KB7036/AT7026 People in Project Management Assignment – Northumbria University, UK
Module Learning Outcomes –
Knowledge and understanding:
MLO1. Define and evaluate selected key theories and concepts associated with the main characteristics and processes of teams, the issues facing teams, and the organizational context of teams.
MLO2. Critically appraise selected key theories and techniques associated with the groups and teams in an organization, organizational structures, and management processes.
Intellectual/professional skills and abilities:
MLO3. Empowered with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to create, participate in, and effectively lead real and virtual project-orientated teams.
MLO4. Critically review the literature on team dynamics, management, and organizational behaviour and engage with what others have written through evaluative discourse.
Personal values attributes:
MLO5. Exhibit the professional ethics characteristics of a University postgraduate student.
Details – Group Dynamics for Project Teams
‘Of all the variables that contribute to the success or failure of projects, the one that is most neglected and in need of the most attention, is the project team itself’ (Wysocki, 2002).
With Wysocki’s quotation in mind, you need to understand there are two genres of information concerning project success:
A. There is a considerable body of knowledge in psychology and the social sciences called Group Dynamics that examines how people work in small groups or teams; this research has been collected over the past century and has developed into a broad base of knowledge about the operation of groups.
B. The use of teams in the workplace has expanded rapidly during recent decades. Management researchers and applied social scientists have studied this development to provide advice to organizations about how to make teams operate more efficiently, and how to develop individual and team competencies.
The coursework aims to unite and contextualise selected theories associated with team dynamics from psychology and the social sciences with selected theories associated with groups, teams, and management processes from management and organization sciences.
The coursework requires you to critically reflect upon these theoretical perspectives of how people work together in small groups or teams in project-orientated contexts in a formal or informal organizational setting. During this reflection, you will need to consider how team members remain aware and sensitive to the psychological and social factors influencing their behaviour and that of others participating in small project-orientated teams in a formal or informal organizational setting. The contextual lens through which the coursework is to be completed is your own Belbin Self-Perception Inventory (SPI) report, and recent personal experience acquired while undertaking a single, small group or team project-orientated task within a formal or informal organizational setting.
Overview – Completion and submission of all three stages of the Peer Review and the Academic Paper form the summative assessment for the module. The tasks associated with the completion of the Academic Paper are designed to unite your tutor-guided and self-directed, independent learning to demonstrate achievement of the Module Learning Outcomes (MLOs).
Before starting the Academic Paper, you need to complete a Belbin Self-Perception Inventory (SPI) to gain an understanding of your preferred team roles while working as a member of a project team. You will evaluate the results of your Belbin SPI report in relation to your participation in a recently completed team-based project-orientated task. You will choose only one task to complete this task. The context of the task must be either educational, recreational, sporting, or public/private/third sector-related. During the evaluation, you are required to critically analyse your teamwork experiences about self-selected group dynamic, management, and organizational behaviour theories and concepts that are pertinent to your chosen project-related task.
Tasks – You are required to prepare and write an Academic Paper that addresses the following tasks:
1. A brief description of a recently completed project-orientated task you have executed as a member of a small group/team within a formal or informal organizational context. The organizational context is required to be either educational, recreational, sporting, or public/private/third sector-related. This section of your Academic Paper should be no more than 500 words long.
2. A critical and evaluative reflection regarding the accuracy of your Belbin SPI report regarding the dominant team roles you choose to adopt while executing a small group/team project-orientated task within a formal or informal organizational context. Implicit within this task is the need for you to contextualise your self-reflection from the standpoint of the recently completed project-orientated task you identified in Point 1 above. You should draw upon the extant literature on Belbin’s theories when undertaking this task and decide about whether you agree with your Belbin SPI, and therefore, Belbin’s theory. This section of your Academic Paper should be no more than 1000 words long.
3. A critical and evaluative reflection of your perceived group/team dynamics while executing the small group/team project-orientated task you identified in Point 1 above. Implicit within this task is the need for you to contextualise your self-reflection within the critical theories associated with team dynamics, management, and organization sciences. You should draw upon at least four distinct themes presented in the formally-scheduled teaching programme for this module when undertaking this task. This section of your Academic Paper should be no more than 1500 words long.
Peer Review Stage 1: Belbin Self-Perception Inventory (SPI) Report
You will be able to start completion of your Belbin Self-Perception Inventory (SPI) at 2200 (GMT) 26 February 2020. You will be able to nominate four observers to provide reflections of your team-working traits. You must nominate four observers. You are not permitted to nominate less than or more than four. You will receive a Belbin Self-Perception Inventory (SPI) Report when you complete your reflection and another when all four nominated observers have completed their reflections.
You are required to complete a Belbin Self-Perception Inventory (SPI) before commencing Peer Review (Stage 2): Draft Academic Paper. Instructions explaining how to complete a Belbin SPI will be communicated to you from the Announcement area of the Blackboard course.
Peer Review Stage 2: Draft Academic Paper
You are required to submit a digital copy (in Microsoft Office Word format) of your Draft Academic Paper for Peer Review to the Turnitin submission facility for Peer Review (Stage 2): Draft Academic Paper in the Assessment area of the Blackboard course. Your Draft Academic Paper must be submitted anonymously by the deadline illustrated above. You are cautioned to take care when uploading your digital file, as your first attempt will be deemed final and cannot be changed later.
Peer Review Stage 3: Peer Review of Two Draft Academic Papers
You are required to blind review anonymously, i.e., where the author/owner of the work does not know the names of those colleagues completing the Peer Review (Stage 3): Peer Review of Two Draft Academic Papers, the Draft Academic Papers submitted by two of your peers. The Peer Review process requires you to provide constructive, supportive feedback using a standardised template provided by the Module Leader and made available to you from Turnitin. The template structure will be aligned with the MLOs and Module Assessment Criteria. The Peer Review process will be administered by Turnitin in the Assessment area of the Blackboard course. You should note that Turnitin will randomly assign the two Draft Academic Papers for Peer Review. Your Peer Review (Stage 3): Peer Review of Two Draft Academic Papers submissions must be completed anonymously by the deadline illustrated above. The Module Leader will not be involved in the Peer Review process nor will he provide you with additional feedback following the Peer Review process.
The absolute word limit for the Academic Paper is 3,000 words (excluding the Abstract, which has an independent, absolute word limit of 200 words).
