GROUP RAINBOW

Case Study Report

BOB KNOWLTON

Submitted To: Dr. Saleena Khan Asst. Professor & Chairperson, OB & HRM Area IMT, Nagpur (Maharashtra)

Submitted byGroup 1: Section B

ESHANI ROY ASHISH DHAR CHIRAG BANSAL ANIMESH SINGH GAUTAM DEVOTSO MAULIK DHARA MEHTA DEVANSHU DIVYA

(2012113) (2012077) (2012101) (2012065) (2012106) (2012107) (2012105)

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Outline
This case is about Bob Knowlton, working in Simmons laboratories from past nine years and has been appreciated for his performance with a promotion to the position of project leader. Soon after the promotion his senior Dr. Katherine introduced him to Elliot Haywood and wanted him to join the team. Elliot impressed Bob in his first meeting and when asked by Katherine, he also responded positively about him. Later when Elliot started working, his knowledge surpassed everyone in the team and because of this, team spirit went low. However, Katherine did not come to know about the internal conflicts within the team. The envy feeling inside Bob leads him to develop a fear to lose his position as Katherine once said sky is the limit for those who can produce. Bob is been offered with a new job with same designation in a new laboratory in the nearby city.

Synopsis
Elliot Haywood has joined new firm where he has gained lots off appreciation in small time and because of this his team leader, Bob, has gone under job insecurity. His performances in team also lead to a lack in team spirit as many meetings were skipped. The performance of Elliot reached to a level as seen during the presentation where Bobs work was challenged and he developed a feeling of job insecurity. Bob is finally in a dilemma that either he should continue in the same laboratory or he should join new job which is offered to him.

Objectives

Importance of Defining Roles and Responsibilities to individuals. Effective management of people in an organization. To hone with decision making skills. Build leadership skills when faced with certain challenges.

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Analysis
Since Bob Knowlton was already leading a well formed team during his 9 year work stint in Simmons Laboratory, he had established himself as the leader. For a group to function properly, the leader needs to also play his or her role to the point. Taking this point further, when a new member joins an already well formed group, there are certain tasks that the team or group leader also needs to perform to the effect as to welcome and manage the new team member. Following are some of the tasks that the team leader needs to perform as well: Role-taking: The member joins the team and the leader evaluates his or her abilities and talents. Based on this, the leader may offer opportunities to demonstrate capabilities. Role-making: In the second phase, the leader and member take part in an unstructured and informal negotiation whereby a role is created for the member. Trust-building is very important in this stage, and any feelings of betrayal, especially by the leader, can result in the member being demoted to the outgroup. From the case analysis we can see that the role taking and role making tasks were not at all performed by Bob Knowlton when a new member Elliot joined the group. Bob Knowlton as a leader did not evaluate the capabilities and talents of Elliot when he joined the group. There might have been various reasons for this: Bobs inherent insecurities might have led him to not even try to evaluate Elliots abilities as in their first meeting itself Elliot demonstrated that he was knowledgeable to the extent that exceeded Bobs and even his teams abilities. Fear of embarrassment and projection of their own incompetence might also have stopped Bob from evaluating Elliots abilities. Katherines leaning towards Elliot and her impression of his skills and abilities had already projected on Bob that she was well impressed with Elliot and hence did not motivate him to make any efforts to know about

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Elliots abilities because Bob himself would not have wanted to cross Katherines choice which he had perceived Elliot to be. Bob Knowlton, as a leader, also did not enter into any negotiations or role clarity with Elliot. He was not told how the group functioned and hence any new group member who is not told about the norms of the group would in fact function as an independent entity and that is what happened in this case.

Q. What were the barriers to team effectiveness from the case in question? Discomfort with differences: It is one of the features of Projection Bias. In this, group members are not comfortable with addition of new member, who is quite different on any of the dimension like age, knowledge etc. Biases against the unfamiliar: Any member of a group or a team is not ready to accept the new entrant due to unfamiliarity with the new member. Reinforcing Team Norms: If one member having in-depth knowledge (from a highly competitive group) joins a new group, may find that submerging his own ideas to the will of the new group can go against him. In this case, when Elliott Haywood joins Simmons Labs, he displays his knowledge, which is good for the research work that is being carried out at the lab, but is not taken sportingly by the team. Here, in this particular case the team directly starts with Performing phase instead of restating the norms, after the addition of new member.

Solution 1 Bob Knowlton should not leave his current job as a team leader. He should try to improve the team dynamics by making the team more interactive and making Elliot a more integral part and introduce him with the team norms rather than

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outcast him. According to Tuckmans Model they have skipped the norming stage and proceeded directly to performing. They need to revisit the stages to make a more effective team.

Pros: This will make Bob Knowlton a better leader as learning is always better as you can arise from a crisis situation. Cons: It might make him more frustrated in his current role as hell constantly feel that Elliot is a threat to him and his position. Solution 2 As discussed within the group Bob Knowlton should leave the current job and take up the new opportunity which will offer him a better position and also a better pay package. Pros: This will be a high self-motivating factor for him and this will help him to make a new fresh start where he can forget about the previous situation and will be able to focus more on work as well as being a good team leader. Cons: Similar situation can arise in any workplace, as the basic human traits are universal. This can be considered as a running away move and might make him lose his confidence to again work in the same situation.

Solution 3 Elliot was brilliant in his work and ideas, but his behaviour made many team members like Oliver and Davenport uncomfortable. He was not a team player rather he was an individual performer. A preferable solution could be

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that Elliot should be assigned to a separate project like R&D work where he can work independently rather than working in interdependent roles. Pros: This could help the company to properly utilize his talent and abilities and at the same time other group members can work on their projects coherently. Cons: Making him work in isolation will not help him learn how to work in a team, a prerequisite for organisations success. Best Solution: Katherine should take the initiative to build upon the interpersonal skills of the team. The stress should be laid primarily on Elliot, who along with his strong technical skills and intelligence should also learn to maintain close relationship with other team members. She can help Bob boost up his confidence, so that he can hone his leadership skills to take an effective stand on behalf of the team. Pros: This will build group cohesion. Being the Location head Katherines initiative wouldnt hurt the sentiments of the group members.

Managerial Learning

Understanding team effectiveness rather than working individually. Group Cohesion & effective leadership Understand the behaviour of individual , their reaction, response and manage them effectively Understand the importance of motivation and job satisfaction for employees in order to increase productivity.

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Importance of organisation structure To understand how a manager should react when a group is already formed beforehand.