Personal Evaluation Blog

2.1 Personal Evaluation

In week three we were given our group proposal to complete in class, but one of my group members took the proposal and completed it, on her own. Knowing she took the time to complete the proposal on her own, made me think, that I am not contributing any ideas in the group discussions. The issue identified was: I being a submissive\passive group member? Submissive\passive communicators generally, ‘fail to clearly express their own views, opinions and feelings, and in doing so implicitly accept the dominance and judgement of others’ (O Rourke & Barnett, 2008a). During group discussions I would generally hold back on my ideas, which would contribute heavily in the needs of the group. With one of the group members taking the group proposal to complete with no assistance from myself at all, really says a lot about my contribution to the group. To conclude, I personally didn’t help my cause by holding back on my ideas during the group discussion. In saying that, I let the opinions and views of my group members limit my contribution during group discussions. This could easily be seen as a weakness for me, instead of expressing my thoughts and views in group discussions; I would generally think of what my group members will have to say about my views.

During market day in week 10, I arrived an hour late due to circumstances out of my control. To add to that, I did not sell any of our products that needed to be sold. This left an awkward feeling during discussions about how many each group member sold during market day. The issue highlighted was; did I participate in my role as a team member? There are three main roles in a group: task roles; which generally puts the task first, before anything else. Maintenance roles: is usually a member who generally keeps the peace in the group e.g. encouraging group members. And a destructive role: which is a group member who works against the group (O’Rourke & Barnett, 2008b). Letting some personal problems affect my attendance during market day, really highlights that I fall into the destructive category of group roles. I demonstrated withdrawing; always saying that I am too busy. Coming late to market day was bad enough, but not selling one product at all, clearly supported the fact that I did not want to participate in any activity needed. This could also be