ASSIGNMENT: Reflection and Analysis

Task 1: Toward the Management of Cognitive Gap

In Lessons 4 - 6, we focus on the effective management of cognitive gap. In this task, you will return to the group you have chosen for ongoing analysis (i.e., the group you identified in R&S #1, Task 2) and continue the process with the following key concepts in mind:

• cognitive gap
• agents of change
• cognitive climate
• bridging
• coping behavior
• resistance to change
• group development

Specifically, your task now is fourfold:

1. Analyze your group in terms of agents of change (AC¹'s, AC²'s, and AC³'s), using the following steps to guide your analysis:

• Who are the AC²'s and AC³'s within your group? Justify your views with specific examples. If the statistical distribution of your group doesn't match that used in your textbook (i.e., Figure 10, p. 230), focus on the roles played by each group member (and his/her relative influence on the team) in order to determine "who's who".
• Use diagrams to help illustrate your analysis (see, e.g., Lesson 4, Section B).
• Describe the cognitive climate of your group. How do the various AC² and AC³ sub-groups enable the performance of your overall group? How do they limit it? In addition, comment on the relative "integration" of the various AC³'s within your group: do they each play positive roles as well-respected members of the team, or are they neutrally or negatively positioned in terms of their contributions? How might their role(s) be enhanced to better enable group performance overall?
• What impact do "authority" and/or "status" have within your group? For example: is the group member with the most authority an AC² or an AC³? What impact does this fact have on the dynamics of the group? On his or her leadership within the group?
• Consider the impact of coping behavior on the climate of the group: who is doing the most/least coping within the group? What impact does this have on individual contributions and performance?

2. Consider your group in light of our study of resistance to change:

• Recalling that no one resists or accepts all change, consider who within your group (including yourself!) appears to resist/welcome which (kinds of) changes? How might you explain these variations in acceptance/resistance using principles of A-I theory?
• Is resistance to change (of all kinds) being managed well in your group? How might it be handled even more effectively?

3. Discuss the presence and impact of bridging (in both level and style) within your group as a means for managing some of the cognitive gaps existing within it:

• Who is acting in the role of a bridger now? Under what circumstances, and in what ways (provide examples)? Are they effective in their bridging efforts? Why or why not?
• Where and how might additional bridging be used effectively to improve the problem-solving performance of the group? Who would be the best candidate(s) for a bridging role and why?
• Use diagrams to help illustrate your analysis (see, e.g., Lesson 5, Section B).

4. Finally, consider Tuckman & Jensen's model of group development (from Lesson 4) and describe the progress of your problem-solving group in terms of this model and its links to Adaption-Innovation theory:

• Use specific examples to illustrate each stage of the process your group has passed through (or is currently experiencing).
• Close your assignment with comments on how Tuckman & Jensen's model reveals new insights about the relationship between Problem A and Problem B within your group.

Task 2: A Final Look at Collaboration and Problem-Solving Leadership

The Task 2 serves as an exercise in both the integration of what you have learned and your reflection on its meaning, value, and potential application in your professional life. In addition, I would like for you to integrate some of the key insights you have derived from your previous courses in 'Organizational Behavior' and 'Organization Learning' to address the following items:

1. Provide an original commentary on the progression of change in the professional context (i.e., domain/discipline) in which you operate day to day. Within this commentary, describe how Kirton's work as well as the viewpoints of scholars such as Tushman can be used to avoid biased views of change (i.e., one particular type of change is 'superior' to others) in organizations.

2. Describe some of the key insights you have gained pertaining to:

• The management of change (e.g., technical change) through the management of cognitive diversity.
• Problem solving leadership and your capacity to facilitate change in collaboration with others using what you have learned in these courses.