You have 20 minutes to plan and write your response. Your response will be judged on the basis of the quality of your writing and on how well your response presents the points in the lecture and their relationship to the reading passage. Typically, an effective response will be 150 to 225 words.
The lecturer talks about research conducted by a firm that used the group system to
handle their work. He says that the theory stated in the passage was very different and
somewhat inaccurate when compared to what happened for real.
First, some members got free rides. That is, some didn’t work hard but got recognition
for the success nonetheless. This also indicates that people who worked hard was
not given recognition they should have got. In other words, they weren’t given the
oppotunity to “shine.” This derectly contradicts what the passage indicates.
Second, groups were slow in progress. The passage says that groups are nore
responsive than individuals because of the number of people involved and their
aggregated resources. However, the speaker talks about how the firm found out that
groups were slower than individuals in dicision making. Groups needed more time for
meetings, which are neccesary procceedures in decision making. This was another part
where experience contradicted theory.
Third, influetial people might emerge, and lead the group towards glory or failure. If
the influent people are going in the right direction there would be no problem. But in
cases where they go in the wrong direction, there is nobody that has enough influence
to counter the decision made. In other words, the group might turn into a dictatorship,
with the influential party as the leader, and might be less flexible in thinking. They
might become one-sided, and thus fail to succeed.
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