Once upon a time, I was a part of the Delta Gamma Sorority sophomore skit crew. The goal of the group was to draw on pop culture and create a hysterical skit for the potential new members of our sorority that included all members of our pledge class. All members of the sophomore pledge class came back from winter break a week early to work on the skit, face to face. The personnel inputs brought knowledge of humorous scenes or acts, experience performing comedy, and skills of having comedic timing. The task inputs weighed heavily on performance goals, meaning we had a lot of pressure from the senior girls to produce a skit of quality. We also had production goals of producing a skit, obviously. The tool we used was just the email list serve. The emails were only efficient for those individuals who had blackberrys, which was a majority. However, girls without blackberrys were left in the dark if they did not check their email hourly.
The processes were very complex. Conformity with others in the group was low in the beginning of planning, but when we got pressed for time conformity to the leaders of the group and to the majority increased. Roles emerged almost immediately, there were a few people that were designated planners who were in charge of meetings and time management. Others who were exceptionally funny were in charge of writing the script. The strategy of the group at the beginning was slightly competitive, because each member in the sophomore pledge class wanted a big role in the skit, but as we got more pressed for time the strategy was more cooperative for the sake of the final product.
Fortunately we had pretty good outputs. Our production was very funny. After we created a skit and scratched it about eight times, we had a humorous final product. We realized we could not have that many member needs, but we did need a good skit to attract a strong new pledge class. Our group maintenance was not as fortunate. Many members of my pledge class have strong personalities and by the end of the week, a lot of tension existed in the house. However, the skit was a success, and I would work with that group again.
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I don't know why this did not go through before but I will try again. This seems like an interesting activity. It also seems like you girls got to have fun while working together and learning more about eachother. You had the opportunity to all bring your diverse skill sets together and work towards a definite goal. I am glad that as the process went along it became more cooperative rather than competitive. I am in a fraternity and coming together and supporting one another is a very important aspect of greek life.
ReplyDeleteI think this endeavor had many reasons why members were motivated to succeed. The primary goal of a sorority is to recruit new members, so a good skit will presumably interest those desired members in joining. You also want to represent yourselves at an advantage, so a well put-together skit will reflect well. Even though everyone has that same goal in mind, working together probably is not always harmonious since despite the strong group identity, everyone is their own person with ideas that they want to be used, so I am not surprised that what started as a fun project deteriorated into tension by the end. And even though there was tension at the end of your project, I’m sure you all care very much about each other, and therefore are willing to work together again.
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