Troubled a Team - Case Study Example

Case Study Analysis of the Troubled a Team Students Name Institution Supervisor Date Table of Contents Introduction 3 Group selection 3 Lack of group uniformity 3 Lack of team work 3 Poor leadership skills 4 Lack of team work 4 Poor communication between team members 4 Organizational behavior concepts 5 Management Functions Planning 5 Status difference 6 The concept of communication 6 Possible Solution to the Team A Problems 7 Group formation 7 By sharing on the group tasks and goal 8 Effective communication 8 Reliable leadership 8 Ensuring team work 8 Conclusion 9 References 10 Introduction Organizational behavior is the study of human in organizational settings in groups and team work organizational behavior deals with the team feeling and the members’ attitudes. Organizational behavior plays a major role in the group development, it also enhances overall organizational or group performances, as well as also enhancing individual and group performance, satisfaction, and commitment. This paper analysis the key cause of problems faced in the troubled team a, how the problems could be avoided and organizational behavior concepts that relates to this case. Possible causes of the problems in team a: Group selection The Students had no say as to which team they were allocated to. The teams were relatively unstructured. Little instruction was initially given to the teams on how to get acquainted, communicate, develop, and into functioning work teams (Carey, Ryan & Laura, 1997). The students were not specifically instructed to share their answers with their fellow group members. Lack of group uniformity The team members did differ in age, background and course major and also at different stages of their degree. Hamish and Ying were in their final year; Anthony, Tai and Scott were all mid-way through their degrees, whilst Sara and Khadija were in their first year. Lack of team work During the group project, Sara, Ying, Hamish, &Khadeeja, among the seven members of the team consistently worked on the project throughout the course of the semester. While the other three members Scott, Anthony, & Tai appeared briefly in the beginning and then dropped out for shorter or longer periods in the middle of the semester. Poor leadership skills Scott convincing the other team members to adopt his idea for the project, showed his poor management and leadership skill causing problems to the team ,Sara and Hamish feeling overpowered by Scott’s arguments and also because he was very loud and seemed reluctant to consider the ideas of others (Robbins, 2009). Lack of team work Most of the members lack the basic team player attribute for instance After getting the rest of the team to adopt his ideas for the project early on Scott had assumed a leadership role. However, after a couple of weeks he seemed to abandon this role and “disappeared”, causing more confusion and frustration amongst the other team members (Dion, 2000). Also Scott, Anthony, & Tai were absent during the team meeting organized by Ying and Sara to try and resolve the leadership issue and They had not been doing their part when the situation became critical about two weeks before the project deadline. Poor communication between team members There was no effective communication about the team goals and strategy and the goals of each member in the group (Moorhead & Griffin, 1995). This is evident that at no time did members of the “A Team” have any explicit discussions about what grade they hoped to achieve for the project. Two of the members of the subgroup Hamish & Sara had worked together before and knew that they both wanted an HD. Instead they presumed that their fellow team members would also be seeking a similarly high grade. Organizational behavior concepts In organizations and groups we need to understand, influence and predict the behavior of the members within the group (Britt & Jex, 2008). Thus with the knowledge of organizational behavior we are able to improve our understanding and expectations of others. Understanding others behavior will improve our interpersonal relationship and skills and therefore we are able deal with people better and to that extent also influence them. Organizational concept applied in the group ineffectiveness of Team A Management Functions Planning This concept entails, establishing the overall group strategy, defining organizational and groups goals, devising set of plans and organizing: that is deciding on how, who does what and whom to report. Leadership by, directing, motivating people, resolving conflicts and coordinating through controlling: that is, comparing with goals, Monitoring and correcting (Britt & Jex, 2008). The lack of implementing on this organizational behavior concept led to Team A being branded a troubled team. With Scott in leadership he didn’t practice the full management leadership planning functions for example instead of organizing and assigning members some group role he instead dominated in the discussion. Even though team Seemed to have experienced some conflict almost from the beginning, it was not dealt with up front and honestly or strongly confronted thus Scott didn’t turn up as the leader and perform his task of conflict resolving instead he was the main focus of the conflict causing problems to the A Team .thus the result being the conflict being quite ugly and contentious, with people calling other people names and many team members’ feelings being hurt as a consequence (Moorhead & Griffin, 1995). Status difference Members of the A Team differed in various ways members they differed in age, background and course major, and they were also at different stages of their degree. Hamish Male, 36 years old, IT major, domestic student, studying part-time and YingFemale, 22 years old, management major, international student, studying full-time22yrs were in their final year, Anthony Male, 21 years old, property & construction major, domestic student, studying part-time,Tai Male, 22 years old, IT major, international student, studying full-time and Scott Male, 20 year old, property & construction major, domestic student, studying full-time were all mid-way through their degrees, whilst Sara Female, 19 years old, IT major, domestic student, studying full-time and Khadeeja Female, 19 years old, accounting major, international student, studying full-time were in their first year. For instance disregarded Sara and Ying as being the new leaders because of their gender status thus he never did realized that the two women had been “elected” to be the new leaders. Anthony thought that as they had adopted Scott’s project idea that he was still the leader. This led to some problems in the team because they didn’t have uniform perception about their leadership. Their difference in the degrees for instance caused the problem of uniform goals Sara and Hamish wanted an HD since IT was their major and didn’t know what the other members really wanted to achieve. They also thought that they probably had more knowledge on what would and wouldn’t work for the project than Scott, whose major was in property and construction The concept of communication For group and an organization to be effective and achieve development their must exist a well-structured and efficient communication channels between the members. Communication within an organization should not be the top-down system rather it should be a horizontal structured channel where everyone is given the same platform to share their view, ideas and opinion of the subject at hand (Robbins, 2009). There was lack of communication throughout their task for example without consulting his fellow team members about their preferences for where to meet and how often to meet he decided that these meetings would be at his house near campus. A number of times at the beginning of semester Scott scheduled face-to-face meetings at his house but people were not notified in time, or they could not come and no accommodation was made for people’s different schedules. There was also a tendency for people not to notify anyone if they were not coming to the meeting. Possible Solution to the Team A Problems Group formation Group formation should starts with a psychological bond between the group members and individuals. The social identity approach argues that a group starts when a collection of individuals perceive that they shared identification to this approach a group is two or more people possessing a common social identification and it involves both identifying with some individuals (Robbins, 2009). Therefore a level of psychological distinctiveness is necessary for group formation. Thus by allowing the members of a group to self-select themselves the problems of Team A could have been avoided. By sharing on the group tasks and goal If the group members work together inter-dependently the agreed-upon set goals and activity the group dynamics would be achieved in team a and their conflict would have been avoided. This could also allow for role satisfaction between the members (Moorhead & Griffin, 1995). Effective communication With effective communication channel the communication in a group and organization would be effective and allow for everyone participation in the task (Moorhead & Griffin, 1995). Thus this would have made the members roles easier since there is easy and effective communication among them. Thus team a leader could have given all the members the chance to give their views on what medium they should communicate and about their meetings and also on the views and project ideas. Reliable leadership Team A could clearly specify the roles of the management leader of the team, which is with the leader motivating, directing, monitoring and comparing goals, resolving conflict and controlling the activities of the group. The group could have achieved its intended missions and avoided the conflicts experienced between them. Ensuring team work The members of a group should all participate fully in the team task, by so everyone work will be appreciated and taken for granted. Thus the members of the A Team could have fully participated in the assigned task the problems experienced during their membership could have been avoided (Moorhead & Griffin, 1995). Conclusion According to Dion (2000), in the formation stage, the group members become oriented toward one another and achieve group development. During this stage, conflicts surface in the group as members through status and the group sets goals. These conflicts subside when the group becomes more structured and standards emerge. Team A problems was caused by lack of implementing the basic organizational behavior, and to avoid these problems and conflict they should apply the organizational behavioral concept to attain group effectiveness. In order for the A Team to be able to function well as a team then they will be have to look at the internal and external factors that affected the running of the project and also tackle the changing situation in the team. As with most organizations, people will not easily accept and understand the importance of group norms and a changing environment due to our personal differences. A Team will need to consider the needs of each member of the team, for example the fact that Hamish will not be able to attend each meeting due to the demands of his work. If this is done then they will be able to implement a new strategic management system for their new projects. It is also important that the team develops a new strategy that will be able to help each member learn about having to cope with the group norms (George & Jones, 2007). As a team leader, be it Scott or Sarah, will also need to come up with good communication skills while addressing other members of the group since there are those who are older than Sarah or Scott or others like Hamish have more work experience than most of them. The difference among the members of the group will always create a barrier between the team leader and the group. For the A Team to have an effective work group then they will require to understand one another in order to motivate each member of the group to perform the tasks that they are assigned as part of the supervision (Griffin & Moorhead, 2013). This means that each member needs to own the group spirit so as to realize positive change in the organization and its practices. All members no matter how far to reach they are must be informed of any development of the team without prejudice. In the same way members of the team needs to make sure that they find time to attend group meetings in order not to delay others and also keep pace with what has been assigned to them. In the end, the A Team needs to recognize the need for change, identify factors affecting the performance of the group, find alternatives and implement issues that work well with each and every one of them. References Carey S, Ryan Bogart, Laura M. (1997). "Development of new group members' in-group and Out-group stereotypes: Changes in perceived variability and ethnocentrism". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 73(4): 719–732. Dion, K. (2000). Group cohesion: From "field of forces" to multidimensional construct". Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice4: 7–2 George, J. M., & Jones, G. R. (2007). Understanding and Managing Organizational Behavior (5th Edition). Prentice Hall; 5 edition. Griffin, R. W., & Moorhead, G. (2013). Organizational Behavior: Managing People and Organizations. Cengage Learning; 11 edition. Moorhead, G., & Griffin, R. (1995). Organizational behavior: Managing people and organizations (5th edition). Boston. Houghton Mifflin. Britt, T., Jex, S (2008). Organizational Psychology: A Scientist-Practitioner Approach. 2nd Edition. Robbins, S (2009). Organizational behavior. Cape Town, Pearson Read More