Organizational Behavior and Leadership

1. Your organization’s president has read a lot about teams in the popular press and
   wants to implement teams throughout your division on a trial basis. She has asked
   you to lead the transition. Up until now, your organization has not had a history of
   using teams to reach its goals, and in fact, has relied on the more traditional form of a
   “command-and-control” hierarchy to reach its goals. Based on your readings about
   groups and teams and your insights about group process, how would you go about
   building high performance teams in your division? Are there any special
   considerations for virtual teams? Are there any drawbacks to teams you should
   warn her about?
2. Companies do not usually advertise that they expect employees to work 12-hour days;
   instead, they nurture a corporate culture of over-achievement and create expectations
   that long hours of work are essential for success in the company. Especially in
   today’s economy, employees are highly unlikely to complain. However, long stressful
   hours will ultimately lead to reduced job performance and life satisfaction, employee
   burnout, and illness. Jonathan Fields, a former hedge-fund lawyer for a large-firm in
   NYC turned serial entrepreneur, almost worked himself to death before getting out of
   the law business and into entrepreneurial adventures. Imagine that you are the owner
   of a highly stressful but surviving business, and you want to make sure that your
   employees are not headed toward role overload and burnout. Considering Figure
   16.9, how would you go about diagnosing sources of stress and burnout (e.g., what
   diagnostic questions would you ask?), and what steps would you to take to ensure
   that your employees do not sacrifice their physical and mental well-being for the
   sake of your company?
3. Research suggests that the way in which a team is designed has a stronger effect on a
   team’s performance than the team’s leader has. Think of a recent team experience,
   describe it in terms of Hackman’s five conditions for team effectiveness, and discuss
   whether the presence (or absence) of the five conditions affected the team’s
   performance.

Sample Solution