Monday, March 17, 2008
Decision Making
I think I have used Compromise, Avoidance, and Accommodation to handle conflict in our class decision making exercise. First Compromise: I think some people and I had to use compromise because it is a fair and necessary way to handle things like our discussion. Although we did not quite agree about the final vote, and yet we still have to do so. Second, Avoidance: I believe there were a lot of people who have good ideas, but they just decided not to express them. Decision making is challenging under time constraints and uncertainty. People usually need more time to think of a best idea for their own situation, but in our class discussion, I think was impossible because everyone was prone to self-serving behavior, thinking of what was best for them. Personally, I don’t like to keep the essay part because English is not my first language. On the first exam, I lost a lot of points on the essay part. However, I think there are more people who like to keep the essay part because they think that is a good way to gain points. Therefore, I just chose not to express my feeling, although I don’t like it because I don’t want to hold everyone back. Third, Accommodation: this is seeing issue as more important to others than self. In our class discussion, this was not a individual concern, it’s our whole class concern, so we couldn’t just think of a way which would have the best benefit to oneself, we should think of a decision that would be beneficial to everyone.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
It is interesting how you accommodated the class, compromised your own belifes for the greater good, and also used avoidance in order to reach a final decision. Decision making is definitely challenging and needs the full group effort in order to achieve a beneficial decision.
Very good post. I feel that you covered many aspects of the blog topic.
I completely agree with majority of the things you said. I also had alot of conflicts with what I wanted to do at the given situation. I switched my position several times as you did. You are right, given the time constraints and uncertainty one has to give up some of his/her beliefs for the greater good. There was no point of trying to get things your way, because you would have to reply to majority to the other students in the class who had different perspectives than you did. At times during the discussion, I also try to avoid the disscussion, but something in there kept on forcing me to say something because if things remained the same I would have to consider dropping the course. It was really hard to decide whether what strategy one was going to follow. At the end, you would lead yourself to accomodate with your class mates, because its always better to get something than nothing. In the end, what matters is you tried hanging in there. Hope you were happy with how our discussion turned out to be.
I didn't like the short question part, because it literally means that you have to memorize the components of the answer. For the essay, I am ok with that because it does not require much memorization, as long as you understand the issue, you'll find something to say. But it would definitely better if there are more than one topic to choose.
I do think that it is not required for everyone to express his opinion. That would cost lots of time and make the situation more chaotic.
I have a similar view to yours about how decisions in a group setting should be handled. I also feel that in a group we often have to compromise. If I was asked as an individual what is my opinion about the grades improvement and the form of the test I would definitely chose what is best for me and I would state my opinion. But since we were asked to make a group decision we had to think about what is best for the majority. As a group we had to choose the strongest options and people had to use either acommodation, avoidance, compromise or collaboration in order to get things done. I think that having to many assertive members doesn't work in favor of making a group decision. In a group each person has to give up a little so everyone can gain a lot.
Hi. About the essay, you said that you did not speak your mind, because you did not want to hold other people down. But, by agreeing with the essay for our next exam, are you not holding yourself down? It is nice to show sympathy for other people sometimes, and compromise on their terms, but if that essay is really the factor that is making you do bad on the test, I think you should have spoke out.
English is not my first language too.
Actually, English was not my first language.
I appreciate your effort in allowing the majority succeed on the issue of the essay. I am one of the people who don't mind writing essays. In terms of writing, Professor Tashman is a REALLY good writer. I am not a very good writer myself, but I definitely improved a lot after taking his class. He used to be a journalist and he really knows how to write efficiently and effectively. I highly recommend his writing class for writing skills improvement.
Post a Comment