Strategic Leadership

This week’s readings teach you how to turn a group of individuals into a collaborative team that achieves high performance through a shared mission and collective responsibility, and identify challenges associated with teamwork and explain why people sometimes have negative feelings about working in a team. You will also learn how to lead a team to high performance by providing a compelling purpose and clear objectives, clarifying roles and responsibilities, designing the team in terms of size and diversity, giving team members decision authority, and providing support and coaching.

Learning Objectives:

1. Turn a group of individuals into a collaborative team that achieves high performance through a shared mission and collective responsibility.

1. Identify challenges associated with teamwork, and explain why people sometimes have negative feelings about working in a team.

1. Lead a team to high performance by providing a compelling purpose and clear objectives, clarifying roles and responsibilities, designing the team in terms of size and diversity, giving team members decision authority, and providing support and coaching.

1. Understand and handle the stages of team development, and know how to promote cohesiveness and shape productive team norms.

1. Understand the challenges and benefits of virtual teams and the team leader behaviors that contribute to virtual team effectiveness.

1. Handle conflicts that inevitably arise among members of a team.

Reflection and Discussion Forum Week 10

Assigned Readings:

Chapter 10. Leading Teams.

Initial Postings: Read and reflect on the assigned readings for the week. Then post what you thought was the most important concept(s), method(s), term(s), and/or any other thing that you felt was worthy of your understanding in each assigned textbook chapter.Your initial post should be based upon the assigned reading for the week, so the textbook should be a source listed in your reference section and cited within the body of the text. Other sources are not required but feel free to use them if they aid in your discussion.

Also, provide a graduate-level response to each of the following questions:

2. The chapter suggests that very small teams (say, three to six members) perform better, and most people prefer to work in small teams. However, many companies use teams of 100 or more people to perform complex tasks, such as creating and developing a new product. Do you think a unit of that size can truly function as a team? Discuss.

2. If you were the leader of a team developing a new computer game, how might you apply negotiation to resolve a conflict between two strong-willed members related to which features to include in the game?

[Your post must be substantive and demonstrate insight gained from the course material. Postings must be in the student’s own words – do not provide quotes!]

[Your initial post should be at least 450+ words and in APA format (including Times New Roman with font size 12 and double spaced). Post the actual body of your paper in the discussion thread then attach a Word version of the paper for APA review]

Submitting the Initial Posting: Your initial posting should be completed by Thursday, 11:59 p.m. EST.

Response to Other Student Postings : Respond substantively to the post of at least two peers, by Friday, 11:59 p.m. EST. A peer response such as “I agree with her,” or “I liked what he said about that” or similar comments are not considered substantive and will not be counted for course credit.

[Continue the discussion through Sunday,11:59 p.m. EST by highlighting differences between your postings and your colleagues’ postings. Provide additional insights or alternative perspectives]

Evaluation of posts and responses: Your initial posts and peer responses will be evaluated on the basis of the kind of critical thinking and engagement displayed. The grading rubric evaluates the content based on seven areas:

Content Knowledge & Structure, Critical Thinking, Clarity & Effective Communication, Integration of Knowledge & Articles, Presentation, Writing Mechanics, and Response to Other Students.

Activity 10

Provide a detailed account of the challenges and benefits of virtual teams and the team leader behaviors that contribute to virtual team effectiveness. Discuss the elements of diversity, equity, inclusion, and respect that must be considered in this process. Please support your response with scholarly sources.

The assignment is to answer the question provided above in essay form. This is to be in narrative form. Bullet points should not to be used. The paper should be at least 1.5 – 2 pages in length, Times New Roman 12-pt font, double-spaced, 1 inch margins and utilizing at least five outside scholarly or professional source related to organizational behavior. This does not mean blogs or websites. This source should be a published article in a scholarly journal. This source should provide substance and not just be mentioned briefly to fulfill this criteria. The textbook should also be utilized. Do not use quotes. Do not insert excess line spacing. APA formatting and citation should be used.

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