COURSE: LEADERSHIP, ENGAGEMENT, AND PEOPLE PERFORMANCE

CASE STUDY: THE TEAM THAT WASN’

Student Name: Amal Stephen

Question I
: 1. A brief summary of the problems faced by FineArt (100-150
words)
Answer:

 FireArt’s sales have remained stagnant over the past 18

months.
 Large glassmaking industries have entered FireArt’s niche
market, bringing with them superior resources and technology.
Over time, these competitors are expected to dominate
FireArt’s market.
 Inefficient teamwork among top-level managers, particularly
Randy, has been a major issue at FireArt.
 Randy has either dominated or disrupted meetings,
disregarding others’ opinions and views.
 Lack of synergy among team members has further contributed
to the team’s inefficiency.
 Eric has struggled to use conflict resolution techniques
effectively, resulting in unresolved conflicts among team
members.
 Eric has been too passive and has not exercised his authority
effectively.

Eric has also struggled to resolve the rising conflicts among team
members.
Question II 2. List and elaborate on two ways which Eric Holt and CEO
Jack Derry can take in order to intrinsically and extrinsically
motivate the team. (200-250 words)

a. Intrinsic motivators and its elaboration

b. Extrinsic motivators and its elaboration

Answer:
Intrinsic Motivators:

(i) Building trust and respect:

It is evident that the team lacks trust in one another. To foster trust,
it's crucial to provide opportunities for team members to establish
informal relationships where they can freely share non-work-
related thoughts. This can be achieved through activities such as
out-of-office catch-ups, team dinners or lunches, and team-
building exercises.

(ii) Purpose:

Team members must be reminded of their purpose within Eric

Holt's Strategic team. Since team members come from different
divisions, they may not fully grasp the significance of these team
meetings. Eric and Jack should make a concerted effort to instill a
sense of purpose. Upon forming the team, they should hold a
meeting to explain the team's purpose and clarify each team
member's roles and responsibilities.

Extrinsic Motivators:
 (i) Rewards:

The CEO and Eric can offer monetary rewards to top-performing

employees. This incentive can encourage employees to become
more competitive and deliver their best results.

(ii) Promotion:
The CEO and Eric can consider promotions for employees who
contribute innovative and financially beneficial ideas. This
would demonstrate to employees that their efforts are recognized
and valued.

Question III 3. Evaluate the 'conflict' and 'commitment' dysfunction of the

FineArt team quoting two strong instances from the case study (150-
200 words)
a. 2 instances of conflict dysfunction and its evaluation

b. 2 instances of commitment dysfunction and its evaluation

Answer:

Conflict dysfunction:

During first meeting Randy commented "Leader’s lead,

followers, please pipe down!". Though the group laughed in
response but no one in the room liked this comment. Since there
is lack of trust, we see that there are conflicting statements made
by the team members.

Another instance where Randy disrupted discussion during

second meeting. He either shot down other people's ideas or
simply didn't pay attention. When one of the team members
asked him to list FireArt's five largest customers, he replied "I'll
have my assistant look into it when he gets a moment", as if he is
not serious to answer the questions.

Commitment dysfunction:

During the third meeting, at first it looked as though the group

were making good progress. Ray LaPierre, Maureen Turner and
the distribution director, Carl Simmons had presented cost
cutting proposals and there were healthy discussions about the
proposals were on going. It was when Carl began to describe his
proposal in detail, Randy brought the meeting to an unpleasant
halt by saying "Let's just do everything, why don't we, including
the redesign the kitchen sink!". That remark sent Carl back
quickly to his seat, where he halfheartedly summed up his
comments. A few minutes later, he excused himself, saying he
had another meeting. Soon the others made excuses to leave, too,
and the room became empty. This instance tells us that though
there were healthy conflicts, but the team lacked the
commitment.

Another instance was during the fourth meeting, where Eric

decided to discuss about the group itself and discuss openly
about the Randy's attitude. The team directly confronted Randy
about his attitude and behavior, though he seemed to be sorry
with his words but was not really serious from his heart. When
Eric began to talk and bring back the discussion on the actual
topics, he was cut short by Randy's pencil tapping on the table. A
moment later Ray stood and said, "Forget it, this is never going
to work", and he headed for the door. Other two followed him to
go out of the room. This instance also tells us about the lack of
commitment.
Question IV 4.
a. Analyse Jack Derry as an inspirational leader of his organisation
under sensing, relating, visioning and executing (100-150 words)

b. Recommend any changes or alternative steps that Jack Derry

could have taken to be a more effective leader (100-150 words)

A. Answer:

Sensing:

Jack Derry was quick to realize that moving forward, growth can
only be achieved when the internal working of the organization is
improved. Because he didn't take active participation in the team
meetings once Eric took over, he didn't have first-hand
information of what issues were prevailing in the team.

Relating:

Jack Derry was very low on the relating aspect of leadership. He

didn't seek to be reassuring, especially in times of crisis, and didn't
try to reach out to the people at FireArt. There was lack of
strategical and operational networking between the leaders of
different departments in the organization as it is quite evident as
the leaders didn't get along well in Eric's team.

Visioning:

Jack Derry lacked vision, as he created a team without any

mission statement and vision statement. As there was no clear
direction, guidelines or agenda set by him to ensure company's
strategic Realignment. There was lack of problem statement,
timelines, and expectations from employees.

Executing:

Jack Derry was satisfactory when it came to execution part of

leadership qualities. He mobilized a team to work on issue to
achieve positive growth for the company and to handle the
competition from its Competitors He was not proactive in being
part of the team meetings and discussing different perspectives of
their employees.
B. Answer:

Recommendation:

Jack should set a clear objective for the team. He should clear the
agenda about what are the main objectives they are looking to
achieve and what is the problem statement.

He should implement proper structure and step analysis for the

meeting. He should implement conflict resolution methods with
the help of Eric between Randy and other team members.

He should proactively demand minutes of meetings of progress

from Eric, which can be employed to create a sense of urgency
and encourage inclusivity.

He should reward employees for their ideas and incentives

employees who complete their objective within given timeline.