After submitting the business plan, I had imagined that the remainder of the semester would
simply involve implementing our proposal. Unfortunately, my aspirations turned out to be a mere
fantasy. The events that have unfolded during the second half of the semester were unexpected
and caused us much grief. After spending considerable time in preparing the business plan, we
were all disappointed when our project fell through only one week later due to the disproval from
BUSA. It reminded me of my Duke of Edinburgh hiking experience when we read the map wrong
and consequently walked the wrong ridge and had to change our course after walking 13
equals success” and looked to apply this motto to the challenges that lay ahead.
Having to change our project so late in the semester left many group members feeling confused
and disheartened. Although it was made clear that no individual group member was to blame,
some group members nevertheless found it necessary to level their frustrations at others. The
uncertainty of team goals, coupled with the looming deadlines, time pressure and cultural
differences, caused some minor conflicts to arise. In particular Luke and myself voiced concern to
the rest of the group, expressing dissatisfaction with decisions made on the original project. Luke
also indicated that he had made plans to re-invent our original project: ‘the fair’ whilst
incorporating company sponsorship and giveaways as an off campus event. A clear split had
developed within the group, which lead to further frustration and hostility. Clearly, this conflict
Feeling disconcerted, I took it upon myself to provide stability to the group by attempting to
resolve the obvious conflict. In doing so, the article ‘How management teams can have a good
fight’ was particularly useful. The most important lesson I learnt is that differing opinions and
conflicting interests can only be dealt with once the emotional components of conflict have
receded. In order to resolve the substantive issues, I made a conscious effort to treat Luke and the
rest of the group with respect at all times. I tried to understand the content of Luke’s proposals
and the feelings that he had about them. Subsequently, I stated my feelings and my interpretation
of the group’s views. By following this model, we were able to reach an effective solution. Luke
realised that we had not intended to make a decision or oppose any of his ideas on purpose, but a
group decision is what was required and is what occurred. Giving rise to ‘Strike Bowling Bar’ our
third and hopefully last locked in project. From this point onwards we made a decision to keep
every group member involved in the decision making process so as to avoid further conflicts.
Achievement of our goal to hold a successful event required a persistent and directed effort.
Motivation was clearly the key. At the beginning of the semester, I felt high intrinsic motivation
to succeed in relation to the project. Through acknowledging the ‘Big five personality instrument,
I was able to identify my hidden personality for strong motivational desire to perform challenging
tasks well. Throughout the semester I was concerned with bettering my own performance towards
the team goal. This desire was not met due to a lack of extrinsic motivation flowing from the task.
In addition, our CEO did not conduct any form of performance feedback in the initial stages of the
semester. This meant that there was no way for me to modify my goal attainment strategy in order
to ensure success.
The general conditions under which our team worked were not motivating to satisfy my needs in a
way that contributed to increased performance. My need for relatedness, as explained by ‘Belbin’s
team roles’, was often unsatisfied. Within our group, there was a lack of open communication and
exchange of thoughts and feelings with other organisational members. This was demonstrated by
the fact that we have not had a formal group meeting whereby everyone attended for several
weeks. I therefore found it difficult to satisfy my intrinsic need to have a strong personal
needs. Under that theory, I found that my safety need was unsatisfied due to the unstructured and
unordered work environment. In addition, there was little stability within our group given that we
changed the project several times. This lower-level extrinsic need provided me with the greatest
motivating potential. Furthermore, my higher needs for belongingness and esteem were
unfulfilled due to the lack of feedback from others within our group. This provided me with
By only setting broad goals during our first company meeting, ‘Fliers for Fires’ did not tap the
potential of the goal setting theory. Our group should have set specific and challenging goals such
as time deadlines and exact levels of achievement required. In addition, the CEO should have
provided all company members with ongoing feedback to enhance performance. Both elements
were apparent but I feel they could have been voiced in a more prominent manner. However,
James did demonstrate a desire to assist each group member to achieve our overall goal of a
successful project. Goal acceptance may have been further enhanced if tied to rewards.
In hindsight, the relatively low levels of motivation might have been increased within our team by
the effective use of money as a motivator. Money can be used to motivate teamwork if it is clearly
tied to performance and if it has a high valence. Although a return on our investment was seen as
a desirable outcome for each group member, the motivating potential of money was less than
effective because it was not clearly tied to performance. Our group decided to donate proceeds to
the victims on the Victoria Bush Fires, which provided some incentive for individuals to
contribute maximum effort to the project. However I felt that Alexey, Mohammad, Sarah and
even myself fell behind the eight-ball as we felt like we weren’t gaining anything personally from
hosting the event. Under such a scheme, profits would have been distributed in the form of a
bonus for increased individual effort. Perhaps we could have made a cash prize for whoever sold
the most tickets as a means for incentive for everyone to pull there weight because Alexey
couldn’t even manage to sell one of the fifteen tickets he was assigned to.
An important factor included in motivation of company members towards goal achievement is the
influence exerted by a leader. Such an influence will be defined by the leader’s traits and the
leader’s behaviour. Many positive characteristics have emerged from our CEO James, including
energy, intelligence, honesty and integrity. Although these characteristics have undoubtedly been
beneficial to our team, I would have liked to experience a slightly more charismatic leader. That
is, a leader who had confidence to take more risks and advocate a different vision. Nevertheless,
The article ‘High Performance Work Teams: Lessons from the Pygmies’ provides a useful
guideline for evaluating the behaviour of a leader when assessing the performance of team
the semester he was focussed on accomplishing the task and attaining a successful result. James
appeared to be lower in consideration, and at times he did not show a personal concern for
subordinates. This strategy worked well given that our group was under time pressure due to
deadlines. We needed a leader to show the company members how to get the job completed
efficiently.
The high importance that our leader placed on task achievement seemed to affect the dynamics of
the group on certain occasions. The article ‘The set-up-to fail syndrome’ indicates how the
behaviour of a boss can directly affect group dynamics. For example, it seemed that James
perceived Mohammad to be a poor performer as English is not his primary language and as a
result, he increased his supervision. After the failure of the first proposal, the fair idea, I began to
notice James’s perceptions of the group and in particular Alexey as he appeared to shut down.
Instead of increasing his performance, Alexey became less motivated and started to withdraw
from the group by not attending company meetings and by being less involved in the decision-
making processes. I feel that our team spirit suffered as a result. Greater emotional involvement
by our CEO and an environment of more open communication may have increased motivation to
There have been moments of satisfaction as a result of the OB experience, despite the hardships
faced by our group. Dealing with people in an organisational context has most definitely prepared
me for the challenges that lie ahead in my future career. In particular, I have realised the
importance of working in teams. During the semester I worked too much as an individual, often to
the detriment of effective personal outcomes. In the future, I know that it will be important to
work closely with colleagues in order to provide the most professional outcome.
An understanding of the methods of conflict resolution will also provide an important background
to negotiating favourable outcomes to client disputes. The minor conflicts faced this semester
have taught me to have respect for others and deal with emotions first. Also, it will be important
Before studying OB I had not considered the complexity of management. I am now aware that
there are many influences that will affect the outcome of work teams. I believe that I am now in a
position to make use of those positive theories and mitigate the effects of any negative outcomes.
The material I have learnt from being involved in a company situation will most definitely assist