Graded Assignment 1

Nyamekye Powell, 311200030

Diploma Business Studies

MGMT6206:Management Essentials II

Course Coordinator: Marlein Newman

E-tutor: Juliana Samuel

February 15, 2021

Background

The Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force was officially formed in 1980 after being

separated from Anguilla. Located in the capital of St. Kitts, the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis

Police Force is a part of the National Security Sector and is the state’s main arm vested with the

overarching responsibility for law enforcement. Preventing crime is a part of the Force’s Mission

Statement and in keeping with such, the Commissioner of Police has decided to put together a

group of officers that works in different departments to compile the crime data to create a crime

database. The data gathered by the group will be used to assess the different crimes, i.e types,

occurrences, habitual offenders and more to strategize how best to reduce criminal activities.

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Question 1a

Katzenbach & Smith (1993) stated “ A team is a small number of people with complementary

skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for

which they hold themselves mutually accountable.” To ensure a team is effective, the persons

who are within the team must be able to work together to contribute collectively to the purpose

of the team formation. It was Tuckman & Jensen (2010) who indicated that teams go through

five (5) stages namely:

● Forming- At the beginning, members assemble for orientation and acquaintance periods.

● Storming-While at this stage important information is discussed that surrounds, structure,

leadership, responsibilities, and rules of the group

● Norming- is usually followed after establishing key operational information. At this stage

group interaction is easier, a sense of cooperation and productivity is displayed.

● Performing - In this stage, members are fully familiar with the task at hand, work is being

done smoothly and the group is working effectively towards completing the task.

● Adjourning- Finally, the group’s goals have been accomplished and tasks have been

completed.

Unfortunately, there would be instances where group tasks do not go smoothly as one may want

them to. In this instance, two group members namely Ann and Betty are not living up to their

responsibilities and other group members are disgruntled. As the group leader, it is my duty to

address the issues at hand to ensure our goals are met. The first point of order is to address the

remainder of the staff who has been diligently putting in the work. I will acknowledge the valued

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efforts that have been displayed and assure them that their work is not in vain and assure them

that I will communicate with the other two members.

In reference to both inactive members, this will be an opportunity to exercise my emotional

intelligence skills as a leader. As the team leader, it is imperative to speak to both group

members separately and try to find out the reason/s behind their actions. If it is a situation where

both members felt their responsibilities were not communicated clearly, it is only right I explain

what is expected of them whilst a part of the group. It can be a case where they felt overwhelmed

with the workload and by all means that would be an easy fix to delegate the work a bit more

evenly or assist in whatever way I can. As humans, we all have to deal with personal issues and

this may be one of many reasons why the members may not be pulling their weight. If it is

indeed personal issues, it is only fair to give them a chance to explain themselves and see what

best can benefit them and the rest of the group.

As it relates to Betty missing meetings, it can be a case where our meeting times conflict with

her other duties and can reschedule to accommodate everyone or write to the Commissioner and

explain her regular duties are affecting our team and ask for her to be exempted from regular

duties until our task is over. It is my goal as the team lead to ensure all members are comfortable

and motivated so we can reach our goals.

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Question 1b

An individual capacity to work is one factor that can make or break a team’s performance.

Putting together the right teams is critical to the group’s success and as such I am of the opinion

choosing the right members is one strategy to ensure that a team is effective.

In so many words, Mealiea & Baltazar (2005) agreed with my sentiments as they indicated that

proper team composition equates to building effective teams. They highlighted that in forming a

team, leaders should source potential members who are equipped with technical and

interpersonal skills that are relevant to the task at hand. Mealiea & Baltazar (2005) continued to

express the key to creating an effective team is balance in the attributes of team members.

For example, to assist with the crime database we cannot just fill up the team with officers from

beat and patrol and think we can produce the necessary information needed. We will need

seasoned officers from different departments who are equipped with the expertise and

knowledge. This would then mean an officer each from Criminal Records Department, Crime

Scene, Minor Offences, Criminal Investigations, and Local Intelligence Office.

One can fully state that there are a lot of strategies that can be used to create an effective team

but having strong leadership should cover all else. It is my firm belief that placing the right

person to lead will ensure that all other strategies are enforced to ensure that the team is

effective. To further back up my choice of strategy, Matthews & McLees (2015) stated “ it is

difficult to maintain effective teamwork without the guidance of a strong leader.” The writers

further expressed that a stronger leader is needed to help direct the fellow team members through

the tasks life cycle if he/she intends to build an effective team. To reinforce their views,

Matthews & McLees (2015) quoted Whetten & Cameron(2016) “It is not the style of the leader

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that makes a difference. Multiple leadership styles can be effective, and no one style has

particular advantages over others. Rather, it is the skills and capabilities of the leader, or the tools

and techniques put into practice that account for effective versus ineffective team performance.”

Matthews & McLees (2015) identified that developing credibility and influence among team

members, and establishing a vision and goals for the team are aspects of strong leadership.

Having these will then make communication and building connections between the team

members easier as they are other strategies to ensure a team is effective.

For example, we have already chosen our members of the group of course all have their

individual capabilities, amongst the group is a senior officer and then there is someone who has

vast experience in leadership skills, in addition to being certified in criminal databases. Would

one choose the senior officer because of his rank or the individual who is more versed in the task

at hand?

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Question 2a

Attitude is a mental position consisting of a feeling, emotion, or opinion evolved in response to

an external situation ( Bireswari, 2013). Fishbein & Ajzen (1975) wrote that attitude can be

defined as a “learned predisposition to respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner

with respect to a given object”. According to Rosenberg & Hovland(1960) there are three

components of attitudes namely the: affective component (feelings), a behavioral component (the

effect of the attitude on behavior), and a cognitive component (belief and knowledge).

Quite frankly an employee can have a wide range of attitude but according to Bireswari (2013)

work related attitudes such as job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment

ultimately affect job performance.

Job satisfaction is how content an individual is with his or her job (Murthy, 2013). An employee

who is satisfied that he/she enjoys work, has confidence in themselves to succeed in their daily

tasks and feel appreciated at work possess a positive attitude leads to extending more effort to

job performance which in return increases overall performance of the organization. Now imagine

an employee whose job satisfaction is low, imagine the decrease in job performance that may

occur. Low performances affects a business goal.

Lodhal and Kejner (1965) defined job involvement as “the degree to which a person identified

psychologically with his/her work or the importance of work in his/her total self-image. An

employee who feels their employer shows effort in developing and enhancing the employee

involvement in his/her daily task will exert a considerable amount of efforts in achieving the

organization’s goals and objectives. Then there are employees that do not connect with their

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duties, this kind of attitude will hamper job performance as employees are not motivated to do

their jobs.

Organizational commitment is a measure of an employee’s identification with his or her

organization (Fu, W., & Deshpande, S. ,2013). If an employee cares deeply about his/her

organization's success, the employee will more than likely display maximum effort to achieve the

goals and objectives of the organization and strive for high job performance. This was verified

where Fu, W., & Deshpande, S. (2013) commented on the writing of Khan et al. (2010) who

revealed a positive relationship between organizational commitment and employees’ job

performance and in the comparative analysis of three dimensions of organizational commitment,

normative commitment has a positive and significant impact on employees’ job performance.

Generally, the attitude of an employee can impact his job performance and the interactions with

other employees. Based on different researches, once there is high job satisfaction, high job

involvement and high organizational commitment merged employees are very likely to have a

positive work attitude that will benefit individual job performance and that of the organization.

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Question 2b

Amongst the four theories of learning there is Operant Conditioning and Social Learning Theory.

Staddon & Cerutti (2003) described operant conditioning as behavior “controlled” by its
consequences. Originally penned by B. F. Skinner in 1937 believed that persons learn best when
their actions are reinforced. Reinforcement can often be positive or negative; a reward or
punishment. Employees will most likely exhibit good attitude and behaviour if they are
positively reinforced to do so. As such managers can implement recognition and rewards and
rewards if they are hoping to shape their employees behaviour. Though positive reinforcement
can get the desired behaviour a manager needs. A manager can also implement negative
reinforcement such as suspension without pay if a worker is not performing can more than likely
help the worker see the need to work more effectively as no one wants to be without pay.

Also called observational learning theory, Commenting on Bandura theories Nabavi (2012)
stated that theorist of social learning theory Bandura (1977) is of the opinion that our actions are
not learned based on Skinner (1937) theory of conditioning but are learned by watching others.
Employees behaviour should conform to workplace performance standards. Based on
observation, it is only then right for managers themselves to provide role models of appropriate
behavior as examples for their subordinates i.e this can be done in so many ways including being
consistent in their expectation of employees behaviours across the board. In the interim social
learning opportunities to shape employees behaviour can be done through recognition and
awards in public settings such as staff meetings and award ceremonies. Employees who may not
have received any praise well view this as an incentive to work harder at their overall job
performance.

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Conclusion

It is understood that every group has to go through development stages, i.e forming, storming,

norming, performing and adjourning. As humans with individual personalities one would expect

a few problems that may arise in a team. An officer attitude can affect his/her job performance

and other officers within the team. Unfortunately in a disciplinary organization like the Royal St.

Christopher and Nevis Police who are tasked with an important job such as ensuring the country

is well protected there is no space to have too many slip ups. Choosing the best team members

and proper leadership was only right two choose strategies to ensure the task at hand is done

efficiently and effectively. With hopes of setting up more teams that will produce high job

performance, the COP can use Operant Conditioning and Social Learning Theory to get future

positive attitudes of potential team members if another task arises.

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References:

Danish, Rizwan & Shahid, Ahmad & Aslam, Nauman & Afzal, Mariam & Ali, Hafiz. (2015).
Relationship Between JOB Performance, JOB Involvement and Career Salience of Employees in
Education Sector of Pakistan. American Journal of Educational Research. 1. 19-23.

Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, Attitude, Intention and Behavior: An Introduction to
Theory and Research. Reading, MA: AddisonWesley.

Fu, W., & Deshpande, S. (2013). The Impact of Caring Climate, Job Satisfaction, and
Organizational Commitment on Job Performance of Employees in a China’s Insurance
Company. Journal Of Business Ethics, 124(2), 339-349. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-
1876-y

Lodahl, T., & Kejnar, M. (1965). The definition and measurement of job involvement. Journal
Of Applied Psychology, 49(1), 24-33. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0021692

Matthews, R., & McLees, J. (2015). Building effective projects teams and teamwork. Journal of
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teamwork/docview/1778454971/se-2?accountid=42537

Mealiea, L., & Baltazar, R. (2005). A Strategic Guide for Building Effective Teams. Public
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Murthy, M. N. (2013). A study on Employee Attitude. Review of HRM, 2, 331-339.

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Staddon, J. E. R., & Cerutti, D. T. (2003). Operant Conditioning. Annual Review of Psychology,
54(1), 115. https://doi-org.library.open.uwi.edu/10.1146/annurev.psych.54.101601.145124

Tadayon Nabavi, Razieh. (2012). Bandura's Social Learning Theory & Social Cognitive
Learning Theory.
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l_Cognitive_Learning_Theory

Tuckman, B. W., & Jensen, M. A. C. (2010). Stages of small-group development Revisited1.

Group Facilitation, (10), 43-48. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-
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