Assignment 2

Assignment 2: Relationship Building at Work Due: Week 6 Points: 110

Skill(s) Being Assessed: Relationship Building

Criteria for Success: In this assignment, you will:

· Identify the role and status of each member of the group.

· Explain why each role and status is important to achieving the overall goal.

· Identify the relationship strategy for each team member (using evidence from the scenario and profiles).

· Identify two (2) collaborative strategies that the team members used to complete their project. Provide evidence to illustrate how they used those strategies.

· Explain why collaboration and relationship building are important in personal and professional life.

A group of employees at Spruce Paper Company recently finished a major project that involved multiple departments, from creative to distribution. The goal of the project was to develop a new line of holiday cards. In this assignment, you’ll review information about the group members and their roles on the project. You’ll use that information to answer some questions about their roles, statuses, and relationship building.

Steps to complete: Complete the template for Assignment 2.

STEP 1: Read the scenario and team members’ profiles below.

STEP 2: Fill in the chart in the template with each team member’s role and status.

STEP 3: Identify each of the team member’s relationship building strategy.

STEP 4: Identify at least two (2) collaborative strategies that the team members use.

STEP 5: In 2–3 sentences, explain why collaboration and relationship building are important in professional and personal life.

Scenario

A group of employees at Spruce Paper Company recently finished a major project that involved multiple departments, from creative to distribution. The goal of the project was to develop a new line of holiday cards. One of the group members, Ximena, worked on this project from the beginning.

SCENARIO

A group of employees at Spruce Paper Company recently finished a major project that involved multiple departments, from creative to distribution. The goal of the project was to develop a new line of holiday cards. One of the group members, Ximena, worked on this project from the beginning.

EMPLOYEE PROFILE: XIMENA

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Ximena has worked in creative design for a few years. For the holiday card project, Ximena and the team work together to come up with new ideas for cards. Ximena spends most of her time coordinating with the group on what art will work best for each style of card, making sure they reach a consensus about each design.

The group spends time in each meeting checking in with Ximena on publication updates. Being the only member of the creative team on the holiday card project, Ximena does not have anyone to go to for advice. If an art-related issue comes up, she has to talk to someone outside the group and then report this information back to the group.

As she was born in Spain, Ximena brings a unique perspective to the job. However, she sometimes struggles with American idioms and phrases. To ensure she is understanding the perspectives of other group members, she often asks them to repeat themselves and then restates the main idea she heard.

SCENARIO

A group of employees at Spruce Paper Company recently finished a major project that involved multiple departments, from creative to distribution. The goal of the project was to develop a new line of holiday cards.

EMPLOYEE PROFILE: RITA

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Rita has been leading the project from day one. She is a senior member of the marketing team and has been with the company for 15 years. Rita is responsible for managing multiple departments composed of diverse team members with a variety of backgrounds and skill sets.

It is ultimately Rita’s responsibility to set goals for the group, delegate tasks, and ensure the project is finished on time and within budget. Although Rita values the varied opinions, experience, and perspectives of all her team members, she tends to rely heavily on the expertise and opinion of Nimish. Because they have worked together in the past, she trusts him and gives him a lot of responsibilities. Rita relies heavily on Nimish to deliver progress updates on tight deadlines.

Rita’s frequent deference to Nimish makes some of the other team members feel that she favors him. Rita tries not to show favoritism by consulting the whole team before moving forward with the decisions she and Nimish have reached.

EMPLOYEE PROFILE: NIMISH

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Nimish collaborates on the project remotely from India. As a Senior Associate with the marketing team, he wears multiple hats. Some of his duties include creating marketing materials and implementing Rita’s notes. He is also the team’s best resource for technical support. He has been employed by Spruce Paper Company for five years. He and Rita worked together at the corporate offices when he lived stateside.

Team members have complained to Rita that they have trouble understanding Nimish on conference calls because of his accent, and they are frustrated that he’s based in India and never makes any in-person appearances. Rita defends Nimish’s contributions and uses the opportunity as a teachable moment to explain the importance of diversity in the workplace to her team, citing the value of Nimish’s unique perspective.

Nimish tries to address the team’s concerns by reaching out to every member to figure out how to best accommodate their various tech needs and comfort levels with preferred methods of communication. He introduces the team to new an instant-messaging application that makes it easier to keep in contact and share quick ideas.

EMPLOYEE PROFILE: DAVE

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Dave is a graduate student in marketing at a local university and has been working on this project as an unpaid intern. He hopes the internship will lead to a full-time job offer.

Dave assists with market research, prepares proposals and presentations, and provides administrative support to the marketing department. This is Dave’s first office job. Though he sometimes makes mistakes, he is always quick to apologize for them.

Dave leads a weekly meeting to share new marketing ideas. He respects everyone’s contributions and is mindful to keep his emotions in check, especially when Rita rejects his pitches. In one of these meetings, Dave pitched an idea to Rita and her bosses that was well-received and later implemented by the company. He made certain the whole team received credit for their contributions to his presentation.

EMPLOYEE PROFILE: ERNESTO

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Ernesto is a retired expert in the greeting-card industry and has been called in to serve as a consultant on this project. He’s worked for a number of firms over the course of his career, but never for Spruce Paper Company.

Ernesto works closely with Rita and helps provide direction on the project. He’s also taken an interest in mentoring Dave, giving him goals to work toward and deadlines to meet.

Ernesto has been retired for six years and is in need of a refresher on current trends. For this reason, younger team members find it frustrating to work with Ernesto. Ernesto is open to hearing their feedback, and even encourages them to voice their complaints so that he can avoid future conflict.

Ernesto offers skills and knowledge that are invaluable to the project. His key contributions have been summarizing each department’s obstacles and mitigating tension in meetings by moderating differences of opinion.