Did you ever wonder why the majority of students dislike working in groups on projects? It is not just because the person you got stuck with smells funny. Groups affect our performance. This is called Social Facilitation. Your performance will improve in the presence of others because having other people around you increases your arousal level which strengthens the most likely response. For example, if you feel confident in the action like basketball because you’ve played on a school team the majority of your life then you will have an improved performance. The opposite effect can also happen. If you feel like you are not very good at that task your performance will only get worse, which is called Social Impairment. Depending on your base confidence level you will only get better or worse if this action is done in the presence of others.
This could have something to do with why when you are in a group no one likes to take point. It is because you are all learning this material as you go so no one is too confident in themselves and their knowledge. You tend to second guess yourself more than once. But Social Facilitation and Social Impairment are not the only possible answer for why group work or group projects tend to be more of a burden then the help that is intended. It could also be explained by Social Loafing. Social Loafing is the tendency of an individual in a group to exert less effort toward attaining their common goal than when tested individually. Studies have shown that 18% of people, not just students, put less effort into that project when they think they are on a team. It gives them a certain mind set that others will pick up the slack for them or that they don’t have to do as much because they have a “smart” person in their group.
Next time a professor or maybe your employer puts you on a team project or task you can explain to them the benefits of working solo instead. Make sure to state the long list of cons as well. Maybe, just maybe, they will listen.
I completely agree with your blog post made about difficulties with working on a group project. Based off of experience with group projects here at Penn State I felt an army of emotions towards this concept. From what we learned in lecture about social facilitation this idea really stuck with me and made the most sense. I can also say that communication definitely plays a huge role in the difficulties that come with working on a group project. I can also stay that the group is only as strong as the group chemistry is. Meaning it is harder to work in a group of people you barely know and be able to do a good job. This semester I had an English class here we had the same group for the entire semester. The first project we completed together was definitely not as strong as the last project we just presented together last week. This shows how over time both our group’s communication and chemistry strengthened over the semester and projects we did together.
This may be true in school for certain projects, but there are a lot of instances where group projects are the only way to succeed. I’m a design engineer, and most of the work I do has to be with a group because of the concepts we need to make. Working in a group leads to more ideas being picked apart for their positive aspects and negative aspects in order to constructively criticize and improve a final product. Speaking from experience, groups are only as strong as the chemistry of the group.
In work, expectations and deadlines make group work crucial. Not being able to effectively communicate in a company with a large group of people will only lead to failure. Imagine it as a ladder where it starts with an idea or concept. You have to continuously go up this ladder to actual research and development, then to manufacturing the product, and shipping it out to a customer. This long ladder has many people on it that you have to be able to talk to to get work done. Failure is not an option when financial incentive and business survival depends on it.