In bms, we often have to do our projects and presentations in groups. Group of 6-7 students is made and with a series of meetings and discussions among the group members, we make our projects.
Group or team projects offer valuable practice to students for their future lives as professionals and members of society as well as their present academic work. A disadvantage of group or team projects is that when students are assigned such projects, if they are not trained in a method that facilitates collaboration, the resulting experiencemay simply reinforce an attitude that is sometimes called “group hate.”
Diversity creates communication problems within groups. Diversity refers to the differences among people in various aspects. Some of those aspects brought up are like difference in socio-economic background, disability/capability of doing certain things and also different skill characteristics. This definition is extremely subjective as there are many other aspects that people can be different as there are many different causations of diversity.
Besides, diversity is also about perception: How group member see others in the group as others see themselves. Hence to successfully debate about the motion, we have to place it in this manageable and observable context. Communication can be defined as the sharing of thoughts, ideas and information between two or more individuals or within a group to reach a common understanding. Hence when people have communication problems, it can be said that they have difficulties trying to share their thoughts and ideas with each other.
So when a professor gives us the topic, each member put forward his/her views. This is the first time when we come across differences in opinions. Every individual according to his own understanding about the topic and the subject gives his views. But in a group it is difficult to form consensus unless others are willing to back from their ideas and opinions and accept those of others. Moreover differences in the personalities of the group members also lead to communication problems. Some members like to explore with new ideas but others resist it and try to play safe. Some members are open minded and some are closed minded. Thus at every step in the making of our projects, such communication problems of perception, understanding, interpretation, response to communication arise.
Similarly If a group member does not sound confident, another
member may have a harder time staying focused. Each member of a group has psychological needs. If these needs are not met, it can create problems. Psychological barriers to communication are more difficult to identify and overcome than other barriers, and require leaders and group members to possess and apply a knowledge of human nature to each situation.
Even each individual prejudices effect the communication among the members. Prejudice can effect both how we hear others as well as how we receive the information. Misunderstanding what someone expects of you is another factor that can lead to a communication breakdown. When one group member does what they think another member wants them to do, but actually they do not do what is expected, there is a serious lack of communication.
Considering all the communication problems as mentioned earlier, we as a group try to eliminate these barriers. In the first stage, when we are discussing on the topic, various view points are put forward, we try to make consensus on voting on the various points. Moreover much of the other decisions are rested upon the leader. Similarly everyone’s view point is respected and listened carefully. Thus this avoids most of the communication problems.
overcoming communication problems..BMS as an example.. -
August 19th, 2009
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