One group activity I am involved in is my dorm’s student government. We meet weekly, and our goal is to plan and execute fun events for residents. These events are mostly intra-house, but we do collaborate with other dorms for inter-house events on occasion. Our representations are minimal – one member takes minutes at our weekly meetings and sends them to everyone on the listserv. Aside from these formal minutes, there are the notes each member may or may not take of their responsibilities, and the sometimes debatable representations stored in our minds. Our cognitive resources are each other, other friends’ experiences, and the house faculty. Our cognitive resources are each other, other friends’ experiences, the house faculty, and the listserv.
This activity is very loosely coupled. Aside from our weekly one-hour meetings, we may bump into each other in the halls once a week. Despite our common goal, we all have our separate sets of friends, and do not usually interact outside of formal meetings. Each member works on their own to complete the tasks they have been assigned or volunteered for so that they will have something to report at the next meeting. If a member doesn’t get their task assigned, there are no repercussions. Nobody complains, and they don’t get in trouble. Since each member is in charge of events which they have brought up or are interested in, their motivation to follow through is based on how much they want a program to happen. While there is some supervision by the house faculty, they don’t babysit us.
Any communication, advice, opinions, or input that we need can be achieved by simply sending out a message on the listserv. This communication is, however, infrequent. The listserv is used mostly when we are all collaborating on a big event, which is about two times a semester. When big events are in the works, each member picks a couple tasks and we all work together as a team. This is the only time when our activities can be considered tightly coupled, as each task person’s affects the work others can do, and, ultimately, the success of the event.
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This is an interesting example of a cognitive system. Unlike most of the other groups I see posted about, your group seems to have less of a 'bond' than even project classes, who see each other and communicate more often than your weekly meetings and bump-ins, even if just by email back and forth. I can see why you would categorize this as very loosely coupled. There aren't many things that you work together on, with tight coordination. In fact, it almost seems like the very same activities could be done without ever meeting up at all.
ReplyDeleteI find the extent of the loose coupling in your cognitive system very interesting. You mentioned that if someone does not complete their assigned task, there is no repercussion or complaint from other members. I wonder what happens when a certain member not completing tasks becomes a repetitive problem. After all, this is Cornell and we all have demanding schedules. Does this affect the major events that take place? Are they more or less successful as a result of the low-key expectations of the group?
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