Working in groups: Good or Bad?

Have you ever received an assignment and then the professor hit you with the words “It is a group assignment”?  Having a group assignment is completely different from working alone on a project.  Being in a group can be a good thing or a bad thing.

My professor in my Case Studies class assigned a group project at the beginning of class.  She split the groups up based upon our different personal styles.  She wanted to put people who had different personal styles together to see how well we can work in a group.  This exercise is to show the class how the real workplace will be when we have to work with different people.

I must say that the assignment is a great learning experience, but it is also really hard.  When you are placed in a group with all intelligent people who have great ideas, it could be hard to decide who has the best. 

Another issue is having different study habits.  Some of the team may prefer to work at home, while others may want to get work finished at school.  Some members may hate working in groups because they do not want their grade to drop because of other classmates. 

One of the major issues is time.  Being in college, each student has different things outside of school that they do.  Whether it is working full time or being in different organizations around campus, gathering four members together at one time is a hard task.

What I love about the group that my professor has chosen for is that we are all great communicators.  We had used a number a different methods to get our work done while having conflicting schedules.  We have used e-mail, text messaging and social media to get in contact with one another.

This group assignment is going to put the whole class to test to see how well we can put together a project.  Being in public relations, there is going to be plenty of group projects that will be assigned.  A skill PR practitioner should have is the ability to work with a team.

Do you know the Difference???

Being a good PR practitioner has a lot to do with knowing what is right and what is wrong.  I am currently reading this book called “Do the Right Thing” by James Hoggan.  I have heard that this book is highly recommended for PR practitioners to read.  Getting into this book has me wondering if I could tell the difference between something being ethical or not.

Going into the second chapter of the book, I ran across the words “The Dark Side of PR.”  This caught my attention because I did not know there was one!   This chapter talks about companies that hire PR firms to help move their product even though they product is bad.  For example, in the book Hoggan talks about this company called Monsanto, which is selling this growth hormone for cows.  The hormone, rBGH, causes medical problems and increases the amount of pus in the cow's milk.  This hormone may cause a long-term consequence for the children who drink the milk.

Being ethical in this situation to me is the only route to go.  I know that there are a number of ways to let the company know you do not want that case. For successful PR firms, there has to be room to say no.   Money has a lot of say into what people want to sell, but as a PR practitioner, you must know when you should put the public’s health before the well-being of your client. 

You have to sometimes ask yourself if you are doing the right thing.   You have to make sure you do enough research to ensure that the product you are supporting is harmless.   So the field of public relations can have a dark side.   It is up to the future PR practitioners to be taught well on being moral and ethical.   Being in PR, you will have to make tough decisions.