Andy Syms was recently appointed manager of a new project team consisting of professionals from different functional areas of the company. Some of the members have worked with each other before, but several others have not.Help Andy build an effective team. Specifically, enlighten him about the self-oriented member concerns and behaviors that might get in the way of team development. Tell him what specific task- and relationship-oriented leadership roles he is likely to need if this team is to become effective, and why. Talk to Andy about the potential positive and negative consequences of team heterogeneity (assuming team members have diverse characteristics and backgrounds). Tell him about group cohesiveness and how this can have both positive and negative consequences for the team, and why. explain Tuckman’s stages of group development in writing your response

Answer:

The self-oriented member concerns and behaviors that might get in the way of team development are disagreement, not understanding, bad communication and so forth. Therefore, if he wants a positive team development he will have to come up with solutions to the possible issues that may arise. He needs to make sure all of his workers are understanding what is going on, communicate with them on a regular basis and find solutions to everybody’s issues when they arise.

The specific task-oriented leadership roles that Andy is likely to need if his team it so become effective are to focus on the structure, roles, and task at hand, be strict with the rules and procedures in place, have a punishment set up for bad conduct and emphasize the goals. Therefore, we want Andy's team/group to have a clear concise though of Norming - Agreement and Consensus, Clear roles  and responsibilities and facilitation.  Andy  needs these specific roles because if he emphasizes these then the team will be more effective since they know their place within the team, they know what they need to achieve, what they are supposed to be doing and what the punishment is if they don't do what they are supposed to be.

The specific relationship-oriented leadership roles that Andy is likely to need if his team it so become effective are to focus on relationships and making sure they are all positive, make sure to have good communication and team members and have frequent team meetings/interactions with one another. Andy needs these specific toles because this way his workers will feel more comfortable with him, as well as the other workers since they communicate frequently and have positive relationships with one another. This way they will work harder and won't be in their shell as much.

The potential positive and negative consequences of team heterogeneity are that heterogeneity groups can have greater team creativity and various solutions to

problems, with the various diverse characteristics and backgrounds but things can also get complicated when in heterogeneity groups because of all the differences with one another

there will be a lot of different points and views that each person may stick to and not reason with. This will fall under the Storming category within Tuckman's states of

group development (conflict and power struggles). Therefore, although there will be a lot more ideas and solutions there will also be a lot more disagreements and arguments when compared to a homogeneity group.

Group cohesiveness is the glue that keeps a group together, it is the sum of forces that attracts members to a group, provides resistance to leaving it, and motivates them to be active in it. Group cohesiveness can be positive if they are highly cohesive because then they have more interaction with one another and influence each other more than less cohesive groups. They will have lower absenteeism and lower turnover that a less cohesive group. But, a high cohesive group doesn't necessarily mean they will have a higher performance. Highly cohesive groups face other risks, such as becoming too cohesive that they have erected what amounts to fences or boundaries between themselves and others (over bounding). Another negative of a highly cohesive group is called "groupthink" which is believed to account for number of historic fiascoes from Pearl Harbor, to the Bay of Pigs, to the space shuttle Challenger disaster. Therefore, you want a group that isn't too cohesive but is cohesive enough. These have positive and negative impacts on our specific team because we have a group of people, some old, some new that all need to work together and communicate with one another, we cannot become too high or low on cohesiveness because of the facts stated above. We don't want to or want to be able to get through the storming stage (conflict) within Tuckman's stages of group development.

Therefore, for Andy to build an effective team he must have good qualities as a leader to make sure that his group will share those good qualities. He needs to communicate with them and make sure they communicate with one another. They all need to work together and gain all of those positive consequences within each category listed above. By following the normative approach, I am sure he will have a great team! They will have task structure, group boundaries, norms, and authority. Therefore, the team will know the task at hand, they will have the correct knowledge and skills, they will have a strategy that works with one another and the leader (Andy) will have an established flexible manner.