Case Study: How Do You Keep a Group on Task?

You have been appointed to a task force whose purpose is to recommend ways to better

integrate students who take mostly online courses with students who commute to the campus

as well as resident students. The dean of students is concerned with the dropout rate and hopes

that your group will offer positive suggestions that can enhance the college experience for all

students.

The committee is composed of mostly second year students in their final year of study. The

dean thinks they have been around long enough to "know the ropes". A majority of group

members live in residence on$-$campus. One is a single mother who takes her classes online. As

president of the first$-$year class, you are the youngest of the six committee members. You are

also one of the few commuter students on the committee. The chairperson is a graduating

student and an assistant in the residence halls.

You arrive at the first meeting ready to work. You are excited about being a part of a decision$-$

making process that will have a real impact on students' lives. To your dismay, the other

members of the group seem to disregard their assignment and spend the meeting discussing

the prospects for the basketball team, hardly mentioning the task at hand. You leave the

meeting confused but hopeful that the next meeting will be more fruitful. You resolve to take a

more active role and to try to steer the next meeting more toward the committee's task.

At the second meeting, you suggest that the committee discuss the assigned problem. Members

concur at first, but then make jokes about the futility of retention programs and the

administration's tendency to look for new ways to collect more tuition from students. When the

chairperson makes no effort to keep the group on track, you feel overwhelmed and bewildered.

You know the dean expects a report within a month.

Questions for Analysis:

Analyze the situation in this scenario. What are the important components? Differences

in status among group members? Other differences? Time constraints? The group's task?

What else? How many can you identify? Which of these factors do you think will help

you explain the situation, make predictions, and choose the most effective course of

action?

Consider this group as a system: How would a change in one part of the system affect

the other components? For instance, if the dean gives the group three additional

months to complete the work, what is likely to happen?

If you were really in this situation, what would you do$?$