Topic > Team Dynamics - 1765

Managing Individual Performance The steps a team leader takes to select usable teammates for a project can be a challenging and frustrating task. Team building concepts have been evaluated for many years by psychologists, psychoanalysts and researchers such as Carl Gustav Jung, Abraham Maslow, mother and daughter Katherine Briggs and Isabel Myers-Briggs. The simulation is based on research carried out by Myers-Briggs, Abraham Maslow and Carl Jung which deals with the organizational structure and personality traits of individual team members and how these influence individual/team morale and productivity. Silveira (2003) wrote that as individuals learn their personality preferences, “…they will understand and appreciate their own interactive strengths and vulnerabilities” (p. 29). Based on the simulation, this article will delve into the personality of the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory. categories based on the information provided, such as the volunteers' personality profile, interests and hobbies, and supervisor notes ("Managing Individual," 2005). Using this profile will determine which candidate will be selected to create case files, moderate self-help groups, perform follow-ups and supervise discussion sessions. Online Simulation The simulation begins with the introduction of DARE, the Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Endeavour, a social accountability initiative run by Sawyer Pharma, a $3.2 billion multinational pharmaceutical company with presence in 20 countries. The company encourages employees to volunteer 60 hours a year in community service. The DARE project provides assistance in the form of psychological support, counseling and professional training to recovering drug addicts for several months until they are able to break free from addiction and return to a normal life. The simulation selects a "DARE champion" for a new project that requires the individual to choose four out of seven team members with different skills, interests and motivations who will work with drug addicts to return to society with skills that will help them find paid employment . The goal of this exercise is to explain how selecting the right or wrong teammates and providing those individuals with right or wrong motivations can influence the success and goal of the team. Selecting the team McShane and Van Glinow defined the team as "... a group of two or more people who interact and influence each other, are mutually responsible for achieving common goals, and perceive each other as a social entity within an organization” (p. 227). This statement means that for a team to be successful in its endeavors, interdependence and collaboration among team members is necessary to achieve common goals. Team members should set the goal of team higher than individual priorities and be willing to expend whatever effort is necessary to achieve team success.