Why Should one Be Assertive in Academic Teamwork?

Let’s face it: as Master’s students, we just want to prove that we are somewhat educated by graduating at the end of the year. The process we need to go through, though, isn’t just about learning theories and writing Academic essays. Group work takes a large part of the Library and Information Studies course, and situations we find ourselves in reflect quite well those of teamwork in a professional context. Moon’s 2010 article tackles the subject of Academic assertiveness in hope of giving us, students, some key ideas on how we can psychologically and emotionally adjust ourselves to one group, and develop some “abilities, ideas and specific techniques” to make teamwork more effective.

Accepting situations appears to be the central part of Academic assertiveness. It is hard to accept someone’s failures, but it can be harder to face your own flaws. Once you overcome your pride, changing makes your work a lot better, and the feeling of self-satisfaction you get is very rewarding. I guess this goes with the needed “level of Academic self-esteem” also mentioned by Moon. Accepting a challenge you may not agree with can also be quite tough, but changing your mind, again, is essential if you ever wish to be autonomous and truly active in the group. I just hate disagreeing with something or somebody, and feeling that I cannot work because of that; that probably is the one reason why I always try to solve problems before actually getting to work. It takes a lot of time and thinking, and it isn’t always nice, but it is essential to the effectiveness of any teamwork. Honestly, a team will never work better than when everybody acknowledges and understands each other and the work that needs to be done. However, be weary of “understanding” and excusing people too much. I tend to say amen to anything and most of the time I end up doing the whole work myself, which is a pain in the neck because I just won’t say how annoyed I am to my collaborators.