Tristan Kennedy
Organizational Behavior
Case Study 1
11-6-15

1. In what ways do Evernham’s leadership tactics prove consistent with the characteristics and ideas on high performance teams and teamwork advanced in the text?
The first thing that compares Evernham’s leadership and the characteristics of high performance teams is that everyone is collectively accountable. Everyone is moving towards the direction of achieving one goal, and that is to win races and Sprint Cup Titles. The team is committed to their performance, set high standards, measure their results, gather feedback and find solutions for resolving conflicts. Evernham has his team members’ attitude and behavior all focused in the same direction.
Next, Evernham’s high performance team shares collective intelligence. This means the team has the ability to do well on a wide variety of tasks. This really shows with Evernham’s team because of their persistent winning. When the whole group performs their tasks then collective intelligence is achieved. Evernham’s pit crew displays this intelligence very well. 2. If you were hired as Jeff Gordon’s new pit crew chief, what team norms would you expect to be in place?
First and foremost I expect the performance norm be in place. My team would know the value of hard work, and what we are trying to accomplish. No one is going to take their job lightly, and if someone slacks off then they will have to face the consequences.
Another norm would be ethics. My team will strive to do what is right and make ethical decisions no matter what. High achievement norms are another type of norm I expect to be in place. Everyone loves the satisfaction of winning. The atmosphere within the organization will remain high. The last two norms would be support and improvement norms. We will value and listen to everyone’s opinions and ideas. Our team is always looking for better ways of doing certain things. We will not become complacent and dormant in an ever changing world. 3. What can someone who takes over a highly successful team from a leader like Evernham do to maintain and even improve team success in the future?
It all comes down to how the team can make the right decisions that best help the team. To take full advantage of the team as a decision making resource you have to do these certain things. First you have to brainstorm. Team members need to generate as many ideas as possible to see how they can better the team and its decision making. Next they can use the nominal group technique. This technique allows the ideas that the team members came up with to be evaluated and prioritized. Lastly is the Delphi technique. The Delphi technique allows decision making ideas to be generated through survey questionnaires. Decision making is important, but so is communication. We have to keep that two way communication going between manager and team member. Interaction with each other is very important in keeping the team successful. The use of space or proxemics can also help improve communication among team members. We have the ability to communicate in various ways now with the way technology is advancing. Communication can come from video chats, video conferencing, instant messaging to name a few. There shouldn’t be any excuse for why a team isn’t communicating well. 4. Research question: Pit crews are often in the news. See what you can find out about pit crew performance. Ask: What distinguishes the “high performance” pit crews from the “also rans?”
From the research I gathered. Here is what distinguishes those two groups. Everyone on the high performance crew knows what their role is. They trust one another and act as a team .They build a plan and then execute that plan to a T. Most of the successful and high performance crews train at Pit Crew U in Mooresville, NC. This is where they are provided the necessary tools for motor racing and pit stops. They get hands on education and classroom education in the same building. They focus on leadership and ownership and they’re given feedback in order to help them succeed. The team dynamic has to be the same. Everyone has to see the big picture and to focus on success. The old saying, “you get out, what you put in” couldn’t be more accurate. When every person puts in the hard work, and strives for one common goal, in the end your team will be highly successful.