VERVIEW:
The goal of this assignment is to reflect back on the ways in which you have made group decisions in the past in the various groups that you are a part of in your life. We rarely take the time to think about the ways in which we make decisions and how these decisions might have been improved by a different decision making process. In Chapters 9-10, your textbook discusses many different decision making processes (i.e., majority vote, leader-led with consultation, etc.). I want you to think about situations where you have used these and how the final decision resulted in either a successful decision or one that you thought was the poor choice.
ESSAY STRUCTURE & DELIVERABLES
Formatting:
800 words (2-3 pages double spaced)
1-inch margins
Times New Roman font
12 pt. font
Double-spaced
Word count in the heading
Please bold key terms in the paper
Use paragraphs. Every new idea/3-5 sentences should have a new paragraph with it.
Content, please include the following:
A brief introductory paragraph that previews and summarizes your main ideas
2. A description of your “go-to” decision making strategies. In this section of the paper, I want you to describe 1-2 decision making strategies in a small group that you are (or were) a part of. Please do not use your taskforce as an example because your third reflection paper will ask you about your group work for this class. Briefly describe the group and then discuss how you utilized a specific decision making strategy. For example, you might have used majority vote to decide where to eat with your friends last weekend, but you need to provide how, where, when, and what did it look like to decide by majority vote. Be detailed.
3. Evaluation of your decision making strategies. Discuss how the strategies you just mentioned have benefitted or harmed your small group and decision making in small groups. Were these approaches successful? In this section, I want you to discuss an additional approach that would (or could have) been a better way to make the decision in your small group and WHY. This section should be an analysis and not a description. Why did one strategy not work? What are the constraints of these different strategies and how have you experienced that?
4. Conclusion. In the last paragraph, identify one strategy that you haven’t used much, but that you think will be an effective strategy moving forward in your small groups.
Please put all key terms from the course in BOLD so that I can see where you are referencing course material. Do not put your name on the paper as I will grade it anonymously.
