Chapter 8 begins discussion of teamwork on p.225.
While teamwork is undoubtedly a core focus of the MBA program, there are several fundamental problems with too much school group work. The main issue I have experienced with group work is accountability. In a work setting, if a group member is not carrying their weight... there are ways around it. One possible course of action is to enlist managerial pressure to spur the group member into action.
In school, I've had many group projects where a member simply said that they were happy to get a B. Haven never gotten a B before... this bugged me to no end. If they are happy to do mediocre work and receive a mediocre grade, the group suffers. One can try to encourage them to strive for a higher standard, but if they are happy with the bare minimum... others are forced to pick up the slack. In the end, they get the same grade as someone that did far more than their share. Some professors encourage feedback to adjust grades accordingly; however, that is the exception rather than the norm.
So yes, I see the value of group work, but feel there's a need for better process/standards by which group work is used in the school setting.
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2 comments:
One way to ensure good team-members in one's team is to join a good team! I've noticed that people who are dedicated tend to form a group, and will help each other, and similarly those who want to do mediocre work will form groups among themselves.
But it is certainly a matter of fact that a person who is intent on doing A-grade work will, according to the law of large numbers, eventually team up with someone who does not want to work very hard. I cannot say what the strategy here for the good worker - perhaps to work enough to compensate for the lack of work from the poor worker? That definitely requires a lot more hard work from the good student, but I see no other alternative to get a good grade in this case.
I'm going to take a minute and play devil’s advocate. Many of us, myself included, have griped about uneven work load in a group setting and how it is unfair to the student’s shooting for an A grade because they end up doing so much more work. But what if we were to view it from the B students’ perspective? Let’s say that grades simply do not matter at all to them, would it be fair for the group to demand them to do extra work just so the A student’s will get the grades they want? They might argue that the B student’s will benefit by working harder because it will boost their GPA but that’s only because they are assuming that grades are worth as much to the B students ass they are to the A students. It’s a pretty weak argument, but still something to think about.
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