Labor dec 13 | Philosophy homework help

2. Sources of Group Conflict

Communication Issues: Misunderstandings or lack of clarity. Role Ambiguity: Unclear roles or responsibilities. Personality Differences: Clashes between different personalities or working styles. Resource Scarcity: Competition over limited resources like time, funds, or support. Differing Values or Goals: Conflicting priorities or objectives among group members You have decided to join a reading group at the local public library. This is a new group, and you are on the ground floor! The premise of this group is members will read a book a month, discussing the book once a week, based on the pages to be read the week before. (Example: week 1: pp. 1-50, week 2: pp. 51-100, week 3: pp. 101-150, week 4 pp. 151-200) The purpose of this group is to expand your knowledge of literature, expose yourself to some genres you may not be familiar with and to meet new friends with common interests. The group will meet for 1 ½ hours once a week. Members will provide refreshments on a rotating basis. Bill and Mary Jones are the brains behind this group and they have advertised it locally. They will also choose the book each month assuring that there will be many different genres. Since the Jones’ are members of the local Elks club, they are able to have the meetings there on Tuesday evenings from 6:30pm-8:00pm without paying a fee. The initial group meeting is scheduled for October 15, to organize everything. Twenty people show up to this first meeting in addition to the Jones’. The first official meeting of the group will be November 1st. All participants are expected to have obtained the book Mr. & Mrs. Jones selected and to have read the first 50 pages by November 1st. You have been asked to co-host the book group and act as leader when the current leader is not able to attend the group. The group converges and right away you are concerned about another member of the group-your neighbor that you have had numerous conflicts with in the past. Nothing too serious, just some disagreements that got a little heated. No police intervention, etc., you just ignore each other for the most part. Furthermore, you recognize one of your child’s former elementary school teachers that was not your child's favorite and you had had a few “meetings” with him to discuss your concerns about him singling out your child. You also observe a woman who is knitting during the meeting, and she constantly asks the moderators to repeat themselves. It appears she is not paying attention and is using up a lot of the group's time. You are not the only one who is frustrated; It appears many others are as well. You also observe another participant constantly interrupting the moderators with comments. He feels the need to interject to offer a different way of doing things. Two people are off to the side chatting to each other, and the rest seem to be paying attention, although this is difficult because of the distractions. Using the information above on Understanding group conflict, illustrate as many conflicts that may arise, are currently happening, or you feel are happening. Explain how these people should be initially approached with concerns, what you would say to them, and how you would handle repeated incidents with these few. How should you approach/handle those members that you have had some personal dealings with? How might these previous interactions with these people affect the group dynamics overall? Especially if one of them doesn’t maintain appropriate conduct while in the meeting? Refer back to the Understanding conflict above.