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One of the most important things that I want to take out of this class is the ability to apply the concepts and theories that I have learned to real life situations. I often relate the various concepts from this course to my place of employment?the Office for University Advancement. A few weeks ago my boss asked the entire Phonathon staff of eighteen people to break into three equal groups for a "fun activity". The activity was a scavenger hunt to promote unity amongst the staff. We had a thirty-minute time limit to complete our task and had to be back at the starting point before it was up, or else the team was disqualified. Also, the team that completed the scavenger hunt the fastest and most accurately won fifteen minutes off of their work shift for one night in the semester. During this activity, I observed many concepts that we have covered in this course. I will describe the following ten themes: teams, time constraints in team decision making, organizational commitment, task interdependence, role perceptions, ethical behavior, perception, motivation, positive reinforcement, and need for achievement.
The first and most obvious theme reflected in this activity was the concept of a team. Each group of six colleagues was assigned to work together toward the common goal of completing the scavenger hunt. These teams were short-lived due to the thirty-minute time constraint to complete the activity. This leads into the concept of time constraints in team decision making. We had a limited amount of time to complete a list of ten tasks, which was challenging, but possible if done correctly. This put stress on the team, but in a motivatin ...