MODULE 1

MODULE

Justin Mulholland

BUS 343

Prof. Emily Mertz

28 Aug 2018
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Module 1

Introduction

Leadership and team building have been an important topic of discussion in the recent

years due the increasing interest by big business to better serve their workers at all levels. These

changes have impacted the way we as students study leadership. Numerous companies have

adopted different practices to empower their worker to become more engrained in the teamwork

side of the house. This practice has showed gaping holes in the understanding of how teams can

work together as one cohesive unit to better solve problems at hand.

Prompt 1

One of the key areas of chapter 5 is the essential conditions for successful team

performance. Thompson shows this broken up into 3 respective conditions. (Thompson Pg:114)

The first condition is “Possesses the relevant expertise to preform task”. (Thompson Pg:114)

This condition is further described as KSA (Knowledge, Skills, Ability) and means that a leader

must tasks those under him/her appropriately to ensure the best possible outcome. (Thompson

Pg:115) “Being engaged and motivated to perform the task” is the second condition. (Thompson

Pg:114) This condition is described as needing a strong psychological flow and also having the

right amount of engagement in the said task. (Thompson Pg:117-118) The third and final

condition is “Execute the task by coordinating with other team members”. (Thompson Pg:114)

Team cohesion is a very important part of this condition due to the importance of being able to

approach task and all be moving towards a common goal. (Thompson Pg:125). With all of this

being said I feel that the list is very encompassing and is broad enough to cover many points. I

do however feel that one of the most important parts of this list is being engaged. This all too

often is forgotten about by leaders. Someone who is engaged and motivated is able to positively
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effect those around them and typically leads to the team being able to accomplish almost any

task at hand.

Social loafing is a term used to describe a motivation loss as the team size grows.

(Thompson Pg:119) This phenomenon is caused by an increase of personal in a team which

directly correlates to a diminished effort from individuals working towards the same goal. I think

one of the best ways to combat social loafing lies directly on the leader’s ability to motivate the

team. A team that’s members is motivated usually wants the team to meet its common goal with

the best possible result. I do however feel that each team member being responsible for a certain

piece of the overall goal does prevent this as well. As a recruiter for the United States Air Force,

I was assigned a portion of our overall goal for the month me meeting my monthly mark meant

that I had contributed my part to the team’s mission. This did however create an unpleasant

dynamic if your flight mate did not meet his or her mark and you had extra to give to the group.

When this happened it often had a ripple effect for months to come because it enabled those not

doing their part to skate by causing the social loafing effect.

Prompt 2

In this TED talk we see a non-profit Engineering Without Borders explain the cycle of

AID and how it is currently not working to the best of it potential. This companies struggle can

be directly analysed using performance criteria to ensure that their team is working to the best of

its ability. Productivity in the performance criteria can be defined as “Did the team achieve its

goals?” (Thompson Pg:128) I think that in the case of Engineering Without Boarders the initial

answer is no they did not, however there redefined goal of getting better and not making the

same mistakes twice was a success. This second part is an important factor to concider when

speaking about success. Everyone defines what is success differently. Some say that the hard
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goal from the beginning of the project that is set with deadlines and a vision on a completed

product is most important. I tend to think that the bigger picture is more important. By this I

mean in the course of our team working together did we accomplish a quantifiable amount of

positive outcome? If the answer is yes then the team is in a much better place than when they

started. Cohesion is another staple in the performance criteria eluding to the question of “Did the

team work well together?” (Thompson Pg:129) In this case this non-profit was able to come

together as a team and make the unpopular decision of reporting all of the failures. I believe that

this shoes that the team is able to come together as one unit and perform. Learning is another

important part of team performance. Engineering Without Boarders was able to learn from their

mistakes and change their focuses for the non-profit to become more successful in achieving

their goals. The final criteria evaluated is integration. This step refers to the process of the

organization benefiting from the team. (Thompson Pg:130) I believe that the Canadian chapter of

this organization was the driving factor to Engineering Without Boarders being successful. This

small group was able to identify a problem and be the change agent for a positive impact on

future projects. Looking at this non-profit from these steps I belive that they are a great

demonstration of a team with positive characterises and a model of what teamwork encompasses.

References

Thompson, L. L. (2018). Making the team: A guide for managers (6th ed.). New York, NY:

Pearson.