Business Culture And Craft
This test contains four long answer questions and three must be answered as per the instructions. There is no choice on the first question as it must be answered. Answer the questions in the Word document (answer after question format) and submit it to the Dropbox in within 2 hours of receiving the questions. You must also include a Reference page as well as in-text citations. All questions answered will be worth 10 marks. There will be an additional 5 marks for the use of APA citations – Total 35 marks.
This test is worth 20% of your final grade and it must be submitted 2 hours after it is started.
Q1) You are a member of a seven person team consisting of two women and five men. This team has previously been high functioning, receiving significant praise from company executives for the work it had done. More recently, productivity has dramatically decreased and everyone on the team seems to be unhappy. Even worse, the team’s output has profoundly suffered as a result with project milestones and deadlines being missed. At a recent meeting, Tomas, Pedro, Kei and Arun made a key decision regarding the direction of an important project. You (Sam, the fifth male on the team) were not particularly for or against the decision and felt it was an acceptable path to take. The two women, Paula and Priya, felt that the decision was not well thought out and that other factors should be considered. This sort of thing had been happening with increasing regularity on the team. Paula and Priya raised this issue at a subsequent meeting indicating that their opinions were not valued and were being ignored. You respect Paula and Priya for bringing this up to the team and not a manager as the team has typically managed itself. You feel that their concern has merit and you decide to discuss it separately with the other men on the team when Paula and Priya are not present. The other men on the team are dismissive of the concern saying it is unfounded and that Paula and Priya are valued members with good ideas. When you speak to Paula and Priya about this, they are not convinced and have concerns about the viability of the team going forward.
Answer the following questions using complete sentences with appropriate spelling, grammar, sentence structure and word choice.
1. Using concepts from this course, explain in detail what may be causing the problem(s). Your response should not be less than 150 words.
2. Explain in detail a potential solution to the problem(s) that you have defined.
3.
Q2) Your team has been struggling with one member who does not respond to e-mails in a timely fashion. They have been late getting their work done and it is often poor quality. This has created significant conflict within the team.
Answer the question(s) using complete sentences with appropriate spelling, grammar, sentence structure and word choice.
a. What might have been done initially to try and prevent this problem from occurring in the first place?
b. Now that it has happened, how will you deal with it?
Q3) Sanjay is one of five people that report directly to you. He has been an excellent employee for the last four years. Recently, he has been coming to the office late, missing deadlines, and producing poor quality work. You decide that he is going to be put on probation for three months. At the end of this period, he will be taken off probation if he improves, or terminated if he does not.
Answer the following question(s) using complete sentences with appropriate spelling, grammar, sentence structure and word choice.
1. Identify two appropriate channels for this message to be delivered to Sanjay.
2. Explain why these channels are appropriate.
3. Explain how ACE would help you create and deliver this message.
Q4) Your team has to create and execute a 10 minute presentation. During the presentation, Pablo speaks for 5 minutes when you had expected him to speak for 2.5 minutes. You cut out some of the content in your summary so that the presentation meets the 10 minute time requirement. After the presentation, Pablo feels that the team did very well while you feel that the presentation could have been better.
Answer the following questions using complete sentences with appropriate spelling, grammar, sentence structure and word choice.
1. Explain in detail, with reasoning, what type of conflict you think this is – Affective or Cognitive.
2. How would you respond to Pablo?
3. What would you do to prevent this from happening in the future?