1. “Bad apples” can affect many of the teams, but the work teams would be affected the worst due to the nature of how the members engage in collective work that requires them to coordinate their efforts into a common objective. The many stages that the work team goes through might not hold well if there is a ‘bad apple’ present in the team while working.
2. ‘Bad apples’ can affect each and every stage of the group and team development process. The five stages are highly fickle when it comes to having a ‘bad apple’ present during these stages and any negative attitude and vibe can bring down the process fast. The first stage, ‘Forming’, can be affected by a ‘bad apple’ because it is the stage where the team members get acquainted and oriented to be on the same page about the project. If the ‘bad apple’ brings down the team at this stage, it can cause the project to not take off at all. The second stage, ‘Storming’ is where all the members come together and suggest ideas, voice disagreements and work through their conflicts about the tasks and goals pertaining to the project. If the ‘bad apple’ within a group causes the team to fall short of overcoming the hurdles cause by the initial storming session, the team cannot progress into the next stages of the process. The third stage, ‘Norming’, is where the conflicts that arose in the second stage are resolved and unity is developed to bring about harmony within the team. If the ‘bad apple’ refuses to allow the team to become cohesive and instead causes them to continue having differences within the group, the team cannot move past this stage and will be stuck in the process of completing the goals they set in the initial stages. The fourth stage, ‘Performing’, can be affected by ‘bad apples’, mainly due to that fact that this is the stage where members are to concentrate on solving the problems and completing the tasks assigned to them in order to achieve their goals. If ‘bad apples’ disrupt the work process and hinders productivity at this stage the team can most likely be delayed or even halted and accomplish nothing. “Bad apples” can also affect the fifth and final stage, “Adjourning”, because during this phase most of the team members are looking to transition out of the completed project and move onto a new project. While rapport and harmony may have been achieved in order to complete the project, there may be some unresolved conflicts that the ‘bad apple’ could bring up and cause the ending rituals to be a bad experience for the members involved and therefore hindering their positive aspect of working in teams or could affect their future projects. These are some of the ways a ‘bad apple’ can affect every stage of the group and team development process.
4. Pros – Employers get to reduce the number of “bad apples, they can find the most qualified person to do the job, and also get someone whose personality match with the company’s.
Cons – It can be a waste of money, time, and it also leave room for errors–not accurate.
5. The case describes isolating a single employee. We agree with the action because this would rule out dysfunctional conflict and personality conflict. The skilled and incredibly nasty engineer in the case benefits the freedom and the company benefits the performance and information from the employee.