Team Processes
Please respond to the following questions along with at least 2 substantive peer replies (for a minimum of 3 posts):
Which team processes can have a positive influence on team performance? Which processes can have negative effects?
Provide an example of each (process with positive influence AND process with negative) that you’ve personally experienced in your life.
Organizational Behavior – Week #6 Lecture 1
Decision Making
Greetings Class and welcome to Week 6! After completion of this week, the class will be 75% complete…there’s no turning back now 🙂 With respect to your project, you have three full weeks to make the necessary updates and tweaks prior to final submittal. If you find yourself struggling with any the feedback I provided to you last week on your title page, outline, or references page, feel free to send me a note or give me a call to discuss. The sooner we work out the bugs, the better off you’ll be as we head down the home stretch.
Now, let’s shift our focus to one of the major topics in this week’s reading…decision making. Regardless of your formal or informal leadership status within your organization(s), you undoubtedly make multiple decisions every day. Some of those decisions have minimal impact to others while others can cause extreme pain or pleasure to various folks. My goal in the next few paragraphs is to review the decision-making process and use that process to reflect on a decision that impacted all of us.
Let’s get started with the process of decision making as explained by Hitt, Miller, and Colella in Exhibit 10-1 on page 312 of the text:
· Define the problem – At first glance, this sounds like an easy first step. That being said, defining the problem can get complicated depending on the situation. The text uses the example of a machine breaking down. Is the problem that the machine is broken? Or, is there a bigger issue that caused the machine to break such as too much strain on a single machine within a set period of time? What I want you to remember about this first step is to be cautious and consider various viewpoints before clearly bounding the problem.
· Identify decision criteria – This step in the process determines what criteria, or information, the decision maker needs to collect in order to compare alternative solutions. This is an important step in the process.
· Gather and evaluate evidence – In the prior step, you defined what information was important to collect. In this step, you will collect that information and evidence being careful not to purge evidence even if it looks unimportant at the time.
· List and evaluate alternatives – Based on the evidence gathered, it’s now time list the alternative solutions and conduct an evaluation of those proposed solutions. For decisions that have long-term and far-reaching impacts, I recommend the use of a formal comparison tool such as an evaluation matrix.
· Select best alternative – Based on your decision criteria that you identified early in the process, you’ll now select the best alternative being careful not to fall into one of the pitfalls described later in the chapter.
· Implement and follow up – As the Greek God Nike once said, “Just Do It.” This is where the rubber meets the road and your solution is implemented. One implemented, it’s important to monitor results and adjust fire as necessary.
Now, let’s reflect on a decision that impacted all of us following an attack of our homeland on September 11, 2001. We all remember what we were doing that day. Whether you were at the office, in the field on a training exercise, or enjoying a conversation with your neighbor, the world stopped and all we could think about as Americans is how could we do our part to help those who had missing loved ones in the towers, at the Pentagon, or on the planes. We all wondered who carried out the attack and where the next attack would come from. It was one of the darkest days in American history. In those dark times is where you see what you’re made of, both as an individual and as a democracy. Americans unified as one with a sole purpose to protect our homeland and carry out justice to those responsible for such a heinous and cowardly act.
In the days following 9/11, there was a decision to be made that continues to impact us to this day in various ways. Regardless of your beliefs about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there was a decision that was made by then President Bush based on information he received to target terrorists in these two countries. With all of the controversy surrounding the decision, this lecture could last for hours.
To bound the problem into something reasonable to discuss in a short amount of space, let’s look at the President’s decision to start a ground war in Iraq. President Bush was given information that provided a high likelihood that weapons of mass destruction, a.k.a. WMD, existed on Iraqi soil. Using this supposed fact as a key criterion, the President opted to start a ground war which cost billions of dollars and thousands of American lives were lost. To be fair, there have been positives realized from the war as well to include an infant democracy and the start of freedoms in a foreign land that we take for granted every day in America.
Additionally, many folks became wealthy during the war as civilian contractors and defense contractors back at home churned out huge profits while supporting a worthy cause. There was also a patriotic shift in our country as we unified towards a common goal – to eradicate terrorism across the globe. All that being said, do you think it was the right decision to go to war? If not, which part of the decision-making process should have been further evaluated?
This is a great time to thank you if you or any of your family members served in the armed forces. Because of your sacrifices, we all enjoy the freedoms of being an American. Thank you!
References
· Hitt, M. A., Miller, C. C., & Colella, A. (2015). Organizational Behavior (4th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Organizational Behavior – Week #6 Lecture 2
The Misunderstanding of Power
Hello, Class. This week’s second lecture focuses on the concept of Power as discussed in Chapter 12 from this week’s reading. The concept of power is often misunderstood. My goal within the next few paragraphs is to unlock the confusion about power and arm you with the tools necessary to identify the type of power being used in various situations. Power, simply defined by Hitt, Miller, and Colella on page 394 of the text, is the ability to achieve desired outcomes. Power can and is used in various settings in all organizations. Power comes from various sources. The text provides five categories of power as noted and defined below:
· Legitimate Power – This is power derived from position; also known as formal authority. All positions of leadership have some form of legitimate power. For instance, a program manager (PM) controls the budget and gets to decide whether she’ll use supplier A or supplier B based on a number of factors. Ultimately, the PM has the power to make the decision and must live with the consequences.
· Reward Power – Power resulting from the ability to provide others with desired outcomes. The best example of this and one near and dear to most people’s hearts is the concept of pay raises. Managers have the ability to reward their folks for sustained performance. That being said, reward power is sometimes limited by factors outside one’s control. A great example of this is a couple of years ago when Federal employees were denied bonuses due to sequestration cuts. While Federal managers might have wanted to reward their employees, they were unable to do so that year.
· Coercive Power – Power resulting from the ability to punish others. When people think of power in a negative light, this is the type of power usually in the spotlight. While it’s effective to boost morale if used sparingly and appropriately, it can easily be overused and hurt morale. Let’s take a poor performer in the office as an example. Everyone in the office knows he’s a poor performer and his performance is starting to impact morale. His manager has counseled him on numerous occasions without any real performance progress resulting. The manager chooses to fire the employee based on his poor performance. This is a positive example of coercive power because it will actually boost morale of the office. Would this have been a different story if the employee was high-performing? What might terminating a high-performing employed do to morale?
· Expert Power – Power resulting from special expertise or technical knowledge. Regardless of your current place within the organization, this is one area where we all have the ability to excel and gain power. What is it you currently do in your profession? Based on your answer to that, then list the processes, procedures, concepts, regulations, etc. which revolve around what you “do”. By becoming the expert in all of those areas, you have the ability to gain expert power within your organization. This is easily illustrated with a sports example. Unless you lived under a rock for the last couple of decades, you’ve heard of a man named Michael Jordan. In most circles, Michael is considered one of the best if not the best to play the professional game of basketball. He’s without a doubt considered an expert in his field. How did he get to that point? He became the best offensive and defensive player on the planet.
Everyone wanted to “be like Mike”! Michael’s hard work and special expertise allowed him to be recognized as an expert in his field. Armed with that expert power, Michael was able to makes tens of millions of dollars through lucrative playing contracts and endorsement deals. While most of us don’t have the ability to play basketball like Michael Jordan, we can all “be like Mike” in our chosen professions. If you’re a stay-at-home mom, you can be the best mom and prepare your children for school and life. If you’re a soldier deployed to a hot zone, you can be the best marksman and most physically fit service man or woman ready to engage the enemy at a moment’s notice. Hopefully, you get my point by now…there’s no limit on the amount of expert power you can gain.
· Referent Power – Power resulting from others’ desire to identify with the referent. When others are attracted to you and want to be associated with you because of who you are or what you do, you have referent power.
After going through this lecture, I hope you now realize that power, when obtained appropriately and for the right reason, is essential for effective functioning of an organization. Whether you are a formal or informal leader, you have the ability to gain some type of power to positively benefit your organization for years to come. Stay well and have a productive week!
References
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· Hitt, M. A., Miller, C. C., & Colella, A. (2015). Organizational Behavior (4th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Greetings Class and welcome to Week 6! After completion of this week, the class will be 75% complete…there’s no turning back now 🙂 With respect to your project, you have three full weeks to make the necessary updates and tweaks prior to final submittal. If you find yourself struggling with any the feedback I provided to you last week on your title page, outline, or references page, feel free to send me a note or give me a call to discuss. The sooner we work out the bugs, the better off you’ll be as we head down the home stretch.
Now, let’s shift our focus to one of the major topics in this week’s reading…decision making. Regardless of your formal or informal leadership status within your organization(s), you undoubtedly make multiple decisions every day. Some of those decisions have minimal impact to others while others can cause extreme pain or pleasure to various folks. My goal in the next few paragraphs is to review the decision-making process and use that process to reflect on a decision that impacted all of us.
Let’s get started with the process of decision making as explained by Hitt, Miller, and Colella in Exhibit 10-1 on page 312 of the text:
· Define the problem – At first glance, this sounds like an easy first step. That being said, defining the problem can get complicated depending on the situation. The text uses the example of a machine breaking down. Is the problem that the machine is broken? Or, is there a bigger issue that caused the machine to break such as too much strain on a single machine within a set period of time? What I want you to remember about this first step is to be cautious and consider various viewpoints before clearly bounding the problem.
· Identify decision criteria – This step in the process determines what criteria, or information, the decision maker needs to collect in order to compare alternative solutions. This is an important step in the process.
· Gather and evaluate evidence – In the prior step, you defined what information was important to collect. In this step, you will collect that information and evidence being careful not to purge evidence even if it looks unimportant at the time.
· List and evaluate alternatives – Based on the evidence gathered, it’s now time list the alternative solutions and conduct an evaluation of those proposed solutions. For decisions that have long-term and far-reaching impacts, I recommend the use of a formal comparison tool such as an evaluation matrix.
· Select best alternative – Based on your decision criteria that you identified early in the process, you’ll now select the best alternative being careful not to fall into one of the pitfalls described later in the chapter.
· Implement and follow up – As the Greek God Nike once said, “Just Do It.” This is where the rubber meets the road and your solution is implemented. One implemented, it’s important to monitor results and adjust fire as necessary.
Now, let’s reflect on a decision that impacted all of us following an attack of our homeland on September 11, 2001. We all remember what we were doing that day. Whether you were at the office, in the field on a training exercise, or enjoying a conversation with your neighbor, the world stopped and all we could think about as Americans is how could we do our part to help those who had missing loved ones in the towers, at the Pentagon, or on the planes. We all wondered who carried out the attack and where the next attack would come from. It was one of the darkest days in American history. In those dark times is where you see what you’re made of, both as an individual and as a democracy. Americans unified as one with a sole purpose to protect our homeland and carry out justice to those responsible for such a heinous and cowardly act.
In the days following 9/11, there was a decision to be made that continues to impact us to this day in various ways. Regardless of your beliefs about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there was a decision that was made by then President Bush based on information he received to target terrorists in these two countries. With all of the controversy surrounding the decision, this lecture could last for hours.
To bound the problem into something reasonable to discuss in a short amount of space, let’s look at the President’s decision to start a ground war in Iraq. President Bush was given information that provided a high likelihood that weapons of mass destruction, a.k.a. WMD, existed on Iraqi soil. Using this supposed fact as a key criterion, the President opted to start a ground war which cost billions of dollars and thousands of American lives were lost. To be fair, there have been positives realized from the war as well to include an infant democracy and the start of freedoms in a foreign land that we take for granted every day in America.
Additionally, many folks became wealthy during the war as civilian contractors and defense contractors back at home churned out huge profits while supporting a worthy cause. There was also a patriotic shift in our country as we unified towards a common goal – to eradicate terrorism across the globe. All that being said, do you think it was the right decision to go to war? If not, which part of the decision-making process should have been further evaluated?
This is a great time to thank you if you or any of your family members served in the armed forces. Because of your sacrifices, we all enjoy the freedoms of being an American. Thank you!
References
· Hitt, M. A., Miller, C. C., & Colella, A. (2015). Organizational Behavior (4th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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