OB600 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

FINAL EXAM QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

CASE STUDY: GROWING MANAGERS: MOVING FROM TEAM MEMBER TO TEAM LEADER
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Melissa Richardson, as a new sales manager in ColorTech, has been trying with her best in order
to break into top sales ranks together with her new team from Arizona. However, she had to
enconter with a series of isses and challenges aside from her bsiness goals.
i) As a new manager, she has mindset of keeping on track for the best sales
performance as she originally comes and gets success from.
According to the case, Melissa Richardson already has sales targets to be hit. This actally is
not a big challenge for Melissa becase she had been the top Chicago salesperson. And she
has ni!e e"orts sch as e#panding the cstomers from otside the target area and
available $ days weekly with on%call &nday. These all e"orts work for the cstomers'
dependency and she cold reap their loyalty. &ince keeping on the achievement, Melissa
simply gets ready to practice this again in order to keep the track on that (her team is always
the best sales hit).
*n the new team, she assmes all the team members shold have the same mindset with her
to get the highest sales nmber. +irstly, she had to enconter in di"erent working days since
the new team members do not present in o,ce even in +riday afternoon. &econdly, each of
team members has di"erent desires, opinions pon working in sales team and di"erent
interests. As instances from salespersons, Ale# Ho"man is the top salesperson in the
company bt he relctant to sell new prodct -ct%.owers/. 0regorio Torres has long%year
e#periences bt he dislike focsing on sales targets. &arah 1ega is less e#perience
salesperson. Althogh less in e#perience is not matter mch, she still needs intensive training
in order to keep on track and wider prodct knowledge. 2ot only salespersons, there are store
merchandisers in Melissa's Team. They too, have di"erent perspectives. Chelsea 3eterson is
an aggressive sta" not in sales bt in commnicating even to her boss. And she e#pects the
e!al chance among colleages even she don't know the real sitation. &arah 1ega is also
store merchandiser bt have strong knowledge pon the prodcts and process. Then, she
e#pects for getting a better position.
Actally, the employees' e#pectation may di"er or diversi4ed, it is only an ordinary case.
However, for ColorTech at that e#act time, there needs to have the same grond for all the
team members to boost their prodctivity p. And Melissa's approaches nder simple
mindset coldn't work well with her new team.
ii) She has desire for improving the whole teams performance and in more ofcial
manner.
*n order to accomplish her mission of improving the sales of ColorTech, the whole team mst
move on and its performance is critical. Then, team members' synergy is re!ired to create
by Manager, Melissa. Therefore, Melissa tried to nderstand each and every member of her
team by meeting individally. Melissa believes that she can realize the mindset of each
member and create a platform for improving the whole team's performance. Apart from the
work performance, Melissa wants her members to be in o,cial manner sch as pnctality
and decent commnication among colleages even by the other langages.
Althogh she nderstands on the sitation of each member after individal meetings, she
coldn't proceed for creating a platform for improving the whole team's performance. There
are two reasons of failre to do so. The 4rst one is Melissa, herself, is ine#perienced in
management and then weak in managing the sta"s with diversi4ed e#pectation. The second
one is ins,cient time bond 5 she didn't have chance to review and reshape her team as
new challenges and isses were coming.
iii) She wants to apply what she has learnt for employee motivation and
management practices.
As a new comer for the team and new -promoted/ position for Melissa, every party has
sensitive to some e#tent. +or Melissa, she has been trying to get ready as a Manager
althogh she has no e#perience. The thing she has to rely is the contents from training,
contacts to HR concern and the senior managers' sharing on their e#periences. To say simply,
Melissa wants to apply what she has learnt on general management and hman resorce
management in her new team. 6t from the side of the team, Melissa is seen as an e#ternal
and the things those she want to apply is totally change process. As the reslt, change gets
resistance.
Additionally, Melissa is not well in &panish which is common langage in her new team
especially for personal commnication. This point reslts two interrelated e"ects7 8/ she can't
have fre!ent informal commnication with her team members and 9/ it makes more barrier
between Melissa and her team members.
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As a new manager for both Melissa herself and of the sales team, mtal trst shold be bilt
4rst. +or bilding mtal trst, both party mst realize the actal sitations each other and mst
nderstand clearly on what is going to do, why it needs to do and how it can be done. *n order to
achieve this, .ent commnication is re!ired for free .owing of information among team
members.
+irstly, Melissa shold have good interpersonal skills especially while re%organizing the members
of di"erent backgrond. *t wold be great if Melissa speaks &panish well bt this is not
mandatory as interpersonal skill. *f Melissa can commnicate well with di"erent team members,
the information .ow will become better and it will spport to nderstand each other and
enhance clear vision among members. :nce all the members have clear vision or common goal,
everything can easily be overcome. *f re!ired, Melissa can create more informal conversations
among members rather than discssing in meetings.
&econdly, Melissa shold focs on team bilding rather than sales focs. *n ordinary, yes, the
main responsibility for Melissa and her team is sales target and it's in need to boost the sales
p. However, withot taking time for team bilding and nderstanding among members
-especially with team leader/, no goal can be achieved. After organizing her team with flly team
spirits, sales target can be raised by means of Management by :b;ectives.
Thirdly, Melissa shold be adapted in the e#isting environment before doing any change. This
kind of adaptation is re!ired especially in lack of information abot the e#isting environment.
As instance, Melissa didn't get enogh information on the conte#t of the o,ce that she was
going to sit for managing. &he even didn't know the previos !arter sales performance< who
are the sta"s at which capacities and what is their working style. At that sitation, she needs
more information to nderstand the real sitation that she wants to make a change. *n order to
get more information, she 4rst needs to adapt and absorb in the crrent environment for detail.
+orthly, Melissa shold swift her approach from (* will make a change) to (=e shall make a
change). &ince after the short%corse training of management, Melissa becomes enthsiastic to
lead and manage her team in new ways inclding employee motivational schemes. &he was
thinking all the time that she needs to re%shape or train her team members for target
accomplishment. However, in actal, she had failed to do so becase of ins,cient time to get
nderstand among members and create a common grond. *n addition, her approach shold be
in participatory means. This means Melissa shold conslt with every team members for a
change together. And she shold create a space for potential leader among team members.
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+or a team or organization accomplishing towards its goal, better performance of the whole
team>organization is re!ired. *n order to get better performance, motivation is critical that bear
throgh positive ;ob attitde of every member>sta".
As a manager, Richardson, she is responsible to motivate her team towards better performance.
According to Maslow's Hierarchy of 2eeds Theory, Richardson needs to nderstand the higher%
order needs and lower%order needs of her team members. ?ower%order needs are physiological
and safety needs those are fl4lling the physical re!irement of basic living and protection from
harmflness on those fl4llment. Higher%order needs are social, self%esteem and self%
actalization. &ocially acceptance and friendship environment, self%respect as internal esteem
factors, recognition and attention as e#ternal esteem factors and driving to become capable,
growth and self%fl4llment are of high%order needs.
*n the sales team of Richardson, it re!ires to nderstand where level of hierarchy -needs/ the
team members are presence and focsing on the above needs. +or the team members with new
manager, Richardson, they may be fl4lled at physiological needs and safety needs which can
be satis4ed e#ternally throgh their salaries. However, for the social needs, all the members are
weak in acceptance of each other for di"erent sitation. The manager, herself, has relctance to
accept the di"erent working cltre that she didn't e#pect before. The team members also have
relctance to accept their new manager in the way of seeing the change maker for the whole
teams' performance. @ven in the team members, acceptance of each other is weak althogh
they may have strong friendship. As they are not accepted in work environment, they are not
completely fl4lled with social needs bt may be fl4lled to some e#tent.
After social needs, it is critical sitation in esteem becase the whole team coldn't show its
achievement. *mmediately, they will not satisfy with internal self esteem need and continosly,
e#ternal recognition cold not be achieved. :nce the needs are stopped in esteem withot
satisfaction, self%actalization can't be preceded for fl4llment. Therefore, for the whole team of
Richardson, it is important to focs on fl4llment of the esteem needs. To focs on esteem
needs, the leader>manager is more important to give fll attention on each and every member
and to recognize their single e"ort. +or recognizing the members' e"ort, every team member
-inclding leader/ mst nderstand well on di"erent cltres of both individal and grop.
@ach of the team members has speci4c individal cltres those other members shold notice
and nderstand for acceptance. As a manager, Richardson shold also notice and nderstand
the speci4c grop cltre -of new team/. +rom this stage, the fl4llment of esteem needs will
become stronger and self%actalization needs will emerged after that.
According to Two%+actor Theory of +rederick Herzberg, relationship between the sales team
members and manager -spervisor/ plays as Hygienic factor while recognition plays as
motivation factor. 6y creating better relationship between spervisor and spervisee, it shows
the better hygienic factor leading towards (no dissatisfaction) of the employee. And by
recognition on the e"ort of employee, it shows better motivation factor leading towards
(satisfaction). Then if these two can be achieved at the same time, the employee's motivation
withot dissatisfaction will improve retention and leads towards the organizational goal.
According to self%determination theory which is contemporary theory of motivation, Richardson
can initiate her team with incentives for hitting sales targets as e#trinsic rewarding. 6y means of
e#trinsic rewarding, innovation is invited from the team members. Throgh innovations, the
whole team will become dynamic and can achieve the satisfaction by fl4lling organizational
goal. @#trinsic reward can be stopped at a point that every members of the team are sed to
have intrinsic reward that they feel their e"ort comes from their actal desires and inspiration.