Group/Team Management

Description

One of the most important skills you can develop is to understand and manage group and team situations. This is true not only in your professional but in your personal life as well. Particularly now that we need to rely more and more on virtual teams, your understanding of this topic is critical. This assignment is to apply what you have learned about groups and teams in chapter 13, as well as the additional articles that were assigned, to a group or team situation that you have experienced. You may use any type of group or team, ie. an experience at work, through school, or in your community. Describe a situation in which you were a member or leader of a group or team. Be specific, including information such as the organization involved, the type of group, what factors influenced the effectiveness of your team, what was your role, etc. Provide enough detail so that I have a clear understanding of the situation. (75 points) Think back on your group experience and an example of conflict that arose. Experts have identified 5 major styles for dealing with conflict (see pages 408 and 409). Which of the 5 styles did your team use to resolve the conflict? Describe what happened. Was it effective? Would a different style have worked better? What was the result? (75 points) In this assignment, I am relying on your ability to clearly and concisely communicate a group situation and show me that you understand and can apply the information from the readings.  You may use paragraphs and/or bullet points. Please check for clarity, readability, grammar, spelling, etc.  5 conflicts to choose from: 1. The competing style involves a stance of high assertiveness with low cooperation. A person using a competing style wants to get his or her way or to win and doesn’t care much about the other person’s feelings or about a long-term relationship. You might adopt this style when negotiating your best deal on a home mortgage. While this style is important to use in certain situations, managers that use this style ex-clusively tend to be self-serving and may not always pursue the best interests of the organization. Some believe former Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld adopted this style in his refusal to accept offers from Warren Buffett and other potential buyers for the struggling company because he thought the offers did not reflect Lehman’s value. The investment bank ended up going bankrupt. Many criticized Fuld’s hubris and accused him of not putting company interests first. 2. The avoiding style displays low assertiveness and low cooperation. Here the indi-vidual is not much concerned about personal goals and may not care enough about the larger goal to fight about it. This style might be appropriate on trivial matters and when there is little chance of winning the conflict. This could be a good strat-egy for dealing with the company “know-it-all.” Sometimes this approach results in the issue going away, or at least not escalating. However, managers should exert caution in overusing this approach. Avoiding issues that should be addressed could spell doom for the company. For instance, Enron’s leaders largely avoided learning about and addressing ethical issues within the firm. As a result, the company failed and many employees and investors lost their investments. 3:The accommodating style exhibits low assertiveness and high cooperation. You allow the other person’s needs to be satisfied at the expense of yours. This is a good strategy when the relationship is more important than your needs—for instance, in discussing the resources for a new computer system or providing administrative assistance for a top salesperson. However, a manager should never sacrifice the company’s values and ethics policies. Managers that are too accommodating are not likely to resolve conflicts in ways beneficial to the firm. 4:  The compromising style reflects moderate concern for both your goals and the other person’s. You both give up something in order to reach agreement and, at least partially, to attain desired outcomes. This strategy is common when goals are diametrically opposed and no resolution appears to be otherwise attainable—for ex-ample, the case of what department will receive what percentage of a travel budget. Some experts criticize the tendency to settle for a compromise too willingly (a trait seen in certain managers) as each party loses something in the exchange. 5. The collaborating style shows both high assertiveness and high cooperation. Both parties win as they work through issues and reach an optimal solution that meets everyone’s needs to the fullest. This style is appropriate for most important organi-zational decisions where goals are important and relationships must be maintained. For example, each department or group might provide some centralized services such as improved computer technical support.