A manager who understands the concepts for developing and managing teams and can apply those concepts to improve team performance is likely to be successful in managing a high-performing team. In this assignment, you will apply these concepts to a given situation. You will examine issues within a team, uncover root causes, and develop a plan to improve team performance.
Research concepts to improve team performance using your textbook, the Argosy University online library resources, and the Internet. Select at least three authoritative resources, one of which may be your text, to use in this assignment.
Assume, you are the supervisor of a product development team that creates designs for widgets for your company's ABC product line. After they are approved, the designs are sent to manufacturing. The last set of designs your team submitted to manufacturing were altered to reduce manufacturing costs as mandated by senior management. The widgets were then manufactured using the altered design. Unfortunately, the sales of the widgets are not making the target numbers as published in the sales marketing plan. Your team believes the poor sales results are because of the changes in design.
Additionally, there have been some performance issues with the widgets produced so far. Each time one is found, it is brought to the attention of top management and your team. Your team provides a fix to the design, which is then sent to manufacturing. Management is concerned about the number of performance issues that keep arising week after week. Your team has regular, weekly meetings to discuss risks, issues, product improvement ideas, and the status of any project work currently underway. These meetings have become unproductive and a waste of time because team members continue to rehash old issues. They believe senior management is to blame for the market failure of your teams' product. As a result, you are unable to get anything accomplished. One team member is particularly outspoken and has become belligerent in your team meetings.
The team seems unfocused and unwilling to look at root causes for the poor development of designs that do not perform well. Several of the team members are even looking for new jobs because they are afraid they will soon be laid off. Both motivation and morale continue to decline each week.
Download and review the Team Performance Report template from the Doc Sharing area. Analyze the case information and fill in the template.
Write a detailed report for senior management addressing the issues you described in the Team Performance Report. Use the filled in template to support your assertions.
In your report, include the following:
- Identify at least one performance issue that could be contributing to the team's poor performance and at least three root causes for the performance issue(s) identified.
- Develop two specific suggestions for improvements that could positively impact each root cause. You will have six suggestions in all.
- Create a communication plan for your performance improvement suggestions for three different audience types in the organization. Include at least one written communication sample piece. Identify as many details as possible that will need to be considered for each audience type.
- Determine two strategies for motivating/incentivizing employees that would improve performance and morale. Justify your suggestions.
- Identify two strategies for developing the team as a whole. Justify your strategies.
Give reasons and examples from your selected resources in support of your assertions.