Introduction
There are many challenges combined with teamwork. One of them is personal differences and how much effort people put into teamwork. Another important factor is how the team leader interacts with the group when problems arise. This report is based on different examples that illustrate the difficulties of achieving efficiency when working together. However, many changes have to be implemented in order to make Eric's team succeed; thus, the main problem seems to be Randy.
Identify the issues
This case exemplifies how a group of top managers from FireArts' different divisions is the best in their department and still doesn't know how to work in a team, as they have never tried it before. In the beginning, a team should be defined as "a collection of individuals who are interdependent in their tasks, who share responsibility for outcomes, who see themselves and who are seen by others as an intact social entity embedded in one or more social systems" (Cohen and Bailey 1997, p. 241).
The leader of the teamwork, Erik, has been chosen to lead the group in order to deduce a comprehensive plan for the company's strategic realignment within six months (Wetlaufer 1994). Even though six months is a long time, Eric still felt stressed and unhappy about the situation.
First of all, the problem is that Eric doesn't have any guidelines, which explains the confusion of the team members. He cannot find himself in the new role and is frustrated over the job: "Eric felt the familiar frustration that had started building during the teams ()" (Wetlaufer 1994, p. 2). Eric should have met the people and recognized the team members' abilities, and hereby focusing on the different personalities he was working with before making the careful structure and guidelines for the discussions. In addition, he hasn't considered the capabilities and different skills of the members, which is required when setting up a project (Newton 2010, p. 169). In general, he has to be penetrating and consistent in order to make the group work, instead of letting others interrupt him, as "he decided he had to raise the topic of Randy's attitude openly, but just as he started, Randy ambled into the room ()" (Wetlaufer 1994, p. 4).
Nine considerations that managers must take into account in an effective team. The first consideration is to ensure individuals are cooperating and integrating their efforts to achieve a collective objective (Knicki 2015, p. 421). This factor is difficult to accomplish due to the cooperation issues. All the members want to reach a collective objective, and in spite of that, Randy seems to be in the way in reaching the objectives. In order to make a team work, the members have to cope with the challenges of interpersonal interactions (Vrg & Curseu 2014, p. 1).
Personality issues
Secondly, the main problem can be characterized as a dysfunctional conflict, as it hinders the organization's performance (Knicki 2015, 421). Additionally, ...
