’s stages
of development were the lens through which we viewed the team-building process.
Tuckman maintained that teams go through a developmental schemata of forming,
storming, norming, performing, and adjourning, and suggested that the way teams
develop has a direct impact on both their task and social outcomes. Discourses on
Business Education at the College Level: On the Boundaries of Content and Praxis.
Vesa, T., 2020. Building and Developing Teams.
Dohlman, L and et. al., 2019. Global brain drain: how can the Maslow theory of motivation
improve our understanding of physician migration?. International journal of
environmental research and public health, 16(7), p.1182.
Navy, S.L., 2020. Theory of human motivation—Abraham Maslow. In Science Education in
Theory and Practice (pp. 17-28). Springer, Cham.
Locke, E.A. and Latham, G.P., 2019. The development of goal setting theory: A half century
retrospective. Motivation Science, 5(2), p.93.
Schunk, D.H. and DiBenedetto, M.K., 2020. Motivation and social cognitive
theory. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 60, p.101832.
5