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Case 1 The Virtual Environment Work Team (Summary)

 T.A Stearns was a national fax accounting firm whose main business was its
popular tax preparation service for individuals. The work as carried out in a virtual
environment by four programmers in the greater Boston area. Tom Andrews is a tax
lawyer, a graduate of the University of Maine and a former hockey player there.
At 35, Tom has worked on the programs for six years and is the longest-standing
member of the team. Along with his design responsibilities, Tom is the primary
liaison with Stearns. He is also responsible for training new team members. Cy
Crane, a tax accountant and computer science graduate of the University of
Massachusetts, is 32 years old, married, with two children ages four and six.
Marge Dector, a tax lawyer, graduated from Penn State University, is 38 years
old, married, with two children ages eight and ten. Megan Harris, tax accountant
and graduate of Indiana University, is 26 years old and single. When Cy developed
a program using his superior programming skills to reduce his man- hours and increase
productivity, he told about it only to his colleagues so that they benefit from it and
enjoy some leisure time. He didn’t tell about it to Dave because he feared that since his
program helps in doing the work of four people by only three people, one of them might
lose their job because of him. Another reason contributing to his secrecy was that their
team would get only 5% of the profit generated by the aid of their innovation only for
three months which was very less in comparison to the leisure time they had. The group
even increased the quality of their work so as to not arouse any suspicion. But Cy made
the terrible mistake of telling about his program to a member from another group which
aroused Dave’s suspicions. Dave was wondering for a few weeks after the
implementation of the program as to why the production time had decreased and the
quality of work had shot up. He got his first inkling form an e-mail he intercepted from
Marge to Cy thanking him for his brilliant thinking. Dave tried to confront Tom trying
not to create an embarrassing situation but got no further leads. He did not even tell his
boss about his suspicions since quality and productivity were up. But one day Dave
learned that Cy had boasted about his trick program to a person from another team in
the company. Dave decided that the matter had gone out of hands and pulled the reins
by inviting Cy to lunch and asking him to explain what was happening. This method was
wise and effective as it gave a sense of security to the offender who pleaded guilty
immediately but insisted that the reasons were justified so as to protect himself. This
manner of interrogation and his good use of intellect to cover an embarrassing situation
shows that he is an effective team leader. Also he respects the sentiments and feelings
of others which makes him a considerate man leading to his effective team leadership.
Case 1 (Answers)

1. Why is this group a team?


 This group is a team because they had shared leadership roles, the team has individual
and mutual accountability, the team has a specific purpose which is to prepare a highly
technical both in terms of the tax laws they cover and the code in which they are
written, the team also has a collective work products like they solve big problems
through programming such as creativity the macros and last the team discusses, decides
and does real work.
2. What characteristics of the team predispose it to making ineffective decisions?
 One of the basis of ineffective decision is their communication because they only
discusses their work through email rather than meeting each other every day. Second is
their time because they are all focused on finishing their job as early as they can so they
can do more activities that’s why they creates a macro. Third is the leadership, single
leader had dominated between them they had established norms for the group and
leads from own value system.
3. What are the characteristics of groupthink are manifested in the work team?
 Illusion of invulnerability . There is excessive optimism and risk taking. As we can see
here there is excessive optimism and risk taking behavior shown by the team as they
kept the innovation to themselves having optimism regarding that the management
won’t easily find out about it. Also the risk taking behavior can be seen when they
ignore the company policy for their own benefits.
 rationalizations by the members of the group to discount warnings. This can be seen
when the members ignore the threat of being caught and when Dave hinted Tom he
rationalized thinking if everything’s all right why does Dave has to worry.
 An unquestioned belief in the group’s Inherent Morality . The group ignores
questionable ethical or moral issues or stances. Here the group ignores the moral issues
and stances by keeping the innovation to themselves knowing about the company policy
of suggested rewards. Working for Stearns for a long time they should have been more
loyal.
 Self-censorship of any deviation from the apparent group consensus. This can be easily
seen in this case as no one person came out with the truth unless it was finally out
 Illusion of unanimity – silence is interpreted as consent. Here Cy and Tom swore the
other members to the oath of secrecy thinking what they thought was everybody’s
thinking but this actually might not have been the case.
 Self -appointed mind guards who protect the group from adverse information. In this
case study Tom was the self-appointed mind guard who kept the information of Dave
hinting to him about the innovation to himself thinking that there would be nothing
done as long as the work was done well and company was in profit.
4. Has Dave been an effective group leader? What should Dave do now?
 Yes, Dave is an effective team leader because he knows how to converse with
employees in different situations without offending them in any way. In this case when
Cy developed a program using his superior programming skills to reduce his man- hours
and increase productivity, he told about it only to his colleagues so that they benefit
from it and enjoy some leisure time. He didn’t tell about it to Dave because he feared
that since his program helps in doing the work of four people by only three people, one
of them might lose their job because of him. Another reason contributing to his secrecy
was that their team would get only 5% of the profit generated by the aid of their
innovation only for three months which was very less in comparison to the leisure time
they had. The group even increased the quality of their work so as to not arouse any
suspicion. But Cy made the terrible mistake of telling about his program to a member
from another group which aroused Dave’s suspicions. Dave was wondering for a few
weeks after the implementation of the program as to why the production time had
decreased and the quality of work had shot up. He got his first inkling form an e-mail he
intercepted from Marge to Cy thanking him for his brilliant thinking. Dave tried to
confront Tom trying not to create an embarrassing situation but got no further leads.
He did not even tell his boss about his suspicions since quality and productivity were up.
But one day Dave learned that Cy had boasted about his trick program to a person from
another team in the company. Dave decided that the matter had gone out of hands and
pulled the reins by inviting Cy to lunch and asking him to explain what was happening.
This method was wise and effective as it gave a sense of security to the offender who
pleaded guilty immediately but insisted that the reasons were justified so as to protect
himself. This manner of interrogation and his good use of intellect to cover an
embarrassing situation shows that he is an effective team leader. Also he respects the
sentiments and feelings of others which makes him a considerate man leading to his
effective team leadership.

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