Case Study - The Forgotten Group Member
Helen M. Gales
GM591 - Leadership and Organizational Behavior
Keller Graduate School of Management
Professor Leo Shelton
July 23, 2012
Case Study - The Forgotten Group Member
Part 1: Group Development In looking over the details given for the case, the group appears to still be in the Storming stage. While some of the team has come together and are providing their assigned portions of the class project, they still are not a cohesive, and functioning team; due to one of their team members being preoccupied with outside demands and not really coming together with the rest of the team. By having a better understanding of the stages of group development, Christine would have had a better idea
Part IV: Reflection Christine was an okay team leader, but was unable to reach a higher level due to her concern for herself and her own grade, instead of the needs of all of her team members. As the text states if goals and rewards are focused too much on individual-level instead of group level accomplishments the team can suffer as well. Given the limited information concerning the initial meeting of the group, the first assumption made is that the forming stage was not thoroughly examined. One of the things that needed to be delved into on the first meeting was a detailed list of what needed to be done in order to complete the assignment with all of the necessary data and in the allotted amount of time. At this point everyone needed to give their input as to what they were not only capable of doing, but what they were willing and had time to do. In doing this every member of the team has the satisfaction of being heard, and having active participation in deciding what will be done by whom. In starting out this way Christine would have had more of the valuable information she needed about to team members to lead them to a successful completion of the project. It would also provide her with the information she needs about each team member on their strengths and weaknesses and what processes she can implement to keep them motivated. The text also indicates that with a group this size, that by redefining the roles it makes the free riders more visible and