Technological advancement in telecommunication bridges the gap of
geographical distance and ease communication. However, can these inventions
that bring us to be so closely knitted also cause a hitch in our communication?
I am sure many of you have the cross-platform instant messaging
application named ‘WhatsApp’ installed in your phone and have ever utilized it
for group project discussion. Below, I will be describing an interpersonal conflict,
which occurred between members of a project team on WhatsApp.
The group consists four members and they are Shawn, Kim, May and Sarah.
Kim and Sarah have known each other for a year and have worked together in a
project prior to this project. They get along well. This project required them to
submit a ten-page report and given three weeks to complete it. There were small
disagreements throughout the period of completing the project but nobody showed
their discontentment. Due to other concurrent deadlines, they could only edit
the report the night before the day of submission. Only Shawn and Sarah kept
their promises and went online to edit. Since both of them aren’t able to come
to school to print and submit the report on the following day during lecture,
Kim volunteered to print and submit the report. On the day of submission, May
asked Kim via her personal WhatsApp chat to reprint the report because she had just
made changes to the it. Kim did as told. After Kim had submitted the report,
May messaged Kim to ask her to correct some inaccuracy in the report and
reprint it again. Kim refused to do so and felt like she was being bossed
around. May then messaged the group chat and this is how the conversation goes:
May: Is anyone in school to print the report?
Sarah: Isn’t Kim going to print it?
Kim: I have printed and submitted it. But May wants me to reprint it at
the last minute. This will be my third time printing it! May didn’t even tell
me where the error is. How am I supposed to find it?
Sarah: I think just submit whatever you can.
May left the group chat at that moment as she felt Kim’s complaint was
uncalled for and put her in a bad light. Since then, May and Kim have been
avoiding each other. How do you think May and Kim should have better handled
the situation?
Personally, I feel that both parties are at fault and could have reacted to the situation differently to prevent conflict. May did not keep to the agreed editing time but at least she attempted to contribute to the editing nonetheless. Kim on the other hand was completely absent from the editing scene and only offered her physical help of printing out the report. Perhaps May wanted Kim to actively contribute to the report and indirectly asked her to edit the report by pointing out that there was an "error" but did not elaborate further.
ReplyDeleteI do think that May could have considered the inconvenience caused by her actions before she asked Kim to reprint the report twice. At the same time, Kim should have clarified with the team if there were no further changes before she printed the report.
Also, I think that May did not mean to personally attack Kim by asking if anybody was free to print the report. However, the way Kim responded was definitely an example of a personal attack.
I feel that this entire fiasco could have been avoided if strict expectations of each member were set before the project started such that each person knew exactly what was expected of them. Better communication between members of the group could also help in minimizing personal conflict such that any potential problems can be prevented before they actually happen.
I totally agree with Nazyra on this issue but over and above that I really don't think that Whatsapp is a good platform for discussion on a project- Seriously- what were they thinking? The very fact that vereyone needs to see where the points for correction or editing are- Google Drive is much better.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the comments :) Nazyra, you gave a very detailed analysis of the situation. I would like clarify though that in this case Whatsapp was only used for relaying of information quickly and discussion, especially during school hours when we do not have access to a computer thus making it difficult to access to online platform like Google Drive . The editing and report writing was done on Google Drive.
ReplyDelete