Along the semester, I found myself has changed in many aspects while learning how to be a supportive teammate and an inspirational individual. Before taking this class, I’m always curious about how a person could be influenced by an organization, a team and an individual. Take myself as an example, I found myself has changed a lot after I transferred to USC. As for me, the school definitely has a positive influence. Just like it described in the social comparison theory, people would regularly compare themselves with those around them and sometimes positive social comparison could lead to motivation. When I found out that the students are really competitive at USC, I encourage myself to become a capable person as they are. At the beginning of the semester, I took the VIA character test and my top three characteristics are kindness, love of learning and prudence. I’m not surprised by the result and as a matter of fact I feel pretty much that’s who I am. Based on my past experiences, I’m usually not the most talkative person within a team but I love to check on others and help them with their challenges. And I believe this is also my strength for always being able to develop a good relationship with my teammates.
The first time that me and my teammates get a chance to officially meet each other and have a discussion is when we are doing activities at ELC. A little different from my past experiences that me and my teammates would usually just dive into the project at the first meeting. Buad304 class provides us an opportunity to get to know each other better before actually working on the project together. And the later experiences validated the necessity of having a discussion on what we want to see and what we want to avoid in our team. To set a clear goal and specific rules can boost the efficiency of a team and reduce conflicts among teammates. During the discussion, we agreed on using logistics and reasoning when having conflicts with another teammates. Throughout the entire discussion I found myself paying extra attention to what kind of behaviors that my teammates dislike and examining myself to see if I had certain behaviors before. I think the reason I did that is because I value the relationship with teammates more than the outcome itself. Admittedly, the outcome is important, but the reason I valued relationship more is because a healthy and inspiring relationship is a foundation for a team to have successful outcomes. On the other hand, if a team have successful outcomes but the relationship within a team is toxic, then meaning of teamwork is lost and this is the least favorable situations we would like to have in our teams.
During the first ELC group exercise, we discussed about our opinions on undesirable behaviors in a team and this helps us to know each other’s’ personal boundaries and reduce the conflicts in the future. For example, one of my teammates said she dislike the type of people who doesn’t want to admit themselves ...
Along the semester, I found myself has changed in many aspects wh.docx
1. Along the semester, I found myself has changed in many
aspects while learning how to be a supportive teammate and an
inspirational individual. Before taking this class, I’m always
curious about how a person could be influenced by an
organization, a team and an individual. Take myself as an
example, I found myself has changed a lot after I transferred to
USC. As for me, the school definitely has a positive influence.
Just like it described in the social comparison theory, people
would regularly compare themselves with those around them
and sometimes positive social comparison could lead to
motivation. When I found out that the students are really
competitive at USC, I encourage myself to become a capable
person as they are. At the beginning of the semester, I took the
VIA character test and my top three characteristics are
kindness, love of learning and prudence. I’m not surprised by
the result and as a matter of fact I feel pretty much that’s who I
am. Based on my past experiences, I’m usually not the most
talkative person within a team but I love to check on others and
help them with their challenges. And I believe this is also my
strength for always being able to develop a good relationship
with my teammates.
The first time that me and my teammates get a chance to
officially meet each other and have a discussion is when we are
doing activities at ELC. A little different from my past
experiences that me and my teammates would usually just dive
into the project at the first meeting. Buad304 class provides us
an opportunity to get to know each other better before actually
working on the project together. And the later experiences
validated the necessity of having a discussion on what we want
to see and what we want to avoid in our team. To set a clear
goal and specific rules can boost the efficiency of a team and
reduce conflicts among teammates. During the discussion, we
agreed on using logistics and reasoning when having conflicts
with another teammates. Throughout the entire discussion I
2. found myself paying extra attention to what kind of behaviors
that my teammates dislike and examining myself to see if I had
certain behaviors before. I think the reason I did that is because
I value the relationship with teammates more than the outcome
itself. Admittedly, the outcome is important, but the reason I
valued relationship more is because a healthy and inspiring
relationship is a foundation for a team to have successful
outcomes. On the other hand, if a team have successful
outcomes but the relationship within a team is toxic, then
meaning of teamwork is lost and this is the least favorable
situations we would like to have in our teams.
During the first ELC group exercise, we discussed about
our opinions on undesirable behaviors in a team and this helps
us to know each other’s’ personal boundaries and reduce the
conflicts in the future. For example, one of my teammates said
she dislike the type of people who doesn’t want to admit
themselves for making mistakes. As she talked about this, I
realized that sometimes I am not instantly aware of that I’m
wrong so I would just keep trying to convince others. But when
I do realize that I’m wrong I actually owe others a follow-up
explanation. It’s really helpful to know others reflection on my
behaviors. By knowing this I can further amend this problem on
me to avoid unnecessary conflicts. Sometimes two people had
good intensions but since they misunderstood each other, a poor
relationship has been formed. Communicate the problem with
each other and view the problem from another perspective could
improve the relationship. Along the discussion, I also expressed
my concerns that sometimes the group would be dominated by
one or a few people and as we learned in class, groupthink is
not good for building a productive team. My teammates also
have this concerns so at the end we reach an agreement to have
a shared leadership in our team. And we believe by having
shared leadership, it could benefit our team in regard to have
less conflict, and more cohesion and trust.
Later on, in the semester, as we started to work on our
project, our team entered the forming stage where we are trying
3. to figure out the structure, leadership and what types of
behaviors are acceptable in our team. Since in the first ELC
meeting we have discussed about all of these, we had a smooth
transition into this stage. Since we decide to have a shared
leadership within our group, our group is not dominated by
certain a few members. Instead our team welcomes everyone to
contribute their ideas and opinions and I have noticed that due
to shared leadership team structure, our team has relatively less
dysfunctional conflicts comparing to the other teams I have
worked with previously. For example, when we are designing
the survey and interview questions, we work on this together.
Everyone contributed ideas into discussion. When there’s
similar opinions we would incorporate them together, and
whenever we have contradictory ideas, we would be using
logics and reasoning to convince each other, instead of a few
people in our group to make decisions for all. Admittedly, we
still have conflicts throughout our discussions, but they are
functional conflicts which could help our team to reach a better
performance level. Shared leadership has not only help us to
achieve a better result, but also respect every team members’
right and chance to share opinions. In my past experiences,
usually a few people in the team would make most of the
decisions, and some shy team members would have less chance
to share their voice and rights to make decision. Gradually, they
would just withdraw from the team’s discussions, and it’s not a
healthy team dynamic. Shared leadership could avoid this
problem by engaging everyone into the discussions and give
everyone equal power to make a decision for our group.
Although for most of the time our team get along pretty
well, we still had some functional conflicts when we are
approaching teamwork. This is where our team entered into the
storming stage. For example, one of our teammates texts us in
the group chat that he is not able to meet with rest of us for the
essay peer review during the weekend that the essay was due.
Although he didn’t explicitly explain the reason, we still respect
the fact that each of us has life besides school. However, later
4. on, the trigger of the conflict is that this teammate missed our
internal deadline for the project. Everyone starts to stress out
and text each other about his part was still empty and what
should we do next. We finally decide to set another deadline
between us, if he doesn’t upload his work by certain time, we
would start to write his part together. We also asked another
teammate who is close to him to ask if there’s anything
happened to him and what can we do to help. The reason behind
my reaction to the conflict is that I’m a collaborating style of
conflicts handling which I tend to cooperatively identify the
problem, generate alternatives and try to satisfy concerns of all
parties. We assume that it might be due to external factors
because he attends every meeting previously which shows his
low in consistency. He’s engaging in designing the survey
questions before which shows his high in distinctiveness.
Lastly, all of our teammates have attended this meeting expect
him which indicates his high in consensus. According to
Kelley’s model of attribution, we are able to come up the
conclusion that it’s might be due to the external factors instead
of internal factor. It turns out that our assumption is correct, he
had a competition in Berkley, and it’s the main reason that he
has a difficulty to meet our internal deadline. From this
experience, I learned that when a teammate has not completed
his or her work, don’t jump into the conclusion immediately of
due to internal factor, for example, irresponsible and
unaccountable. We should also consider the possibility of due to
external reasons, for instance, illness, a family issue or like this
time, a competition in another city.
Talking about my role in the team, I’m usually the one
who organizes the meetings, set up the internal deadline and
hold the teammates accountable. For example, I always start a
discussion in the group chat to hold a meeting and then ask the
best time that works for everyone, lastly reserve a room for us
before meeting. During the meetings, I would frequently take
notes for us to check out later on for the important information
of this meeting, for instance, the role assignment of the team
5. project, the internal deadlines and what we are expected to
complete for each internal deadline. Besides that, I would also
frequently check on others and to see what I can help them with.
For example, since I was assigned to work on the
recommendation part with another two teammates. I frequently
discuss with them what we plan to write about to avoid overlap
and contradict opinions and make the whole essay seems like
wrote by single person. I love to help others, and zest is the top
three characteristic I have in my VIA character test. I think it is
also my strength for able to maintain a good relationship with
the people I worked with and gain trust from others. For
example, one of my teammates texts us in the group chat that
our project proposal exceeds only one line of two pages and
what we should do to shorten the essay. Since I don’t want to
delete anyone’s work, I made a suggestion to change the bullet
points into a paragraph so we can limit our essay in to two
pages. Whenever there’s someone asked questions in the group
chat, I will try my best to answer and help others. Gradually,
my teammates trust me and feeling comfortable to directly
talked to me about their problems. One time, my teammate
directly messages me that she is not sure if her part looks good
and she want me to take a look at it. I’m happy that teammate
could trust me due to my zest nature.
This led to talk about my peer evaluation process.
Although I haven’t got the feedbacks from my teammates yet,
based on the way we get along with each other throughout the
semester, we had a good time work together. We all contributed
decent effort on the team project. Since we have shared
leadership in our team, each individual an opportunity to show
his or her prowess in certain areas, teammates become more
engaging in the team work process. Admittedly, shared
leadership has its shortcoming. For example, when we are
facing some challenges that we are not good at, for instance, the
survival game we had in our class, we spent relatively more
time to reach a consensus since all of us has the right to make
the final decision and we try to convince others by reasoning
6. which lowers the efficient of our team. And since this is our
first time to try shared leadership, there is definitely something
we could improve in the future. Shared leadership is that it
easily results social loafing since everyone expects others
would lead the team and due to that we sometimes lack a
spokesperson in the class discussion. What we can improve in
the future is, to clearly assign role regarding to everyone’s
expertise. For example, one of us can take leadership for being
a spokesperson during the class discussion while others could
take leadership in other divisions.
At the end of this semester, I have set two goals for myself
to improve in the future teamwork. First goal is to be more
aware of what happen to the teammates. If we could be more
aware of what is unusual about teammates this time, we could
figure out that he has a competition at Berkley earlier and to
confirm with him if the internal deadline still works for him.
Then we wouldn’t be so stress out when we find out he didn’t
meet the internal deadlines and we have to set a plan B of what
if he cannot make it to meet the new deadline, we set for him. I
guess the method to approach this goal is to generally
communicate more with teammates. Along the conversation we
could know much more about our teammates individually. And
people would be more likely to share their plans and what’s
going in their life with you. Second way is to regularly check on
others when close to deadline by asking, “Is the internal
deadline still work for you?”, “How’s your part going recently?
Do you have any new thoughts besides the ideas you shared
with us in the meeting?” And lastly, when a teammate is willing
to share the challenges, they are facing with us, we need to take
it seriously and try to discuss a solution and solve it together.
This could positively reinforce the behaviors of our teammates
and if they have further challenges, they would like to share
with us again. To earlier we can identify the challenges, the
earlier we can solve them.
The second goal is to be more initiative to take the role of
being a spokesperson for my team. I have noticed that in the
7. class discussion, everyone in my team tries to avoid being the
spokesperson due to the fear of public speaking. And sometimes
we just have to take turns to fulfill this role. I want to challenge
myself to conquer the fear of public speaking in the future.
Avoiding being the spokesperson is the least way to help me
become a good public speaker. The way to approach this goal is
to practice public speaking by sharing my opinion more often
during the class. I believe I would become more comfortable
with public speaking when I practice it more often.
testCompanyOfferTermGreenExit FeeMonthly
FeeSwapAEP7.6960000.0237516973AEP7.79120100.021958704
1AEP7.95121000.0219587041AEP8.05180000.0212711082Ager
a8.576240100.0212711082Agera8.808241000.0212711082Agera
8.828240000.0212711082Agera8.982120100.0219587041Agera9
.213121000.0219587041Agera9.233121000.0219587041Ambit7.
1810000.0205695578Ambit12.7311000.0205695578CleanChoic
e12.3121000.0219587041CleanChoice11.4121000.0219587041C
learview6.89121100.0219587041Clearview6.59121100.0219587
041Clearview7.29120100.0219587041Clearview8.19120100.021
9587041Comcast9.2960100.0237516973Constellation8.0912010
0.0219587041Constellation8.19121100.0219587041Constellatio
n7.89360100.0212711082Direct8.29120000.0219587041Direct8.
09180000.0212711082Dynegy7.746120000.0219587041Dynegy
7.832120000.0219587041Eligo6.83530100.0204101482Eligo7.1
3560100.0237516973Eligo7.331100.0204101482Eligo7.561100.
0237516973EnergyMe8.982120100.0219587041EnergyMe8.576
240100.0212711082Energy6.710000.0205695578Energy7.96000
0.0237516973Green7.531000.0204101482Green7.911000.02056
95578Green7.431000.0204101482Green7.961100.0237516973G
reen8.4121100.0219587041IGS10.39360100.0212711082IGS9.7
9120100.0219587041Illinois6.6910000.0205695578Just7.81240
100.0212711082Just7.62120100.0219587041Liberty8.21612110
0.0219587041Liberty8.038241100.0212711082Liberty8.173601
00.0212711082National7.69121000.0219587041National7.7924
0000.0212711082National9.49360100.0212711082National8.29
9. 4817.420248120722.45786431770.0224578643100.9804926571
8.6097506322.11330521220.0221133052110.978455809221.535
8123622.10401072620.0221040107120.976238888919.8566992
1.95870407670.0219587041130.974382113518.318383734321.7
1873660720.0217187366140.972345265718.08562194221.4989
6216850.0214989622150.970308417918.435859939621.334777
26130.0213347773160.9682715719.65591287221.27110818540.
0212711082
Data:
The data for this assignment is collected from ComEd, as well
as from the PJM Northern Illinois Hub Futures data. All data is
collected as of August 8, 2018.
On the worksheet called “test”, you see several columns. The
legend is as follows:
“Company” is the independent electricity provider, which sells
electricity to ComEd to be delivered to residential consumer.
Note that ComEd passes the rate charged by the independent
provider on to the sonsumer with no markup, and adds only the
delivery charge.
“Offer” is the price, in cents per kWh, charged the residential
consumer
“Term” is the term of the contract to which the “Offer” rate
applies. For example, if Term = 6, that means the rate is locked
for 6 months. If Term=1, the rate is floating, i.e. changes every
month.
“Green” means whether the plan includes a charge for
Renewable Energy Credits.
“Exit Fee” means that there is (1) or isn’t (0) a fee if the
consumer wishes to exit the contract early.
“Monthly Fee” means there is (1) or isn’t (0) a fee charged per
month.
“Swap” is the wholesale electricity price, in dollars per kWh,
which would be paid by the independent electricity providers if
they wanted to buy electricity forward for the same number of
months as stated in the “Term” column. For example, if
10. Term=6, the Swap value will tell you the price locked in the
wholesale market for up to 6 months forward. If Term=1, the
Swap value will tell you the floating price in the wholesale
market.
Hypothesis:
The Swap rate hypothetically includes “risk premium”, i.e. in
order to lock in the wholesale price, the independent producers
would have to pay a little bit above the consensus future
expected electricity price. That extra little bit would be their
payment for hedging away the risk. Furthermore, studies show
that this “risk premium” increases with the term of the lock-up
period.
The question you need to answer in this assignment is whether
the independent producers tend to pass the risk premium onto
the consumer! If they do, then “Offer” should increase with
“Term” even after controlling for the other factors: “Green”,
“Exit Fee”, “Monthly Fee”, and very importantly after
controlling for “Swap”, too.
Assignment:
Run a multivariate OLS regression, where the dependent
variable is “Offer” and the independent variables are “Term”,
“Green”, “Exit Fee”, “Monthly Fee”, and “Swap.”
Analyze the regression output to determine whether the slope
coefficient for “Term” is positive and statistically significant.
Interpret your results. Do you see evidence that the
independent electricity providers pass on the risk premium to
the residential consumer? How generalizable is your evidence,
given the sample size?
Personal Reflection Paper
11. Reflection: Serious thought or consideration;
a thought, idea, or opinion formed or a remark made as a result
of meditation.
This personal reflection paper gives you the opportunity to
analyze, reflect on and write
about your experiences and learning that you have gained
through working with your team on
assignments and activities ranging from the scavenger hunt and
ELC activities, to the team case
project and the peer evaluation process. You may also want to
review and incorporate those
personal assessments (i.e. VIA Character, Big 5, Conflict
Handling Styles, etc.) you have
completed over the course of the semester that are relevant to
your exploration, analysis and
reflection.
Reflective writing involves the analytical process of describing
a situation, action,
thought or feeling and communicating the meaning of that
situation in one’s life. Many
reflective writers keep in mind questions, such as "What did I
notice?", "How has this changed
12. me?" or "What might I have done differently?” It is not only
descriptive. You should reflect on
meaning usually using frameworks and concepts (i.e. from our
course), what went well or didn’t
go well, what you learned or still need to learn, and the
influence or impact on your own life or
experience.
You will be assessed based on thoughtful, convincing,
insightful, and exploratory writing
and reflection, a strong connection between the experience and
the learning or insights gained,
and the use of specific detail and narrative accounts that convey
an understanding of the
experience supported by course material and personal
assessment results. You may organize
your essay in a way that makes sense to you but be mindful of
providing your reader (i.e. your
Professor) with sufficient detail, explanation and support to
convey your analysis and reflection.
You are also expected to create an action plan with 1-2 clear
SMART goals that identify how
you will apply what you’ve learned to make future team
engagements successful.
13. The self-reflection paper should be 4-6 typed pages, double-
spaced using 12-point font
and 1-inch margins. The papers will be graded according to the
Personal Reflection Grading
Rubric (next page) which contains specific instructions about
the assignment. This assignment
will be explained further in class.
Here are some questions that might help get you started. These
are intended to “prime the
pump” to get you thinking. You are not expected - nor
encouraged - to simply address these
questions. Your essay should be more of a narrative of your
experience, reflection and learning.
think your teammates
shared your approach or attitude? Why or why not?
ce that you
would not have learned
otherwise? What did other team members learn from you that
they probably would
not have learned otherwise?
both formally (i.e. peer
14. evaluations, class worksheets) and informally (i.e. in meetings,
in class)?
the team activities?
would have improved
everyone’s learning?
2
PERSONAL REFLECTION GRADING RUBRIC
Criteria Superior Sufficient Minimal
Reflection &
Application
Ability to integrate
learning into real-world
experiences over the
course of the team
activities
15. contribution as a
team member
process
Ability to proficiently
demonstrate reflection
and deep thinking of
acquired knowledge
and concepts, and
integrate them into
team experiences from
wide range of
perspectives (e.g.
different contexts,
frameworks, concepts,
cultures, strengths,
personalities, etc.);
16. Insightful and critical
thinking skills
demonstrated in the
writing that makes
clear connections
between experiences
and relevant course
material.
Showing satisfactory
ability to relate acquired
knowledge to previous
experiences;
demonstrating attempt to
analyze the issues from a
number of different
perspectives and includes
some connection between
experience and course
17. material.
Identifies some general ideas
or issues from outside
experiences related to the
assessments.
Describes events/experiences
rather than analyzes their
meaning to personal
development and the team
process.
Action Plans to Close
Gaps
Develops concrete
plans which are
SMART to reach their
intended
developmental goals.
Provides developmental
18. goals which identify the
need for improvement but
which are weak or lacking
in specific steps for
implementation.
Expressed action plans lack
depth or specificity resulting
in ambiguous or unattainable
objectives. Assertions
without support or
explanation.
Presentation
organization of ideas
and perspectives
and Mechanics
Writing is well-
focused; arguments or
19. perspectives are
precisely defined and
explained; coherent
flow in developing an
insightful idea(s)
demonstrated.
Mastery of grammar,
spelling, mechanics.
Arguments or perspectives
are clearly stated;
organized flow in writing
but not deep enough to be
very insightful.
Errors in grammar,
spelling, mechanics
distract or interfere with
understanding.
20. Arguments or perspectives
are vaguely mentioned; the
writing lacked an organized
flow and the ideas were hard
to follow.
Errors in grammar, spelling,
mechanics prevent effective
communication