Today I came across an article on the Band Girls Aloud. The band bagged their first BRIT award which was a huge success for them.
The members of Girls Aloud at the BRIT function. Cheryl Cole in the extreme right.
The band was celebrating their success and were on cloud nine when things took a drastic turn as Cheryl Cole stormed out of the interview. Supposedly a reporter asked Cheryl about her solo plans immediately after they received the award. This seemed to have offended her and she became furious on the journalist. For more details click on the following link.
http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2009/02/19/cheryl_coles_solo_quiz_upset/
Cheryl Cole's reaction was pretty genuine and anyone would have reacted that way. So now lets discuss some concepts related to this article.
A group
is a collection of individuals who as a result of interacting with each other over time, become interdependent developing shared patterns of behavior and a collective identity (Thinking Through Communication - Sarah Trenholm). There are many reasons why people choose to groups over individual performance. In the Music industry, we see a lot of groups or bands as groups provide more input than the individuals. Here is a look at some other music bands.
Linkin Park!!!(One of my favorites)
Metallica.
group synergy is an important reason for the groups to do well as I have discussed before . Secondly they provide support and commitment. For example in a band, there is a vocalist, guitarist and a drummer . When they compose a lot of songs each one of them does their bit, saving time and energy. In the end they combine their efforts and come up with a good song. This shows that by sharing the workload, groups offer encouragement and support. Next, groups can also satisfy affection needs. The members of the band are well bonded with each other. Hence, the group members can satisfy their needs of receiving affection as well as share their feelings with one another.
Although groups have a lot of benefits, there have been cases where individuals perform better than groups. Here are some singers who were part of a band but split up due to confilcts.
Justin Timberlake was a part of the band N Sync.
Ronan Keatings was a part of Boyzone.
Beyonce was a member of Destiny's Child.
The band was celebrating their success and were on cloud nine when things took a drastic turn as Cheryl Cole stormed out of the interview. Supposedly a reporter asked Cheryl about her solo plans immediately after they received the award. This seemed to have offended her and she became furious on the journalist. For more details click on the following link.
http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2009/02/19/cheryl_coles_solo_quiz_upset/
Cheryl Cole's reaction was pretty genuine and anyone would have reacted that way. So now lets discuss some concepts related to this article.
A group
is a collection of individuals who as a result of interacting with each other over time, become interdependent developing shared patterns of behavior and a collective identity (Thinking Through Communication - Sarah Trenholm). There are many reasons why people choose to groups over individual performance. In the Music industry, we see a lot of groups or bands as groups provide more input than the individuals. Here is a look at some other music bands.
Linkin Park!!!(One of my favorites)
Metallica.
Pakistani Band Jal.
group synergy is an important reason for the groups to do well as I have discussed before . Secondly they provide support and commitment. For example in a band, there is a vocalist, guitarist and a drummer . When they compose a lot of songs each one of them does their bit, saving time and energy. In the end they combine their efforts and come up with a good song. This shows that by sharing the workload, groups offer encouragement and support. Next, groups can also satisfy affection needs. The members of the band are well bonded with each other. Hence, the group members can satisfy their needs of receiving affection as well as share their feelings with one another.
Although groups have a lot of benefits, there have been cases where individuals perform better than groups. Here are some singers who were part of a band but split up due to confilcts.
Justin Timberlake was a part of the band N Sync.
Ronan Keatings was a part of Boyzone.
Beyonce was a member of Destiny's Child.
However groups do face a lot of problems due to conlflict of interests. This happens when the members think that their contribution is not being taken into account.At times group memebers blame one another for splitting up; Justin Timberlake was held responsible by his members for the split up due to his affair with Britney Spears. Furthermore members lack commitment with each other and have conflicting goals. This leads to the dissolution to the group.
So the question of the day. Do you feel Groups are more effective than individuals? Is group work less 'ego' or more 'we go' or the other way round?
I personally feel that both have their advantages and disadvantages. I don't have much experince of group work. So I used to prefer individual performance. But at times , groups are beneficial in many ways. Now I am working on a project and feel that group work indeed helps even though there are some conflicts between the members(it is a part and parcel of group work). I know your comments might differ. Waiting to read them!
So the question of the day. Do you feel Groups are more effective than individuals? Is group work less 'ego' or more 'we go' or the other way round?
I personally feel that both have their advantages and disadvantages. I don't have much experince of group work. So I used to prefer individual performance. But at times , groups are beneficial in many ways. Now I am working on a project and feel that group work indeed helps even though there are some conflicts between the members(it is a part and parcel of group work). I know your comments might differ. Waiting to read them!
Its been 8 months since I've joined college..everytime we have to make a presentation, its always done in groups & lot of emphasis is put upon team-eork & co-ordination. Trust me..its not as easy as it sounds. You have 2 work with people who u aren't 2 fond of, but at the same time, you're expected 2 put up a good show. I guess its all a part of our learning process here. But I, personally, prefer a group effort rather than a solo one. Firstly, efficieny improves, better work is done with the inter-mixing of new & innovative ideas & a reduction in the stress level of each group member. In fact, just a few days bak, a few of us in our class were informed 2 read a case-study about the company GE & 2 prepare a presentation based on our analysis...all this within a day!! Me & my friend sat down at 12:30 at the night & worked at a stretch till 5:30 in the morning, completing our presentation. Could I have done the same thing alone...I don't think so..
ReplyDeleteThank you Anupam for the comments. I realised that for this post I have got the least number of comments. I wonder why????
ReplyDeleteI agree that for some tasks, groups are more effective than individuals. As you have mentioned taht it is a part of our learning process and is indeed beneficial for us. But, sometimes it might be very stressful to work in groups due to various reasons.
From my personal experience, I can say that group work is a bit more difficult than individual work as it requires a lot of co-ordiantion and understanding. But at the same time, it is interesting and helpful. So I think it is more of a 'we go' than 'ego'.
No man is an Island. Well.. the era of the rugged individual is giving way to the era of the team player. Everyone is needed, but no one is necessary.
ReplyDeleteSo, 'Conflict' is inevitable in a team ... in fact, to achieve synergistic solutions, a variety of ideas and approaches are needed. These are the ingredients for conflict. And we are tyring to do someting different, so how can we expect a differnt thing from 'indifferent' people??
However, it's always good to choose your team if you are planning to hit something better. Because, the strength of the team is each individual member...the strength of each member is the team.
At times you might lose your enthusiasm, if your team doesn't go with the tempo you have for achieving the common goal. As far as my experience concerned, team work opens doors to many unique worlds giving experience of interacting with people, things, incidents... whereas your individual work is just to focus on your individual world's that great door of success! And to be an effective team player and make something out of the team, you shouldn't have any ego...At the end you win, as your team wins!
well,
ReplyDeletetwo hands are better than one.
This just doesnt sound good,but is also damn true.Group-work always works towards the desired cause.Its always easy working in a group because one can learn from the other members and can even give valubale advise.The drawbacks of it perhaps is groupsim.Being n a group,u tend to cut off from other people around.This i guess is one draw back.And also if u are in bad company,you end up losing good qualities of yours.And talking of ego within the group..well yeah..when personalities are involved,egos do clash.But i guess..a group just like a chemical Wellreaction,works for all its members/participating members.At the end of the journey..you are bound to transform.
Thank you Dilolo and Ashirwad for your insightful comments!!!!!!!!!:))
ReplyDeleteIt seems that both of you support the notion of working in a team or group. It is true that sometimes in a group, one feels left out,which is definitely a drawback and should be dealt in a proper manner. Next, man has to interact with one another to survive in this world. Hence, one cannot really isolate oneself from the society, but work in groups.Individual work is a journey and group work is a destination. So, both are really important for a person to make a mark for himself/herself in the society....
Group work is always helpful considering the enormous amount of inputs one can get due to the simultaneous working if so many minds!And ego clashes are always on the cards.More often than not,groups work wonders...
ReplyDeleteThe motto should always be:
One for all,all for one.
Thank you Aniruddha for your comments!
ReplyDeleteI agree that group work is very helpful as it involves less pressure and the best efforts of all the group members. However at times, if one is unlucky then ego clashes are bound to take place.For instance in the examples cited above,on one hand, some of the celebrtities performed better when they split from their groups but on the contrary many new music bands are coming up with great compositions. So it ultimately depends on the individuals to adjust and work for a common goal.
This is a very interesting topic to debate on as most of us have to work with groups and teams in some part of our lives.Group work has its own advantages and disadvantges.If the members are co-operative and understanding, then nothing can get better than that.But at time, people face clashes due to disagreement on a topic and don't get to a conclusion.Hence it really depends and we cant really generalise that whether they are bad or good.But groups are far more beneficial than individual efforts as it involves more inputs and less pressure.
ReplyDeleteThank you Sushy for the comments.
ReplyDeleteIt is very true that one cannot categorise,how all the groups perform.But generally they help one to showcase their talent in front of the others.Recently I had the Communication group presentation and it was quite effective as all my group members contributed equally to it.On the other hand, other teams had clashes regarding some topics...So, it depends on how one decides to cope up with a particular situation....
I certainly feel that group work is definitely better than individual efforts due to more inputs and less pressure. The best efforts are utilised by the team to achieve its goal. However at times it depends on how the group members behave and contribute towards a particular task. All individuals do not have the same nature.If there are many egoistic people in the group then ego clashes and fights are bound to happen. Next, due to lack of commitment of some memebers, the whole group suffers. So for some tasks, individuals are better and for some a group of individuals are good. I must say that this is a very debatable topic....'
ReplyDeleteThe success of a group activities entrily depends upon the coordinated afferts & talents of the group members.Individual ego is suppresed in a group. Sometimes an individual is very talented & performs better group members but the overall credit or success is shared by all the members as every ones contribution counts, so a group never encourages self ego as hamppers the final ego.Must of the group activities be it in sports, music ,cinema soar to new height of success in an egoless environment.
ReplyDeleteThank you Sukanya and Mamuli for your insightful comments.
ReplyDeleteIt is very true that group work soar to a new height of success in an egoless environment.And it depends on the members to achieve the goal effectively.According to communication concepts group works is more efficient as it integrates the best efforts of all the team members and achieve a common goal.There is less pressure and more inputs.Even psychological needs are satisfied.Hence it is more 'we go' and less 'ego'.