During
first day of every class, the professor would ask the class to either group
yourselves into smaller groups or by count off to determine your group.
Regardless of the outcome of the groupings, the same question usually arise.
How are you going to contribute to your group? If you were grouped according to
your own free will, chances are you already know how each of you work in a
group. However, there are also those so-called uncertain territory where
despite the free will to choose, you still do not have any idea how your group
members will operate.
During my stay in the MBA program, I think that there are at least three kinds of roles students perform upon when it comes to dealing with group works or reports. Initiator, Finisher, Follower and Loafers. Having these kinds of roles have its own advantages and disadvantages, and sometimes there are cases where you would be classifying yourself in any of them, but not more than one type at the same time and on the same subject.
A. The Initiator
The initiator is usually considered as an alpha group mate among
his/her group mates. These types of people are most likely not a huge fan of
procrastination as they would most likely not work well in a pressure-cooker
situation or doing things at the deadliest deadline. An initiator can be
classified into two types: Active and Passive.
Active Initiators are the ones who are very vocal and assertive in the sense they know how to direct their group. There may not be a consensus assigned leader, but the way they speak or direct the group, you know that you already have a leader without the need to protest against them.
Passive Initiators on the other hand are the ones who will silently
do their part especially when there is no consensus leader among their group.
They will be the first ones to start doing the project until the other types of
group mates will notice the progress.
Initiators can be considered "risk-takers" in the sense that
they are not afraid to make mistakes. They may or may not be forced to be
certain with what they are doing just so that they could at least somehow see
progress in their group work.
B.
The Finisher
The finishers
are the opposite of Initiators. If initiators work well when time is on their
side, finishers work well when time is against their side. These people
usually classified as someone who can only be productive when time is against
them. Also, they are also considered perfectionist in some form since there is
a tendency that they will correct their group mate's input in the group in
order to make the output better. Because they may have perfectionist
tendencies, they will most likely not make the first move in contributing their
ideas unless they see somebody else make the move. By observing that someone
within their group already contributed, they can now use the ideas of their
group mates, who placed their input first, as their basis on how to effectively
place their input to their group and see if there is something they can improve
upon based on the available information or data.
C. The
Follower
They are usually cooperative for as long as instructions are given
by the so-called leader in the group. If in case there is no clear leader in
the group that gives or assigns tasks, they will not do anything unless they
see somebody else takes the first step. However, whenever somebody took the
first step in completing their group work, they will eventually do their part.
Since they are
followers, the pacing depends on either the majority of his or her group mates
or whether there is an alpha classmate who will take charge. If the pacing of
the group is fast or if somebody already started contributing, there is a high
probability that they will immediately do their part. Same goes if the pacing
of the group is slow or if the group decides to procrastinate. People who chose
this option could never dictate their group's pace unless they decided to take
charge to become an initiator or finishers.
D. The Loafer
Loafers are the
type of people who either intentionally or unintentionally categorized
themselves into depending on the situation.
Unintentional Loafers are the ones who really have the intention to do their part before the deadline, but because of the mismatch of pacing from the initiator and other work-related stuffs that caused them to delay doing their part, they ended up being loafers. These type of people are usually genuinely remorseful that they did not do their part and would try to exhaust all possible ways to still help even if they already deemed a minor one. Such examples are volunteering to print the output or create a PowerPoint presentation to ease the burden of those who contributed a lot.
Intentional Loafers are obviously the ones who are really making excuses that looked like an unintentional loafer, but when you come to think of it they intentionally loaf. These types of people you technically do not want to be with since you are expected to exert more effort for the sake of submitting your group's output. Also, if these types of people know who they are dealing with (e.g. they are aware that they have a group mate who is grade or obligation-conscious), they can immediately make excuses of failing to contribute or making excuses such as work-related or the other subject they took is taking a toll on their time in doing their part for the group.
Knowing these kinds of groups, which one are you?
