Case study: Project team issues
BetterU College is a fictitious, small liberal arts school
that is located in . The HR Director has decided to propose the
implementation of a computerized system for employee performance evaluations.
Three of the staff of the HR department, Steven Hansen, Training Manager, Kelly
Woo, HR Analyst, and Eric Adams, Compensation Manager, have been assigned to
perform this task. Steven, Kelly and Eric all know each other but normally do
not interact much and have not previously worked together on a project.
Steven is a long-time employee of the college (20 years) who
worked his way up from janitor to shipping and receiving clerk to office
manager to a recruiter in HR to a Training Specialist to Training Manager. He
is 55 years old, has an Associates degree in business, and is very creative but
hates having to write reports or deliver presentations.
Kelly is relatively new to the college (3 years), having
come from a rival university. She is 27 years old, has 5 years of experience
and has a Masters degree in HR from Georgetown University. Kelly likes her job
but is actively seeking to relocate to Oregon to be closer to her fiancé`. She
hasn’t told anyone but she’s hoping to move within the next 4 months and may
even switch careers. Her fiancé’ owns a chain of convenience stores and Kelly
might take over the management of one that has been experiencing declining
sales.
Eric has been the Compensation Manager at the college for less
than 6 months. He came from an HR consulting firm that had Fortune 100
companies as its clients. Eric was the VP of HR at the consulting firm but he
was downsized when the firm was bought out by a bigger company. Eric’s job at
the college has meant a big pay cut but he’s trying to stick it out. Rumor has
it that Mark may be retiring in a few years so Eric plans to apply for his job
as HR Director when it becomes available.
Case Objectives:
After analyzing this case, students should be able to:
Outline and discuss key group processes, theories, and
models that are relevant to this case.
Identify the impact of individual actions on the outcome of
team projects.
Discuss attributes that enable teams to function effectively
and apply them to this case.
Discuss the relevance of effective coordination and
communication in this case.
Recommend a course of action to help this team function more
effectively in the future.
Questions – Answer the following 5 questions (each worth 20
points) by using/referencing the models and theories you have learned about in
class. Please read each item carefully before responding. If you have any
questions, contact your instructor.
1. Are Steven,
Kelly and Eric a “team?” Why or why not?
2. Identify
the key problems in this case.
3. What
should Steven, Kelly and Eric have done to avoid the problems that occurred in
this scenario?
4. In this
scenario, it is assumed that Steven, Kelly and Eric are all from the U.S. and
are located in the same place (the college). How might your answer to Question
# 3 have been different (if at all) if you were told that they were all of
different nationalities? What if they were not all located in the same place?
5. What do
you think Steven, Kelly and Eric should do now to try to salvage the HR project
and their jobs? Explain.
