Case Study

Student Name

Student e-mail

MGMT591

Leadership and Organizational Behavior

Professor Russell Wright

January 26th 2014

Part I: Group Development
After reading the case study “Building a Coalition” I think that within the five-stage group-development model described in our textbook the group involved in the case is somewhere between the forming stage and storming stage, I can see signs of both stages at the same time.

The textbook says that during the forming stage - first stage of group development - is characterized by a great deal of uncertainty about the group’s purpose, structure, and leadership. Members “test the waters” to determine what types of behaviors are acceptable. This stage is complete
Creating a structured team and assigning the roles properly can be taken as one of most relevant.
As the textbook says - to increase the likelihood the team members will work well together, managers need to understand the individual strengths each person can bring to a team, select members with their strengths in mind, and allocate work assignments that fit with members’ preferred styles. (Robbins 317)
I can suggest 2 approaches to form a team and allocate roles in the case:
1. Assign roles on the basis of tenure and individual contribution. The longer the tenure is the more superior role the member takes in the group.

Pros: Unique experience and expertise brought to the table by members with longer tenure can make a huge contribution to solving the problem and allow coming up with most comprehensive and appropriate solution possible. Some ongoing problems might be solved faster and more efficient as the members with longer work history could have faced them in the past already and resolved them successfully.

Cons: Possible discrimination of members with less tenure and favoritism towards members with longer tenure. Members with longer tenure sometimes are reluctant to embrace changes or new techniques of problem solving along with having tendency to be very dominant in group decision-making. Having longer tenure sometimes is not equal to being successful in the past, and having a leader with average abilities can lead to average