CSI case

1. With in the group, many members took on different roles. For example, Tina was able to collect all the data from us as we gave her the information. Kevin, Kyle, and I gathered the information. Amanda put all the information that Tina was giving her on the paper. With in the group, we had a members take on the task, social, and boundary spanning roles.

2. I think that forming an assembly line type style of work was smart. We had a lack of communication however.  We did not find out about the different sheets until Professor Sheep revealed it to the class. I think we needed to have a person become the leader, instead of all of us being on the same level. I think it is important to have someone in charge or at least overseeing the groups progress.

3. We are not forming because we have designated roles to each other. We are definitely not in the storming stage because we are rarely argue. I also do not think we are in the performing stage yet because we are not finished with project. I think we are in the norming stage.

Trevor Goggin

CSI Blog Post

1.  Everyone in the group played the role of contributor, communicator, and critic. We all provided facts from the case reading and verbally stated our opinions of who the murder could have and could not have been. We all also critic each other by disagreeing with some of the things stated. I remember I made a wrong analysis on why a certain person couldn’t have been the murderer because I interpret the reading incorrectly. Amanda played the role of contributor because she usually is the one that writes down all the information

2.  My group did not know that all the papers had different information until it was announced at the end. I think it would’ve helped, but we were still able to correctly solve the mystery by listening to each other. I think we worked well as a team so did not needed any role changes. I guess one role that would have been very helpful is a coordinator. We usually don’t plan things out in advance and just handle things as they come. We never have a real plan on action until we are in the situation or a problem arises.

3.  During this activity, I think that my group was in the norming stage of the development. We’ve been working together all semester so we were already passed the forming and storming stage. Everyone read the case and afterwards we started exchanging information. Talking about our findings out loud helped us realize why certain people could not have been the murderer. We all had equal roles in this activity because all of us were blurting out facts that we read and came to a consensus on one murderer, which ended up being the right one.

-Tina Nguyen

BP Oil Spill

http://www.bp.com/sectionbodycopy.do?categoryId=41&contentId=7067505

This website is a contribution to the things the company BP (British Petroleum) has been going for the past year to help clean up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. When this event hit the news last year, I remember what a big commotion everyone was making about it. Friends and family members told me that they no longer wanted to get gas at BP gas station because they are an evil company.

From what I can recall, the oil spill lasted for three months before we even found out about it in July of 2010. The only reason we were able to find out about the BP oil spill was because it caused an explosion off the coast of the Gulf of Mexico killing a few workers and injuring a lot. This event hurt BP’s image enormously because some people accused the company of knowing about the oil spill, but didn’t want to spend the money to fix it. They didn’t care that they were damaging the environment and in this time sustainability is every organization’s advantage. The ozone layer is being depleted every year and resources are gradually decreasing. People all over the world are trying to make changes to help the Earth from dying. A year ago, BP was considered an evil company and since then they have been trying to repent for the damage done.

According to their website, “BP is committed to paying all legitimate claims for damages resulting from the incident, understanding the causes of the accident will help prevent them in future, and our comprehensive programme to strengthen safety and risk management throughout BP.” They are trying really hard to change their image, but my question is… is this enough? Can they undue the wrong that has already been done? So many people, animals, and the water supply has been hurt, killed, or tainted.

-Tina Nguyen

Eating a Big Slice of Humble Pie

http://www.businessweek.com/management/humble-yourself-at-work-10252011.html

In a recent article published by Bloomberg Business Week, writer Pat Lencioni speaks openly about one issue that seems to elude many of the business elite, that is remaining humble.
Lencioni talks of managers seeing unsavory or unsatisfactory behavior in the workplace but instead of confronting the problem head on and "straight talking" those that are not up to snuff, we often complain to others just perpetuating the issue.  If we are hearing complaints and then just complaining about those complaints, aren't we practicing the same actions that frustrate us so much?  It is important to remember that while scolding others is never the most positive feeling, it is a necessary evil.
Unfortunately it is the way that managers go about having conversations about performance that often is what leaves both employer and employee feeling that pit in their stomach once the talk is over.  Using negative language or "fighting words", either on purpose or by accident may have something to do with this sick to your stomach feeling.  In class we discussed how words that you may never think would create walls in fact build them right up.  Saying things like "You did this" or "Calm down" only make the situation more stressful and puts both sides on the defensive.
As Lencioni continues to assert, while we don't always like to have these talks with employees it is time for managers to take a good hard look in the mirror and realize they are mimicking these actions.  If managers are not able to have a positive and constructive conversation with employees than they really have no business complaining about their complaints. 
-Amanda Inman

Murder Mystery Collaboration

1.   Throughout the exercise it was easy to pick out different team roles that we all took on.  For example, Kevin organized the materials, handed out the papers, and kept everything in order.  In handing out specific papers and in turn roles, he was the Contractor, a task role.  Tina was able to listen to what we were all saying and convey it in a way that was easy for everyone to understand and agree was correct, so in that manner she was the social role of the Communicator.  I saw myself being the Completer, because I was putting all the information into our final arrest sheet.  All roles may not have come into play during the game, but in bringing our answers forward we had a Consul also.  Overall, we at least had to employ roles from all three categories.  

2.  I think that if we all were able to communicate better with each other we would have realized that there was different information on each sheet, which we didn't realize until after Professor Sheep had brought it to our attention.  I also think that having a Creator would have been helpful.  If we were able to have someone create a plan or process for systematically eliminating suspects we could have potentially gone much faster, making us the winning team.

3.   I would say our group is at the Norming stage.  We have a clear agreement on what tasks we need to get done and we are welcome to helping each other to achieve the greatest possible product.  We have little conflict, so we aren't Storming and we have direction and clear roles and responsibilities so we are no longer Forming.  We aren't close enough to the end of the year and turning in our project that we all have the Eye of the Tiger playing in our heads so I wouldn't say that we are Performing yet, but we plan on having a first draft before Thanksgiving break so we should be moving to the next stage shortly. 

-Amanda Inman

CSI Normal- Recap

1.  Throughout the exercise I witnessed many roles taken by our team members.  Each one of us were contributors, giving our synopsis on why each suspect could be ruled out.  Amanda was a calibrator and coordinator when it came to putting our ideas together.  The person that took the paper up to Professor Sheep was the completer.  Myself I think I was mostly a critic and a consul.  I looked at the ideas and threw out the reasons that were not suffice.
2.  Each person that had their own sheet had to be a communicator, if they didn't the group would have missed critical information to incriminate the suspects.  Also, the calibrator was key to our teams success, putting the pieces together to fill our sheet was critical.  Though we didn't win, we came in second since we had these roles played on our team, it just took us a little longer.
3.  I feel our team is much more developed now than at the beginning of class.  We used to all be hesitant to contribute because we didn't know how our team would respond.  Now we all work together letting each member contribute what they know, this was evidenced by how we solved the mystery despite the three different crime summary sheets.
Kyle Gierke

American Whistle Blowers Tour Wrap Up: University Nebraska-Lincoln

http://www.whistleblower.org/blog/31-2010/1536-american-whistleblower-tour-wrap-up-university-of-nebraska--lincoln

About a month ago GAP started their American Whistle Blowers Tour.  This tour consists of of a National Security Agent "whistle blower" Tom Drake, SEC "whistle blower" Gary Aguirre, and other business people who have one time been or been part of whistle blowing.  Whistle blowing is telling on other employees of executives about unethical things they are doing within the company they are working for.  Each member of the tour tells personal stories, answers questions, and gives advice to students around America about whistle blowing.
 When students of Nebraska-Lincoln were given time to ask questions one of the most important questions that was asked was to both Aguirre and Drake when they were asked if they would blow the whistle again?  Both said that they would both defiantly whistle blow again, and Drake even went as far as saying that he would be willing to go to jail for the truth.
This reminds me of class because we are constantly talking about ethical behavior in the work place, and we had touched base of whistle blowing.  Although I believe that whistle blowing should be accepted every where, however it is not.  Whistle blowers are sometimes frowned upon within the work place and can receive punishment for telling their bosses about unethical situations within the work place.  Whistle blowers are most likely to have little to a moderate commitment to their company, but should not be punished for doing the right thing, and having the truth come out.

Kevin Boyce

CSI: Normal Team Exercise

1. During this team exercise I saw many of the individual roles being utilized.   The communicator role was used often by everyone because we all had to listen to one another, and collaborate our ideas of who was the main suspect in the murder case.  Also the contractor role was used by one member who took control of the papers, and got the group more organized and on task.  In this specific exercise almost all of the group members were contributors because we all read different sheets, and had to bring that information to the group.

2. I believe the role of contributor was the most helpful because we didn't know that the sheets were different, so it was nice to see that everyone read and was prepared with all the information that we had.  It would have been nice with a creator role at the beginning to have each task at hand separated and evenly distributed so we could have all the information we needed as soon as possible.

3. I believe the stage of development my group is currently in is the performing stage.  I think this because my group is right in the middle/end of this class.  We are currently working on our semester project, while working together in class, and also on these blogs.  I think we have already past the first three stages, and have found our vision and purpose in this class.  We are all about achieving the final goal, and completing each task as best we can.

Kevin Boyce

Going From Yale to Sweden and Back to Reach No. 1

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/11/sports/hockey/11yale.html

In this article, organizational behavior is the grass roots for hockey at Yale University. Last season Yale was ranked number one in men’s hockey.  Head Coach, Keith Allain, of Yale’s men’s hockey team applies his organizational behavior knowledge to being a successful Head Coach.

As a former undergraduate student and Yale University men’s hockey goaltender, Keith Allain understands how his knowledge of hockey and organizational behavior need to be applied to have a successful season.

After his four year stint with the Yale Bulldogs and two seasons of hockey in Sweden, Keith Allain found his degree to be quite useful. He worked for Proctor & Gamble as an intern. He then went back to Yale to work as an Assistant to Taylor, the Head Coach at the time. He was Taylor’s assistant for three years, before he went back to Sweden to coach a lower division team. While coaching in Sweden, he was the only coach. He had to make all decisions alone. This is how he was able to raise his confidence.

Allain then worked for the Washington Capitals as a scout for three years and as an assistant for four years. After that, he worked for the St. Louis Blues organization as an assistant for seven years.

In 2006, Allain was offered the job of Head Coach of the men’s hockey team at Yale, when Coach Taylor decided to retire. Allain was able to improve the 10-20-3 men’s team to a 16-14-4 team. He understood how the team needed to work in order to be successful. That is why he looks for very competitive players to fill his roster.

Head Coach Keith Allain uses his blue collar personality to lead his team, aka his organization, to be successful. He formats his practices to replicate game scenarios. I think that organizational behavior is important in any field of work, because everything is based on organizational behavior concepts.


Trevor Goggin

Occupy Wall Street, Ethical? ISU and beyond

The Illinois State quad has had a few new inhabitants for the last few weeks; those people are protesters for OWS- Occupy Wall Street.  These protesters line our school’s bridge with signs and chants to get their point across.  Their argument comes from the amount of money corporate executives have and are taxed annually, as the article refers to it “Corporate Greed.”  The movement has picked up to over 300,000 people across the world.  This is a topic that is directly related to our everyday life here at ISU.  The question needs to be addressed is it ethical for protesters to interrupt our homecoming parade and camp out on our campus?

The protesters argue that they are just trying to get their voice heard, but do they cross the line.  The protesters could just be using these actions as motivators for the U.S. government.  President Barack Obama has already addressed at Martin Luther King’s memorial service, showing the severity of the issue.  These people do show their loyalty to the group and the cause.  Obviously this is not a real job for these people, but they show attributes of groups from our chapter.  This movement shows me an informal work group that people come together not for one individual but for the group.  You could even go as far as to call them a task force, a team that addresses an issue until it is resolved.  How far they will go is up to them.

Protesting at the ISU homecoming parade is one issue, but others around the United States have taken it much further.  People should not jeopardize their morals just too make a point against “Corporate greed.”  Rome protesting took it to another level, 1.4 million in property damages.  To me there are much better ways to get your voice heard, using violence and anger only hurting the cause.  The most appropriate chapter to this is chapter 10 Conflict and Negotiations.  This is a conflict between lower income people versus the top 1% of wealth making it an intergroup conflict. 

In terms of ethics this type of protesting is a big issue.  There are drastic measures that must be taken for protesters to get their voice heard, but when it affects the lives of other regular people they need to step off.  Do you think that these OWS protesters are crossing the line? 

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2011-10-16/occupy-wall-street-protests-spread/50797274/1

Kyle Gierke

Group Task Blog

1.  Collaboration, coordination, and synergy are important to have within a group because is sets a good foundation down to have a successful group.  Team members will get along better and ultimately have a better product of idea.  It is not necessary to have all of these qualities in a group however the group will work much better with them.  A group can get by without these qualities but, it will effect their work.
2.  Some competencies that individuals and a group should have are determination, organization, and outgoing social skill.   Determination will cause the demand for the group to work to get the best final results.  Organization will keep the group on task and also create a much neater finished product.  Outgoing social skills are very important because a group is only as good as its worst team member if each member is outgoing then the flow of ideas, collaboration, and constructive criticism will break out.  For example when building the product to protect the egg my group had great social skills and had many ideas, but we weren't organized enough to take all of those ideas and make one great product.
3.
http://theater.nytimes.com/2011/10/10/theater/reviews/man-and-boy-with-frank-langella-review.html
This article is about a Broadway play that had just opened, and is getting good reviews.  With a project like this all parts of the play would have needed CCS.  The play is "Man and a Boy" which stars Frank Langella.  It is already getting great reviews.  It does not just take good actors to make a good play the sets have to be good.  Lighting, sound, and production crews all have to be in sync.  I believe that CCS plays a vital role with a team of this size.

Kevin Boyce

Collaboration, Coordination, Synergy

1. Collaboration Coordination or synergy is so important because teams are most effective when there is good synergy. There are some cases where it is not necessary, but it is still good to have. For example, additive tasks are done individually, so groups are not needed at all.
2. Synergy is needed for teams to be successful. Good communication skills from everyone are important too. Members should be hardworking, determined, open minded, and able to take and give constructive criticism. Avoiding groupthink is important too. Groupthink does not allow the team to perform at its highest level. I could become a better contributor by being more open minded. I tend to think that my way is right, but it is important to listen to other group member. Most of the time they have something good to add. During the class exercise, I cannot remember who, but someone suggested we position our straws a different way. We ended up doing it a different way, but the other way may have worked. So I need to be more open minded.
3. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-07/pemex-ceo-says-lack-of-repsol-collaboration-is-ridiculous-.html In this article, lack of collaboration stopped Pemex and Repsol partnership in the oil industry. Pemex wanted more control over Repsol. They were working well together and were forced to go separate ways. If there was collaborative coordination, then this partnership could have worked out. Both firms were stubborn, and now both are on the losing end. This article is a great example of why collaboration is so important. Collaboration is so important because it is the only way to be successful in today’s global economy. 

-Trevor Goggin

Team Excercise Blog

1. Collaboration, coordination, and synergy is important to team/organizational effectiveness. Collaboration teaches teamwork, that they have to work together to produce a good outcome. Coordination helps the team become more organize and by doing so the task will be performed more smoothly and faster. Synergy is what gives the team energy to complete the task. By working together, everyone can conserve their energy better and do things more efficiently. I think it is always necessary when working in a team, but if its a small task that one person can handle than it wouldn't really make a difference if he has CCS or not.

2. To be a successful user of CCS, an individual or team would have to be open minded to other people's ideas, helpful, hardworking, and most importantly work well with other people. I can become a contributor to my team when we were doing the exercise by sharing my ideas about how to build the protective layer of the egg. Everyone in the team worked together, but we had two main builders so we wouldn't over crowd. We ended up losing in the end, but that wasn't due to our lack of CCS. We completed the task of building a "case" for the egg, but it still popped.

3. http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/may2009/id20090520_115971.htm
This article is about a company called CERN. They had to manage 7,000 scientists from 85 different countries. These scientists had to work together at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland to create a complex system and run hundreds of test. Without CCS, there was no way that these group of people could have worked well together to complete their tasks. The scientists had to use collaboration to work together well. They had to use coordination to be organize and not be in each others way. 7,000 workers is a lot to have in one building, and they're all from different cultures so there could have been cultural conflict. Synergy is also important because working on complicated experiments can get tiring and there is not room for mistakes when working with radioactive things. The scientists had to depend on one another if they got tire and share tasks.


-Tina Nguyen

HW: CCS Group Activity

1.  I think that CCS- Collaboration, Coordination, and Synergy are very important to team and organizational effectiveness.  When a team can pool each others ideas they are maximizing their potential contributions.  Working in a team effectively would increase Synergy meaning people will feel they have participated and were apart of the team.  In some cases I do not think that this would be good.  For example, If you are a computer programming company, you would not want your fastest programmer waiting on the team.
2.  To have a successful CCS I think that your individuals must be socially receptive to others.  Some people are arrogant of their own beliefs and ideas, this would ruin CCS.  The ability to give and receive feed back effectively ultimately determines how you and your team will work out.  In our exercise we did not succeed due to luck of the draw.  We came together all contributed but the books fell differently for each group.  Each person added their insight to what might work and was receptive to suggestions.
3. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=311005129
This is the recap to the Milwaukee Brewers v.s the Arizona Diamondbacks game four as the D-backs forced a game five.  Baseball is a very team oriented game, it is the pulse of the team that gets a win.  Sure some individuals stand out more than others, but a team cannot win without CSS.  The Diamondbacks had a grand slam by Ryan Roberts, a collective score that led to the win.