Principles of Marketing & Communications: Individual Reflection Essay

This essay presents an individual reflection on a group project concerning the principles of marketing and communication in the digital world. It details the group's experiences, emphasizing the importance of establishing a harmonious working environment and dividing tasks equally among members. The reflection discusses the challenges faced, including a conflict related to deadlines and miscommunication, and how the team resolved these issues through compromise, cooperation, and agreement. The author also highlights the advantages and disadvantages of teamwork, such as synergy, trust-building, idea abundance, and leadership opportunities, alongside potential pitfalls like blaming, conflicts, and unequal work distribution. Overall, the essay reflects on the challenging yet rewarding experience of working in a team and learning to synchronize efforts effectively with fellow members.

Principles of Marketing & Communications in a digital World
Individual Reflection
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Introduction
In this paper, the aim is to highlight and bring forward the experience of the group while working
in the project Principles of Marketing & Communication in a Digital World. In common
language, the term group refers to the gathering of individuals for a specific purpose (Ary et al.,
2018). The purpose usually is to achieve a set target which is common to all the members. In the
following paragraphs, the detailed analysis regarding the experience of our group is provided.
Experience of the group process involved in producing the group presentation
Firstly, a bonding between the members of the group was tried to be established. An atmosphere
of harmony and friendliness is a must and contributes to a good working atmosphere. The tasks
were equally divided among the four members of the group. In order to have synchronization in
the working order, the group members extensively shared their views and ideas related to the
project. This was done in order to remove any such confusion which could have taken place and
affected the project. A little help from technology was also taken by the group. In order to have a
required sense of togetherness and bonding, a group was created on a social media platform and
the members of the group were added in it. They were asked to constantly come up with new
ideas in order to achieve the objectives of the project. Apart from that, many unique and
significant Brainstorming sessions were conducted in the group, and the members successfully
came up with unique and different ideas.
The various stages of the project were planned by the team, right from the beginning of the
project to the end. A time-table was prepared and deadlines were set for each and individual
tasks by the group members. The stages of the project were simply designed according to Bruce
Tuckman’s design for better implementation of group work (Birkle et al., 2017). The stages
comprised of:
 Forming
 Storming
 Norming
 Performing
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After the ideas were put on paper and deadlines were set, the next step was a very challenging
one. Two of the team members were involved in a conflict related to a deadline matter.
Miscommunication and the failure to understand what the other person is intending is very
common when it comes to working in a group (Levi, 2015). A very emotional and psychological
barrier that was occurring among the members of the group was gravely affecting the pace at
which the project was progressing. Such was the effect of the conflict that I started getting
frustrated and my mind was totally blank. At a certain moment of time, it almost felt that due to
the differences of opinion among the individual members of the group, the project would shelve.
However, with the aid of proper management skills, the team stepped up. By employing
techniques such as Compromising, Cooperation and Agreement, the differences that had resulted
in the conflict between the members finally resolved.
Much to the team’s surprise, after the conflict was dealt with and solved, not only did we find an
atmosphere of harmony in work, but the sense of togetherness among the members of the team
felt much higher when compared to the pre-conflict stage. Much to my relief, the team’s focus
towards the completion of the project was much enhanced and better.
As mentioned earlier, the tasks were equally divided among the members of the group. My job
was to properly manage the team, coordinate with the members and to compile the findings of
the research and analysis. Other’s responsibilities included functions such as conduct research,
prepare questionnaires, and interact with the target audiences. The main challenge I had to face
individually was to adapt to the different natures of the team members. Not only natures, but
even their style of working was very different from one another.
The presentation was cordially designed to bring out each of my team members’ public speaking
skills. However, the experience of working in a group was quite satisfactory. This experience of
working in a team has a set of advantages as well as few disadvantages for me. The Advantages
were:
Synergy: This is very obvious that the work done by a single individual always takes more time
and effort when compared to the same task being done by a team. In a properly built team, the
weakness of one member is backed up by the strength of another member.
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Trust Building: Working in a team always increases the trust between the members of the team.
This trust among the members is beneficial both professionally as well as personally.
Abundance of Idea: In a team, there is always more than one brain in function. Since no two
persons think alike, various perspectives for a single entity takes place while working in a team.
During the project, the different team members came up with different ways to achieve the
objectives. This is very beneficial as no scarcity of ideas take place.
Leadership: Being born with Leadership qualities is a gift one can have. Unfortunately, most of
us are not. So in order to hone leadership skills, working in a team really helps.
However, with the huge advantages accompany few disadvantages as well. They are:
Blaming: When a member of a team commits a mistake, it is often seen that the person puts the
blame on his fellow team-mate.
Conflicts: This is something which cannot be avoided under any circumstances. Conflicts
between members are a very common problem. However it has to be seen that the conflicts are
resolved as quickly as possible.
Wrong distribution of work: It is often seen in a team that some of the members work day in
day out while some hardly participate in any of the activities. This is highly hazardous for a team
and disturbs the working environment.
The overall experience was very challenging and equally interesting to me. Not only did I learn
to work efficiently, but also learnt to work in proper synchronization with my fellow team-mates.
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Reference List
Ary, D., Jacobs, L.C., Irvine, C.K.S. and Walker, D., 2018. Introduction to research in education.
Cengage Learning.
Birkle, M., Holmberg, E., Karlqvist, M. and Ritalahti, J., 2017. STUDENT MOTIVATION IN
INQUIRY LEARNING-LESSONS FROM A SERVICE DEVELOPMENT
PROJECT. Handbook of Teaching and Learning in Tourism, p.107.
Levi, D., 2015. Group dynamics for teams. Sage Publications.
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