Intrinsic Motivators: Group Analysis

Use concepts from 2 or more chapters to identify, describe, and explain some things you are learning about yourself when it comes to participating and contributing effectively to a group’s effort. What are your strengths thus far in contributing to your current project group? As you participate in your group, what are you realizing that you need to work on?

One thing I find interesting is a concept from chapter one is Thomas’s Intrinsic Motivators. These motivators indicate a sense of meaningfulness, choice, competence, and progress. Meaningfulness is what guides a groups understanding that their time and work is to achieve something worthwhile. In a round about way that the means will justify the ends. Our group has discovered this because

Identify, describe, and discuss the Dialectical Tensions (discussed in Chapter 1, “Introduction to Group Communication”) that your group has experienced thus far. Task Dimensions ↔ Social Dimensions – This is something my group is still working towards balancing. I will say we have improved a lot based solely on the topic we have chosen. We all selected something in sports, which have helped our social dimension because we all know we share that interest. Most of coming from sports back grounds we have the “pick it up and put it down” mentality. This isn’t entirely bad because I am people oriented I try to find a way to get to know people through our tasks. Leadership ↔ Followership – With two alpha personalities in a group this can be an issue that causes conflict however myself and the other person have been working hard to lead different areas of the project. In turn doing so I would say we are both satisfied with the progress so far. I would consider what started to be a rocky area in the beginning stages is now

I wouldn’t say that I am surprised by wither of these tension because they are something I believe every group faces especially early on.

Use concepts in Chapter 4, “Diversity in Groups,” to describe and analyze one or two types of diversity represented in your project group. Be specific in discussing how these types of diversity are evident in your group’s work together. How are these types of diversity enhancing and/or detracting from your group’s effectiveness?

In our group I would say the diversity stems from our mix of different personality types and masculine-feminine values. It is clear that Cale and myself are extroverts where our counter parts Jasmine and Darius are more introvert. A time I can specifically see this is where Cale and myself have no problem moving to the next topic quickly where they may need a little more time to transition. Also the different personalities this explains why we feel into our group goals at quick and efficient pace. Based on that I would say our differing personalities have helped our group this far. In our team we have two girls and two boys, which means we bring different points of view on gender right out of the gate. I don’t see this hindering us instead making our group’s point of view more accurate for everyone, especially our audience. Everyone in our group had the same goal and respect each other’s differences and recognize we all bring something deferent to the