Chapter 10 provides a look into into how groups function and make decisions. It highlights the human side of group interactions, the impact of leadership styles and decision making processes in group dynamics. As well as the importance of emotion, collaboration, and adaptability in group settings, for understanding and improving group interactions.

In the cartoon i chose there’s a seahorse, a eel, a fish, and octopus all collaborating as a group, but it’s clear that the octopus is doing most of the heavy lifting and seems frustrated about it. This situation perfectly demonstrates the concept of task roles in groups, where some members end up taking more responsibility than others. I feel like this situation was all too common of an occurrence in school, not as extreme with one person doing all the work as depicted in the cartoon but, in my group experiences there was frequently a single person single slacking off, forcing the rest of the group to pick up the slack. Everyone has to play their role, and if someone doesn’t their responsibilities still need to be fulfilled by someone else. This can create differences in effort and output, just like in the cartoon where you see this imbalance causing frustration with the octopus. For a group to properly function everyone has participate and communicate effectively, since people have different skills, motivations, and capabilities. Understanding these dynamics is important to making teamwork successful, because it shows how well you distribute tasks and capitalize on each others strengths.

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