Leadership and Organizational Behavior Case Study 1
“The Forgotten Group Member”
Andrea Watts
Keller University
Leadership and Organizational Behavior
MGMT 591
Timothy Staley
November 16, 2013

Group Development As I began reading the “Forgotten Group Member”, I found that the group is in the “storming” stage of team development. I am able to determine this due to the setting of the events laid out by the author. The setting gives the present then it goes back and tells that the team is in week 5 of the project. The author also gives some history about the “forming stage” and events that had occurred at that time. After reading a bit more, it is clear that the group is experiencing some tension and rebellion by one of its team members. Had Christine, understood the importance of understanding the stages of development, she could have laid a better foundation as team lead so that they could have avoided this cynical behavior and the energy and outcome of the project would have been better for all of those involved.
Problem Identification The primary problem in the case study was that Christine had failed to set the proper expectations and orientation for the group and this caused her to lose respect of one of her peers. Mike had been able to manipulate Christine with excuses from the beginning. Unfortunately, Christine fell subject to his manipulative behavior and lost control of her team as a hold. In my opinion, the “forming” stage of team development is very important as it gives everyone a task and something to be accountable for. Once every team member knows his or her respective role and can identify with the tasks at hand and the importance of their role, it sets the groundwork for them to be motivated by the leader. The secondary problem here is that the group needed to get all of the sections completed and turned in timely and accurately so