Week 6 Lecture

For our week 6 lecture we had UNSW School of Psychology. Tom Denson talk to us about Psychology. Mainly relating to group and peer dynamics. So how people react to others in a group, and if how they follow along with what other people say even if they know it is wrong.

Tom Denson showed us some of the previous experiments that have been conducted in groups, where all except one of the people in the group knows about the experiment. In one of the experiments they where asked a simple question and then told to call out the answer. It showed that when all the people who know about the experiment call out the wrong answer, the subject is around 80% more likely to knowingly say the wrong answer to fit in. If asked to write down the answer privately then the subject is almost always correct.

I thought this was a very good lecture, i learnt alot of things and it is ashame that the lecture was cut short due to time constraints. It would have been great to hear more about what tom ahd to say. I felt he related his lecture to our class very well and we all had some very good discussions.

Conflict

In broad terms, conflict can be defined as the "the process resulting from the tension between team members because of real or perceived differences"

With regard to conceptualizations of conflict, differentiated between two distinct components: task conflict and emotional conflict.

Task conflict occurs when group members disagree about task-related issues, including procedures, goals, and decisions.

Relational or emotional conflict is characterized by disagreements or tension with regard to personal taste or interpersonal style.

An additional conceptualization of conflict that has regained attention is the idea of "constructive conflict," which involves searching out a variety of opinions, openly confronting differences, and critiquing alternative options . A group that manifests constructive conflict could be characterized by high task conflict and low relational conflict. Importantly, it may be this type of interaction that ultimately facilitates effective team performance through constructive divergence.

"Much of the work in the area of conflict has contrasted task (i.e., productive, cognitive conflict) and relational manifestations (i.e., emotional, interpersonal conflict; Pelled, 1996b). On the one hand, dissimilarity has been linked with productive forms of conflict (demographic diversity, Chatman et al., 1998; educational and functional diversity, Jehn et al., 1999; functional diversity, Pelled et al., 1999; functional, education, tenure diversity, Simons et al., 1999). On the other hand, dissimilarity also has been linked with destructive forms of conflict (social category diversity, Jehn et al., 1999; gender diversity and time urgency diversity, Mohammed & Angell, 2004; ethnic and tenure diversity, Pelled et al., 1999). Thus, despite a few examples that diversity and conflict may be inversely or not at all related, the research evidence reviewed here suggests that heterogeneous teams are more likely to experience conflict (whether productive or destructive in nature) than homogenous teams (see also Grossman, 1997)."

Reference - Conflict and Cooperation in Diverse Workgroups. The Journal of social issues [0022-4537] King yr:2009 vol:65 iss:2

Wikipedia Page Analysis

Collaboration - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration

The Wikipedia page for Collaboration is a well set out and contributed to page. It talks about many different aspects of collaboration. from Trade to Military to Education. This broad range of information and topics is essential in a wiki so that it gives the reader a broader education on the topic or topics.

This wiki also breaks down the topic into 2 main headings, "History" and "Contemporary Examples". The first of these talks about how collaboration was introduced in different areas and how it came about. The second talks about how collaboration is used in the present day in different areas. This gives the viewer a broader udnerstanding of what collaboration is and the history of it, as well as how it is used today.

There is a lot of contributions and edits to this page which is, in-itself a good example of collaboration, where many people are all working together to create somthing. Although what this page is missing, is alot of referencing and citations, which is important for a reader to do any further research or simply to prove the validity of an article or what is written.

Social Networks

A social network is a group of people or organisations or similar that all have a common interest. This may be common visions, or friendship or even a common sexuality. Social networking sites such as Facebook or Myspace are internet based tools to help people in these social networks collaborate. If you take Facebook for example, which is fast becoming one of the most popular social networking sites, you can browse people all around the world based on different social status. Such as where they went to school, what their religion is or simply what they enjoy doing.

Social networking is a very important tool for collaboration, specially on a project like ours, because as well as allowing our team to communicate with each other, it means we can find a social network that is interested in similar things or has undertaken a similar task and collaborate with them to find out more information or tips and tricks. This can be very valuable in projects similar to ours, since you can easily find other people with the same interest, it also means that other people can follow our projects and learn from us as well as us learning from them and the project itself. It helps broaden the whole concept of collaboration.

Here are some examples of similar sites.

- Facebook
- MySpace
- Twitter
- Flickr
- Bebo
- DeviantArt
- Flixster

Planning

Types of planning:

* Envisioned Future: 10 to 30 years. Here, a vivid description is gathered from the data and molded into several BHAGs (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals).

* Critical Factors: 5 to 10 years. What are and will be the mega issues? What are some basic assumptions (based on best-available data) about the future (what will we be doing, what will we look like, etc.)? What will be our guiding strategic principles?

* Strategic Planning: 3 to 5 years. Strategic planning efforts define the short- and long-term goals, objectives and strategies needed to turn plans into action.

* Action Planning: 1 to 2 years. The organization sets priorities, plans programs and incorporates actions into the overall operational/day-to-day planning. It's at this point, just when all seems in sync, that the horizon turns from a flat line into a circle, and the process begins again.

A few points about Planning

1. Having a plan puts you back in control.
2. Planning is the only way things can get better.
3. Planning allows you to set priorities and to allocate resources effectively.
4. A plan shows you (and others) how to spend your time.
5. Planning is the key to staying ahead of the curve and the competition.
6. A good plan motivates and inspires.
7. People follow the person with a plan.
8. Planning permits you to spend less energy on putting out other people's fires and start building some of your own.

There's nothing mysterious about planning. It's just looking beyond the moment and visualizing how things might work out. It's playing out possible scenarios in your mind. Planning is weighing possibilities and choosing alternatives. It's putting a name on your dream. Planning is deciding what's desirable and figuring out how to make it happen.

Most of all, planning is simply asking the right questions and plugging in the right answers answers that are right for you and your organization.


Make Plans, Not Excuses, Supervision [0039-5854] Ramsey yr:2003 vol:64 iss:2 pg:14 -16. Plan or Die!, Professional Safety [0099-0027] Kendrick yr:2004 vol:49 iss:3 pg:8
GESCHICHTE UND GESELLSCHAFT 34 (3): 305-326 JUL-SEP 2008 Year: 2008 Abstract: During the era of modernity