Blog Post #3: Group Roles

My tasks roles within our group are initiator/contributor and evaluator/critic, and my social role is the gatekeeper. My job is to contribute ideas and suggestions, analyze my group's accomplishments and suggest ways to do better, and to draw quieter members of the group into the conversation. My roles create a group member that others may not inherently like but is necessary for the group to be successful. Because of these traits and my perception, I most closely resemble Moses regarding the task roles I have within the group and Aaron, Moses's brother regarding my social roles within our working groups.

Like Moses, I guide my group by starting them off in the right direction with meaningful ideas and help keep them on track by evaluating and critiquing their performance. Moses warned Ramses and gave him ideas and suggestions to avoid the destruction of Egypt by the plagues but his ideas went unheard. Similarly, If my evaluations or contributions are not considered and go unheard it can lead to disaster for the group because it would be easy for us to get off task or start on the wrong path. It is my responsibility to begin the journey as well as evaluate how far we've been and how we can go farther. Although we may not want to continue working, I have to make sure that we reach our daily goals.

Similar to Aaron, my social role requires me to provide a voice for the silent and include them in the conversations and discussions if they are not willing to speak themselves. Instead of Moses speaking at large gatherings and encouraging the Israelite people, Aaron was the voice for Moses and conveyed his ideas to the audience. My social role requires me to do the same. By doing this, a greater number of ideas can be shared and productivity will increase because of the greater number of people working towards the same goal.