West Coast Transit Case
The West Coast Transit case study gives an example of a team that is at odds with itself. There is lack of respect, appreciation, and aim overall. The marketing team has been tasked with rescuing the company before its competition bests it in the market place. However, the team is simply not where it needs to be: Jing is leaving soon, Tanney has personnel issues that are distracting her from work, Mahonney maintains composure but offers little in the way of positivity, and Denson loses his temper completely in his attempt to orient the team to achieve its task. This paper will show how the West Coast Transit team could get back on track by getting pat the first stage of Tuckman’s Five—the forming stage. In the following pages, effective management at West Coast Transit will be analyzed with focus given to the stages of group formation, behavioral roles, communication, conflict and conflict management, and how motivational theories apply.
Effective Team / Group Work
The three criteria for evaluating an effective team are (a) productivity, (b) personal satisfaction, and (c) commitment to the members of the team (Schermerhorn & Uhl-Bien, 2014). Productive teams are those that achieve the goals assigned to them on time and within the limitations of their budget. Personal satisfaction refers to the personal joy that each team member gets out of working in the team, and commitment refers to the extent to which the team members are committed to helping one another achieve both the goals of the team and also of the individual members. In order for a team to be effective and engage in group work successfully, it must demonstrate the ability to be productive, achieve a degree of personal satisfaction and show that its members are supportive and committed to one another.
The West Coast Transit team fails to meet these criteria and is therefore ineffective as a team. As Schermerhorn and Uhl-Bien (2014) point out, effective teams are motivated, have the same values, support one another socially and emotionally, and are committed to meeting performance goals. The West Coast Transit team’s members all have too much going on individually to really be productive as a unit. They are not personally invested in the project placed upon them and so are unlikely to get personal satisfaction from it; and they do not demonstrate support for or commitment to one another. Jing, for example, is taking a new...
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