Presentation 4: Case study: The forgotten Group Member

Case Questions:
1. Identify the five group development stages (forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning) in the case.

Forming: Members are acquainted with each other. 
Professor Sandra divided class into groups of five people : Christine, Diane, Janet, Steve and Mike. Each group given group assignment that worth 30 percent of final grade with the task of analysing the seven-page case and come up with a written analysis. Interaction amongst them who have had no previous relations is facilitated through the first stage; where personal preferences and work schedules are exchanged, strengths and weaknesses made apparent and expectations clarified. The first group meeting held was used to recognize these necessities. Christine was elected "Team Coordinator" at the first meeting.

Storming:Group members frequently experience conflict with one another. 
Diane - quite & never volunteered suggestions but will give out high quality ideas when directly asked.
Mike - as clown in the group, he balked when Christine suggested to have meeting before the 8am class because of his favourite TV show.
Steve - business-like individual, he always wanting to ensure that every meeting should guided by an agenda, noting the tangible result achieved or not achieved at the end of meeting.
Janet - reliable, who would always have more for the group than was expected of her.
Christine - saw herself as meticulous and organized and as a person who tried to give her best in whatever she did.


Norming:A real sense of cohesion and teamwork.
Christine's group doesn't really have the teamwork as Mike missed almost all the meeting where Christine already tried to arrange a meeting for a time that suit all of the team members. The assignment progress might be delayed because of the part of Mike that haven't done. He didn't responsible for the work he suppose to do and give excuses when he missed the meeting.


Performing:Issues have been resolved and the group is ready to work.
When Christine grabbed something to eat at cafeteria, she saw her OB group and joined them. They have the light and enjoyable discussion when they met informally.
The written case was due on next week, all of them had done their designated section except Mike just handed in some rough handwritten notes. 

Adjourning:Group may cease to exist because they have met their goals. Concluding a group can create some apprehension - in effect, a minor crisis. 

Christine was empathized about Mike's problem as Mike could have creative ideas to raise up the assignment final marks which is peer evaluated. This is a group assignment where everyone has the responsibility to do their designated section and all of the members should have equal contribution to the work. They met their goal but Christine still wondered what should she do because of Mike, should she bring up Mike's problem to Miss Sandra or just letting it be. Christine was worried about the mark gave by Sandra depending on the group's opinion about the value of contribution of each member.


2. Identify and describe the causes of conflicts in the case.
There are few conflicts in the case:
- In the forming stage, Christine and her team members didn't know each other well. 
- She didn't assign the work to her team members and set a deadline to each of team so that the work can be done in a specific time.
- Mike always didn't turn up to the meeting and contribute his idea even though he has creative idea.
Causes of conflicts:
- Christine as the team coordinator didn't assign work to her team members .
-  Even Christine didn't know her group members well, she didn't take any action to improve it (tell Sandra about it).
- Christine didn't set clear expectations at the beginning.
- She just wants to get good grades for her course but not the team success.
- Christine didn't take any action when Mike didn't turn up in the meeting and done his work.


3. Suggest the approach to leadership best suitable for the case.
- The clue that the group is in 5th week of OB class, denotes that the team members should have been familiar with the principles of group development. If Christine (the designated leader) had followed these concepts, the team should have eventually transitioned to the performing stage very comfortably.
- The storming stage might be the hardest one to get through but if Christine had done a better job in helping the team transition through this stage by facilitating better communication, the team should have gone past this stage to the norming stage. In this phase they would have resolved their basic conflicts which actually caused problems in the later stages in this case. This would have helped the team greatly in going towards performing and adjourning stages rather easily as they would have been able to spend more time and energy on the actual task instead of processing human interaction problems. 
- Also, if Christine had identified the difference in personalities of the team members and that of Mike, she could have interacted little differently with Mike or could have given him a different role in order to leverage his capabilities and amusing attitude. 


Reference:
http://www.drexel.edu/oca/l/tipsheets/Group_Development.pdf 

Presentation 3

1. What are the important limitations of Mr. Gregor's Theory X Theory Y?
Theory X:
- Individuals who dislike work and tends to avoid it if possible.
- lack ambition
- dislike responsibility
- prefer to be led
- individuals who desire security
- Individuals must be coerced, controlled, directed, or threatened with punishment in order to get them to achieve organizational objectives.


Theory Y:
- consider effort at work as just like rest or play
- dislike work but depending on work conditions: work could be considered a source of satisfaction or punishment
- Individual who seek responsibility (if they're motivated)
- If a job is satisfying, then the result will be commitment to the organization.


Limitations:
- Theory X: Management approaches based on Theory X may fail to motivate employees to work toward organizational goals, especially if their physiological and safety needs are met, and their social, esteem, and self-actualization needs are more important.
Theory X employee might have the motivation or intelligence to be treated differently where the organization need to find certain people to motivate certain employee to work. 
- Theory Y: Theory Y is premised on the assumption that if we can create the right environment and support then people will perform well at the job, however, each individual person is different from the next and so creating an environment that's right for all is impossible in a practical sense. 
As we can see in Theory Y, people tend to seek responsibility if they're motivated and depending on the situation, it's hard to fulfil all employee's requirement at the same time.


2. What are the important limitations of Maslow Hierarchy of needs?
It is important to let the manager to know their employees' need individually because sometimes motivation is driven by the unsatisfied need. Maslow’s theory implies that managers cannot simply pursue a single all encompassing theory of management, such as scientific management or human relations theory, if they wish to maximise the performance of their workers.

Limitations:
- In reality, people didn't actually work one by one through these levels. They are much less structured in the way to satisfy their own needs.
- Different people with different cultural background and in different situations may have different hierarchies of needs.
- Different people will place different weightings on their needs, and will have different relationships between motivating factors and their needs. For example, some people may see money as merely fulfilling a security need, and will be happy to work to a certain level of wages and achievement. In contrast, some people may see their earning power as a key part of their self esteem, and will work harder and harder if they are given the opportunity for increasing financial rewards.
- There is also little evidence to support the argument that people focus on one need at once, and will often consider many needs when making a decision.
- It is also difficult for a manager to determine what need is driving an employee at any one time, particularly as employees’ needs will often be affected by external factors such as their family life and social life outside of work. 
- There is no empirical evidence to support Maslow’s hierarchy as applying to all people, and there is evidence to support a different order of needs in many circumstances. 


References:
http://www.12manage.com/methods_maslow_hierarchy_needs.html 

http://www.ukessays.com/mba/management/maslows-hierarchy-needs.php