Group Assignments share a Bigger pie in final grades of subjects in most management schools. The profs think that by giving the marks to groups rather than individuals fosters the team work and blah blah.... Quite an ambitious goals i should say :)
But let me share you how the groups are formed and what all goes into the process . The alliances formed will even put the seasoned politicians to shame .Here comes the gyaan from what i had observed ,undergone in the last six months and not to be a hypocrite , let me clarify that i am quite part of the entire process
Groups of Lovers
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This is the type of group where in u get one plus one offer . In the sense that if u want to have one member of the pair in the group , u should be willing to have 2 slots in the group. one big advantage with this arrangement is that when there is a group meeting and u desperately are calling for group members (scenario is quite a regular occurence and happens few hours before the dead lines ), u can make one phone call less :P
Group of roomies
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this is one other variety where the location advantage(same room) is used to the max. May be in other MBA colleges this may not be possible but in TISS this section forms the major chunk as most of the people stay outside the campus in groups of 5-6 atleast for the first year
one advantage is that group mates can simultaneously work on various assignments by sharing which are not limited to academics but extended to more useful tasks like cleaning the rooms,cooking etc while the other part of group working on less imp tasks like making a strategy for doing the assignment :p
Group of committees
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This is generally formed by the members working in various committees like placecom,alcom ,.com,.....
This group also generally consists of BEST friends of these committee members and they juggle b/w committee work and assignment work during which the friends come to rescue
this group defining exercise is becoming quite montonous , hmm..wait we have more interesting group formations
Drink buddy groups
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u can find members of this group letting the knowledge and beer flow at the same time
quite a fun groups to be in :)
Strategic groups
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now comes the nerdy ,studious ,stud groups . the member selection is quite stringent and each member is evaluated in what strength one brings to the group. Not surprisingly,this is the group which generally ends up getting more marks in assignments
last but not the least ,
Group of death
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this is the group formed by people who are not taken in any other groups, basically the left ones .this group consists of members of all kinds like free riders,mavericks,loners etc etc....
Group of lucky chap
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This is the group populated by all the pretty girls of the girls with only exception , the lucky chap. Generally the cynosure for other guys in the class but he alone knows the ordeals by being the minority in the group :p
Group by compulsion
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there are some profs who selects the groups by some random methods like taking slips,calling random nos etc etc. The fun part is to find that in most cases the groups contain extreme opposite personalities and rebels . some how by magic this group also more or less confirms to the above classification of groups (now dont ask me how it is possible :P)
All the groups also contains free riders(whom most of the group members cannot even recall to be part of the group),attention grabbers (who despite doing some thing or not speaks desperately during group presentations more so if there is individual component in group work)
friendships are tested to the limits during group formations,egos hurt,pitching in for the star performers and what not
After all, May be this is what the profs want us to learn . The group dynamics
PS: I wrote this entry just after a group meeting :P :P
PPS: on popular demand and inputs from my dear friends a few more groups are added...
