West Coast Transit Case Study

The criteria for team effectiveness include productivity, personal satisfaction, and commitment from team members to one another. In the case study of West Coast Transit, the firm is at a critical juncture in its business: a competitor is beating it in terms of pricing, sales are dropping, and the marketing team must act fast to regain market share or layoffs are very likely to occur. For Pete Denson, Lea Jing, Jon Mahonney, and Katarina Tanney, the pressure is building. Jing alone seems poised, composed and ready to tackle obstacles—but she is leaving in a month for a new assignment. Tanney is facing personal/family issues outside of work and they are weighing on her. Mahonney is calm but does not contribute much other than to place the focus back on Jing and Tanney. Denson loses his cool and explodes at the team—“We all have problems, we all have complaints. Let’s just all get it out now! Are there any other complaints?” (Grand Canyon University, 2016, p. 2)—which prompts Tanney to walk out. This paper will analyze the case study by comparing Denson’s team to how an effective team should look and operate by moving through all five of Tuckman’s stages, communicating, and leading.

An effective team is one that is productive, personally satisfied, and committed to its members (Schermerhorn & Uhl-Bien, 2014). Teams should be motivated, committed by a shared sense of values, emotionally stable and supportive, and dedicated to achieving performance benchmarks (Schermerhorn & Uhl-Bien, 2014). Denson’s team in the West Coast Transit case study is not operating effectively. The team is too swamped with too many projects to be as effective as is needed. There is no sense of team members taking any personal satisfaction in a job well done. The members are clearly not committed to one another: Jing is leaving at the end of the month; Tanney is sidelined by personal issues; Pete is insensitive to what Tanney is going through at home, and Mahonney weakly attempts to rally the troops but comes across as one expecting the others to do all the work. There is no sense of a willingness to serve, to personally sacrifice for others who are experiencing troubles, or to take time to empathize, demonstrate emotional and social intelligence, or to inspire.

Tuckman’s five stages consist of forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. The forming stage is the first stage and represents the moment when the group is coming together. Often this is where anxiety, fears, doubts and questions are expressed. It is obvious that the group in the West Coast Transit case study is in the forming stage. The goal of the forming stage is for members to become focused on one another rather than on work. The problem the West Coast Transit team faces is that they quickly lose sight of this goal because they are overwhelmed by work and other issues. They need to focus on one another more thoughtfully before they can progress to the next stage.

The second stage—and what should follow for the West Coast Transit team—is the storming stage. This is where dominant members of the group emerge to lead. It is a period wherein questions of duty and leadership are answered. If the first stage is adequately mastered, the storming stage is easily passed through as well. If the first stage is inadequately achieved, the storming stage is set to be all the worse and quite possibly a serious roadblock. The West Coast Transit team is in danger of this happening.

Norming is where the group begins to act cohesively as all members settle into their roles. The performing stage follows and includes the team executing at a high level so that it can achieve its objective. The adjourning stage is the final stage in which the team has executed its responsibilities and thanks one another for their work and commitment.

Behavioral roles play an important part in the success of a team. Schein’s three behavioral profile roles during team entry that might block team operations from progressing smoothly are: 1) tough battler, 2) friendly helper, and 3) objective thinker (Schermerhorn, 2014). Pete clearly appears like the tough battler, which only pushes Tanney away. Mahonney tries to be the friendly helper but fails because he is only flattering, not really helping. Jing is the objective thinker, but that only increases the tension because the team is looking for emotional support at this tense moment—not objectivity.

Effective communication is critical to performance. People communicate using verbal and non-verbal cues and these need to be identified by a leader who knows how to respond using social and emotional intelligence (Sanchez-Nunez, Patti & Holzer, 2015). Without a proper understanding of the different ways that people communicate (and how to respond), leadership will lack the ability to truly bring a team together. This is why Pete Denson struggles to respond appropriately to the team members’ concerns: he is not using strong emotional or social intelligence skills.

The two main types of conflict are personal and professional (Schermerhorn & Uhl-Bien, 2014). For the West Coast Transit team, these conflicts are evident: Jing has a professional conflict (she is leaving for a new department soon). Tanney has a personal conflict (she is having family issues and is attending counseling). Mahonney and Denson appear ambivalent and/or distressed by these conflicts and their passive-aggressive approach does not help to solve the conflicts. Mahonney appears overworked (another professional conflict) and unprepared.

Conflict management approaches that would help Denson manage the conflict present in the case study would be: 1) the Direct Approach and 2) the Indirect Approach. In either case forcing, accommodating, avoiding, compromising and collaborating are strategies that a conflict manager can use to solve the issues.

The direct approach would require Denson to address each conflict as it presents itself. He would have to address Jing’s professional conflict head-on as well as Mahonney’s lack of preparation. He would also have to address Tanney’s personal conflict by acknowledging it. In all cases, he must be willing to assist in addressing the conflict by offering assistance, stability, support, and guidance.

The indirect approach to conflict management would to avoid the conflict and steer the team to topics that are positive and that are more conducive to the aims of the team. A manager might also be accommodating so as to avoid conflicts emerging. Forcing resolutions, however, would not work for this approach (Schermerhorn, 2014).

One task leadership activity and one maintenance activity that should be encouraged in this case is: 1) to assign roles to team members so as to address performance issues—a task leadership activity; and 2) to have a listening session with all members so as to provide emotional support—a maintenance activity (Schermerhorn, 2014). A significant disruptive behavior that should be discouraged would be: self-serving actions that undermine team effectiveness, such as constantly highlighting one’s own issues and needs instead of recognizing other team members’ needs and issues as well. In this sense, Jing and Tanney must stop focusing on their own issues and Denson must be more proactively listening and expressing his emotional support.

Motivation theory is based on a number of works by scholars in the past. Maslow’s (1943) hierarchy of needs, for instance, posits that when individual’s basic needs are met first, they can climb to a level of self-actualization that is more conducive with achieving goals. Schyns and Schilling (2013) illustrate that employees are also motivated by managers who are positive, supportive and friendly. Motivation theory holds that by motivating persons by first providing for their basic needs, they can become self-sufficient and honed in on achieving the target objective.

In conclusion, Denson’s team in the West Coast Transit case study will only properly come together once it moves through all five stages of Tuckman’s stages (it is currently stuck in the first stage). It must communicate efficiently and have real leadership. Right now, Denson is lacking in sympathy and empathy for his team members and is not handling conflict well. The team must be motivated by having its basic needs met—then it will be able to succeed.