Question

Mark Martin has just been appointed manager of a production team operating the 11pm to 7am shift in a large manufacturing firm. Mark is concerned that the team members really like and get along well with one another but they also appear to be restricting their task outputs to the minimum acceptable levels. What could Mark do to improve things in this situation and why should he do them? Answer this question in 300 words (support your claims/arguments with key research findings on team performance factors).Atleast two peer reviewed articles?

Answer 1

ANSWER:-

Mark is faced with a highly cohesive group whose members conform to a negative or low-performance norm. This is a difficult situation that is ideally resolved by changing the performance norm. In order to gain the group’s commitment to a high-performance norm, Mark should act as a positive role model for the norm. She must communicate the norm clearly and positively to the group. She should not assume that everyone knows what she expects of them. She may also talk to the informal leader and gain his or her commitment to the norm. She might carefully reward high-performance behaviors within the group. She may introduce new members with high-performance records and commitments. And she might hold group meetings in which performance standards and expectations are discussed, with an emphasis on committing to new high-performance directions. If attempts to introduce a high-performance norm fail, Mark may have to take steps to reduce group cohesiveness so that individual members can pursue higher-performance results without feeling bound by group pressures to restrict their performance.