Business Ethics - Gearing up for Team Work

Gearing Up for Team Work

Bryan D. Morehead

Southern Wesleyan University

Gearing Up for Team Work

Team work can be an effective way to complete both small and large tasks.  For those that enjoy working in a team environment it can be very rewarding.  It can also be a burden on some members, because of the lack of effort some team members put into the task at hand.  The following studies a team with the task of covering a cycling team.  

First the examples of role differentiation are that each team lets the other team lead for a time.  This is done so the cyclists have the opportunity for photographs for their sponsors. (Greenberg, 2011)  Another example is everyone including the leaders agree on bathroom break times.  This held true until one of the cyclists decided not to follow thru with this agreement.  This help archives the desired goal because each person moves to a different role.  Just because one of the cyclist is the leader does not mean the others will not be able to be seen by the photographers, and people who come to see the event.  It also makes the sport more popular which raises more money for more events.

Second the social norms that are illustrated are the fact that one cyclists broke the unspoken rule.  The cyclist continued on with race even though the rest of them took a break.  (Greenberg, 2011)  This is a social norm one would expect to find in a very competitive person.  This highly competitive cyclist hurt his team. He sought all the glory from himself which hurt the team.  It could have hurt the morale of the team and possibly wasted any chance he had to be a part of the team.  However I would expect this as a norm if in fact he was a very competitive person.  The norm that should have been followed would have been for him to stay and help his team and follow all of the un-spoken rules.