CASE STUDY PAPER #2 – The “Team member from Hell” Paper

Written Case #2

THE TEAM MEMBER FROM HELL

(Part A) – Mike’s Perspective

Let me tell you about my teammate from hell. Someone with no motivation to succeed is the

worst kind of member to have in a group because it is nearly impossible to motivate him to do

the work and perform it well. It was apparent from the beginning John had no motivation. After

our group was already formed by the teacher, a late comer came to class and the teacher assigned

him to our group. His name was John. Already I was a little weary, the students who come to

class a couple of days after it begins are the slackers, they were either skipping the first days or

they didn't have their schedule together.

At our first meeting my expectations were met. I found out John is a member of a fraternity and

he did nothing but talk about his social life. I must say though, John was entertaining. He could

make us laugh, mainly because he didn't seem to know what he was talking about.

Unfortunately, John could also be loud and obnoxious and often his jokes were simply not funny.

He just did not understand the difference between social hour and work life.

Although John plans on working in his family's business when he graduates, he was working 20-

30 hours a week for spending money and to help pay tuition. I don't think he wanted to be in

school and might have dropped out if it weren't for all his friends. John seemed like someone you

would always have to push a little harder to get anything done. He made no attempt to discuss

anything about the project or even discuss his life around academics. It was only about partying.

We discussed what we would prepare for our next meeting. John did not volunteer his services

for any of the tasks and when we assigned him one he seemed very annoyed and unsatisfied. At

the next meeting John showed up late and was unprepared. I was disappointed. It wasn't the end

of the world but I couldn't help but look ahead at the complex project we were to complete. If

this is the attitude and work ethic he brings to the table at the second meeting, how are we ever

going to get a solid project completed? I have a dream to make something of myself when I

graduate so I am concerned with my grades and don't want to be dragged down by someone who

doesn't care. I would almost rather do things on my own.

We decided that the workload would be distributed evenly among all members of the group.

Each member of the group chose a certain activity to fulfill. The workload was evenly

distributed and the members of the group all began to work towards completing their selected

work. Things seemed to be going well until another group member and I realized that John was

not completing his required work. He had an attitude about school that was not very positive and

was not doing well in the class. We tried to motivate him by explaining that if we successfully

completed the project he would successfully complete the course. This seemed to work initially

but we soon learned he was still not completing the work. We discussed the situation and

offered to help him if he was having difficulties. Again this worked temporarily but he fell back

into the same pattern.

It wasn't as though the group didn't make an effort to get him involved. Two of us kept reminding

him to do his part of the project. He'd smile and give a little chuckle. We also sent numerous e-

mails to him practically begging him to attend the meetings so that we could have his input, as

well as save his grade. He never responded to the messages. At the meetings he did show up to I

confronted him and asked if he would make more of a consistent effort to attend group meetings.

He was really laid back and would always just tell us that he was busy and would do what he

could. Eventually one of the members blew up at him. She told him that he was being

disrespectful and that if he didn't want to do anything that he shouldn't show up. After that the

only thing he changed was that he came to meetings but was quiet and still did almost no work.

He just walked in, sat there while we did work and then took credit for work that he did not do.

As time went on we noticed John was trying to make small attempts to slowly work his way back

into the group. I think he began to notice what a good time we were having working together to

complete the project. As he became more vocal and offered some opinions, we really didn't want

to listen to what he had to say. We were far along with the project and didn't need his input at

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this time. Also, we no longer trusted him and did not feel that we could rely on him. I didn't take

anything he said seriously and when he offered to do something I didn't expect him to do it. He

began to complain and make sarcastic responses such as "oh I guess nobody hears me."

As the project deadline grew near, we agreed that we must meet early in the week and then at the

end of the week and then over the weekend one final time. However, after thinking about the

current plans just made, John realized his fraternity's semi-formal was that same weekend and he

claimed there was no time over the weekend that he could work on the project. This statement got

me thinking. Does he expect the rest of us to finish the project for him? Does he really have the

nerve to change our plans just so he can get drunk all weekend? What are his priorities, school or

partying? Suddenly, after this occurred I felt tremendous pressure. Not only do I and my other

teammates have to orchestrate everything to finish the project, but we are the only ones who care

about the quality of our work too. We could have talked to him again about his performance but

we never did. We just wanted to get the work done and go home as soon as we could.

I finally called our Professor and asked her if we could remove John from our group. She wants

to meet with all of us on Tuesday.

THE TEAM MEMBER FROM HELL

(Part B) John’s Perspective

Let me tell you about a team member from hell. I was in a group with Mike, who likes to have

things done his way without help from anyone, which I knew was going to be a problem.

The group assignment consisted of answering fifty multiple choice questions that covered what

we had learned throughout the semester. At our first group meeting Mike didn't want to waste

time getting to know the members of the group. Not only did he not allow himself to get to

know these people, he didn't allow the remaining members to get to know each other because it

would be a waste of time. Instead of "wasting time going through every problem together as a

group," as he put it, he delegated certain questions to each member. He decided that each

member would do his or her assigned part and we would all meet a half hour before the next

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class to exchange answers. He decided that, as a group, we could discuss any problems we had

with particular questions in that allotted time.

Mike did not want to hear any rationale about how this plan could go terribly wrong. His

stubbornness made it impossible to get any other ideas through. My complaints went ignored

and he took his "leader" role, which felt more like a dictatorship. He had to be in control;

whatever I said was wrong and what he said was right. He would not listen. When I said

something, he would not even acknowledge me. I felt many of his ideas were bad but I didn't say

anything because I did not want to start an argument. Although he wanted things to be done his

way, he didn't want to spend a lot of time doing them. He was not organized either. Instead of

finishing one job first, he would jump all around and have more than one project going. This

made the group more stressful. I hated attending the meetings. I could tell others felt the same

way. At one point I stopped going to the meetings, but my group members begged me to attend.

Our Professor knows we are having problems and has asked to meet with all of us on Tuesday.

Assignment

In the meeting with the Professor on Tuesday, the group finds out that the Professors have

worked it out so that all groups in the class will be working together in the same teams next

semester as well. This is so that the teams have to address their problems rather than ignore them.

The Professor offered to have a former student of hers work with Mike and John’s team as a

consultant – to help them work through their problems. Everyone in the group agreed that this

would be a great idea.

You are the former student who will be consulting with this team. What will you do?

Possible theories to apply: Personality theories; attribution theory (for example, the fundamental

attribution error and self-serving bias); perception and the strategies your book lists for reducing

perceptual biases; all of the motivation theories we covered (how might the group work to

motivate John); theories or ideas about group dynamics and team effectiveness such as social

loafing, facilitation, stages of group development, and what it says about setting up a team for

success (process losses – and when there is a process loss, what should be examined).

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