Review of Henry Tam Case

Question 1 Strengths and Weaknesses of Team and Look On Paper

–Diversity Types of Diversity Surface- Sex, Ethnic Background, Age, Newcomers vs

Old- TimersDeep-Attitudes, Values, Work Background, Cognitive

Styles,Motives, Education

– Potential Positive Aspects of Diversity• Synergy• Complimentary Skills• Match The Task With The KSAs Needed

For Subtasks• Bring Together Different Perspectives• Different Contacts—External Resources

• Potential Negative Aspects of Diversity– Creation of Faultlines-Subgroup Formation– Conflicting Styles (Cognitive)– Interpersonal Conflict (Personality Conflict)– Communication Difficulties– Different Goals (Business Plan vs Long Term)– Stereotypes (MBA Students-Sasha)– Differences In Individualism and Collectivism

• Key Issue--Teams Process Determines Effectiveness (Process—Black Box)Process Problems– Could not make a decision-brainstorming– Lack of agreement on goals, roles, and leadership– Conflict between members of the team (Dana vs

Sasha)– Formation of subgroups– Manipulative Strategies (Symptom of Process

Problem)– Lack of Organization For Meetings

• Root Causes of Problems– Elements of diversity may have contributed to the difficulty of

working together– Inability of the group to clarify early: roles, decision making

procedures, resources of each team member, long and short term goals

– Inability to really integrate the newcomers with the old-timers-newcomers need to know more about the founders and the reverse. Understand the history and resources

– Inconsistent initial impressions (expectations) of the team members—how I perceive myself-how others perceive me

– Protection of status in the group.– Offending people early in the group interaction– The manner in which new members were recruited– Individual versus collective orientation

• Question 3 -Critical Events– Bring people in with out consent (?) of team

members– Entering the MIT contest– Good Cop/Bad Cop Routine – Breaking into and working as subgroups– Henry and Dana not involving Sasha in power

point-made him more of an “enemy”

• Question 4- Early In The Group– Open discussion of expectations for team– Open discussion of roles for the team

members and future participation– Acquaint Henry and Dana with founders

history and previous work– Understand expertise of each team member– Open discussion of personal expectations– Create norms for admitting new people,

decision making, dealing with conflict, leadership, communications

What To Do Now

• Time Pressure

• Can The Group Be Saved and Do What Needs To Be Done

• Was Team Successful--Criteria

• Quality of the Product

• Meet Member Needs

• Continue to Interact in the Future