1. Group Work CSCI102 - Introduction to Information Technology B
ITCS905 - Fundamentals of Information Technology 1

2. Overview Group development Group roles Effective groups
Report components

3. Group Development Groups generally pass through the following stages
Forming
Storming
Norming
Performing
Mourning

4. Forming – What does the group need
Clear goals and objectives
Definition of tasks and roles
Clear work plans
To know what information is required
An identification of group behaviour, standards and norms and ways to handle behaviour problems

5. Forming – Group members feelings
Demonstrate excitement
Participate hesitantly
Show tentative attachment to the group
Intellectualise
Discuss symptoms or problems peripheral to the task
Be suspicious, fearful and/or anxious about the new situation
Accomplish minimal work

6. Storming You may find that you and/or other group members exhibit
Infighting
Doubts about success
Low group morale
Polarisation of group members
Concern about excessive work
Disunity, increased tension and jealousy

7. Storming You and/or other group members may Set unrealistic goals
Resist the task demands
Establish a pecking order
Criticise group leaders or other group members
Complain

8. Norming – What Are the Rules of the Group?
You and/or other group members may
Attempt to achieve maximum harmony by avoiding conflict
Develop a high level of trust
Confide in each other, share personal problems and discuss group dynamics
Express emotions constructively
Form friendships
Develop a sense of team cohesion with a common spirit and goal
Have high group morale
Establish and maintain group boundaries
Accomplish a moderate amount of work

9. Performing You and/or other group members may Experience insight
Be willing to sort through group problems
Understand members strengths and weaknesses
Confide in each other, share personal problems and discuss group dynamics
Undertake constructive self change
Identify closely with the group

10. Mourning You and/or other group members may:
Feel elated at the successful attainment of goals
Feel disappointed at unattained goals
Feel a sense of loss when the group is disbanded
Feel relief at the end of the process
Congratulate each other
Celebrate

11. Roles in the Group
Individuals within a team all have unique skills and strengths
An effective team does well because of the combined input of ALL its members
Any individual team member can play a number of different roles within the team

12. Roles in the Group
Roles are predetermined behaviours expected of people in a group
Some roles will feel natural - "I'm always the one who " there will be other roles, however, which may be difficult, eg chairperson or presenter. Try and develop as many unfamiliar roles as possible

13. Roles in the Group There are four main types of roles: Task roles
Functional roles
Maintenance roles and
Dysfunctional roles

14. Task Roles Some of the tasks you may need to do include:
Obtaining photographs
Preparing notes
Doing calculations
Evaluating data
Obtaining references
Preparing presentations

15. Functional roles You may find yourself taking on such roles as:
Coordinator
Initiator
Information seeker
Information giver
Opinion seeker
Opinion giver
Goal setter
Deadline setter
Progress monitor
Evaluator
Clarifier
Summariser
Decision pusher
Planner
Spokesperson
Troubleshooter
Diagnosor
You may find yourself taking on such roles as:
Coordinator: draws together the various activities of team members.
Initiator: proposes solutions, suggests new ideas, a new definition of the problem, or new organisation of the material.
Information seeker: asks for data, requests additional information or facts.
Information giver: offers facts or generalisations, relating own experience to illustrate points.
Opinion seeker: looks for options about something from the team, seeks ideas or suggestions.
Opinion giver: offers a view or belief about a suggestion, regarding its value or its factual base.
Goal setter: helps the group to set goals.
Deadline setter: makes sure that deadlines are set and met.
Progress monitor: makes sure that the group is progressing according to plan.
Evaluator: measures decisions against group goals.
Clarifier: tries to see how an idea might work if adopted.
Summariser: restates suggestions after the group has discussed them, outlining related ideas or suggestions, providing a precis of the ideas.
Decision pusher: helps the group to come to closure, makes sure that decisions are reached.
Planner: prepares timelines and schedules, organises.
Spokesperson: speaks on behalf of the group.
Troubleshooter: asks the 'what if ... ?' questions.
Diagnosor: determines sources of difficulty, deciding where to go next, eliminates blocks.

16. Maintenance roles
You may find that your personal skills lend themselves to one or more of the following maintenance roles:
Encourager
Gatekeeper
Standards setter
Consensus tester
Mediator
Tension reliever
Listener
Volunteer
As well as the functional roles that assist the group to achieve its tasks there are group maintenance roles which help the team grow and strengthen. These roles support and maintain group life and activities.
You may find that your personal skills lend themselves to one or more of the following maintenance roles:
Encourager: is friendly and sincere, praises others, is warmly responsive to others, and their ideas, is accepting when people offer contributions.
Gatekeeper: makes sure that every member of the group has a chance to be heard.
Standards setter: expresses standards for the group to use in its discussions and reminds the team to avoid actions which don't fit these standards.
Consensus tester: checks for agreements, for example 'I think we are all feeling the same way'.
Mediator: conciliates, harmonises.
Tension reliever: helps eliminate negative feelings.
Listener: is able to listen empathically and hear what others have to say.
Volunteer: offers whatever is needed.

17. Dysfunctional roles Some of these roles include: being aggressive
blocking or nit-picking
competing
back stabbing
seeking sympathy
clowning or joking to disrupt the work of the group
withdrawal
being sarcastic or cynical
blaming
taking all the credit
dominating
manipulating.
Unfortunately sometimes you may find either yourself or other team members take on roles that are disruptive to genuine efforts to improve team effectiveness and satisfaction.
However, we need to be wary about blaming anybody, including ourselves, for acting in these ways. These actions may be symptoms that the group activities may not be satisfying for some individuals and they may be frustrated. You also need to remember that people may interpret behaviour differently. For example, you may think someone is blocking but somebody else might see it as questioning an idea. 

18. Features of effective teams
The features of a team which is effective in what it does and how it does it include:
combined group effort
clear goals setting
achieving a learning orientation
mutual trust and support
open communication
democratic processes
Why do some groups accomplish very little, while others achieve much more? This difference stems very much from the processes within the group - its inner dynamics or workings.

19. Report Writing Writing reports Introduction The intent of the report
Basic report structure
The body of the report
Presentation
Conclusions
Recommendations
References and Bibliography

20. Introduction Any report needs some clear guidelines:
Why are you writing the report? (the purpose)
Who will read the report? (the audience)
What will it cover? (the scope)
How will this be conveyed? (clear language, logical progression of topics, use of figures, tables, equations, appendices, references, etc)
When is it required? (time management)
Where is it required? (physical location)
These are the six basic questions that can be used in all problem solving tasks. These issues will be expanded in the sections that follow. Much of this report discusses the howissue. However, unless the why, who and what are right, there is little point in producing a nicely structured and formatted report which no-one reads. Likewise, if it is not delivered on time, and at the appropriate location, it may also be of little value.
The Purpose - Why write this report?
Whenever you write a report, the purpose must be clear in your mind. If it is not, you will have great trouble getting started. An example, relevant to students, might be to review the literature on a topic, or it might be to document the design calculations for a structure.
The Audience - Who will read it?
Your audience must also be known. This allows you to adapt the language of the report to what the audience might reasonably be expected to know. For example, I have decided that this report will mostly be read by students. Hence, the main body of the report deals with brief reports, typical of those submitted by students.
One issue that you also need to keep in mind is that different members of your potential audience may read your report differently. Some people will want just an overview, and may read only the Summary, or perhaps the Conclusions as well (Figure 1). Others may also read the body of the report, and some may even get to the appendices.
Do not assume that each person will read all of your report.
Consequently, give the Summary careful attention and make sure that it really does summarise the main issues (including the main conclusions) of your report. It can be anything from a paragraph to several pages, depending on the size of the report. Put detail in the Appendices. Keep the body of the report as brief as possible, while still maintaining its integrity.
The Scope - What will it contain?
The scope of the report more clearly identifies what will go into the report, and what will be left out. In the process of reviewing the literature on a particular topic, for example, you may have found interesting information on many related issues. You must decide how much of that goes into your report, and which of it will be left out. If you put too much into the report, you run the risk of boring your reader. If you put too little in, you run the risk of appearing incompetent. Getting this balance right requires judgement that can only be developed through practice.
The Structure and Presentation - How to present it?
Having identified in your mind why, for whom, and about what your report will be written, your task is now to structureit and present it in a manner which will be easy to read and pleasing to the eye. The structure will be dealt with in the next chapter. The presentation issues will be covered in the following chapter. Look at books which you find easy to read, or pleasing to use. What is it about them that makes them that way? Is it the structure of the chapters, or the layout of text on the page?
Word processors now make both structure and presentation easier through the use of spelling and grammar checkers, thesaurus lookup, figure and table captioning, paragraph numbering, bulleting etc. Make sure that you know how to use all of these features.
The Deadline - When is it required?
Always know when a report is due. Failure to produce it by the due date may mean no further work from that client, delayed payment, or other unpleasant outcomes. Learning to manage time at university is a good start for the workplace. Some of you ill find this easier than others. Information on personality type is available elsewhere [Hadgraft & Prpic, 1997].
The Place - Where is it required?
Delivering your report to the client's head office in Melbourne may not be of much use if it is required the following morning for discussions in Tokyo.

21. Basic Report Structure
The following components are present in almost all reports:
Title page (including Authors)
Table of contents
Summary or Executive Summary
Introduction
Chapters of detail
Conclusions and Recommendations
List of References or Bibliography
Appendices
The Purpose - Why write this report?
Whenever you write a report, the purpose must be clear in your mind. If it is not, you will have great trouble getting started. An example, relevant to students, might be to review the literature on a topic, or it might be to document the design calculations for a structure.

22. Introduction the Introduction covers the following issues:
what was the problem and its context,
why was it a problem,
how was the problem solved (briefly).
The Introduction is an extremely important part of any report. It should not include too much detail, but it should give the reader a good idea of where the report is going (including a brief description of the contents of the report).
Just as the Summary gives an overview of the total project, including principal findings and recommendations,

23. Body of the Report The body of the report must address:
Why was the study necessary? (the purpose)
When, where, how and by whom the study was conducted?
What were the findings?
What conclusions were drawn?
What recommendations were made?
The body of the report is made up of a set of chapters that cover the detail of the report.

24. The Body of the Report
The body of the report contains the main thrust of your argument, and is normally made up of an Introduction, a number of chapters, plus Conclusions and possibly Recommendations.
The Introduction deals with the first of these. A series of sections or chapters will cover the next two, and Conclusions and Recommendations will handle the last two. More detail about the Body is given on page 1.

25. Conclusions and Recommendations
Your report will typically describe some findings which have been derived from
Observation
Experiment
Calculation
Literature review
From these findings, you should draw some conclusions

26. Conclusions and Recommendations
The insights that you can extract from your basic findings are a key part of your report
You may also be expected to make some recommendations based on your conclusions
The findings are the foundations on which the conclusions rest, while the conclusions, in turn, support the recommendation