Behaviour in Organisation

 

Group 5

Learning Teams: Shrinking To Fit

 

Situational Summary

The case describes about a team of six students of the first year of the Southern school of business. The students namely Joann Moyer, Ram Bajaj, Russell Manning, Marcus Pressley, Carter Spencer III and William Stewart are assigned to learning teams for the discussion of the cases for the next day’s discussion.

At the beginning of the year, the group was high in energy and met usually at 8 p.m. and completed the case in 30 minutes or less and enjoyed solving the case and getting home early. But with exams looming, the energy level had drained away and the discussion was replaced by a lecture series with Spencer more dominating, the attendance dropping and the decrease in the participation of the group members.

Moyer, the only female member in the group, was anxious and conflicted by the team’s behaviour. She felt that the team was not prepared for the exams and with the interpersonal conflicts, the team was starting to become fragmented and constrained.

Becoming increasingly uneasy, Moyer approached Joe King, the Learning Team mentor of their team and discussed the situation of the increasing dominance of one of the team members. Moyer invited Joe King to come to their meeting that evening to observe.

The observation by Joe King was in sync with that of Moyer. King observed that Spencer dominated the discussion and also responded negatively. The dominance level of Spencer had increased to a level that the decision of what case to discuss and the how to approach it was also taken by him.

As the exams were nearing, Moyer was in a dilemma about the further course of action. Deep down, she felt that she needed to Confront Spencer. But she felt was it wise to confront him or not. She was indecisive regarding this.

 

Objectives

The case deals with excellent examples that can be easily related in real life as Moyer experiences in her learning team. After the group is formed, everyone’s personality traits are analysed and their impact in a group is evaluated which is necessary by which we can observe how this mix of works together and progresses. Then we will discuss the causes because of which Joann Moyer is feeling indecisive about the situation, followed by identifying the issues she is having; with providing alternative solutions to the problem, and after this conclude with the whole course of action for Moyer.

Evaluation

 Spencer was one of the most dominating members in the group. He would prepare class notes beforehand and mail all the members in the group. Members in the group initially participated very actively. Pressley and Manning got quite enthusiastic at times. But, Spencer suggested everyone to reduce the volume. It created hostile environment within the group. It leads to a loss of enthusiasm within the group.

Also, work pressure was very high. They had several deadlines to meet. The proactive and dominating nature of Spencer prompted others to reduce the participation and increasingly rely on Spencer for the course.

The interest of group members was in different areas. Therefore, Pressley and Manning started missing the sessions sometimes. Their priorities were different.

Spencer had a habit of taking things personally. For Instance, during "Temperature-Taking" session, Spencer reacted negatively when manning suggested not to raise interest rates. Also, he had a very dominating personality. Apart from Moyer, Bajaj and Pressley mentioned irritation with Spencer. Therefore, although not happy with the behaviour of Spencer, Bajaj and Pressley did not confront Spencer.

But, Moyer over-reacted to the situation. She was very emotional and highly ambitious. Her experience suggested that she even competed with her father. One of the motivation of getting an MBA degree was to be able to compete with her father. She wanted to eliminate dominance of her father. This event was like the one she was facing with Spencer. An emotion could have triggered because of it. Therefore, she was in a soup. She had a lot of anxiety regarding this issue

Course of Action for Moyer

As per our evaluation, we got the result that though she was little insecure & emotional, she was right about Carter Spenser. Moyer actually had same personality problem from her father. Here is situation in which Moyer wants to prove both men (Spencer & her father) her abilities. She was feeling indecisive because she was confused that in confronting Spenser, she would not hurt his ego anyway resulting any hard feelings for each other. She was also unsure that if she confronted Spencer alone, how would he take it.

Spenser was dominating the whole group & in that process other members were losing their enthusiasm. As Moyer has figured out that somewhat Pressley & Bajaj were not happy with situation. So, she should first talk with Bajaj & Pressley about this situation. Than after all three should arrange a meeting except Spencer and put forward this issue. They should discuss, how they all can talk to Spencer about ISSUE. After that they all should talk to Spencer about it in Group. In that Bajaj, Pressley & Moyer will show their views about Spencer’s leading style. After convincing him (Spencer) that way of working should change. They all should more brainstorm about how they will manage from here. They can make whole process democratic with compulsory participation into LT meetings. Furthermore, they should discuss what strategy they should adapt as exams are near. Timing for Next LT meeting should also be chosen with everybody’s consent so that less participation & less preparedness before meeting can be avoided. If any group member has problem in understanding subject or topic, he/she should inform other before meeting.

 This way they all can keep a check on progress of each members participation. To make sure that dominating personality problems never again happen in group, they can encourage each member to voice his/her opinion about any of groups decision making. Each problem will be heard & solved democratically.