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Mba 653 the Team That Wasn't Case Study

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Section 1: Introduction Moving from New York City to the Midwest, Eric Holt has recently taken a new job as the director of strategy at a regional glass manufacturer named FireArt Inc. The CEO of the company, Jack Derry, has tasked Eric with developing a comprehensive plan for the company’s strategic realignment which needs to be implemented and working within the next six months. Eric has put together a team of the top six managers, one from each division, to accomplish this task. Unfortunately for Eric and his team, after the first four meetings, there has been little progress towards their goal. The lack of progress is not due to an insufficient amount of knowledge by each manager, but rather their inability to work together as a …show more content…

However, Eric never introduced this contract to the group, preventing the possibility of mutual agreement or voluntary acceptance, which are key elements of psychological contracts (Rousseau 120-121). Most of the team members accepted a non-formal form of a psychological contract, including expectations of being punctual and acting with respect for one another. However there is considerable evidence of the team not abiding by the rules of this contract, or any meta-contract. One instance occurred when the group did not follow any structured plans for resolving disagreement, but instead chose to publicly confront Randy. Another problem is that this team does not function in the ideal way as depicted in a manner associated with the Model for Managing Psychological Contracts. This team reaches a “pinch point” each time a disruption occurs from Randy. With each disruption, there is anxiety (experienced by Eric), resentment (the team towards Randy), and uncertainty (the entire team not knowing what to expect next from Randy). This process results in a team “crunch point” at which point the team continues to function without addressing the problems (Kolb, Osland and Rubin 9). Eric’s ineffective communication has contributed to the team’s issues as well. Eric missed timely opportunities to meet with each team member individually before calling everyone together as a group. Eric knew that the managers at FireArt were not

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