Selv de mindste ting kan vise sig at have en enorm betydning - En autoetnografisk undersøgelse af kommunikations- og samarbejdsmønstre i specialeprocessen

Abstract

Communication and collaboration are key elements for achieving effective results in group work, re-gardless of whether it takes place within academic institutions or in business. Nevertheless, the road to these results is often filled with barriers, events, victories and crises, both externally in terms of practical and logistical obstacles and internally in terms of conflicts, subjective positions and emotional states. By using our own experiences, autoethnographic reflections and descriptions of events concerning our thesis process in the period from the beginning of January to the end of March 2024, by zooming in on our own actions – both verbal and non-verbal – we have sought to identify underlying dynamics that have shaped our thesis process and teamwork, with the aim not only to reflect and map out our own process, but also to contribute to an understanding of how communication and bodily emotional states can affect project work. The thesis focuses on study environments similar to Aalborg University, where problem-based learning is a central part of the learning and teaching culture. The mapping of our communication and collaboration patterns has been done by adopting a commu-nication perspective and asking ourselves these questions; "what do we do with our communication?", "how do we do it?" and “how can we do it better?” in order to systematically explain which causal rela-tionships of effect have taken place. The communication perspective is a concept that belongs to the communication theory Coordinated Management of Meaning. Together with the domain theory, it has served as the theoretical framework for the study. We have also used affective theory as a theoretical perspective on the emotional aspects that have influenced communication and collaboration during the project. By sharing our own insights and learning, we will particularly, but not exclusively, inspire other students to explore their own processes and create increased awareness of collaboration and potential challenges in group work. By examining communication and collaboration patterns in these environments, with ourselves as the study's focal point and object field, we aim to contribute to an effective and beneficial study practice, both for current and future students and members of project groups, based on an analy-sis of our retrospective autoethnographic reflections and thus we inspire a reflexive approach to scientific research. The result of our study finds that there can be a lot of unspoken issues in group work. These unspoken issues between group members working in projects with a common goal and task, can risk being a hin-drance to development and productivity in projects. As our study points out, unaddressed issues can pile up into frustrations that can ultimately hinder project completion.

Kolofon: Denne side er en del af AAU Studenterprojekter — Aalborg Universitets studenterprojektportal. Her kan du finde og downloade offentligt tilgængelige kandidatspecialer og masterprojekter fra hele universitetet fra 2008 og frem. Studenterprojekter fra før 2008 kan findes i trykt form på Aalborg Universitetsbibliotek.

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A master thesis from Aalborg University

Selv de mindste ting kan vise sig at have en enorm betydning - En autoetnografisk undersøgelse af kommunikations- og samarbejdsmønstre i specialeprocessen

[Even the smallest things can prove to have enormous significance - An autoethnographic study of communication and collaboration patterns in the thesis process]