University of Phoenix Material

Team Strategy Plan

1. Complete the following table to address the creation of teams at Riordan Manufacturing.

|Strategy |Strengths |Weaknesses |
|Common Goal |Determine what types of behaviors are |Teams fail when there are multiple agendas |
|Forming Strategy; the first stage in group |acceptable. Objectives are measurable. Most|or uncertainty. Some employees may be |
|development |people are polite and positive with each |anxious. |
| |other. | |
|Storming Strategy Commitment from each team|Establish process and structure, and work |Authority may be challenged. Members resist|
|member |to smooth conflict and build good |the constraints it imposes on individuality|
| |relationships between team members. |because of being part of a team. |
| |Normally provide support. | |
|Norming Strategy |Hierarchy is established. Team members come|If new tasks may come up, the team may |
|Everyone Cannot Lead |to respect the authority of the manager. |lapse back into typical storming stage |
| | |behavior |
|Performing Strategy |Hard work leads directly to progress. As a |The hardest challenge to any manager is |
| |manage, you are able to delegate much of |getting a group of individuals to function |
| |the work and can concentrate on developing |as a team and place his or her personal |
| |team. |ambitions to the side. |
|The Adjourning Strategy |Wrapping up activities is the focus. Focus |Breaking up a team can be stressful for all|
| |is on the team’s accomplishments |concerned. Depression over the loss of |
| | |camaraderie and friendships gained during |
| | |the work team’s life. |

2. Identify the team formation strategy that is most suitable for Riordan Manufacturing, and provide the rationale for the decision. Your response should be at least 100 words.

-A lot of the production employees are employees from other divisions. Since the company is expecting to hire new employees the team formation that most suits is forming, storming, norming, and performing phase. The teams go through the forming stage in the order that everyone is instructed to each other and the task ahead of them is described. The storming stage is next. During this stage Riordan Manufacturing newly hired team superintendents may be challenged because others may have shown interest in their position and their roles will be clarified. The ways of working will be defined as well during this stage. As a superintendent of a team you are more aware that sometimes employees may become overwhelmed if there is a lot of their plate. Some may even questions if it is worth their while. Slowly, the team will move into the norming stage. Employees on this team have come to respect the authority of the team superintendents, and as other employees show leadership in specific areas. Now that everyone is familiar with each other they are more sociable and are able to help each other when needed. They are committed as a team to reach all of their team goals.

3. What potential barriers may arise during team formation? How will you address these barriers? Your response should be at least 100 words.

-There are many potential barriers that may arise during team formation. Communicating is very important so clear and/or productive communication is a main factor and very important; this barrier can be addressed by practicing active listening with the team. Maybe a team leader needs to be in control of every group and start off the initial topic at hand. If all members aren’t involved make sure you have other ways to get in touch with them, for example, via email, call, or text. Another barrier is team members don’t understand their role and contribution to the team. By evaluating the team’s effectiveness you are aware of these barriers and if it’s holding the team back from being a high functioning team. You then can take steps to correct, one at a time, to get the team over the barrier.

4. What measures will be put in place to evaluate if the team is operating successfully? Your response should be at least 100 words.

-Successful teams can use halftime breaks to evaluate if the teams is functioning appropriately. This break reassesses what is working for the team and what is not. At the halfway mark of the team project managers of the work teams can assess the project and then can determine or evaluate what can be done to improve. It is the manager’s responsibility to give the team members the confidence that is needed. That way if they are faced with a setback they have the knowledge and confidence to get it right and move forward. Effective teams have common characteristics. Adequate resources, effective leadership, a climate of trust, and a performance evaluation and reward system that reflect team contributions are shared (Robbins & Judge, 2011).

University of Phoenix Material

Conflict Management Plan

1. Identify the available conflict management strategies and their strengths and weaknesses.

|Strategy |Strengths |Weaknesses |
| |High on assertiveness |Low on cooperation |
|Competition strategy |Short term outcome |Fails in the long-run |
| | | |
| |High on cooperation |Low on assertiveness |
|Accommodation strategy | | |
| | | |
| |This is offered as the last option because |It reduces the share/goal of every |
|Compromise strategy |other options have been exhausted. It lets |individual, each party. |
| |people consider others. |Has to give up something. Intentions are not|
| | |always fixed. |
| |Reserved for trivial issues |Zero assertiveness |
|Avoidance strategy |Allow for parties involved to cool down. |Zero cooperation |
| | | |
| |High cooperation and a search for mutually |Situation might not be created because it is|
|Collaboration strategy |beneficial outcome. |hard to develop this strategy. |
| |High assertiveness | |

2. Which of the available conflict management strategies is most appropriate for the current situation with David and James? Provide your rationale, including what factors you considered in making your selection. Your response should be at least 100 words.

-Collaboration strategy would be the ideal strategy for both David and James because they are both good employees with positive performance reviews which is why they both were chosen for the new project. The misunderstanding that they have would be resolved with a face-to-face meeting. They would be able to identify the problem and resolve it by having an open discussion. It may be mediated by the management group, who would get them to speak to each other. Satisfying the concerns of all parties was number one when collaborating; there is cooperation and a search for a mutually beneficial outcome. By collaborating, the parties intend to solve this problem by clarifying their differences. This is a win-win solution that allows both parties’ goals to be achieved (Robbins & Judge, 2011).

3. If the selected strategy is not successful, what is your alternate strategy? Provide your rationale for this selection. Your response should be at least 100 words.

-If collaboration strategy is not successful, compromise strategy would be my alternate strategy. When compromising there isn’t a definite winner or loser. Rather, there is a willingness to share the object of the conflict and accept a solution that provides incomplete satisfaction of both parties’ concerns. The distinguishing characteristic of compromising, therefore, is that each party intends to give up something. Realizing intentions are not always fixes, there is a possibility that during their communications, David will realize that James is not intentionally creating problems on the production line and James will know that David is not spreading rumors that he is looking for other work (Robbins & Judge, 2011).

4. What potential road blocks might be encountered in resolving the conflict? How would you address these? Your response should be at least 100 words.

-Having a lack of communication is a conflict. The fact the David spoke with his manager twice instead of speaking with James shows their relationship lacks communication. Also James insists on having no knowledge of what David is referring to. The potential problems that may be encountered in resolving their issue is they both refuse to talk about the issue at hand. They both think they are being victimized. Either or both needs to make the attempt to confirm others wrong. The main strategy would be to persuade James that his action were not planned and he was actually ready to compromise or help David and after that persuading his to say “sorry” in case he thinks in any way he has hurt the feelings of David by any of his behavior unintentionally. Next, they should be persuaded that these are minor problems, that by saying sorry will not decrease their stature however would make the company much stronger and assure them that conflicts will happen among workers (Robbins & Judge, 2011).

Reference
Robbins, S.P., & Judge, T.A. (2011)/. Organizational behavior (14th ed.). Upper Saddle River NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall