dent last week.

Ju st before class
CASE 8 star ted, Dian e, Janet, Steve, an d she
we re joking with one an other be fore
The For otten Group Member
...............................................................
-., class. They we re laugh ing an d enjoy­
ingthem selves befor e San dr a ca me
Developed by Franklin Ramsoomair, Wilfred Lourier Universi ty
in. No on e noticed that Mik e had
slipped in very quietly and had
he Organizational Behavior course for the semester appeared to promise
un obtrusively take n his seat.

T
the opportunity to learn , e njoy, and pra ctice some of the theori es and prin­

cip les in the textboo k and class discussions. Chr istine Spe nce r was a devot­

ed, hard-working stud ent who had bee n maintaining an A-average to date,

Although the skills and knowl edge sh e had acqu ire d thro ugh her co urses were

Sh e re called th e cafe te ria inci­

dent. Two weeks ago , she ha d gone
to the cafeteria to gr ab someth ing to
ea t. She had r ush ed to her acc ount­
impor tant, she was also very conce rn ed abo ut he r grades. She felt that grades
ing class a nd had ski pped breakfast.
wer e par amount in giving her a co mpet itive edge when looking for a job and ,
When she got he r club sa ndwich
as a th ird-year stu dent , she realized that she'd soon be doin g jus t that.
an d hea ded to the tab les , she saw
her OB group and joined th e m. T he
Sunday aftern oon . Two o'clock. gro up shou ld get togeth er befor e discussi on was light and enjoyable
Christ ine was workin g on an every class to discu ss the day's case. as it always was when they met
accou nting ass ignmen t but didn 't Mike had balk ed, saying "No way!l in formally. Mike had com e in. He'd
seem to be able to concentrate. Her Th is is an 3:30 class , and I barely app roac hed their table. "You gu ys
co urses wer e work ing cu t very well make it on time anyway! Besides, I'll didn't say you wer e having a group
this semester , all but the OB. Mu ch miss my Happy Harry s how on tele­ meeting, " he blurted. Christin e was
of the mark in th at course was to be vision!" The grou p couldn 't help but taken aback.
bas ed on the q uality of grou pwork, laugh at his indign ation. Steve was We just happened to ru n int o
and so she felt somewha t out of co n­ the bus inesslike individual , always eac h other. Wh y no t join us?"
trol. She recollected th e events of wanting to ensure that group me et­ "Mike looked at them , with a
th e past five wee ks. Professor ings were guided by an agenda and noncomm ittal glance. "Yeah . . .
Sandra T hie l had divided th e class noting th e tangible re su lts achieved right," he mutter ed , and walked away.
into grou ps of five people and had or not achi eved at th e end of every Sandra Th iel had frequentl y
given the m a major grou p ass ign­ meetin g. Janet was the re liable on e told them th at if there were prob­
men t wor th 30 percen t of the final who would always have more for the lem s in the group, the mem be rs
g rade. T he task was to analyz e a group th an was expected of her. should mak e an effo r t to deal with
seve n-pag e cas e and to come up Chri stin e sa w herself as meticulous them firs t. U the problems coulcJ not
with a writte n ana lysis . In addition, and organized and as a person who be res olved , sh e had said th at they
San dr a had as ked the gr ou ps to pre­ tried to give her best in whatever should com e to h er. Mike seemed so
sent th e case in class, with th e ide a she did . distant, despite the apparen t cama­
that th e rest of the class membe rs It was now week 5 into the rade rie of the firs t meetin g .
would be "mem be rs of the board of se meste r, and Chri s tine was deep in An h our had passed , bring ing
direc tor s of the co mpan y" who thought about the OB assignment. the time to 3 P.M., an d Ch ris tine
would be listening to how the man­ She had called everyone to ar range foun d hersel£ biting the tip of h er
ager and he r tea m deal t with the a meeting for a time that would suit penc il. Th e wr itte n ca se an alys is
prob le m at han d. th e m all, but she seemed to be run­ was du e next wee k. All th e ot hers
Christ ine was elect ed "Team ning into a roadblock. M ike couldn't had done th eir des igna ted sec ­
Coo rdi nato r" at the first group meet­ make it, saying th at he was work ing tion s , but Mike had jus t h an ded in
ing, Th e other me mbers of the that night as a mem ber of th e cam­ some rou gh h an d written notes . He
gr oup wer e Diane , Janet, Steve, and pus security force. In fact, he ha d called Chris tine the wee k
Mik e. Diane was quiet and never seemed to miss most meetings and before, telli ng her tha t in addi tion
voluntee red sug ges tions, bu t whe n wou ld se nd in bri ef notes to to his course and his job, h e was
dir ectly as ked, s he would come up Christi ne , which she was supposed having pr oble ms wit h his gi rl­
with high -qu ality idea s. Mike was to disc uss for him a t the group meet­ frie nd. Chri stine e mpath ized with
th e clown. Christine remem be re d ings. She wond ered how to deal with h im. Yet, thi s was a g ro up pro je ct!
tha t s he had sug gested th at the th is. She also remembe red the inci­ Besides, th e fina l mark woul d be

t'
.~ • •' • • • • • • • • • • " e • " • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • THE OB SKILLS WORKBOOK W·51

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pe er evaluated. This m eant that
whatever mark Sandra gave th em
Review Questions on the waIl of his workshop was this
sign:
could be lowered or rai sed, 1. How could an und er standing of
dep ending on th e g ro up's opinion the stages of group devel opm ent Success is a ruthless competitor, for it flat­
assi st Christine in leadership s itu­ . . ters and nourishes our wealmesses and
abo ut th e valu e of the co ntribution
of ea ch member. She was defin ite­ ations such as this one ? lUU-; us into complacency.
ly worried. She kn ew that Mike 2. Wh at sh ould Chris tine understand While Gordon represented the
had crea tive id ea s th at co uld h elp about individual membership in star attraction, many believed that it
gr oups in order to build group was Evernham who pulled the whole
to rais e th e overall mark . She was
processes that are supportive of act togeth er. He was responsible for a
als o concerned for him. As sh e lis­
he r work gr oup's perfor mance? gr oup of over 120 technician s and
te ned to the music in the back­
g rou nd , sh e wondered wh a t s he 3. Is Christine an effecti ve g roup mechanics with an annu al budget esti­
lead e r in th is case? Why or why mated between $10 and $12 million!
sho uld do .
not? II And he had strong opinions as to what
it takes to consistently finish first
painstaking preparatio n, ego less team­
work, and thoroughly original strate­
gizing-principles that apply to any
high-performance organization.
CAS!:: 9
ASCA
, Racing Tea s
Evernham believed that teams
needed to experimen t with new me th­
........... ... " .
ods and precesses. Wh en he assem­
Developed by David S. Chappell, O hio University, modifi ed by Hal Babson, bled his Rainbow Warri ors pit crew,
Columbus State Community Coi lege and John R. Schermerhorn , Jr, Oh io none of them had Nextel/Winston
University

.
he most popular team spo rt, based on tota l spectator a udience, is not bas­

. Cup experience and none worked on

th e car in any other capacity. W ith the
use of a pit crew coach, th e Rainbow
Warriors provide Gord on with an

T
ketball , ba se~ al! . footb a.l! , ~ r even s ~ccer : it is stock car rac ing . Tne larg est

stock ca r racing gr oup In tne world IS the National Ass ociation for Stoc k

Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). T he NASCAR Nex tel Cup Series kicks off in
Februar y an d r uns th roug h Nove mber. Along th e way it serves as a market­
approximately one-second advantage
with eac h pit sto p, which, at a speed
of 200 miles per hour, equ ates to 300
feet of race track.
ing powerhou se.
"Whe n you coach and suppo rt a
super star like Je ff Gordo n, you give
'f
him the bes t equipment possib le, you
Not on ly are ove r 12 million You Win as a Team
give him the informa tion he need s,
fan s attracted to NASCAR's races,
an d then you ge t out of the way. But
but an oth e r 250 million watch races Jeff Gord on is one of NASCAR's most
racing is a team sport. Everyone who
on television. Driver s a re involved in successful and well-known drivers; he's
races pretty muc h has the same car
cab le networ k s hows as well as syn­ bee n a sensa tion ever since he started
and the same equipment. Wh at sets
dicated radio shows each week. racing go-carts and quarter-midget
us apart is our people. I like to talk
NASCAR's official Web site , at cars at the age of 5. But as the driver of
about ou r "tea m IQ"-because none
www .nascar.corn. ran ks amo ng th e a successfu l race car he represents just
of us is as smar t as all of us.
five most pop ular sites on the the most visible part of an incredibly
"I think a lot about people, man ­
Intern et. Comp anies such as the complex racing organization-a high ­
ag eruent, and psych ology : Spec ifi­
Coca-Cola Co. take advantage of per formanc e sys tem whose ultimate
cally, how can I motivate my g uys
NASCAR's po pular ity with mercha n­ contribution takes place on race day.
and make th e m ge l as a tcam? I sur­
dise, collectible s, apparel, acces­ For several years a team known as the
rou nd th em with idea s about team ­
so ries, toys, and other marketing tie­ Rainbow War riors hand led Gordon's
wor k. I read eve ry leade rshi p bo ok I
ins. Th e race cars them selves ha ve car. Th eir leader was cre w chief Ray
can ge t my ha nds on. One th ing that
been describ ed by so me as "200 Evernham, recognized by many as one
I took from my rea ding is the idea of
mile-per-h ou r billboards." of the very best in the business . Posted
a 'cir cle of strength.' when th e

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