The second week, each students have been assigned to a group presentation for upcoming session with four other students. I got a group of my own, with students whom I never met before. We simply introduced ourselves and exchanged telephone numbers. The level of team’s cohesion seemed to be low at the moment, mainly because only few words were exchange between us during first meeting. However I am hopeful that it will improve in the upcoming week, because most of them are very nice people that I could get along with during our first official meeting.
The third week I was temporally assigned to another group to discuss on a task that is none assignment related. It was more of a debating topic where every group in the class competing against each other to give the best solution for the question given by the tutor. In this task I had shown more confidence in myself by giving out suggestion which is well accepted by my other members. However there are still more room for me to improve yet.
The following week I was back with my original groups, during this session, the tutor had tasked us into discussing the Johari window, a cognitive psychological tool helping us to better understand our interpersonal communication and relationships. Through this session I can finally understand what my other group members think and few about me. It is also a great opportunity for me to improve my self-awareness, and mutual understanding between me and other members. Overall, I felt kind of confident that this semester wouldn't be so bad after all.
Stage 2 - Reflective Observation
In reflecting the tutorial session, I realized most students in the class are very proactive and socialize, they are very keen to voice out their thought and suggestions to the entire class when discussing about the topics given by teacher. I also noticed most people in the class can communicate with others with relative ease; despite them may have been friends for long time or just recently met. Furthermore, most students were willing to approach tutor for immediate consultancy when they felt that they are straying away from their objective. All these trait and personality shown by the students are something I found myself lack of. For example during group discussion, I was compelled to speak up, yet I hesitated most time. However thinking back again, when I finally voiced my own suggestion regarding the topic, it was very well accepted by my group. I must admit that I surprised myself that time.
I tend to noticed much to my dismay, that there are several students who sometimes absent from the class more than once or twice. I suspected that the reason for the absentees not attending class is not due to sickness. I was unable to comprehend why such behaviour exists, when it is already made clear that participation and attendance of students will be included in the course assessment. They must think that this class is really boring and simply a waste of their time.
Furthermore, I noticed that in my class, majority of student are Chinese. When students were to discuss in group about a topic given by tutor, I noticed that most of these student communicate in Chinese rather than English. Somehow I found myself communicating with my group members in Chinese too. English is supposed to be the lingua franca in Swinburne College, yet most students (notably Chinese and foreign) are more comfortable speaking in their own language. This is not surprising as this situation also occurred in other courses, notably the organization and management course I took last year. However I am still curious to why most students act this way.
Stage 3 - Abstract Conceptualization
There are several organizational behavior concepts that help me understanding this experience. One will be the Thomas-Kilmann theory of conflict which is based upon two axes, either the concern for one's own interests or the concern for the interests of the other party. The five styles reflect a low or high position on these two axes and are labeled competition, compromise, avoidance, accommodation, and collaboration.
Two significant incidents that I experienced throughout the first six week are when forming group for the presentation and discussing weekly topics with my group. In the incident I described, while discussing topics and assignment, my group often began with collaborative style, having high concern for our own interests and the interests of the others. We often tried to work out a solution that would satisfy all of us by exploring disagreement to learn from each other’s insights, with the goal of confronting and trying to find a creative solution to an interpersonal problem.
However there are times where I neither saw nor heard my group’s point of view. I just wanted to see things my way. From here I can see that the conflict style I used was the competitive style, high concern for my own interests and low concern for the interests of the other party. This situation also apply when the tutor asked all of us to form group for assignment, I only try to look for group that is well benefiting for my course assessment. I also am looking for better group where I don’t need to contribute much. Looking back, this is the style I seemed to have utilized the most throughout the years. I am always concerned about my own well being while neglecting others. Noticing this kind of behavior, I was very ashamed of myself having this kind of conflict styles. I need to focus more on using positive conflict styles such as collaborating in order to avoid negative outcome such as discouraging my friend from wanting to work with me.
Stage 4 - Active Experimentation and Conclusion
Based on what I experienced throughout the first six weeks of class session, I discovered that there are many things about myself that required constant improvement. In the future I intend to be more socialize and being a direct approach person. I must come out from my own closet often and consult the tutor and friends on topics I don’t understand. I realized that being brood and introverted all the time will not solve my problem and resolve conflict.
For my assignment group, I must be well socialize and take a more active role in team meetings. I need to contribute more for my group to prove that I am a dependable member. I don’t like to give people bad impression on me about being irresponsible. I will also continue working on possible weak areas during the rest of this course based on feedback my friends and tutor gave me this six week of semester.
To conclude, my new resolve and action will also applied to my other course as well, along with the assistance of KOLB Model, since they are all relevant.
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