Mgmt 1001 Reflective Essay

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The management course MGMT1001 has provided a chance for student studying in the course to participate in a program named the Everest Simulation. Through the two attempts of climb which involves a series of scenarios, students are able to experience and practise management skills and theories with a team of five to seven members. Each member has distinct skills and information to complete the task thus team collaboration is highly demanded in the program.

Various theories of management are used in order to critically analyse the phenomenon occurred during the simulations, which mainly belong to the following three categories: communication, groups and teams; and leadership. These theories include the nature of communication and the benefits in choosing virtual medium of communication; the effectiveness of communication is also discussed. For groups and teams, the types of conflicts as well as the positive effects of task conflicts is described. The drawback of groupthink and the importance of group coherence is also mentioned and illustrated by the situations in the Everest Simulation. Finally, the report will focus on the power of leader and leadership styles from the studies of University of Iowa, followed by the Ohio State studies in which two key leadership dimensions, consideration and initiating structure, was mentioned.

INTRODUCTION

Everest Simulation is an online decision-making program provided by the Harvard Business School Publishing. It aims to assist users in practising problem solving techniques, information sharing skills and participating in a team work environment through different scenarios given. In the simulation everyone has to play with other four teammates, each of whom has unique goals as well as a common goal of avoiding rescue from a third party. Our team consists of seven people and the roles were automatically assigned by the program. Roles include the team leader, the marathoner, physician, photographer and the environmentalist. The remaining two team members were acted as the observers, who do not involve in climbing Mount Everest but still able to discuss with teammates during the climb. It is important to note that the leader and the two observers remain the same role throughout the two simulations, while the others have switched their roles after the first simulation.

Each member in the Everest team has distinct skills and collaboration within team members is required in order to achieve specific team goals. The team is allowed 6 days to complete the tasks and reach the summit. Each round