journal hw

Learning Journal 2

Letter Ranking

The letter ranking exercise had two parts, an individual portion and a group portion. We were given a list of 15 letters from the alphabet and were given instruction to arrange them in the order we thought they were most frequently used in American language. We were told that the winning group won prizes! The prize selection consisted of chips and candy. First we did this as an individual exercise then we combined into groups and did the same exercise again. When I did this individually it only took me about two minutes. At first I thought I had it down because I instantly thought of “RSTLNE” from Wheel of Fortune. But then I realized there were other vowels to choose from and I should probably mix a few of those with the Wheel of Fortune letters. It took me a while because I kept seeing new letters that I thought were better and I had to keep rearranging my list.

After we completed our rankings individually, we grouped up and did the same exercise. Now that we were in a group I got to listen to other people’s explanations on why they thought certain letters should be ranked higher. I mentioned to my group I was hungry and really wanted to win. I was going to tell them about Wheel of Fortune but some guy in my group beat me to it. I thought it was absolutely insane that he thought of that also. We arranged the letters in the order we thought was best as a group. From there we were saying random words and seeing which letters seemed to be the most common. While working with my group on this exercise it took about six minutes for us to rank the letters. It took a longer amount of time because we were talking and sharing our opinions with each other. We had to come to a conclusion as a group, which was sometimes hard to do. I could tell everyone in my group found this assignment to be very odd. We were all talking about how weird it was to be given this assignment and how we had never thought about how frequently used certain letters were before. We eventually finished our rankings and from there were did some math to find our correlation coefficient. The closer the number was to 1.0 the better. Our correlation coefficient was .77. We also calculated this for our individual rankings and mine was a .53. My group worked much better together than we had individually. Each group gave their numbers to the professor and we determined the winner, which was not my group! I was disappointed but only because I could not take the thought of Reese Cups off my mind.

During this exercise I was very into it. I was much more into this than any of the other learning journal opportunities we had done in the past. From the beginning of the exercise, it was very clear to me why I was trying so hard. I was hungry. When I saw the sour cream and cheddar chips and the Reese Cups on the front table, I was motivated. I recently moved out of my parents’ house and now know how expensive food is. I didn’t eat much breakfast and didn’t have any cash for lunch, so seeing that food really motivated me to try hard on this exercise! The food definitely made me behave in a certain way. I really wanted my group to try hard with this exercise, but apparently not everyone in my group was hungry.

Everyone in my group acted differently. One girl in my group seemed very uninterested with the exercise. She was very unconcerned and just sat back and didn’t do much. She would agree with what each person said and did not put out her own opinions. I think that she behaved this way because she didn’t care about the assignment. There are always people in classes just because the class is required, and they don’t actually care about the work or their grade. Since attendance is mandatory in this class I think she was just there to get attendance points. Another person in my group took the leader ship role. He kept the group on track. When we couldn’t come to an agreement he would restate each choice and push us to come to a conclusion. I believe that he behaved in the way that he did just because he is a very social and outgoing person. I would never take control like that because I am so introverted. I think he did this because he is comfortably in that position and he is very extroverted.

If a neutral observer had watched my group in this exercise they would have noticed a couple different things. They would notice that there were a couple people really into the exercise for the food and others who really didn’t care much at all. They would have noticed that for the most part we worked really well together. We all listened to each other’s points and decided the best order to rank the letters in. For the most part I think most the people in my group felt that this exercise was weird and they weren’t too involved. I don’t think this had much meaning to anyone besides the fact that we might be able to win food. Although most of the group wasn’t that interested in the exercise we still worked well together and got the assignment done.

I have learned a lot about myself from this experience. I am really motivated by prizes. I picked up on this while at work lately. Recently my manager has been giving us prizes for whoever has the best sales. Because of this, I have been doing a lot better than usual. The same thing happened with this exercise. I was really interested in thinking logically about letter rankings so we could get a good correlation coefficient. At the same time I feel like since I am so motivated by prizes I don’t work as hard when there aren’t any prizes. This can be a bad thing. During the ring toss exercise there was no prize. I hardly participated in that because there was no prize to hold my attention. I feel like this could be bad down the road when I have a career. What if I only perform well when I know there is a bonus coming up?

There are several recent concepts we have learned in class that relate to my experience. I now understand the five stages of group development better than I had before. In Organizational Behavior by Robbins and Judge, they define this, “The five-stage group-development model characterizes groups as proceeding through five distinct stages: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning” (page 286). They go on to explain each phase. The forming phase is when the group is beginning to come together. The group gets to know each other but is uncertain at how things will go. The storming stage is when the group begins to define certain roles and appoint a leader. The norming stage is when there is cohesion among the group. There begin to be certain norms throughout the group. The performing stage is when the group gets down to business and they are there to perform there given task. The last stage is the adjourning stage, which is when groups begin to wrap up their activities and eventually separate.

Now that I have worked in a group after reading about these stages, I can clearly see when they happened. The forming stage was easy to see. This was when we all looked around and decided who would be in the group. We socialized for a minute to kind of get to know each other. The storming, norming, and performing stages almost happened at the same time. This happened because we were only a group for ten minutes. We didn’t have much conflict about who would be in control of the group. One person stepped up and we let them be in control. At the same time that we were defining our roles in the group we also started to become unified. Robbins and Judge describe the norming phase, “This norming stage is complete when the group structure solidifies and the group has assimilated a common set of expectations of what defines correct member behavior” (page 286). This is basically exactly what we did, just very quickly. We figured out how we all worked well together and just started working on the task at hand. We began to perform very quickly and get to the point of what we were to be doing. We were quickly in the adjourning stage because the exercise was so short. This stage was when we finished our numbers and were done working with each other. My experience supports the theory of the five-stage group development model although it is hard to say for sure since my group was only together for ten minutes. It was difficult to see each phase separately. Robbins and Judge state, “Sometimes several stages go on simultaneously, as when groups are storming and performing at the same times” (page 287). This statement helps me to support the theory of the five-stage model.

In this exercise I also witnessed social loafing while working with the group. Social loafing is defined on page 299 as, “The tendency for individuals to expend less effort when working collectively than when working individually” (Robbins and Judge). The one girl in my group was definitely social loafing. She was kind of just riding on what everyone else was saying. She gave no input of her own and just went along with everyone else. My experience in the letter ranking exercise supports the theory of social loafing. It is very clear that this happens quite often in different classes I have had and even at work.

From this experience I have learned that I should always participate in group activities. I now know that social loafing is an actual concept and I need to stay away from it. During this exercise I was in a group with someone who was social loafing and I didn’t enjoy it. It was annoying that this person was not helping and did not give any sort of input. When I look back at the ring toss exercise I’m sure my group was annoyed with me because I was social loafing. I did not give any input and wasn’t very into the group. Now I know how irritating I was to my group members during that exercise. If I were to relive the letter ranking exercise I wouldn’t do anything differently. I think during this exercise I worked well with my group- I offered my own opinions and commented on others. If I were to relive the ring toss exercise I definitely would have participated more and acted more like a group member! In the future I will try to be more aware of myself in different group activities and make sure that I do not act like the “free rider.”

I have also learned that roles and their expectations and perceptions are very important within groups. I now understand that group members have certain expectations when it comes to ways we should behave and act within the group. I had certain expectations for my group members and now I know they feel the same. I should always put forth my best effort when working within a group and not just sit back and let everyone else do the work. Even though I may find the assignment lackluster, it is best to exert as much effort as expected so that I am not perceived to be social loafing.

In the future when I am required to work with a group, I will take my role seriously. I will be sure to put forth my ideas and also listen to others. I will try to work just as hard on assignments when there are prizes and bonuses and when there are not. I would also like to step up to the plate and try to take a leadership role when given the opportunity. I think it would be best if I at least tried, if not I will never know if I have management opportunities in my future. Maybe I will enjoy being a group leader.