3). Pick one concept from the assigned reading this week, not already discussed, that you found useful or interesting and discuss it.

Ethical reflection is the quick and small topic I wanted to talk about for my last post of this week. I feel that since ethical reflection in a group is what governs the morals of the group it is a very important aspect that should not be ignored. I will give you questions that you will probably disagree to.

Is it right to harm a child that is not your own? Is it okay to borrow your group members items without asking them? Would your group members be happy if you flirted with their spouses?

Without ethical reflection groups become untrustworthy amongst each other and your common goal will no longer be the focus. You should get to know your group a bit before getting into the heavy workloads, give them snacks, get some drinks, or maybe play a game with them. Any small opening into a person's heart can really get the creative juices flowing and you can avoid nasty unethical pitfalls as long as you are aware of what your group feels is right or wrong.

2). Outline and discuss the guidelines for providing observer feedback to a group.

- Avoid generalizations – This means that you should not say something vague, if someone does well do not just say something like good job because you need to specify what is the good thing they did.
- Focus on Behaviors that can be changed – This just shows that you know the weak points of an idea that does not 100% agree with you, take initiative!
- Do not debate or argue with the group you are evaluating.- You're not the king of the world, a group is there for you to work and help with your common goal!
- Do not micromanage the group – Trust your group to take care of the jobs that they have, if you take over their work what's the point of being in a group that you do not trust?
- Remember your role – You have a job to tend to, it's okay to ask your group what you need to do but remember to follow through with your job!
- Accentuate the positive aspects – If you use negative comments in the beginning you have a chance of depressing your group into becoming pessimistic, find out what you did well and make that wellness grow!
- End with specific suggestions for improvement. - You need to clarify what needs to be done, as a group member if you don't say anything, do anything, or not know anything nothing happens.
-Be clear and concise if you present your ideas orally or in writing. - Not everybody will understand your inside jokes, inform them!
- Compliment in public and criticize in private is an accepted practice in most professional settings. - You don't want to shout out at your group members and humiliate them with negative comments now do you? Have some compassion, they might be working harder than you are!
- In an organizational setting, developing positive relationships during the feedback process will repay itself time and again. - Doing this could actually open deeper gates in your friendships and you might find easier and efficient ways of working with them! But I don't recommend making friends just because you want business with them, that would be dirty!

1). Why use a consultant or an observer for a small group? (Remember, carefully think through your answer. Your final project is based on this very concept).

In a group there can be difficulties trying to come up with ideas because often times we worry that we will take too many things into consideration of our group members and we end up restricting our creativity. A consultant observer is important because they have no problem with the considerations and issues within your group, mainly because he or she is not apart of your group this is only beneficial because he or she will be able to give you ideas right off the bat and you and your group could just narrow down which idea is best as you go down the list.
An observer is something that each group member becomes when there are no outside sources to help us. As an observer you would go out and review the topics or subjects required by your group. I like to think of it as collecting credible sources for a paper, as an observer we are all required to make sure the information is valid so our group members can handle the information properly. Monkey see, Monkey do, Monkey understand and report back to group for evaluation.

3). Pick one concept from the assigned reading, not already discussed, that you found useful or interesting and discuss it.

I know this is probably the shortest part of the book but I feel that ethical behavior is a good topic. I often see on Reddit.com that there are many posts in relation to atheism. Atheism is is the rejection of belief that a mythical entity exists, in short it means not believing in god.

My family claims that they are Christian believers and I have no problem with any religions really. But using the religion in defense for your actions is normally an unethical result. Often times each year my family would get together for the holidays and talk about their problems, they'll agree with each other on issues and reject some. But when something serious goes on and they know they did something bad they would say “I'm not a bad person I didn't mean to do it, I'm a Christian!” Now just seeing that you would assume it is a small non-serious matter that just occurred, but my aunt made Christianity look bad when she claimed that her actions of “attempting to have another man sexually molest my girlfriend” is not “A bad thing because what I did is correct, I'm a Christian.”

As I said earlier I am no atheist but I hate it when people misuse the peace of religion to justify their unethical behavior.

Ethical behavior is pretty much a set group of standards that many agree upon, what my aunt did is considered unethical since she defaced a religion and had a man commit a crime. In the United States the only ethical standards I know off the top of my head is don't steal, don't cheat, do not harm others, and work together to become strong. If no one agrees with any of those standards then I guess I need to review ethical standards again.

I hope I didn't steer too far from the topic with my aunt's problem but I feel that it was a good example of what unethical behavior looks like. As a fellow citizen I ask you “Do you think what my aunt did was ethical?”

2). Explain the concept "white men of privilege". Do you agree with the concept? Why or why not?

As the times move on the concept “white men of privilege” is gradually degrading in my opinion. If I were told the concept “white men of privilege” I would instantly picture in my head, a white man with a top hat, monocle, and glass of wine. I often see white men nowadays dressing as hip hop artists, people who have respect for surfing or skating, or people who go to a coffee shop in the middle of the night to talk about evil corporations. I suppose that since I mention these suggestions of how I view white men I guess you could say that I “No longer agree with the term.”

Since white men were the first to develop a culture in the United States after taking it away from the Native Americans, I feel that they were also first to adapt to their own culture. Also since they were able to be first to adapt to their own cultures they were also the first ones to forget about their Irish, English, German, or etc cultures before any of the Asians, Indians, Africans, or Europeans were able to adapt to the Western culture found in the United States.

Since diversity is so high and the cultures of white men are disappearing I feel that most white men will lean more toward other cultures, this explains why I see white men acting like they're tough black guys, speaking Japanese to communicate with Anime fans, or even white men acting like the Jersey shore. I've always felt like white men just want to have a tougher or more popular persona by adapting to cultures that are either tough or popular. I hope this didn't come out offensive, this question is tough for a Chinese guy like me haha.

1). Does valuing diversity come easily? Why or why not? Can you make some suggestions to enhance a group's ability to value diversity?

Diversity can happen anytime any anywhere and since we live in the United States we are slowly leaning more toward a western culture found in each race. In my family I feel that culture is slowly degrading in terms of Chinese culture and we choose the style of United States freedom, rights, and ethics over our old culture. But we tend to look back at our previous culture so we can show respect to those who brought us into the world.

I feel we only value our diversity more when we have something at stake. As I mentioned earlier, my family chooses a United States style of freedom, rights, and ethics since we feel that we would be happier and richer than our old Chinese culture would expect, financial stability and happiness are at stake in that decision of which culture should we have.

As for suggestions to enhance diversity I suppose we should all take trips around the world together to get an extreme view of cultures and races around the world. Have a small group come together with a common goal of working together in many different settings or environments.

3). Pick one concept from the assigned reading this week, not already discussed, that you found useful or interesting and discuss it.

Cohesion is a subject that I found interesting and I feel that it can closely relate to the Synergy term discussed in the earlier chapters we already read. Cohesion has to do with a groups ability to work with one another, the factors and traits each member has, the work that each member can contribute, and the ability to work together. If we imagined a video game company to produce a game which would you feel will make a better game? The company that has employees that work well together and can have fun together? Or the company that has employees at each others throats and run as far away from each other as quickly as possible?

Good cohesion can help you get to know your group better and you can see the personal expressions, emotions, and schedule flexibility. As for the quality of work cohesion can help decision making's quality and results along with the consistency of the group's work.

I feel that cohesion is an important subject to speak of because we need it in order to create better projects and create a better community overall.

2). Distinguish between internal and external constraints. Provide and example of each one from your own experience.

According to page 146 of the book External constraints in a problem are things such as money, time, energy, knowledge base, or other resources that the group needs for the decision making process and to implement a solution. While Internal constraints would be things such as government regulation, limitations, physical location, and technical or design difficulties.

I once tried to open a Wing Chun Kung Fu club at SJSU but there were many constraints that ended up making the decision to not open the club at all.

The external constraints of the club was that money was too much of a problem for students since it would normally cost a person outside of SJSU 100 dollars per month to attend, many people do not understand the forms so we would need a better curriculum, classes would only be 1 hours per day and there could only be 2 days per week.

The internal problems were the largest factor in the decision to not open the club since Senior students of the Wing Chun school outside of SJSU did not agree to the opening, there was no qualified instructor who learned up to the weapons set (the highest instructor we had only knew 2.5 forms), and the decisions to not open the club were mostly lead by a 13 years experienced student who's sole intent was to take over all decisions (political imbalance among the Wing Chun school).

1). Are there group norms at SJSU? What are they? In the group of individuals that you spend time with, are there group norms? What are they? In both cases, how did you identify these norms? How did you adapt to these norms?

I have no particularly been with many groups in SJSU but I have seen some group norms among the martial arts classes and clubs found on the SJSU campus. In the martial art classes and club of SJSU you should and would normally listen to the Sifu, Sensei, or instructor rather than to make your own claims or beliefs of the martial art you are attending. Your senior's words should be respected and it would be rude to overcast your own words over his or her's. How I identified these norms was through other students and the results of actions. I've seen students get critical review from senior instructors and students for just attempting to claim that they know better than them. In short an Instructor, Sifu, or Sensei could say something like “If you like what you see on youtube ask the source to be your teacher not me!” I only adapted to these norms through self study and determination, I learned that the best teachers are really the ones you closely relate and affiliate with. No one martial arts instructor can make you a world champ only you can make yourself a champion of anything

3). Pick one concept from the reading assignment this week (Ch.2) that you found interesting or useful and and discuss it. Please discuss a concept that has not already been discussed this week so far.

I would like to speak of environment in this post. I know it is somewhat a simple and easy to understand concept but I find it interesting because of groups such as the MPAA.

Small groups can be groups within larger groups (which are also called environments), in this case the MPAA is a small group within society. The MPAA's environment is the general public and they do what they can to make sure the general public is protected from inaccurate ratings. So the MPAA gives ratings such as “G”, “PG”, “PG-13”, “R”, and “NC-17”. The MPAA watches every U.S. Movie before public release and gives it a rating based on its content. Most of the time the MPAA attempts to protects people under 17 years of age from homosexuality, sex, criminal behavior, and other things they consider unethical. If the MPAA cannot give an accurate rating then how could their environment trust them ever again? Even worse their environment could go into shambles causing their whole environment to fail. The MPAA plays strict rules upon movies and makes sure they keep it accurate so they may continue to do their job as a small group that protects the general public.