Individual Assignment (Social Work High Diploma)
Group Evaluation
Introduction
Being a member of a certain group, individuals must be able to learn many things on how to interact with other members of the group and how to work efficiently despite of the challenges that are being associated with it. Accordingly, effective groups are described by individual and mutual responsibility and a sense of common commitment. It is said that all group members, including leaders or ordinary one, must take accountability for the overall group success and for dealing with the problems which are noted to be inevitable. Furthermore, it has also been said that the best group invest tremendous amount of both effort and time to explore, shape and agree on a purpose which belongs to the group both individually and collectively and then translate this goal into specific performance objectives (Katzenbach and Smith, 1993). Primarily, the goal of this paper is to discuss some important elements has been experienced by members, leaders, and even non-members of a specific group. In addition, this paper will analyse a social group work and their process of achieving their objective.
Description of the Group
The group that I will describe and analyse in this report is a group of 10 people dealing with social work practices. The main goal of this group was to facilitate social work practices across communities of interest in most needs. This group’s primary objective is to help people overcome social and health problems, such as poverty, mental illness, child abuse and neglect, emotional instability, illness, economic uncertainty, domestic violence, homelessness, and drug abuse. We work directly with individuals, couples, families, and groups to identify and overcome these problems. In addition, this group also work with communities, organizations, and/or systems to improve services and/or administrate social and health programs as most of us strictly adhere to the principles of human rights and social justice.
Theoretical Model used
It can be said that the group that I am evaluating used the theories of human behaviour and social systems. Utilizing theories of human behavior and social systems, this group has been able to apply their professional knowledge and skills to help people make the most of their abilities. When adequate services do not exist in a community, we promote the development of new services and programs. Their work activities includes caseworks or case management, medical social work, school social work, clinical social work, administration and management, community organizing, social welfare policy analysis, advocacy, education such as AIDS awareness and teaching in schools of social work, and social science research.
This group work in a variety of settings, including private and non profit or public social service agencies, grassroots advocacy organizations, community health agencies, schools, or faith-based organizations, schools, community agencies, public welfare, agency administration, and policy and planning. it can be said that this group’s approach as a social workers is unique among other helping professions as they focus on people’s problems in the context of their social environment. Social workers believe that people are influenced by the strengths and weaknesses of those around them. It can be in their families, communities, workplaces, and organizations.
For this group, the methods used by social workers fall under the qualitative paradigm and critical approaches, This ensures that the case being handled is clearly understood by the party that the volunteer represents so as also to guarantee that the right aide and assistance needed will be availed by the clients. The sensitive and private nature of each of the cases being handled and the types of clients, dictates the work to be more carefully implemented and utilized. In this case, the group has been able to use these critical approaches in the case that they handle.
Group Leader Assessment
The members of the social group which I have observed accepted the leader because he is democratic and he has integrity and perseverance in achieving the goals of the group. The leader of has integrity in a way that he is truthful in everything he say and do among his subordinate and persevere in a manner that he is firm on making his decision to achieve the goal of their group.
The leader was able to facilitate group activities well. He did not perform all the tasks but he initiated some actions that motivated the members to perform as well. Through keen observation of the leader and the group members, I noticed that the group leader and the members were able to cooperate and collaborate well with each other. The leader and the member have an effective communication approach that they use from the beginning of the group activities, for example in brain storming, the leader has been able to communicate well with each member to know their opinion about their topic.
For instance, the leader encouraged brainstorming, discussions, and affirmations/or constructive criticisms that allowed the members to exhibit their thinking and communicative abilities for the group to be more productive and efficient. It was evident that the members have shown initiatives in pursuing their activities because the leader was consistent in follow-up activities to ensure that members were doing their tasks. For example, the leader gave specific assignment to be performed by the members and the leader monitors whether the members are doing their jobs.
Just like in the teaching learning process, the leader demonstrated his ability to promote interpersonal relationships through hard work to keep communication channels open, listening carefully to group members’ opinions and concerns, showing sensitivity to conflicts and in solving them, providing encouragement and positive feedback, using analytical and interpersonal communication skills (Grasha, 2002). In addition, the leader contributed for the group cohesiveness and unification by always providing support among each member and always encouraging them through the saying “united we stand, divided we fall”, which means that if they will work together, they will achieve their goal but if they will be divided in their work, there is a greater tendency that they will fail in attaining their goal. The leader support and encourage his members by providing them all their needs to perform their specific, tasks like in their sing and dance production. In addition, they give each member words of encouragement to achieve their objectives.
Group members
It can be said that the social group that I am observing are able to have members who are effective and efficient in doing their job well in the society. Social interaction and interdependence are essential elements that define groups (Forsyth, 1999). Group dynamics method is applied in the group activities. It seeks to understand relationships between the individuals in groups (Cates, 2006). This includes all members with different roles and holds the view that the absence of one leads to the inability of the system to function because members are supposed to help, satisfy or provide every members’ needs in order to function well as a whole (Cattell, 1953). In the group that I have observed, support, collaborative activities, and good rapport were evident.
It can be said that the group members were very effective because they are able to do things the right way. Each of the members has the ability to point out some negative and positives points about the performance to produce positive results in their social work activities. The tasks of the members include helping people in need and to strive to address social problems. The members of this group have been able to respect the unique value and dignity of every person they encounter.
The group members are able to think about the own performance instead of criticizing others in order to focus and achieve quality outcome. Through their leader the group members were to work harder to be able to achieve the objective of the group. Based on the observation conducted, it can be seen that there are some members of the group who shows their leadership abilities. Some members volunteered to guide help other members who were having difficulty in doing their assigned tasks. They also showed that they can help others in decision-making. This has challenged the leader to do better but not to the extent of competing the others. Instead, he collaborated with the members.
Group Cohesiveness
Accordingly, cohesiveness is a measurement of the attraction of specific group to individual members, the willingness of the members to cooperate and coordinate and team spirit. It can be said that the group that is under observation is said to be cohesive in all their actions. It can be said that the social work group under observation has a philosophy of “Total involvement.” This is because the group believes that cohesiveness is a powerful force for moving work forward.
It can be said that the group is organized based on the common interest of the members. The group have experienced similar life experiences that made them devote themselves to a particular socio-civic actions and volunteer works where they can feel that they are functioning as fully productive members of the society.
Their activities normally include goal-specific actions that are guided by the mission of the organization. The relationship with peers and other members of the group are essential in promoting cohesiveness among them so as to foster and enact the projects that will be most significant to the organization. The bonding activities or leisure time spent by the members with each other to strengthen the relationship and communication will result to work outputs that are both socially and personally rewarding.
It is not enough though that there are members that are participating in the attainment of the objectives of the organization. The quality of the relationship and communication among the members of this group also define their productivity and performance. The environment in which they are functioning have the characteristics that enhance the discourse and conversation of issues that confronts the group in which the individual views and opinions of the members are heard and the suggestions and grievances if there are any, can be addressed freely without being reprimanded by the people of authority and holding higher position in the said organization.
This means that the differences of the members whether the case maybe that of the cultural or gender issues that may beset the interaction of the group are presented. If the personal and differences they hold are contrasting the members should have the capacity to understand, tolerate and respect such diversity. If the issue concerns the organization in general, it is paramount that the members settle for compromise to uphold the harmony within the group in which all will benefit. Learning in this sense, bridges the people, and increases their potential as ideal members of the society in which they belong.
The interconnectedness between the members of the group likewise reciprocated or manifested externally by enlarging and widening the reach and of the application and project location of the activities of the organization. After acquiring quality members who are helpful and productive in achieving the objectives of the group, it will be more satisfying and fulfilling if other groups are invited to do the same thereby widening the scope of action and increasing the number highly motivated individuals. In effect, this will incorporate the greater number of people in the community who will be engaging in socio-civic activities from which not only the society will benefit but also the individual members of the group.
The group s also considers their resources as an organization. This include their financial capacity to support their social and civic activities, the knowledge of the people to accomplish their responsibilities, the skills that can make the tasks of the group easier and the willingness of the members to commit themselves as productive and dedicated individuals in the group. If the financial requirements are not immediately available for the use of this social group, there the leader and members sees to it that there is driving motivation for the members to take action in attaining the financial needs that will sustain the aims of the group. Engaging in a pursuit from which the organization can raise funds can not only be a relevant activity of the group, this will also provide an avenue for the members to take time to know themselves and each other.
Reactions
All in all, it can be said that being part of a group, one must have the ability to participate well in all the activities. In addition, in order to achieve the common goal set by group, each member must follow the leader eagerly and effectively and likewise, the leader should build good relationship among the members. Being an observer, I was able to do my job in keenly observing the group. In this particular group, I learned many things from the leader down to the members. For example, I learned that if the leader would be able to communicate and interact well with his members, there is a possibility that all the members would participate efficiently in the group. Likewise, I learned that a member should be a good follower and should also have a leadership ability to achieve the goal of the group.
It seemed that if I am going to participate in a group, I will be more than willing to be part of this group because of the ability of each member to and the leader to do and perform their best for the group. But being unable to participate with the groups’ activities is a good opportunity to learn from the strengths and weakness of the leader and members, the ways on how to improve by giving feedbacks and motivating each other, and effective strategies in dealing with problems or maintaining group effectiveness. For example, the leader in this group has been challenged by the diverse personality of his members, in dealing with this problem; the leader has strengthened his patients to maintain good relationship within the group. All in all, it can be said that the group in this report are able to achieve their goals and objective successfully.
References
Campbell, D. J. & Dardis, G. J. (2004). The "Be, Know Do" Model of Leader Development. Human Resource Planning 27(2), 26+.
Cartwright D., & Zander A. (Eds.). (1968). Group dynamics: Research and theory 3rd ed. In Cates, W. & Ohl, T (2006). Nature of Groups: Implications for Learning Design Journal of Interactive Learning Research 17(1), 71.
Cates, W. & Ohl, T (2006). Nature of Groups: Implications for Learning Design Journal of Interactive Learning Research 17(1), 71.
Cattell, R. B. (1953). New concepts for measuring leadership, in terms of group synality. In Cates, W. & Ohl, T (2006). Nature of Groups: Implications for Learning Design Journal of Interactive Learning Research 17(1), 71.
Forsyth, D. (1999). Group dynamics. In Cates, W. & Ohl, T (2006). Nature of Groups: Implications for Learning Design Journal of Interactive Learning Research 17(1), 71.
Grasha, Anthony F. (2002). The Dynamics of One-on-One Teaching. College Teaching 50(4), 139.
Hepworth, DH & Larsen, JA
1993. Direct Social Work Practice:
theory and skills. Belmont California.
Katzenbach, JR and Smith, DG (1993). "The Discipline of Teams," Harvard Business Review, March-April 1993.
Lewin, K. (1948). Resolving social conflicts: Selected papers on group dynamics. In Cates, W. & Ohl, T (2006). Nature of Groups: Implications for Learning Design Journal of Interactive Learning Research 17(1), 71.
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