Case Analysis-Forgotten Team Member

In the case analysis of the forgotten team member, Christine and the other team members are clearly in the storming stage of team development. They have already had their first group meeting and got to know each other. Christine has been designated as the team coordinator; which is the leadership role of the team. Now, it is week 5 of the project and Christine has run into roadblock trying to get the team all together for a meeting to discuss the project. The reasons I say the team is in the storming stage of team development is because of the tension that their team member Mike is causing by his social loafing. Mike is not attending the meetings, and not completing the assignments in full. He is passing his responsibilities over to Christine to handle. If Christine had a better understanding of the team stages of development she know that in the storming stage clearly defined team roles and expectations have to be given to team members.

The primary problem of Christine and her other team members is the social loafing of the team member Mike. He is clearly missing most of the meeting nor completing the assignments fully. His personal obstacles are definitely unproductive to the team. In the group meetings, Christine is discussing his designated sections of the project. A secondary problem with the team is there appear to be no clearly defined guidelines or expectations for the group. It appears that Christine communicate with the team about meetings before class to discuss the day's case. However, none of the team members are committing to this time for discussing the case. In both times where the team met they are having lighthearted conversation and not focusing on the project. It appears that Christine is not being an effective leader by not refocusing the team on this time for discussing the day case before class. The case does not state what the other team member's roles and expectations were. However, If Christine had given some clearly defined roles, expectations, and shared the goal for the team. The team could be navigating through the stages of team development better. Christine should have evaluated her team members a little more after the initial forming stage of the team. Then she should have come up with a timeline schedule of when certain designated sections of the project would be due. Then, she would divide the assignments among her team based on each team members strength and weakness. Therefore she would have a more accurate assessment of who could handle what assignments.

The first problem that needs to be solved is the social loafing of team member Mike. My first suggestion is for Christine and team members to decide if the unproductive behavior of Mike really unproductive. Is the behavior interfering with the team completing assignments? Is the team not able to reach a consensus? Once, the behavior has been determined as an unproductive. Then it needs to be address