Situation
Colonel Stars Preczewski, coach of the Army Crew team for United State Military Academy at West Point, faces a dilemma in discharging direction to the team. The coach developed two teams: the Varsity team and the Junior team. The varsity crew consisted of the top eight rowers of the varsity, while the junior varsity crew had the bottom eight rows. The conventional anticipation was that the Vasity crew would outperform the junior varsity crew. However, the junior varsity team often won competitions, although its team members were less skilled than their varsity crew counterparts. Now, the coach has to prepare for the National Championship in a week; to achieve team success, the coach has to identify the best team to win the upcoming competition. The options for the coach include promoting the junior varsity team to the varsity team, but in reality, the varsity team members have high speed, coordination, and strength. The second option is to identify individuals with skills from both boats, but the team members from Junior Varsity want to avoid being part of their team. Attempt to redeem the varsity team’s performance by identifying, correcting, and addressing the issue affecting the varsity team’s performance; the varsity team members have no team cohesion, which is a crucial aspect of team success.
Problem
The problems that are apparent in the case study are team discord, lack of trust, lack of leadership, and lack of positive communication. The ineffective team behavior is recognizable during the meeting of the Varsity crew after their final loss to the junior team. Their lack of trust for one another is evident in how they shift blame to one another. They need help with issues pertaining to awards, responsibility, and relationships. It is verbally justifiable that every team member is determined to work individually rather than in the corporation as a team.
Lack of leadership is evident when the coach decides to separate the team based on merit. The lack of positive communication is apparent in the fact that communication within the team mostly turns negative. If the team has any chance at winning the national championship races, it is paramount that the coach addresses these issues on time.
Analysis
While the varsity team was composed of eight members selected for high speed, strength, and coordination, the team needed to be equipped with the necessary resources to ensure their success. Eventually, the lack of proper team management precipitated conflict and reduced the team’s productivity. According to Robbins & Judge (2021), effective leadership should provide team members with an understanding of the elements of a team and equip the team with the necessary resources to navigate team dynamics. The varsity team needs more teamwork, as evidenced by the way the team members express their performance on an individual basis and also the presence of many team disruptors. Teamwork is defined as the collaborative effort of individuals to achieve common objectives. ( Robbins & Judge (2021). The factors that promote a team to function effectively include the development of trust by team members, communication effectively, developing a team charter, a comprehension of conflict, clarifying individual roles, actively participating in the success of the team, and stepping out of firm the comfort zone (Robbins & Judge (2021). While the varsity team has already established some of these aspects, the team needs to improve in the majority of aspects of team effectiveness. The team has a well-established team charter as the members comprehend that they have a shared objective to win races. While this is the main goal and well-cultivated for team members, developing small attainable goals will promote trust and communication within the team, hence fostering the success of the team.
Moreover, individual roles should also be clarified to foster an understanding of each team member’s role in the overall success of the team. The pronounced lack of role clarification is a problem that stems from the need for more leadership within the team. The team members should have a single head who oversees teamwork. The team should have a trustworthy leader who will help cultivate trust among members and foster team cohesion. Robbins & Judge (2021) assert that a good team leader determines actions and techniques that can foster team cohesion through building, maintaining, and sustaining trust and creating team bonds and synergy within the group. The selection of a team leader may be done democratically among the team members, or the group leader may assign leadership to every team. The team leader is a respected team member who embodies the values of the team and has the power to influence team members toward completing their respective goals.
Effective communication within the team is also an essential aspect of team success. Robbins & Judge (2021) define effective communication as the successful encoding and decoding of the transmitted messages. The coach should encourage effective communication and use formal forms of communication to communicate matters related to the team so as to avoid team conflict over communication, such as when the team used email to complain about the shortcomings of team members. The email should be used instead to document relevant team communication and to motivate team members. The team has no skills for group discussions; the team members use the opportunity for group meetings as an arena for pointing the finger at one another.
Solution
The best solution for the coach’s dilemma is to work on addressing the competency issue of the leading team. To mitigate the Varsity team performance issues, the coach should assign a team leader for the team to take charge and address concerns that promote team disintegration. The coach should set small attainable goals for the team to enhance communication among team members and foster team cooperation. Through group activities, the team members will build and improve trust among the team.
Personal Reflection
The main lessons from the case study are the essence of teamwork, effective communication, and good leadership. These aspects are applicable in other fields in life. Teamwork is a crucial aspect in an organization setting. An organization may have a skilled workforce, but a need for more teamwork may compromise the execution of duties, as seen in the case study. The key takeaway from the case is that strong leadership, positive communication, trust, and the setting of clear goals determine the success of the organization. The case study also demonstrates the relevance of promoting respect and open discussion to foster group peace.
References
Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2017). Organizational behavior. Pearson. https://thuvienso.hoasen.edu.vn/handle/123456789/11264
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