Effective Groups

Effective work groups are essential to the survival of any business. As I thought about the groups I belong to I tried to find reason one that was effective that I did not oversee. Unfortunately, the only effective group that this applied to was a group I once belonged to at my previous company. This was the internet marketing group at a Timeshare company. Before I am able to talk about my group specifically I feel it is important to define what it is that makes a group a group. A group is “Two or more individuals in face-to-face interaction, each aware of the others who belong to the group, and each aware of positive interdependence as they strive to achieve mutual goals” (Johnson & Johnson, 2006). A group needs to integrate the multiple realities that individuals bring to it. Many believe that people who think alike or have similar personalities make up an effective group, when in reality they do not. This group was made up of three individuals, my subordinate Karen, my Director Jodi and myself. Together the three of us were responsible for developing a marketing plan and executing it to bring in six million dollars a year. This was a very important task to generate six million dollars a year in a department that was just started. Our work group was extremely effective for a variety of reasons. We knew how to communicate with each other, we had clearly defined individual roles, and we had great leadership.

Communication was extremely important in this work group. One of the first problems we had to overcome was our three different personalities to avoid conflicts. Being from different backgrounds we had to learn more about how each of us operated. I have always been described as a “touchy feely” person. Touching is one of the most powerful non verbal forms of communication. I never noticed this because I usually worked with mostly men and I would pat a guy on the shoulder and never think twice about it. Now that I am working with two women I had to

References: Johnson, D.W., & Johnson, F.P.  (2006).  Joining together: Group theory and group skills (9th ed.).   New York: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.