In order to know what the two
key characteristics of collaboration we must distinguish the difference between
cooperation and collaboration. Cooperation is a group of people working
together, doing the same task to finish an assigned job. Whereas, collaboration
is a group of people working together to get the job done by using process of
feedback and iteration.
Students tend to go for
cooperation where the work are divided evenly with the group and then work
independently to get the tasks done, then combined what they did and turn it
in. This way may help with finish the project fast but it will not produce higher
quality results than working alone. On the other hand, when working
collaboratively students are able to give each other feedbacks then revise the
project accordingly. This process is what makes collaboration more effective
than cooperation or working alone.
It is important that students
give effective and critical feedback when working in a team. Students should
not be too polite or too negative towards giving feedback. The three criteria
for successful collaboration are successful outcome, growth in team capability,
and meaningful and satisfying experience. Of course the best way to measure
whether the team has successfully collaborated is based on the outcome of the
project. For students, it is the letter grade that the team received. For the
business team, it is whether they successfully produce the product within time
and budget allowed. Growth in team capability is important a long-term team
recognize whether or not the team has improved in terms of their common goals.
Lastly, another criterion that can determine the success of the team is whether
they have a meaningful and satisfying experience. The task that is perceived as
meaningful by team members can make a difference in work performance. Also, if
the individual is praised for the job that they have done, that can also make
her work experience more meaningful.
The four primary purposes of
collaboration are become informed, make decisions, solve problems, and manage
projects. The purpose of being inform is that all members have the same understanding
of given information the same way. It is an important factor that everyone is
on the same page and are correctly informed in order to effectively communicate
and share data. We need to understand decision making in order to see the role
of collaboration.
There are three levels of
decisions: operational, managerial, and strategic. In operational decisions,
managers decide things from day-today activities such as how much products to
order from a certain vendor or which invoice to pay. In managerial decisions,
managers make more complex decision that requires collaborative effort of a
team. Some decisions need to take many factors into consideration such as
analysis of inflation, industry trends, the organization’s profitability the
influence of unions, and many other factors. Therefore, it is important to have
different perspectives from different people like senior managers, accountants,
human resources personnel, labor relationship manager, and other type of
managers. Strategic decisions are often big decisions that can affect everyone
in the organization and will also require collaborative effort; big decision are
such as coming out with new product line, re-locating company, or acquiring another
company.
The decision process divides
into two types of process: structured decision and unstructured decision.
Structured decision only requires a formula to compute or a standard method to
make decision. Structure decision is rather straightforward and does not need
collaboration effort. Whereas unstructured decision process is one that
requires more complex thinking and analyzing data to come up with the best decision.
This kind of decision making requires a team working collaboratively.
Solving problem is the third
primary purpose of why we collaborate. The most important aspect of solving problem
is understanding and defining the problem. If you can define the problem, then
it is half solved. A problem is perceived as difference between what is and
what ought to be. Because of this perception, different people can have different
problem definitions.
The last purpose of
collaboration is managing project. Projects can vary from marketing plan,
designing a factory, produce new product, or perform the annual audit. There
are four primary phases of managing project.
1.
The starting
phase is where the team set ground rules for the project. At this phase, there
are a lot of question the team need to straighten out such as understand what
authority they have? is the project given or they need to identify what it is? Is
there any specific method that the team need to use or are they free to use any
of their choice? Also, there need to be an initial budget and expectations set
out for the project.
2.
The planning
phase is where the team decide “who will do what and by when”. Each member will
be assign a task based on their expertise. Then once that is decided, the team
can plan the project schedule. This step can cause complications as things
might not go as original planned. Budget might be adjusted to fit the resources
on hand.
3.
This phase is
where the team will be working on tasks to complete the project on time. Problems
need to be identify as soon as they arise so no time will be wasted.
4.
The finalizing
phase is where the team needs to ask themselves, “are we done?”. If it is
complete, they need to document results properly for future usage and put the team
to an end.
There are two ways of communication
that can be used in collaboration team are synchronous communication and
asynchronous communication. Synchronous communication is where team members
will meet at a specific location and talk directly. Whereas asynchronous
communication is where team members will not meet at the same time.
Synchronous uses conference
calls, text chats, screen sharing, webinars, and videoconferencing.
Asynchronous uses email, discussion forums, or team surveys.
Being able to share content
is one of the main functions of collaboration. Team members will use many
different types of applications to share project data (documents, spreadsheets,
presentation) with each other. Most traditional way of sharing files is using
email. But it is found that this method can cause many security issues or that
the intended recipient did not get the attachment send out. Another way to
share is using google drive. This is an effective way to store and share files,
and is also an open-source which can be very cost effective for the company.
