Group Members and Their Responsibilities, Meetings, and Conflicts Experienced - Essay Example

Reflection Review Name: Course: Institution: Date: Reflection Review Group members and their responsibilities My team during this course was composed of 6 people who included Ibrahim Aljahoushi, Amy Ho, Amelia Margaret Kelly, Eileen Kuo, Nathan Mudaliar and I (Mohammed Alkuwaiti). Every team member was allocated responsibilities that would facilitate cooperation and teamwork in the production of the final report on the car cinema project. Ibrahim Aljahoushi was charged with the responsibility of addressing management issues and effectives of the cinema car project. For Ibrahim his main responsibilities were to engage in the determination of the most suitable management style, identify, and manage possible conflicts by applying corporate policies and performance measures. Furthermore, he was also responsible for the identification of the areas of weakness and assessing areas of improvement to minimize the possibility of threat occurring. Ibrahim was also responsible for the provision of recommendations on the development of the car cinema project. Amy Ho’s tasks were on proposal development and conducting a feasibility study. This was actualized by undertaking responsibilities such as planning the project with team members, engage in environmental analysis of the project, collecting relevant information about the project, and developing techniques of dealing with external entities and competitors. Amy Ho was also charged with the task of project organization. This required engaging in initiatives aimed at finding the most suitable project based organizational structure and allocating the location and branches of the car cinema project. Furthermore, Amy was also responsible for presenting the overall corporate requirements. Amelia’s task was on project planning and helping with the development of resource and cost plan. This was successful by undertaking responsibilities such as preparing a statement of work, preparing specifications of the project, and preparing a work break down structure. Furthermore, Amelia was also responsible for the identification of the schedule, milestone and dependencies, critical path activities and the preparation of an overview of the cinema project. Eileen was in charge of project risk assessment. This was achieved by selecting the most appropriate risk approach, preparation of backup plans for the car cinema project based on the consideration of probable internal and external incidents that might occur and providing recommendations on the exemplary methods for risks response, management, and mitigation. Nathan Mudaliar was responsible for resource and cost planning. This was facilitated by the preparation of relevant pricing estimates, allocation of costs profits, loss, and assets against the projects. In addition, Nathan was expected to work with Amelia to achieve the most accurate results. He was also to identify the necessary resources for the project, manage and calculate the risks, and develop a plan for monitoring the performance of the project. I (Mohammed Alkuwaiti) was tasked with addressing issues of contacts and quality management plan. This required a description of the procurement strategy, identification of the most suitable contracts, development of smart strategies and quality management plan, setting specific standards that follow the measures of progress and prepare an analytical plan based on stakeholder recommendation. Formation of the group and allocation of responsibilities At the beginning of the course, the course instructor requested each member to become part of a group that would propose and develop a project of their own choice. The instructor gave us the freedom of deciding on the members of our groups. This proved to be a relatively complex task because every individual in class wanted to belong to a group that would produce the best project by the end of the course. I assumed the responsibility of forming my group and chose one of the corners from where I called for anyone who was interest in joining me. Ibrahim was the first person that joined the group and together we were able to request more people to join us arguing that we were open to any ideas for the project. This led Nathan, Amy, Eileen and Amelia to the group. Initially the decision on the best project for the group was relatively complex because every member had a project proposal. This led us into an immediate brainstorming session where we weighed the proposed projects based on their relevance to the course, the availability of resources necessary for the completion of the project, the tasks involved in preparing for the project and the available level of expertise in addressing the underlying issues of the project. The car cinema project emerged as the best alternative considering that it was relevant and relatively cost effective in terms of the expertise required and the resources needed. The allocation of responsibilities for the project was based on the abilities and experiences of different members of the group. I was assigned procurement and contract issues because of my experience as a procurement office in an intern position in one of the local companies in my neighborhood. Amelia was allocated the task of project planning because she had taken a short course on project management in the previous semester. Eileen was charged with the task of project risk assessments because of her experience as a disaster management officer in the local Red Cross society. Nathan was allocated the task of resource planning because of his experience as a monitoring and evaluation officer. Amy was charged with the task of proposal and feasibility because she was undertaking a course in project management. Ibrahim was charged with tea tsk of addressing management issues and effectiveness because of his experience in management. Group meetings and the conflicts experienced Group meetings were considered as part of the most essential aspects of group activity. This is because they allowed group members to report on their progress and present some of the opportunities and challenges that they were facing. The group meetings were held on a weekly basis. To promote the element of teamwork and leadership, group members held leadership position on rotational basis. The objective of this approach was to ensure that each member of the group was provided with a platform of developing their leadership and team management skills. In addition, it was also a technique of enhancing the development of life skills such as self-esteem. Despite the high level of cooperation among group members in attending group meetings, Nathan was not regular in his attendance. This was partly attributed to his busy class schedules that provided limited time for his involvement in the group. To address this conflict, the group created a chatting group on Facebook where discussions could be held on a virtual platform. This allowed for flexibility and dedication of group members to the team assignment. Furthermore, the chatting group also allowed group members to share on their experiences, ask questions, and receive feedback on different issues related to the project. The chatting group also acted as a platform of reminding group members of the impending meetings to ensure that every member was available for the meetings. Lessons learned form group work The experiences with my group throughout the course were major areas on learning on the management of groups and the role of every team member in the realization of the vision of the group. My group embraced an open environment where every member was expected to respect the ideas of other members. This environment was instrumental in enhancing teamwork because group members could freely share their ideas without the fear of intimidation or rejection from other members. Those in disagreement with any idea were expected to respectfully present their counter ideas with evidence to substantiate their claims. An additional attribute about group work is that it provided numerous techniques of resolving any conflicts arising among group members. For example when Nathan was inconsistent in attending meetings, there was concern among all group members and this made it necessary to seek his attention so that he could present his reasons for not attending meetings. As members of the same team, Nathan’s problem of a busy scheduled was taken as the group’s problem an this led to the formation of the chatting group on Facebook to ensure that all group members were active in executing their responsibilities towards the completion of group assignment. Group work also provided a platform for effective brainstorming sessions. This is because the group was composed of individuals with different experiences. This meant that they had varied understanding of the same phenomenon. Brainstorming sessions allowed the members to share their thoughts and arrive at the best solution to address an existing challenge. I would want to work with this group next time because it is composed on individuals who embrace democratic rather than dictatorial approach to the delivery or sharing of ideas. Furthermore, the ability of the group members to acknowledge and understand the problems faced by members was an important element of teamwork because it showed the level of concern about the wellbeing of members in relation to their dedication to the completion of group assignments. I would also like to work with this group next time because it provide a platform for learning and executing responsibilities based on the capabilities of members. The group was an effective learning platform because it provided members with opportunities of developing their leadership and life skills through rotational allocation of leadership responsibilities to every group member. Read More