Week 16 Question 3: Pick any concept; Cohesiveness

We have gone through several chapters and learned many concepts this semester. I decided to go back and look at what we learned near the beginning of the semester, in which we studied chapter 3. I decided to go this far back because I needed a refresher of the things we learned earlier on. This chapter is entitled: Norms, Roles, Cohesiveness, and Groupthink. The concept that I am going to discuss is cohesiveness. Cohesiveness is “the extent to which members are loyal and committed to the group.” (Harris, 2008. p. 54) As this semester is drawing to a close I thought I would talk about a concept that we may have to use in some class group assignments we may have.

Cohesiveness, like chemistry, is a “force that binds group members together” (Keyton & Springston, 1990, p. 234) Building or creating that force is important because a group typically performs better when members are tight. To do so, members need to have reasons and purposes for the tasks at hand, and have to all be willing and motivated to commit to the group as well as the tasks. This is a concept that we should try to implement in our lives because working together positively is always overall more affective than anti-cohesiveness.

Week 16 Question 2: Outside Group Observation Evaluation

I really enjoyed the outside group observation project as I chose the Leadership Training and Development group at the Vintage Park Church of Christ congregation. I am a member of this congregation but I am not a member of that group but I had always been interested in what went on. So, I chose it for this assignment. The group was all about leadership within the church, (preachers, teachers, etc) but the principles I learned could also definitely apply to other aspects of life other than church or religion.

I noticed that the group was pretty diverse (age, gender, ethnicity) so I paid close attention to see how this effected each group meeting. However, the group seemed to interact equally regardless of their differences and this was a very comforting trait of theirs. They use many principles in the Bible such as “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Bible, Galatians 3:28) to help them with any issues that may arise regarding differences.

In both group meetings we read the Bible to see different uses of leadership. These examples can easily be implemented into our everyday lives because the principles are very realistic and moral. I marked each of the books and chapters of the Bible we went over so I can later reference them in use them in not just church related activities, but also: school, work, sports, and etc.

The only thing that I was frustrated with was that many people talked over each other. Everyone was very interested in the concepts we covered regarding leadership (being a leader not a commander) which is a good thing, but they did not always allow each other to speak give their whole inputs. When I would start hearing someone giving valid information and examples, someone would cut them off and give their input. I thought it was rude but I know that they did not mean it to be rude. I feel like if there was a little more order this would not have been an issue.

Overall this assignment was the highlight of my semester. It is very rare that I get an assignment where I get to interact with others outside of the class, and watch the concepts I learned apply themselves. Seeing many of the things I learned in this course being lived gave me pleasure. I have taken classes before where I always thought to myself “how is this going to help me in the future?” or “where is this ever applied?” But in this class, everything I learned is very relevant to our everyday lives and this outside group project just confirmed that for me!

Week 16 Question 1: CMC vs FTF

CMC and FTF communication are two different forms of communication that are used in certain circumstances. Computer mediated communication (CMC) “describes communication that takes place through a variety of media and provides distributed group members with video, audio, and text-based messaging capabilities.” (Harris, 2008, pg. 296) Many people critique CMC because people tend to focus on the tasks rather than trying to also incorporate the social aspect of communication. FTF just simply means face-to-face communication. Many people argue that CMC groups take longer than FTF groups to complete a task. But on the contrary “CMC groups usually perform better than FTF groups on idea-generating tasks, and there is a greater equality of participation in CMC groups.” (Harris, 2008, pg. 297)

Because I have taken several online classes and also in-person classes I have experience with both CMC and FTF. I do not have a preference between the two as I think they both have advantages and disadvantages (as mentioned above) as well as differences. One of the obvious differences is that you cannot physically see who you are communicating with in CMC groups. This can be put the damper on the social aspect of communication. However it can also help to eliminate any prejudices. FTF is the most common form of communication. In this form I believe people are more cooperative and less opinionated because most times people do not want to be “rude” especially when FTF. Although there are many more differences these stand out to me the most.