1.

The development team will be more effective if members

have some idea about how groups and teams typically operate.
Review the dominant perspectives on team formation and
performance from the chapters in the book for the committee
so it can know what to expect.

Many managers have found that even teams with highly motivated, skilled,
and
committed members can fail to achieve the expected results. Failing to establish the
groundwork for effective team performance leads teams to be less effective than if
the leader simply divided up tasks and had each individual work on their assigned
part. The main factors has identified that
lead to effective teams is teams should be kept small and have consistent
membership to minimize the types of coordination tasks that take up valuable time.
Too often, organizations set up project-based teams and then reconfigure them,
without considering the stages of group development that might have to occur before
the team can achieve full performance. Supports need to be in place, like group-
based rewards and clearly defined group responsibilities.

Successful teams also have assertive, courageous leaders who can invoke
authority even when the team resists direction. It is often necessary to bring together
and coordinate individuals with a diverse set of skills and abilities to solve a problem.
It would be impossible for all the management tasks of a complex organization. And
often there is more work to be done in a compressed time period than any one
individual can possibly accomplish. In these cases, it is wise to consider how to best
heed the advice provided above and ensure the team isn’t less than the sum of its
parts.

2. Given the profiles of candidates for the development team,

provide suggestions for who would likely be a good group
member and who might be less effective in this situation. Be
sure you are using the research on groups and teams in the
textbook to defend your choices.

Groups and teams need more time to process multiple piece of information
and coordinate what they know. When committees and groups make
recommendations, they’ve often “fallen in love” with a particular idea and are no
longer thinking ration ally. These problems of heuristics and biases can be magnified
when a group of people are making a decision collectively.

The problems of coordination and collaboration suggest that we should invoke

group decision making only when it appears that pooling information will lead to
better decisions
than individual decision making. Decision makers receiving advice from teams should
always
ask whether the team’s recommendations contain any self interested biases. It’s also
important to see whether the team has developed an emotional attachment to one
course of action or has succumbed to groupthink.

3. Using principles from the chapters on groups and teams,

describe how you will advise the team to manage conflict
effectively.
 Diversity appears to increase group conflict, especially in the early stages
of
a group’s tenure, which often lowers group morale and raises dropout rates. One
study compared groups that were culturally diverse (composed of people from
different countries) and homogeneous (composed of people from the same
country). The groups performed equally well, but the diverse groups were less
satisfied with their groups, were less cohesive, and had more conflict. When most
people had roughly the same level of tenure, performance was high, but as
tenure diversity increased, performance dropped off. There was an important
qualifier: higher levels of tenure diversity were not related to lower performance
for groups when there were effective team-oriented human resources practices.
Teams in which members’ values or opinions differ tend to experience more
conflict, but leaders who can get the group to focus on the task at hand and
encourage group learning are able to reduce these conflicts and enhance
discussion of group issues. 63 It seems diversity can be bad for performance even
in creative teams, but appropriate organizational support and leadership might
offset these problems.

However, culturally and demographically diverse groups may perform

better over time—if they can get over their initial conflicts. Surface-level diversity
—in observable characteristics such as national origin, race, and gender—alerts
people to possible deep-level diversity—in underlying attitudes, values, and
opinions.

The impact of diversity on groups is mixed. It is difficult to be in a diverse

group in the short term. However, if members can weather their differences, over
time diversity may help them be more open-minded and creative and to do
better. But even positive effects are unlikely to be especially strong. As one
review stated, “The business case (in terms of demonstrable financial results) for
diversity remains hard to support based on the extant research.”

4. Describe how integrative negotiation strategies might

achieve joint goals for the development team.

5. Leaders of the new combined organization should have a

good idea of the culture of the school district, the NCPIE, and
the Woodson Foundation because they will need to manage
relationships with all three groups on an ongoing basis. How
would you describe the culture of these various stakeholder
organizations? Use concepts from the chapter on
organizational culture to describe how they differ and how
they are similar.

organizational culture A system of shared meaning held by

members that distinguishes the organization from other organizations.

6. Consider how leaders of the new program can generate a

transformational message and encourage employee and parent
trust. Using material from the chapter on leadership, describe
how you would advise leaders to accomplish these ends.

7. Given the potential for demographic fault lines in

negotiating these changes, what would you advise as a
strategy for managing diversity issues for program leaders?

Diversity involves more than just race, culture and gender. It encompasses each person's
uniqueness, experience and personalities that are different but have to be dealt with in the
workplace. Diversity affects performance, so it is important to manage any issues that may result
from personality conflicts. Diversity also determines how an employee interacts with other
employees and the type of motivation involved in the job performance.