Individual Reflection

1. The strategy of working within a team to produce the group report

I think there are 3 crucial strategic considerations that should be applied in working as a team to complete a report. I believe applying the above strategies will allow a team to function more efficiently and productively and leads to good performance.

1.1 Diversification of skills

A group should be formed with people possessing diversifying skills and capabilities. With more people, there is a combination of strengths, like our team we consists of four girls with different academic background and four of us are already working in the accountancy field. We could utilise our range of abilities, practical knowledge and personality types, so for every situation there would be a range of opinions, which is essential for us to reach the decisions.

1.2 Allocation of responsibility

Another important strategic decision is the allocation of responsibility. It is important to define roles and responsibilities together. If everyone has a clear role, individuals will be less likely to become frustrated and will be more willing to work together. Among all team members, the required tasks should be divided in an effective way that those who have strengths in a particular area to take more responsibility for that area.

1.3 Have a Leader

It is also crucial to assign a suitable leader who takes up the role to coordinate the whole process of getting the report done. The leader should constantly promote team efficiency through actions like encouraging members of the team to take responsibility in completing specific tasks and to solve problems as a team. As there is a dateline to meet, it is also important that the leader establishes time commitments like scheduling when each team member should complete their individual task.

2. Difficulties when working in a team to produce a group report

Problems within teams are common, and working them out could form part of our learning experience. The main difficulty that a team could have would be having a problematic team member. To ensure that a team functions smoothly, it is important to have all the members committed in achieving the common objectives and making comparable contribution in getting the tasks done. However it is common to encounter "Black sheeps" in a team. Such individuals tend to have uncooperative behaviors like delays in completing her allocated task, turning up late or being absent for team activities like discussions and less motivated in contributing works with quality. The underlying reasons for such behaviors could be due to undesirable personality traits like procrastination, unexpected personal problems or a busy schedule that limits her from committing enough energy to the team. As a result, the remaining team member would have to take on extra work in order to ensure that all required tasks for the report are completed.

Such situation is a disadvantage for other team members as the report can't be marked for individual effort. Since the assignment hasn't been designed to allow for differentiation in assessment for each individual to demonstrate their superior ability; all members of the team would be graded equally regardless of the degree of contribution they make to produce the report.

3. Personal performance in the team

My role in the group was to produce 3 parts, the executive summary, the section