Analysis of Communication Challenges and Potential Solutions: Case Study of a Laboratory Information Management System Project Team

We are undergraduate students in the course IT 396-44 Management Information Systems at Monroe College. Professor Asteria Villegas is the instructor for

Whether groups are formed for social or task oriented purposes, the ability to produce and maintain a sense of affiliation, peer support and collaboration is important for overall group functioning. The cohesion of a social group is produced through the establishment of a set of group norms, which are later defined as a guide for conduct accepted within a group of individuals. However, in order for a group to perform and produce results, the team leader should guide his/her team through the proper stages of group development, which includes the following steps: forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. Although teams should follow all these stages of group development, the forming and the norming stages are the most important,

Wheelan (2013) identifies the four stages of team development and provides detailed explanation of how a group transforms itself from a stage one group of uncertainty into a successful, highly productive stage four team. This requires work and a thorough understanding of the many internal/external influences that can occur during each stage. A team member or leader who is well versed in these stages and who can evolve with each stage will be better equipped to deal with possible obstacles that can hinder group progress and implement practices to help the group successfully work through a

Barker, L. L., Kathy,J., Wahler, K. W., Watson, R and Kibler, J ( 1987) Groups in Process: Introduction to Small Group Communication, 3rd edition. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N J

Disagreements are unavoidable in any business. A humble stage of disagreement can be helpful in creating enhanced thoughts and approaches, stimulating apprehension and resourcefulness, and motivating the appearance of long-suppressed tribulations. Conflict resolution approach must intend at keeping disagreement at a stage at which different thoughts and viewpoints are completely voiced but uncreative conflicts are discouraged. Encouragement of conflict situations is suitable if the project leader recognizes circumstances of 'group-think.' Group-think is a circumstance where disagreement hardly ever occurs because of high-minded group unity, which results in poor choices and insufficient production. Group-think conquers when there are a large number of members in a group that just agree with anything, with the outcome that there is no grim assessment of the circumstances and innovative thoughts are not recommended. Group members connect larger significance to status, stillness and calm in the group relatively than to procedural capability and capability. Members are unwilling to voice their impartial outlook in order to shun away from offending the

Work Team development is a dynamic and often difficult process. Most teams find themselves in a continuos state of change and development. Eventhough, most teams never reach full stability, there is a general pattern that describes how most teams evolve. There are five stages of team development, the first stage is forming. In this stage there is a great deal of uncertainty about the teams purpose, structure and leadership. Members are testing the the waters to determine what types of behaviors are acceptable. This stage is complete when members began to think of themselves as part of the team. The second stage is called storming. In this stage there is much intragroup conflict.Team members accept the existence of the team, but there is resistance to the control that the team imposes on individuality. Conflict can arise from numerous sources within the team setting but generally falls into three categories:communication, factors, structural factors and personal factors (Varney, 1989/Townsley). In addition, there is conflict over who will control the team.

“Team conflict may occur among members hailing from different fields of professions, such as in a cross-functional project team, or between line workers (who work directly with the product or service) and staff teams (who provide behind-the-scenes support). It may also occur as a result of perceived inequities in group member status or productivity, personality differences, or other work-related problems.” (Organizational Communication, 2010, pg 223).

The Tuckman’s stages of team development (Levi, 2007) will be used as lens to evaluate the work of the group presentation. The Tuckman’s stages of team development consist of five stages of forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning (Levi, 2007). In the forming stage we tend to know each other and figure out how we are going to run the presentation. At this stage, there was discomfort due to unfamiliarity together with confusion on how we will function together. The solution for that case was, everyone had each member contact detail, had a clear ground rules, as well as planned how we will accomplish our tasks. In addition, we also experienced the storming and norming stage. Levi (2007) says that the in the storming phase there are often

Synaptic Corporation is a San Diego, California based biotechnology company who develops pharmaceutical drugs for clinical trials as well as mass distribution (Makarov, n.d., p. 1). Recently, the organization suffered a setback as internal teams failed to collaborate and implement a project that would transition its products from research to production (Makarov, n.d., p. 2). The project failed in part due to the lack of project management, control, and risk practices to address the adverse impacts. Likewise, Synaptic Corporation neglected to utilize its internal Information Management (IM) resources to address and resolve internal software development needs for the scientists in the Computational Biology group (Makarov, n.d., p. 3).

The authors were successful on this step by creating a valuable and diverse team that complimented each other, which was a necessity to ensure they had mixed points of views and opinions. Next, the team must create the approach they are going to take, and to be sure each team member has a clear understanding of the benefits for the future of everyone involved. This step was evident by the group meetings. Fourth, it is imperative for the team to demonstrate impeccable communication skills and the ability to influence others to comprehend the significance of the change (Kotter and Rathgeber 2006).

The dynamics of a team relies heavily on the interaction of team members during times of conflict not just during times of agreement. Often groups seek to achieve a cohesive relationship in an effort to unite the team towards its goals. Group members can make the mistake of subverting conflict in an attempt to maintain this team unity. Conflict serves a valuable role in effective group interactions that must be understood by participants of a team. An examination into the characteristics of conflict and cohesion and the relationship between the two dynamics can provide perspective to

I had a change in leadership in my department. The new director began to pull our work group into frequent meetings to discuss strategic initiatives and large-scale issues and allowed up to work collectively to find solutions, we had become a work team (Robbins, S.P., Judge, T.A., 2009). This new approach did come with its own set of barriers. My team experienced the five stages of group development including forming, storming, norming, performing and the fifth step

Finally, the current operation is impaired by its own change in processes, leading to work groups operating as silos, and

Effective Communications in Project Management: What do I know? Who needs to know it? And Have I told them.

Socio-technical uncertainty is the information and decesions needed to make a change. In this environment, the processes and work are exactly known to the organization. “Based on the extent to which the tasks involved are determined, established, or exactly known” (Buono and Kerber, 2010, p.8). The work tasks are open and the work processes can be repeated easily between team members. In this environment, employees can be directed to follow changes. In this case, the guided approach is appropriate. Change starts at the top, employees are directed to new directions, and the change leadership is notified then command.