TEAM PROJECT 2.

TEAM 10

Patricia Alcantara

Kylee Knighten

Karla Miranda

Vanessa Almeida *dropped the class*

February 16, 2021
Part I
Life History Interview Karla Miranda

We had the privilege of interviewing Karla Miranda. Karla is from Santa Clarita,
California. Karla grew up as a very shy little girl who was alone all the time. She was a
follower as a child. Karla’s family moved a lot which could be the reason for these
feelings. It was hard to make friends. She was social with her teacher, a” teacher’s pet”,
as she stated. At ten years old she was an introvert who was bullied often in fourth
grade she wanted to be noticed by Mrs. Hirano in her GATE class (GATE class is gifted
and talented education). Karla was always in honors classes. Mrs. Hirano always
selected Karla to help with the students who were struggling or behind. This was a great
opportunity for a shy student to stand out. She enjoyed helping others. Mrs. Hirano
always praised Karla. At eleven years old Karla moved to Palmdale, California, and she
a made new friend. She was happy because they got along well because they both
loved to read books, especially during lunch time. In sixth grade she met her (still) best
friend Lupita. They enjoyed friendly competitions together even through high school.
Karla’s mom was a huge influence in her childhood. She was a single mom always
going above and beyond for her and their family. Karla is the eldest sibling, so she was
definitely setting a good example for her younger siblings. Karla’s aunt, Norma was
someone Karla looked up to because she was the first to graduate high school from the
family (in the United States, since her family migrated from El Salvador), She had a
great work ethic and Karla aspired to be like her when she was younger. In senior year
Karla joined the ASB (associated student body) with Lupita and she then transformed
into a social butterfly. She collaborated with other students to host events which is what
the ASB was about. Karla ran for school ASB treasurer and she was selected. She
graduated high school in 2008 and went on to attend community college at Antelope
valley college. She attended college at the time for one year because she had to stop
and get a job to help with her family, when her parents decided to divorce in 2009.
During this time, she obtained her first job as receptionist in a medical clinic. Karla’s
first manager’s name was Kristina. She saw potential in Karla for one day to become
the manager at the clinic. Kristina would delegate her duties on to Karla since she knew
she was capable of doing many skills and tasks. Kristina saw her drive while working.
Kristina thought highly of her because of her work ethic. This clinic got shut down
forcing Karla to find work elsewhere. Karla’s mom managed a senior care facility so in
2010 Karla went to work with her mom. Any work was good because it was income to
help at home. She was out of work for two months. She applied at Prime-time nutrition
and was hired on the spot. Petra was Karla’s manager during that time and she always
encouraged her to get into management because of her ability to do the job so well.
Petra spoke highly of Karla to her peers to get promoted but she was only 19 at the time
and the upper management felt she was too young and would not be able to take care
of responsibility. Karla was taught the importance of supporting the team. She took
pride in her work ethic. During the same time, she obtained her job at Prime- Time
nutrition, Karla met her husband who is a little older than her and always encouraged
her to evolve. Even so, to change her job and get into her career. She was able to
obtain a job doing audits in elderly homes which was like social work but without a
degree. Her manager was Crystal and she always acknowledged Karla as professional
which made her feel important. In 2011 Karla got pregnant and was then laid off from
her job. They made excuses as to why, but she knew it was because of her pregnancy.
Karla was now a stay at home mom for some time and then her mom told her about an
eight-week dental assisting school program which she did attend and graduated from.
This program did have a job placement which was also great especially having that
back up plan after graduation. Carlos hired Karla as a dental assistant, and she was
happy to be working. Shortly after he began sexually harassing her and others at the
place of employment and it was difficult for her because she needed this job and was
very dependent on that job. In 2014, Karla got pregnant again and she became a stay at
home mom again, even more her husband wanted her to quit that job. In 2015, her
husband’s clinic shut down and this forced Karla to get back to work and help the family.
In 2015 Karla got her job at Starbucks. Her managers name was Ceci. She was always
willing to help Karla. Ceci sat down with Karla and asked her what her plans in the
future were with Starbucks. Karla’s plan was to develop within the company, Ceci then
offered Karla, the barista trainer job role. It was difficult for Karla to continue to grow and
develop since her husband worked during the day and she worked in the evenings. The
manager at the time couldn’t really see her growth and potential. In March of 2016 her
husband was laid off which made it available for Karla to work full time and show her
manager the potential of growing in the company. Unfortunately, Ceci had an accident
at work and fell, this put Ceci out of the company for some time. This stopped Karla
from being developed by Ceci during this time.
Meanwhile another manager took over Karla’s store her name was, Ladawn (back of
house manager). Ladawn did not support her team nor did she supervise the team, she
was very unethical. Karla’s manager Ladawn also exemplified task-process conflict. “…
conflicts about logistical and delegation issues, such as how to proceed and allocate
work,” (Thompson, p. 211). The team referred to Ladawn as a “back of house manager”
because she was never in the front greeting customers or assisting with orders. Ladawn
didn’t delegate tasks, resulting in the floors being dirty and dishes not getting done.
She would leave without telling her team and go smoke in her car. She never assisted
at the front of house, where it was most busy. All the management was crossed trained
at this store location, so they were able to cycle routinely. Ladawn was eventually
terminated from Starbucks. In Chapter 3 Leading Teams, Thompson discusses the
three uses of power in leadership and team members: overuse, abdication and
managing the resource. The first is overuse which was clearly portrayed in 2015 of
Karla’s Starbucks experience. Karla had a manager named Ladawn who she describes
as unethical and demanding. According to Thompson overuse of power is when “The
team member uses her or her power to exert influence over most aspects of group
functioning and to dominate the team,” (Thompson, p.73).
Eventually, Ceci came back but was later promoted to a bigger store and she wanted
Karla to go with, Karla declined since she knew her current team needed her. That says
a lot about Karla and her work ethic all together. A new manager named Christina came
into their location and she was there to make the store better. On a positive note the
third component in team performance is learning. Karla told us how she learned a great
deal from her manager Christina. “Simply stated, teams should provide growth and
development opportunities for the individual needs of the members. People have a need
for growth, development and fulfillment,” (Thompson, p.131). Christina taught Karla to
“to have a growth mindset and not a fixed mindset”. She learned to keep striving for
what she wanted and to not take no for an answer when she knew she could find a way.
In 2019 Karla’s husband found a new place of employment and they had to move to
Santa Clarita, California. She also then found out about the Starbucks Scholarship
program and she spoke with her manager about how to utilize this assistance. She had
to transfer locations and was nervous about this move because it was a new store and
all new employees. We know for anyone that change is never easy but as humans we
just learn to adapt. Sammie and Danielle were her new leadership team members.
Dave was her new manager at this location. Dave was the back of house manager and
was unsupportive with his team members. The tasks that needed to get done daily were
not getting done. Dave was also sexually harassing employees; time clock fraud and
the store was always dirty. Relationship conflict is more likely to occur when teams
experience abusive supervision,” Throughout Karla’s work history she has experienced
multiple abusive supervisors. Unfortunately, both encounters involved sexual abuse and
made not only Karla but many others uncomfortable. Karla describes feeling trapped as
though if she spoke up no one would listen or that there was no evidence of this
misconduct. In the text Thompson describes the context in which conflict occurs:
“Relationship conflict is not always expressed via open shouting matches, “(Thompson,
p. 199). Karla was a lead supervisor and she quickly implemented new work ethics and
managing the store in a style that would benefit everyone even the store itself. Dave
was finally terminated, and a new store manager, Marissa replaced him. Marissa helped
mold Karla. She pushed her. She didn’t take no for an answer and she would always
find ways to make things work. She would even write recognition cards for Karla. They
made their team stronger together. Marissa and Karla were able to delegate task
among the team members and ran the most efficient team together. They knew how to
communicate well together to keep the store going and the team motivated. This was all
a growing and learning curve that was great for Karla as it has all helped shape and
mold her into the person she is today. In the text Thompson lists four key components
for team performance: productivity, cohesion, learning, and integration. In 2016 Karla’s
manager, Dave was fired and replaced by Marissa. Marissa and Karla worked very well
together, in fact they received recognition from their regional as having the fastest drive
through wait time (45 seconds). Their team was extremely productive because of the
cohesion that Marissa and Karla had. “For teams, cohesion refers to the processes that
keep members of a team united,” (Thompson, p.130).  
Shortly after, Marissa was doing an amazing job with the team that the District Manager
decided to promote her to a high-volume store which then left the current store Karla
was working at replaced by a new manager named Shelby. Shelby was shy and had no
confidence in herself. Shelby would always ask Karla for input first, which is fine but as
a leader you should know your work and values to be able to handle the job at hand.
Karla was her support system. Shelby trusted Karla. Every day we get the opportunity to
learn but it’s what we want to take from it to lead by example and use it to teach and
help guide others. Karla, thank you for allowing us to listen and learn from you. We
appreciate your time and wish you nothing but successful in your future.
Part II: Team Debrief
NAME OF TEAM Team Performance

PREPARATION 3
Research, reading, and
assignment complete

ATTENDANCE 4
On-time and stayed for
duration

PARTICIPATION 3
Contributed best academic
ability

INTERPERSONAL 2
RELATIONS
Positive and productive

BETWEEN MEETING 4
COMMUNICATION
Initiated and responded
appropriately

EFFECTIVE USE OF 4
TECHNOLOGY
Used multiple forms of
technology for virtual
meetings and
communication
OVERALL
PERFORMANCE SCORE 21

As we conclude our participation in our team project, we have accomplished

different techniques used to work in a virtual group. Working in a virtual group can be
challenging. There were certain factors that didn’t align with time. Tricia lives in
Chicago, and Kylee and Karla both live in California. Although it was tough to set-up a
time that worked well with the team, we were able to communicate and agree on a
schedule that would work for our group. “When a group is given a specific amount of
time to do a job, its members adjust their behaviors to fit whatever time is available”
(Thompson, pp.31, 2018). Given that we were in different time zones, our team showed
the best effort to work with each other and come to an agreement that the assignment
was important to all of us. Despite the fact that we are in different states and had no
face-to-face communication, we learned to trust each other by learning about our past
experiences and what were our current strengths and weaknesses, “When a team’s
relationship is purely virtual, the basis for trust is mainly based on a valuation of each
member’s cognitive abilities”(Thompson, pp.313, 2018).
 After closely examining our team, we concluded that, to improve our overall
performance we must prioritize being organized and communicating within each other if
we needed assistance in our project assignments,” The problems in communication and
coordination are compounded when the medium of communication is less
rich”( Thompson, pp.127, 2018). With Project II, it was difficult to complete the tasks
given and to deliver them by the expected goal time. The factors that contributed to the
completion of the tasks were that the team members had finals for other courses and
personal issues arising. This led the delay of presenting the project within the rest of the
group members to obtain feedback and submit the final project. If we had
communicated with each other about the problems that were presented, we could have
changed routines around and submitted the project by an earlier time.
One of the elements of the Team Debrief evaluation our team did well on was
participation. Our team had a shared goal which was to successfully complete the
Project. Each of the team members took initiative and chose what part of the project
they wanted to work on. The team was eager to work on the final project as we all had a
high goal fit, “occurs when the members have shared goals and collectively pursue
those goals” (Thompson, pp.29, 2018). Since we had obtained the experience from
Project I, we were able to learn from our previous mistakes and use what was taught to
create a successful project.

An element in our Team Debrief evaluation that our team needs to improve on is
interpersonal relations for this project. In our previous project this was a stronger
element. In this project it felt as if we were timorous in asking our fellow team members
for assistance. The way that we can complete this is by being trustworthy and having a
stronger communication within each other. The plan for improvement in the future is to
be communicative within other group members and speak up when there seems to be
an issue within ourselves. In the future we can use the organizational bricolage
technique, “restructure their activities by role shifting, reorganizing routines, and
reassembling their work” (Thompson, pp.18, 2018). By using the organizational
bricolage technique, we can find ways to reorganize project assignments that will fit the
needs of the team. As we are communicating and trusting each other, we are
collaborating in the accomplishment of our goals .

References

Thompson, L. L. (2018). Making the team: A guide for managers (6th ed.). NY, NY: Pearson.
Tricia’s Notes:
Kylee’s Notes