Team Turmoil

The current situation and existed issues of the learning team

Only three weeks into the MBA program at a famous school in the eastern United States, a learning team was in trouble. Teamwork turmoil impaired the team atmosphere and hindered progress. Especially on one night group study, the problem boiled over. Some members just benefited from others’ efforts and easily gained key points. Others were occupied with their personal lives instead of work. Besides, some laughed at others analysis. In addition, disagreement with the key points worsened the situation, eventually, the team split into several distinct parts. Tony Marshall, the learning team mentor, had no idea how to effectively address the mess.

List of alternatives

a. Communicate with each team members and point out individual behaviors

b. Establish the meaning of teamwork through a non-work environment

c. Adjust the team schedule and set new criteria

Evaluation of alternatives

a. Communicate with each team members and point out individual behaviors

As the mentor of the teamwork, Marshall is responsible for the team academic behavior. Having familiarity with every member’s situation and background, Marshall is to chat with individuals, point out their disadvantages and give advice for improvement.

Pros: A major advantage to this approach is to make a sound and objective decision. Through communication with each team member, Marshall acquired comprehensive information, including reason why insufficient time was dedicated to the case study and also reasons for the attitude towards others’ behaviors, advices to improvement and the like. After further learning, then Marshall can give related advice or help to each one as well as point out team spirit according to their specific problems.

Besides, individual talk for the members protects their self-esteem rather than criticizing them before others and creating an embarrassing situation.

Cons: Since long hours and energy should be poured into talking individually, the method may fail to address the disorder quickly. Additionally, even if each individual communication is guaranteed, this also doesn’t achieve the learning team goal. This just solves the problem in the individual level, rather than the group level. The related changes made by team member have only due to individual benefits instead of team goods.

b. Establish the meaning of teamwork through a non-work environment

Due to the athletic experience or background equipped with most team members, Marshall can invite all of them to watch an athletic game or have a match such as basketball or soccer