Leadership and Teams Essay

Satya Maulana

Student ID: 061977

Module Code: CLS1001

Henry Ford once said, "If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of

itself" (Ford, 2013). In the past weeks, I have been working together with a group of diverse and

hardworking people to make a video about consumer behaviour. The quote mentioned before, to

me it reflected on how the group was able to work efficiently and successfully. This essay will

provide a critical reflection to the group, apply motivational, leadership and social identity theories

that are relevant to the team experience, and provide a conclusion and implications for future

practices. During our first interaction, we brainstormed ideas that might prove to be relevant later

in our video. We concluded choosing to discuss the ethical side of consumer behaviour by

comparing and contrasting two distinctive companies. Finally, we reached the company of our

choice to be Microsoft and the Plant Cafe.

Microsoft doesn't need an introduction to what it is and what it does because it is a pioneer

in innovation and technology in the 21st century, with almost every student in university uses their

products and is the fourth most recognisable brand in the world (Chapman, 2016). Microsoft's

corporate social responsibility mainly revolves around educational and healthcare philanthropy.

For example, in 2017 they donated $1.4 worth of software and services to non-profit organisations.

Their owner Bill Gates has his charitable foundation called the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
in which they provide healthcare services to rural countries of the world in South America, Africa,

and Oceania.

Contrarily, the Plant Cafe is a small vegetarian cafe that caters to any specific dietary

requirements which its unique selling proposition. They have a zero-waste policy, using recyclable

packaging, composting waste and the use of biodegradable cleaning products. These policies that

the Plant Cafe applies makes them unique and gives quite a trustworthy brand image to its

consumers. In fact, they not only attract vegans, but the most carnivorous customers also find

themselves satisfied with the kind of meal they make. The cafe has received numerous positive

feedbacks from its customers to be an environmentally healthy and family-friendly small business.

With their ethical practice, the Plant Cafe can be an inspiration to existing and developing business

here in Exeter to be more environmentally friendly. It can be argued that they're a stepping stone

to this small town's adoption to sustainably ethical companies.

Because in the contemporary business environment, ethics is undeniably a significant

factor in determining how a business can stay sustainable in its area as they need to have

accountability for their operations. Stakeholders are becoming more aware and cautious when it

comes to dealing with companies which do not have ethical practices in their activities. For

example, in 2015 Adidas partnered up with Parley for the oceans, a non-profit organisation, to

make apparels from top to bottom entirely made of yarn recycled from ocean waste and illegal

deep-sea gill nets. This partnership was proven to be mutually beneficial to both Adidas and Parley

because not only did they sold over 1 million pairs of sneakers worldwide during their first outing,

this partnership increased Adidas' accountability for social responsibility. It also increased Parley's

brand awareness as they're just a starting NGO, now they have numerous collaborations with large
companies such as Corona and Stella McCartney. This movement can eventually lead to a change

in the fashion industry regarding the materials used to make apparel.

By analysing these two companies, we were able to provide our target audience with an

insight into the ethics of consumer behaviour in both the global and local scale. Albeit it seems

unfair to compare these two companies at first, however, they correspond to each other to an extent.

The products that they produce are used in our daily basis, as coffee is frequently associated with

work and study. Most people who work and study use Microsoft products such as Word, Excel

and Powerpoint as a tool to present ideas. Therefore, it's safe to say that these two companies have

a connection to one another to a certain extent.

The group that I worked with were mature and professional as we got along quickly, there

was no conflict with one another, everyone knew what they had to do, and during the first

interaction, we determine the roles each member. Since I am aware that English is not my first

language and since most of the people that were in the group were Englishmen, it was decided

upon that they do the narrative of the video. Our group consisted of six people; one had to edit the

video, one shot the scenes, which left the four of us to divide ourselves into two smaller groups

where one focused on Microsoft and the other on the Plant Cafe. The two would write the script,

and the other two will have to be the speaker. My job was to write a script for the Plant Cafe, and

I had to research the business by actually going there myself, this is because the Cafe lacks a

presence in social media platforms. During the group report, I had to write for the Plant Cafe's part

which was about 200 words. I chose to write because that was what I'm good at and I had pleasure
in writing essays and scripts. Each member of the group member had a particular skill in which

each of us had to put in, in a way our style was specialisation.

We did not have a group leader. However, we do have one member who is implicitly the

leader because he took care of the overall project regarding providing us submission due dates for

each member's task, this led the group to have order and conscientiousness. We each knew what

we had to do and when we had to finish it by. The group was quite in harmony, and we even

finished two weeks early before the submission date. The group did not talk all that much, and we

would have meetings occasionally. However, our chemistry was not that strong. We did not discuss

anything outside of work.

In my point of view, our group worked efficiently and successfully as we drew the

connections and comparison of the two businesses. And I feel that our video effectively delivered

a message to the audience about the importance of ethics in consumer behaviour in the

contemporary business environment. It was entirely different from my other groups such as theory

and practice of management and marketing. This difference is because of other two groups that I

worked in had strong chemistry in which we would have weekly meetings while on the other hand,

the leadership and teams group we would have meetings every two weeks. I also felt that it was

more comfortable working with my other two groups compared to this one which is understandable

because the other groups' projects were presentations and this one was a video. Nevertheless, it

was a pleasure working with these people, and I'm glad that everything went well.
 Throughout this course, I was taught numerous theories about motivation, social identity,

leadership and teams. And from what I've learned during the course I will be applying theories and

methods that may show the reason why my group worked effectively.

The first theory is the big five aspect scale traits which are extraversion, agreeableness,

conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness. The way I see it is that, based on the effectiveness

that we had, each member had two of five of the prominent traits which are agreeableness and

conscientiousness. The group even though we've just met, had a considerably high amount of trust

put into each other to finish their job on time which I consider to be impressive. Our cooperation

went well and uncomplicated as people were on time to complete each of their tasks. Furthermore,

the group also shows high levels of conscientiousness as each of us were all top achievement-

seeking people that are familiar with orderliness and self-discipline. Consequently, these two traits

play a vital role in making our group work effectively and efficiently.

However, that being said, our group had flaws regarding openness, we did not explore new

ideas to make our video creative and fun, we just used simple methods that were used by a lot of

groups as well. We weren't that open to each other despite our friendliness. We did not seek

excitement-seeking elements which could've made the video more, and we also didn't show any

signs of erratic behaviour throughout the whole project. Everyone was calm and relaxed because

we had a plan and all we had to do is execute that plan and get it over with, that was the mindset

this group had. Nonetheless, that kind of mentality was proven to be useful as this was, with all

due respect an elective class in which the project was a video presentation. It did not require us to
invest that much time into it because we had other assignments from our mandatory classes. It also

didn't need us to have that much chemistry because none of us appeared in the video, we only

projected our ideas through voice recordings with the addition of pictures and videos gathered by

the group.

Perhaps with more openness and extraversion, not only would the video look more exciting

and fun but also the experience we all have as a team could've been more memorable. The

evaluation of the group shows that conscientiousness is a defining factor of success as we were

well-organised regarding our orderliness, achievement-seeking, and had self-disciplined manner.

Two aspects of conscientiousness include industriousness and orderliness, throughout the group

project it showed that we had high levels of those two aspects. This is because we finish our tasks

on schedule and we also try to figure out ways to accomplish more in less time. Our elements high

levels of agreeableness also made it simpler and quicker for us in decision-making scenarios, as

we had trust in one another to finish our tasks. These two factors are the main reason and strengths

in why we as a team were cooperative and had no conflict.

However, I have to acknowledge that we had low levels of extraversion and openness

throughout the project. It was evident that our video was not the top of our class regarding quality

because we didn't explore and open ourselves to other ideas that would make the video interesting

and unique. We were all friendly to each other, that's for sure. However, our basis was not

excitement seeking it was achievement seeking. Therefore, we exclude ourselves from the ideas

of making the video exciting because we lacked enthusiasm and assertiveness, which could've
been a defining factor to us getting better marks, as it would show that we have a higher interest

in this project and the class itself.

It's also fortunate that none of us showed any signs of neuroticism because that element

could've dragged the team's orderly structure. Negative factors such as anxiety, irritation, and

unhappiness may cause problems to a group's chemistry and whether or not they can work

effectively. With neuroticism consisting of two aspects which are withdrawal and volatility, we

showed a moderately high level of withdrawall being that we don't approach new, complex,

uncertain and unexpected situations. We'd rather stick to the plan and carry out the first consensus

made by the group which I see as a weakness to an extent. Our low levels of volatility are a

strength to us because don't express any frustration, irritability and disappointment. Therefore, we

were relaxed and still carry out our tasks without any emotional interference. Using the big five

aspect scale, we can see our strengths and weaknesses as a group along with each of its advantages

and disadvantages.

The next theory I will explore that is relevant to the team experience is a motivational

theory by Frederick Herzberg, where he identified that there are two factors to how a team or an

organisation can deliver efficiency and satisfying results. These two factors are hygiene needs and

motivational needs. Hygiene needs are essential factors that may give dissatisfaction in the work

area if they are not present. A relevant example would be, a person would not be motivated if their

classroom is dirty or the apparatuses do not work correctly. And if these things are met to a

satisfactory level then people won't be demotivated, the University provides a working

environment that is clean and offers proper apparatus, this is a factor that to an extent drives student
to work effectively. However, it is only a small extent because hygiene factors are the factors that

are necessary for people to get started in getting interested in the first place, but they don't

necessarily drive teams and individuals to succeed.

What drives teams and individuals to success, according to Herzberg's theory is the

motivational needs. Motivational needs refer to the things that people work to get them intrinsic

rewards such as recognition that people get from their groups for contributing a part in their team.

Herzberg argued that achievement, recognition, the work itself, responsibility and advancement

are factors that are the real motivators of effectiveness and success. This is because unlike the

hygiene needs that are expedient, the motivational needs are meaningful. Herzberg's theory is

relevant to the group I worked with because we give each other autonomy, responsibility and

respect for each of their work. Also, we applied a democratic style of management which makes

the people in the group feel recognition and included. Following Herzberg's theory, this is the real

motivating factor to effectiveness and success within a group, and it is evident that when given

intrinsic rewards, my group was able to work with harmony, albeit with low levels of enthusiasm,

regardless it was a pleasure working with the group.

To summarise, in the light of the points raised above, using the big five aspect scale and

Herzberg's theory, I learned from my experience that personalities such as conscientiousness and

openness to experience are a vital trait that may determine whether or not a group can work

productively and creatively or merely the opposite. Perhaps I could've been more extroverted and

explore elements that can make the presentation more interesting. Our low levels of enthusiasm

and openness got in the way of us being creative and adventurous to the new and unexpected. What
facilitated the ability of my group and myself to work together is the intrinsic motivational values

that we receive which according to Herzberg are autonomy, respect and recognition to name a few.

Additionally, I have and will keep on applying Herzberg's theory to any of my group projects

because it has been proven to be effective. Furthermore, it has truly been a pleasure and experience

to have been taught these theories and given a chance to practice them in the group project. I will

surely make use of the knowledge I've gained during the course in the professional working

environment.

Word Count: 2493

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