PLJ 2

After submitting the business plan, I had imagined that the remainder of the semester would

simply involve implementing our proposal. Unfortunately, my aspirations turned out to be a mere

fantasy. The events that have unfolded during the second half of the semester were unexpected

and caused us much grief. After spending considerable time in preparing the business plan, we

were all disappointed when our project fell through only one week later due to the disproval from

BUSA. It reminded me of my Duke of Edinburgh hiking experience when we read the map wrong

and consequently walked the wrong ridge and had to change our course after walking 13

kilometres. As noted in this experience, I established a personal motto whereby “perseverance

equals success” and looked to apply this motto to the challenges that lay ahead.

Having to change our project so late in the semester left many group members feeling confused

and disheartened. Although it was made clear that no individual group member was to blame,

some group members nevertheless found it necessary to level their frustrations at others. The

uncertainty of team goals, coupled with the looming deadlines, time pressure and cultural

differences, caused some minor conflicts to arise. In particular Luke and myself voiced concern to

the rest of the group, expressing dissatisfaction with decisions made on the original project. Luke

also indicated that he had made plans to re-invent our original project: ‘the fair’ whilst

incorporating company sponsorship and giveaways as an off campus event. A clear split had

developed within the group, which lead to further frustration and hostility. Clearly, this conflict

needed to be resolved immediately.

Feeling disconcerted, I took it upon myself to provide stability to the group by attempting to

resolve the obvious conflict. In doing so, the article ‘How management teams can have a good

fight’ was particularly useful. The most important lesson I learnt is that differing opinions and

conflicting interests can only be dealt with once the emotional components of conflict have
receded. In order to resolve the substantive issues, I made a conscious effort to treat Luke and the

rest of the group with respect at all times. I tried to understand the content of Luke’s proposals

and the feelings that he had about them. Subsequently, I stated my feelings and my interpretation

of the group’s views. By following this model, we were able to reach an effective solution. Luke

realised that we had not intended to make a decision or oppose any of his ideas on purpose, but a

group decision is what was required and is what occurred. Giving rise to ‘Strike Bowling Bar’ our

third and hopefully last locked in project. From this point onwards we made a decision to keep

every group member involved in the decision making process so as to avoid further conflicts.

Achievement of our goal to hold a successful event required a persistent and directed effort.

Motivation was clearly the key. At the beginning of the semester, I felt high intrinsic motivation

to succeed in relation to the project. Through acknowledging the ‘Big five personality instrument,

I was able to identify my hidden personality for strong motivational desire to perform challenging

tasks well. Throughout the semester I was concerned with bettering my own performance towards

the team goal. This desire was not met due to a lack of extrinsic motivation flowing from the task.

In addition, our CEO did not conduct any form of performance feedback in the initial stages of the

semester. This meant that there was no way for me to modify my goal attainment strategy in order

to ensure success.

The general conditions under which our team worked were not motivating to satisfy my needs in a

way that contributed to increased performance. My need for relatedness, as explained by ‘Belbin’s

team roles’, was often unsatisfied. Within our group, there was a lack of open communication and

exchange of thoughts and feelings with other organisational members. This was demonstrated by

the fact that we have not had a formal group meeting whereby everyone attended for several

weeks. I therefore found it difficult to satisfy my intrinsic need to have a strong personal

involvement within the company.

My motivation within ‘Fliers for Fires’ can also be explained according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of

needs. Under that theory, I found that my safety need was unsatisfied due to the unstructured and

unordered work environment. In addition, there was little stability within our group given that we

changed the project several times. This lower-level extrinsic need provided me with the greatest

motivating potential. Furthermore, my higher needs for belongingness and esteem were

unfulfilled due to the lack of feedback from others within our group. This provided me with

another source of motivation.

By only setting broad goals during our first company meeting, ‘Fliers for Fires’ did not tap the

potential of the goal setting theory. Our group should have set specific and challenging goals such

as time deadlines and exact levels of achievement required. In addition, the CEO should have

provided all company members with ongoing feedback to enhance performance. Both elements

were apparent but I feel they could have been voiced in a more prominent manner. However,

James did demonstrate a desire to assist each group member to achieve our overall goal of a

successful project. Goal acceptance may have been further enhanced if tied to rewards.

In hindsight, the relatively low levels of motivation might have been increased within our team by

the effective use of money as a motivator. Money can be used to motivate teamwork if it is clearly

tied to performance and if it has a high valence. Although a return on our investment was seen as

a desirable outcome for each group member, the motivating potential of money was less than

effective because it was not clearly tied to performance. Our group decided to donate proceeds to

the victims on the Victoria Bush Fires, which provided some incentive for individuals to

contribute maximum effort to the project. However I felt that Alexey, Mohammad, Sarah and

even myself fell behind the eight-ball as we felt like we weren’t gaining anything personally from

hosting the event. Under such a scheme, profits would have been distributed in the form of a

bonus for increased individual effort. Perhaps we could have made a cash prize for whoever sold
the most tickets as a means for incentive for everyone to pull there weight because Alexey

couldn’t even manage to sell one of the fifteen tickets he was assigned to.

An important factor included in motivation of company members towards goal achievement is the

influence exerted by a leader. Such an influence will be defined by the leader’s traits and the

leader’s behaviour. Many positive characteristics have emerged from our CEO James, including

energy, intelligence, honesty and integrity. Although these characteristics have undoubtedly been

beneficial to our team, I would have liked to experience a slightly more charismatic leader. That

is, a leader who had confidence to take more risks and advocate a different vision. Nevertheless,

the behaviour adopted by James has helped us reach our goal.

The article ‘High Performance Work Teams: Lessons from the Pygmies’ provides a useful

guideline for evaluating the behaviour of a leader when assessing the performance of team

members. My interpretation of James’s leadership style is high in initiating structure. Throughout

the semester he was focussed on accomplishing the task and attaining a successful result. James

appeared to be lower in consideration, and at times he did not show a personal concern for

subordinates. This strategy worked well given that our group was under time pressure due to

deadlines. We needed a leader to show the company members how to get the job completed

efficiently.

The high importance that our leader placed on task achievement seemed to affect the dynamics of

the group on certain occasions. The article ‘The set-up-to fail syndrome’ indicates how the

behaviour of a boss can directly affect group dynamics. For example, it seemed that James

perceived Mohammad to be a poor performer as English is not his primary language and as a

result, he increased his supervision. After the failure of the first proposal, the fair idea, I began to

notice James’s perceptions of the group and in particular Alexey as he appeared to shut down.

Instead of increasing his performance, Alexey became less motivated and started to withdraw
from the group by not attending company meetings and by being less involved in the decision-

making processes. I feel that our team spirit suffered as a result. Greater emotional involvement

by our CEO and an environment of more open communication may have increased motivation to

work to our full potential, thereby preventing this syndrome.

There have been moments of satisfaction as a result of the OB experience, despite the hardships

faced by our group. Dealing with people in an organisational context has most definitely prepared

me for the challenges that lie ahead in my future career. In particular, I have realised the

importance of working in teams. During the semester I worked too much as an individual, often to

the detriment of effective personal outcomes. In the future, I know that it will be important to

work closely with colleagues in order to provide the most professional outcome.

An understanding of the methods of conflict resolution will also provide an important background

to negotiating favourable outcomes to client disputes. The minor conflicts faced this semester

have taught me to have respect for others and deal with emotions first. Also, it will be important

to seek an objective outcome that benefits all members.

Before studying OB I had not considered the complexity of management. I am now aware that

there are many influences that will affect the outcome of work teams. I believe that I am now in a

position to make use of those positive theories and mitigate the effects of any negative outcomes.

The material I have learnt from being involved in a company situation will most definitely assist

me in understanding management situations in my future career.