preview

Essay on Army Crew Varsity Team Case Study Analysis

Good Essays

Army Crew Team Case Study Analysis As a student of the Leading Teams in Organizations class at Lipscomb University, I’m required to answer questions regarding the Harvard Business School Case titled “The Army Crew Team”. The case write-up describes a coach’s dilemma regarding an underperforming Varsity Crew team. The Varsity team is consistently losing to the Junior Varsity (JV) team forcing its coach to consider taking drastic actions four days before the National championship. The coach is considering the following three options: switching the Varsity and JV teams, switching individual boat members, or intervening to improve the Varsity team’s performance (Snook & Polzer, 2004). The coach should switch the Varsity and JV teams and …show more content…

Coach P.’s training program should have focused more on psychological variables and group processes earlier in the season. Instead, training was focused on improving individual team member performance. The Varsity team comprised of the eight top individual performers (Snook & Polzer, 2004). Mistrust between Varsity team members began developing following spring break. Lack of trust and other related psychological issues prevented the Varsity team from synchronizing their rowing even though they were the top individual performers. Following spring break, varsity team members became unhappy and critical of one another. These behaviors were an early indication of a lack of trust needed to be addressed immediately. Trust is paramount in crew. It is important for team members to trust others to correct mistakes, allowing the boat to regain balance and maximum speed (Snook & Polzer, 2004). The early lack of trust among Varsity team members later resulted in a fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results by team members. This was verified by a diagnostic tool described Lencioni’s book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. In order to have been successful, the Varsity team would have to trust one another, engage in unfiltered conflict around team issues, commit to decisions and plans of action, hold one another accountable, and focus on the achievement of collective results (Lencioni, 2002). At the end of the case, what

Get Access