dent last week.

Ju st before class
CASE 8 star ted, Dian e, Janet, Steve, an d she
we re joking with one an other be fore
The For otten Group Member
...............................................................
-., class. They we re laugh ing an d enjoy­
ingthem selves befor e San dr a ca me
Developed by Franklin Ramsoomair, Wilfred Lourier Universi ty
in. No on e noticed that Mik e had
slipped in very quietly and had
he Organizational Behavior course for the semester appeared to promise
un obtrusively take n his seat.

T
the opportunity to learn , e njoy, and pra ctice some of the theori es and prin­

cip les in the textboo k and class discussions. Chr istine Spe nce r was a devot­

ed, hard-working stud ent who had bee n maintaining an A-average to date,

Although the skills and knowl edge sh e had acqu ire d thro ugh her co urses were

Sh e re called th e cafe te ria inci­

impor tant, she was also very conce rn ed abo ut he r grades. She felt that grades
ing class a nd had ski pped breakfast.
wer e par amount in giving her a co mpet itive edge when looking for a job and ,
When she got he r club sa ndwich
as a th ird-year stu dent , she realized that she'd soon be doin g jus t that.
an d hea ded to the tab les , she saw
Sunday aftern oon . Two o'clock.
Christ ine was workin g on an
accou nting ass ignmen t but didn 't
seem to be able to concentrate. Her
co urses wer e work ing cu t very well
this semester , all but the OB. Mu ch
of the mark in th at course was to be
bas ed on the q uality of grou pwork,
and so she felt somewha t out of co n­
trol. She recollected th e events of
th e past five wee ks. Professor
Sandra T hie l had divided th e class
into grou ps of five people and had
given the m a major grou p ass ign­
men t wor th 30 percen t of the final
g rade. T he task was to analyz e a
seve n-pag e cas e and to come up
with a writte n ana lysis . In addition,
San dr a had as ked the gr ou ps to pre­
sent th e case in class, with th e ide a
that th e rest of the class membe rs
would be "mem be rs of the board of
direc tor s of the co mpan y" who
would be listening to how the man­
ager and he r tea m deal t with the
prob le m at han d.
Christ ine was elect ed "Team
Coo rdi nato r" at the first group meet­
ing, Th e other me mbers of the
gr oup wer e Diane , Janet, Steve, and
Mik e. Diane was quiet and never
voluntee red sug ges tions, bu t whe n
dir ectly as ked, s he would come up
with high -qu ality idea s. Mike was
th e clown. Christine remem be re d
tha t s he had sug gested th at the
gro up shou ld get togeth er befor e
every class to discu ss the day's case.
Mike had balk ed, saying "No way!l
Th is is an 3:30 class , and I barely
make it on time anyway! Besides, I'll
miss my Happy Harry s how on tele­
vision!" The grou p couldn 't help but
laugh at his indign ation. Steve was
the bus inesslike individual , always
wanting to ensure that group me et­
ings were guided by an agenda and
noting th e tangible re su lts achieved
or not achi eved at th e end of every
meetin g. Janet was the re liable on e
who would always have more for the
group th an was expected of her.
Chri stin e sa w herself as meticulous
and organized and as a person who
tried to give her best in whatever
she did .
It was now week 5 into the
se meste r, and Chri s tine was deep in
thought about the OB assignment.
She had called everyone to ar range
a meeting for a time that would suit
th e m all, but she seemed to be run­
ning into a roadblock. M ike couldn't
make it, saying th at he was work ing
that night as a mem ber of th e cam­
pus security force. In fact, he
seemed to miss most meetings and
wou ld se nd in bri ef notes to
Christi ne , which she was supposed
to disc uss for him a t the group meet­
ings. She wond ered how to deal with
th is. She also remembe red the inci­
dent. Two weeks ago , she ha d gone
to the cafeteria to gr ab someth ing to
ea t. She had r ush ed to her acc ount­
her OB group and joined th e m. T he
discussi on was light and enjoyable
as it always was when they met
in formally. Mike had com e in. He'd
app roac hed their table. "You gu ys
didn't say you wer e having a group
meeting, " he blurted. Christin e was
taken aback.
We just happened to ru n int o
eac h other. Wh y no t join us?"
"Mike looked at them , with a
noncomm ittal glance. "Yeah . . .
right," he mutter ed , and walked away.
Sandra Th iel had frequentl y
told them th at if there were prob­
lem s in the group, the mem be rs
should mak e an effo r t to deal with
them firs t. U the problems coulcJ not
be res olved , sh e had said th at they
should com e to h er. Mike seemed so
distant, despite the apparen t cama­
rade rie of the firs t meetin g .
An h our had passed , bring ing
the time to 3 P.M., an d Ch ris tine
foun d hersel£ biting the tip of h er
penc il. Th e wr itte n ca se an alys is
was du e next wee k. All th e ot hers
had done th eir des igna ted sec ­
tion s , but Mike had jus t h an ded in
some rou gh h an d written notes . He
ha d called Chris tine the wee k
before, telli ng her tha t in addi tion
to his course and his job, h e was
having pr oble ms wit h his gi rl­
frie nd. Chri stine e mpath ized with
h im. Yet, thi s was a g ro up pro je ct!
Besides, th e fina l mark woul d be

t'
.~ • •' • • • • • • • • • • " e • " • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • THE OB SKILLS WORKBOOK W·51

- -0 :-'.""'-
. ­­
- ' '''­
J
~!I
pe er evaluated. This m eant that
whatever mark Sandra gave th em
could be lowered or rai sed,
dep ending on th e g ro up's opinion
abo ut th e valu e of the co ntribution
of ea ch member. She was defin ite­
ly worried. She kn ew that Mike
had crea tive id ea s th at co uld h elp
to rais e th e overall mark . She was
als o concerned for him. As sh e lis­
te ned to the music in the back­
g rou nd , sh e wondered wh a t s he
sho uld do .
CAS!:: 9
ASCA
, Racing Tea
........... ... " .
ods and precesses. Wh en he assem­
Developed by David S. Chappell, O hio University, modifi ed by Hal Babson,
Columbus State Community Coi lege and John R. Schermerhorn , Jr, Oh io
University
.
he most popular team spo rt, based on tota l spectator a udience, is not bas­
T
ketball , ba se~ al! . footb a.l! , ~ r even s ~ccer : it is stock car rac ing . Tne larg est
stock ca r racing gr oup In tne world IS the National Ass ociation for Stoc k
Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). T he NASCAR Nex tel Cup Series kicks off in
Februar y an d r uns th roug h Nove mber. Along th e way it serves as a market­
ing powerhou se.
'f
Not on ly are ove r 12 million
fan s attracted to NASCAR's races,
but an oth e r 250 million watch races
on television. Driver s a re involved in
cab le networ k s hows as well as syn­
dicated radio shows each week.
NASCAR's official Web site , at
www .nascar.corn. ran ks amo ng th e
five most pop ular sites on the
Intern et. Comp anies such as the
Coca-Cola Co. take advantage of
NASCAR's po pular ity with mercha n­
dise, collectible s, apparel, acces­
so ries, toys, and other marketing tie­
ins. Th e race cars them selves ha ve
been describ ed by so me as "200
mile-per-h ou r billboards."
W·52 THE OB SKILLS WORKBOOK
Review Questions
1. How could an und er standing of
the stages of group devel opm ent
assi st Christine in leadership s itu­
ations such as this one ?
2. Wh at sh ould Chris tine understand
about individual membership in
gr oups in order to build group
processes that are supportive of
he r work gr oup's perfor mance?
3. Is Christine an effecti ve g roup
lead e r in th is case? Why or why
not? II
s
. Cup experience and none worked on
You Win as a Team
Jeff Gord on is one of NASCAR's most
successful and well-known drivers; he's
bee n a sensa tion ever since he started
racing go-carts and quarter-midget
cars at the age of 5. But as the driver of
a successfu l race car he represents just
the most visible part of an incredibly
complex racing organization-a high ­
per formanc e sys tem whose ultimate
contribution takes place on race day.
For several years a team known as the
Rainbow War riors hand led Gordon's
car. Th eir leader was cre w chief Ray
Evernham, recognized by many as one
of the very best in the business . Posted
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
on the waIl of his workshop was this
sign:
Success is a ruthless competitor, for it flat­
. . ters and nourishes our wealmesses and
lUU-; us into complacency.
While Gordon represented the
star attraction, many believed that it
was Evernham who pulled the whole
act togeth er. He was responsible for a
gr oup of over 120 technician s and
mechanics with an annu al budget esti­
mated between $10 and $12 million!
And he had strong opinions as to what
it takes to consistently finish first
painstaking preparatio n, ego less team­
work, and thoroughly original strate­
gizing-principles that apply to any
high-performance organization.
Evernham believed that teams
needed to experimen t with new me th­
bled his Rainbow Warri ors pit crew,
none of them had Nextel/Winston
th e car in any other capacity. W ith the
use of a pit crew coach, th e Rainbow
Warriors provide Gord on with an
approximately one-second advantage
with eac h pit sto p, which, at a speed
of 200 miles per hour, equ ates to 300
feet of race track.
"Whe n you coach and suppo rt a
super star like Je ff Gordo n, you give
him the bes t equipment possib le, you
give him the informa tion he need s,
an d then you ge t out of the way. But
racing is a team sport. Everyone who
races pretty muc h has the same car
and the same equipment. Wh at sets
us apart is our people. I like to talk
about ou r "tea m IQ"-because none
of us is as smar t as all of us.
"I think a lot about people, man ­
ag eruent, and psych ology : Spec ifi­
cally, how can I motivate my g uys
and make th e m ge l as a tcam? I sur­
rou nd th em with idea s about team ­
wor k. I read eve ry leade rshi p bo ok I
can ge t my ha nds on. One th ing that
I took from my rea ding is the idea of
a 'cir cle of strength.' when th e
)
I