Large Metropolitan City Strongly Essay Question

25 points each

1. The head of emergency services in a large metropolitan city strongly believes that heterogeneous (or diverse) teams are more effective than homogeneous (or similar) teams.He wants to put this into practice by selecting highly skilled people with diverse demographics, backgrounds and experiences on ambulance and other emergency service teams.Consider the class material and reading on team dynamics when answering the following.

• What would be the advantages and disadvantages of this decision regarding how the team members would work together and get their job done?In your opinion, do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?
• After a year on the job, he decided to frequently rotate the members on these teams so that the members constantly have new/different people to work with.How do you see this impacting the effectiveness of their work and why?

• Watch the following video clip about Pike Street Fish Market by pasting the following link into your browser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXbYQPa9OVY.Provide answers to the following questions based on the video content.

• Who was the change agent in this change situation?Is this person an internal or external change agent?How did this help/hurt his ability to bring about change?
• What strategies were used to bring about the change and get buy-in?
• What was different about Pike Street Fish Market after the change process, in terms of the employees and their interactions with each other and customers?
• How did the owner change his management style—how was it before the change and how was it different after the change?

15 points

• The newly hired president of an advertising agency noticed that employees were constantly engaged in intense debates with each other over design and advertising copy.He was concerned about this behavior since it was quite different from the more low-key and reserved interactions that occurred between employees in the president’s previous organization in the consumer products industry.To correct this problem, the president established a new motto (“Serving Clients in Harmony”) and actively discouraged employees from the spirited debates that occurred the past.Over the new few months, several key staff members left the company, saying that the company was losing its creative edge.New employees who were hired to fill those positions tended to be quiet and more reserved in their discussions with co-workers.Given what you know about conflict, what is happening in this scenario?Why did the new president view things the way he did and what do you think will be the impact on the company?