Managing Individual Performanc

Managing Individual Performance

ORG/502

Dr. Tim Glaid

University of Phoenix

May 29, 2005

Managing Individual Performance

Introduction

Are you a leader or have you at one time or another been forced into the role of a leader? There are those individuals who are natural leaders and others who at some point will have to take on the role as a leader, whether it is in a personal or a professional setting. The Managing Individual Performance Simulation examines what can happen when people are put into a leadership role. Throughout the simulation, critical decisions must be made in a timely manner. Important decisions regarding team building, how to develop and build team moral, and what can be done to encourage each member to stay the course await these new leaders. Useful tools that can be used while conducting these simulations include the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBIT), and the understanding of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. A clear understanding of these tools is instrumental in achieving success in the simulation.

Criteria for team member selection

Selecting the right people is an essential element in the process of team building. Trying to determine the right person for the team can be a very difficult task. In this scenario, there were four tasks to be completed, and six potential candidates to choose from to accomplish each task. With this in mind, each of the four candidates chosen would have to have the personality and skills that match with their assigned task. Personality traits of agreeableness and conscientiousness can predict both team and individual performance with the team (McClough, Rogelberg, 2003). Another aspect to building a successful team is the need for a sense of fairness provided to each individual in order to make them feel like an asset. Some members may feel that they have no say on the team, something that would detract from a climate of fairness (Henley, Price, 2002). There are many other criteria in the team building process, but I believe that personality, skills, and fairness are some of the most important.

Team member selection

A two-step process was followed for selecting a candidate for each task. The first step in the process involved determining the most important skill required to complete the task. The second step was to compare each candidate with each task and then choose the candidate that had the closest match to the skills required. To further refine the choice a personality rating was assigned to each candidate and these ratings compared against the personality profiles provided by the simulation. The candidates assigned are as follows.

* Build Case Files - Lisa Stafford

* Moderate self-help groups - Daniel Nichols

* Perform follow-ups - Michelle Levy

* Supervise confrontation sessions - John Connor

Although the other two candidates did have the skills necessary to complete some of the tasks, their personality ratings were not even close to any of the personality profiles for each task.

Factors for effective team management

The simulation clearly showed that time management and individual moral were important factors. Each phase of the project had a timeline for completion and any deviation from it could help or hurt the team. A single delay in any one of the tasks caused another team member to be late in completing their task as well. Moral is also another key ingredient for an effective team and the thought of not being able to accomplish a task is enough to create moral problems.

MBTI Assessment

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator was developed in the 1930s to measure and categorize the personality of individuals. Each preference within each grouping is associated with leadership characteristics. The combination of four preferences forms personality types that may or may not be consistent with the characteristics associated with TQM implementation (Yen, Krumwiede, and Sheu, 2002). These are the same preferences that were used to determine the personality profile for each candidate and task. The personality preferences are as follows

* E vs. I - Introvert - Extrovert

* N vs. S - Intuition - Sensing

* T vs. F - Thinking - Feeling

* P vs. J - Perceiving - Judging

(Opt, and Loffredo, 2003)

These preferences can be very helpful when deciding what candidate would be best assigned to a task. If a task requires a lot of communication, a team leader would not assign an introverted person to that task. Instead the team leader would look for the person who has a personality preference of an extrovert. Myers-Briggs personality preferences can be very beneficial in selecting the right person for the job.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is a model that stipulates that although man strives towards self-actualization, he does so only after he has fulfilled other lower level needs (Ronen, Kraut, and Aranya, 1976). The five levels of needs in order of lowest to highest include physiological needs, security needs, social needs, self-esteem, and self-actualization (Smith, and Sharma, 2002). In understanding this hierarchy, it is determined that the physiological needs for the team members are taken care of; they have a decent job, therefore we can assume that they have access to food and water. The next level of the hierarchy is where it needs to be determined whether or not the lack of this need could affect their task. If they are only volunteering for this project because it might give them job security, should they be chosen? Each candidate should be evaluated on whether they are there to fulfill one of these needs, and depending on the need that they are searching for could determine whether they should be selected or not.

Team member's needs

Michelle Levy was assigned to perform any follow-up in this project. She seems like the type that needs to have a sense of belonging, and would

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