Roles and personalities in group discussions - Which one are you?

A never ending queue, blackouts, and failing printers is always a sign that seems to urge one to get more organised.

In the class groups, you will work with all kind of personalities. It is not uncommon for members to butt heads out of creative and personal differences. Hashtag looked at some of the key players in campus class discussion groups:

1. The researcher

This is the most active member who seeks out the material required for the class project. Once upon a time, research involved burying ones head into voluminous books in the library and scribbling relevant notes. For today’s comrades, however, research entails a google search of your assignment followed by copy pasting. Some, either don’t care, or are too careless and don’t bother changing anything. The researcher attends most if not all meetings.

2. The compiler

This member also rarely misses a meeting. The compilers usually own portable computers and are tasked with putting together information gathered according to the lecture’s specifications.

3. The financier

This group member is known to make technical appearances to group discussions. They are habitually late even in the few times they make an appearance, with either no apologies or with lame excuses. To make up for their lack of participation in group work, the financier volunteers to pay for the costs, such as printing, and binding, that relate to the assignment. They are usually pretty loaded, much more than the average comrade, and are always eager, to pay the costs and avoid the actual work involved in the project.

4. The presenter

This group members just like the financier rarely attends group discussions. In the event they do, they tend to be late. The most lively and outgoing member of the group is in most cases the likely presenter. One important strength of the presenter is the ability to cram information with ease. All they require is a look at the presentation paper a few hours to the class and they will give a presentation so good one would think they researched and compiled it themselves. Most of the group members do not mind their lack of participation in group work because they rely on their skill to secure high scores.

5. The joyrider

This lot is the most complex group member and falls into two main categories.

One half can work but deliberately choose not to. Despite contributing the least to the group effort, this half characteristically complains a lot. Some are guest students too busy with side hustles and rarely attend class while others are always drunk.

The other half, tend to not be as intelligent or skilled as the rest of the members. They are often nice people and get along with many people in the class. They are just not group-mate material, because at the end of the day, you went to university to get a degree, and you want to be in a group with people you think are intelligent enough to aid you do that. They are not lazy or stupid students and are often ready and willing to help. They are just not as good, exposed, or eloquent, as the others. Some fumble, and others take forever, to get basic things. They are not sharp and don’t think fast. The other members work covering up for their ineptitude.

Lecturers mostly leave students to divide themselves into groups for projects, and students mostly divide themselves according to cliques, mostly based on either social class or real or perceived intelligence. This half make up a significant number of the so called rejects no other group in the class will have. One of the members in the group, usually, a close friend will feel pity on them, and have them in the group, so that they can complete the necessary course work.

6. The know it all or show off

This is the ‘expert’ of the group. They usually cannot help but show off how intelligent they are, or how great they are at editing, scripting, graphics, etc. They, in characteristic fashion, are prone to shooting down ideas pitched by their peers. They always think they have monopolies on ideas in the group. They look down upon other people’s ideas.

Others, even feel more entitled to be in campus, more than others, because, they are straight degree students, while, you, started with either certificate or diploma, and so they see you as not, being as intelligent or critical a thinker as they are.

7. The obsessive perfectionist

This is the group member who is obsessed with perfection. They will go through the soft copy of the assignment with a fine tooth comb, so many times, to the irritation of the other members. It is not uncommon for this group member to sleep at ungodly hours after going over the assignment several times for real and imagined errors.

They neglect themselves, in pursuit of perfection. To them, the assignment has to be 100 per cent perfect. If the lecturer scores you a seven out of ten on the project, they obsess over what mistake cost you the marks, instead of moving on to other projects.

So which member are you?