Final Paper: Individual Analysis of Team Process
The objective of this paper is to demonstrate your knowledge of effective team processes, your
skill in applying those to the analysis of your own team, and to provide me feedback about your
team’s performance. You can think of this as a case study analysis of your team through an organizational behavior lens.
The assignment is completed in three parts: (a) a description of what happened in your team, (b) your analysis of these events using course concepts, and (c) recommendations for future teamwork based on your reflection and analysis.
This assignment is not intended to be a repeat of your peer evaluations. Instead, you should focus on analyzing your team’s dynamics throughout the semester by synthesizing course topics.
Please address the following points:
1. Write a 3-4 page description of what happened in your team during the semester, including any substantive events. You are welcome to describe, for example:
The team’s process for decision-making and allocating work
The quality of the products (milestone #1 and team presentation) relative to your expectations and aspirations
Team dynamics:
Overall, why did things happen the way they did?
What could have been improved, what interventions might have improved the team’s performance?
If things went well, why did they go well?
2. Write a 1-page conclusion/recommendation section discussing a) how you would advise a team with similar dynamics to work together effectively and b) how you plan to proceed with teamwork in your future courses at University. This latter point should be related to your reflection and analysis. In other words, it should not be generic advice for working in a team but should be a conclusion logically reached from the rest of your paper.
Be sure that the three different sections of your paper are tied to one another. Your overall recommendations and conclusions in Part 2 should seem logical based on the events that you discussed and your analysis of these events.
Your reflections can be based on all team assignments throughout the semester. In other words, this paper does not have to be focused only on the semester team project but can also include discussion and analysis of in-class assignments and team dynamics.
Your analysis should draw on things you learned throughout the course. You might discuss types of conflict that arose, for example, conflicts over relationships and personality, over the task or over the process. There may have been disagreements about appropriate norms of behavior, uncovering differences in expectations that were not apparent in early stages of working together. You may have applied different tools of best practice or experienced situations where those tools may have made the team more effective. You might want to consider what stage of team development your team ended on, how your team progressed through those stages, and why your team progressed in the way that it did. You could talk about the different types of power that various team members held, who emerged as a leader and why you think they did, and what type of leader you think that person was. These are just some examples.
However you choose to frame your analysis, the objective is to demonstrate that (a) you paid
attention to what was happening in your team, (b) you are able to apply what you learned in the
course to understanding what happened, and (c) you can draw conclusions about effectiveness
and make recommendations for future teamwork based on your reflection and analysis. This is
not intended to be a diary or a venting session; I will not be grading your story telling skills, and your team’s grades on the semester project milestones will not be amended based on what is written in these reflections. Rather it is intended to be a demonstration of your reflection, analysis, application, and writing skills.
Guidelines:
Use APA or MLA whichever is more comfortable for you
You should have a cover page, a running head, and page numbers
Cover page should include: your name, the course, the assignment name, and the date.
Font should be Times New Roman, 12 pt., black
Margins should be 1”
Double-spaced
No bullet points for this paper
References are not required. HOWEVER, any references used besides your textbook should be cited in-text (APA/MLA style) and on your References page (APA/MLA style). Do not include references in your Reference list that are no included in-text – this is considered plagiarism.
Length: 4-5 pages in length EXCLUDING the cover page and reference list (if one is included)
