Question

This case focuses on the actions taken by students in an undergraduate accounting class. They are members of a team whose project is due at 9:00 am, and whose team members are offering excuses for not doing their assigned portions of the project. It is now 3:00 am, and the two accounting majors—Tom and Bob—must decide how to handle the situation. The major project for the accounting class had been divided up among six team members several weeks ago.   It had been agreed that they would get together the night before the due date to complete the assignment. Tom and his friend Bob had completed their parts of the project, but when they got to the meeting, they found Sue, Joe and Linda—but not Richard.

Neither Sue nor Linda had completed their assignments. Sue had finished about 50 percent of her part, and Tom could see that even the completed part needed a major revision. Linda completed 80 percent of her assignment but she wasn’t sure whether she got it right. Joe completed 75 percent of his assignment and his part only needed a minor revision. Richard had been assigned an important part and it would weaken the entire project to omit it. Sue, Linda and Joe said they had other commitments and would not stay to finish the project, despite the deadline. None of the team members, other than Tom and Bob, were motivated to make a high grade on the project or in the course because they were not accounting majors and had other interests. Despite their anger and frustration, Tom and Bob finished the project and handed it in on time. However, they toyed with not putting the other team members’ names on the cover sheet.

In your opinion, what all went wrong (or right) with this team?

Answer 1

Lack of a common goal and unity in the team are the major issues with this team. Not all of them share a common goal of getting high grades . Except Tom and Bob the others do not even consider it as their major . This made them have different priorities and hence the project has been sidelined. The lack of proper communication and team work also resulted in Tom and Bob not even having an idea where the other member of their team is. These reasons made it difficult for the team to work on a plan and hence problems arose from lack of planning and unity .