This is a CTP of initiative: DESIS - DESIS Lab Belo Horizonte (Brazil)
In DESIS BH, work is produced in a collaborative manner. In this lab, the team consists of only two teachers and a varied amount of undergraduate, master and doctorate students, which vary depending on the academic periods. Students come with their ideals and the whole team works together to help carry out a project that relates to the initial idea of the student.
In this way, students who are part of the laboratory almost never work only on their own projects; they work on the projects of other students as well as having the other students helping in their project: "The project is everyone’s, the laboratory is everyone’s. When I help someone... the way how to work is systematized... we work that way. It's not the way that the 'other' person wants. There was one master’s student who took a large group to work with her on a project that was based in the community where she lived.
As she had access to the community and its actors, she was being a project leader within this community".The two university teachers from the State of Minas Gerais Public University coordinate and supervise the work of all students.
As the team is small, it is common for master`s and doctorate students to split supervision and coordination of the laboratory with the teachers. DESIS BH works with the largest group, consisting of two teachers and master`s and doctorate students. This group is then divided into a number of other groups set around each of the projects and the overall coordination of the laboratory.
This CTP refers to a specific member of the team, their departure and the laboratory`s organizational climate before and after this episode. The choice of CTP was justified by the importance of learning what the output of this member has brought to the team as a whole. After this member left, the team was able to reflect on the problems that his/her behavior had caused to the organizational climate during the period in which he/she remained there.
During the period that the project coordinator was completing her post-doctorate in Canada, a different team member was selected to be responsible for the coordination of this specific project: "This project had a lot of money, was the largest, and was the one that had the most resources". Due to the (public) resources invested in the project and the laboratory in 2013 for which only one of the coordinating teachers was responsible it was necessary to distribute responsibilities.
However, this particular team member did not accept the teacher who remained in the laboratory as an authority figure, "She said, 'No, the project is mine, I`ll do it the way I think it should be done'. What had changed was the interaction between colleagues, this had changed. Understanding one another, knowing that the other is a colleague and that you can count on them. It had changed a lot. It was a very selfish period that had infected everyone. She had visibility with this project, so therefore, she decided to delay completion of the project in order to stay there. She/he only finished the project when the coordinator came back".
This CTP, according to the interviewee, was caused by the non-collaborative behavior (that was different from the general behaviour of the DESIS BH group) of one of its members and she was an important actor.
However, also responsible for the co-production of this malice were the coordinating teachers that had selected him, and in a way, the other members of the laboratory. This included the teacher who had remained in charge while the other teacher was out of the country, as they were not able to perceive what was happening and change the outcome.
June 2013 – The coordinator went to complete a doctorate in Canada – The coordinator went to Canada for her doctorate.
From June 2013 to June 2014 - The student of this CTP was responsible for her project: "This stage was bad, because it caused an irritation in the group, instead of thinking that everyone was from the group... We did not make a habit of saying bad things about other people in the group. It was the first time it had happened, because of her personality. She had the freedom to manage the whole team without any guidance".
June 2014 – The student left the team
June 2014 – The group perceived a change in the organizational climate after he left the group and reflected on the importance of having a good organizational climate and also about the negative influence that this member had provoked in the laboratory during the previous period.
Everyone in the group felt very bad during the period. One of the teachers that had remained in DESIS during the coordinator’s post-doctorate, had tried to talk to the student but there were no positive results.
The coordinator was far away and she felt surprised with the student’s behavior.
The student only finished what she was doing and left the lab when the coordinator returned: "Even though she knew the teacher that remained in Brazil was the coordinator, she did not obey others".
According to the interviewee it was not possible to predict what would happen later. When the student entered the DESIS, she had a good idea which became a project, and she managed funds and grants for other students. It had been expected that this project would affect the group positively, but that was not what happened and the group took a long time to realize what was really happening.
The group learned that they needed to be able to make better choices regarding which new members could enter the group. In a situation like this, just a few kinds of things can be done, and they did what they thought was important, but the student did not react favorably, maintaining the same attitude. They also learned that there are people who do not know how to deal with power: "It's no useful fighting, the bad part has happened. Should we try to press on? Learning was difficult. Knowing how to choose who enters the group. Not all people know how to deal with power, and they may not know how to deal with the social side. If you do not see the other as equal, it is no good".
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