Week 2 (August 27 - September 2)

Week 2

Question 1

Groups are living systems based on interdependence and interrelationships. What happens to a small group when parts of the system do not function well? Provide two examples from your own small group experiences that show the importance of understanding interdependence and interrelationships.

When parts of a system within a small group don't function well, things start to fall apart. The communication goes out the window and things can become pretty hectic. People start arguing and getting mad at each other, which compromises the effectiveness of the group's communication. Without proper communication, you can't really do much, especially when working with other people. 

One example I have is from when I attended West Valley College. It was ironically for a group project in my small group communications class. I was assigned to work with two other students. We had a big presentation due that should have been super easy, had we all understood the assignment. We split up the project into three parts, one for each of us, and met about four or five times to make sure everyone was on track. One of my group members didn't really seem to be doing too well on his part of the assignment, and I offered to help him but he told me that he had already spoken to our professor about it and that he knew what he was supposed to do. I felt kind of uncertain about this but decided to trust him anyway. The day of our presentation approached and I was ready to get it over with. As we were reviewing our notes, we realized that this one particular group member had done his portion of the assignment completely wrong, and we knew we would all suffer the consequences. So we tried our best to pull something together right before presenting, but it didn't work and unfortunately our grade for the project severely suffered. Our system of trusting each other failed because we didn't really follow up on each other to make sure we all knew what we were doing, and in the end we got screwed over. 

Another example I have is from when I used to work at an after school daycare. I was at work, and it was only myself and another coworker. She "didn't feel well" and ended up spending her shift in the office playing on her phone, leaving me to deal with 35+ kids and their parents. Plus it was a rainy day, so we had to stay inside, and everyone was going stir crazy. I continually asked for her help and she kept blowing me off and telling me she didn't feel well so she couldn't work, but was well enough to sit on her phone and eat potato chips (she was technically my supervisor so I didn't want to get upset with her). As you can imagine trying to keep things calm in a daycare with 35+ kids all hyper from being inside the classroom all day was really hectic. I was relying on my coworker to help me, but instead she failed to do so, leaving me with all the work. 

Interdependence is important, especially in situations involving school and work, because you are all working together to attain a goal. In the school situation, it's so that you can get a good grade and in the work situation, it's so that you can maintain order and the safety of others. Not being able to rely on people who are supposed to help you in those situations are extremely frustrating.