Management and Organization

1. TODAY’S GOALS
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The Army Crew Team
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2. The Army Crew Team

3. 474

4. Army Crew Team
• Question: Does anyone have any rowing experience?
• What does rowing as part of a team entail? Why are teamwork and
coordination so vital?
• Highly interdependent group task
• Situation:
• Varsity team was hand-picked by the coach based on a range of
performance metrics – consists of best 8 individuals
• However, JV team consistently outperforms Varsity
• Potential performance ≠ actual performance

5. Group Discussions
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Why is the varsity team consistently losing to the JV team? What are the
underlying problems behind Varsity’s poor performance?
How has the Varsity’s performance evolved over time?
What mistakes did Coach P make? What do you think Coach P
could/should have done differently (and when should he have done it)?
With the National Championship races three days away, what do you
think Coach P should do now?

6. Army Crew Team
• Group discussion: Why is the varsity team consistently losing to the
JV team? What are the underlying problems behind Varsity’s poor
performance?
• Group conflict
• Lack of trust
• Lack of team identification
• Lack of confidence

7. Group conflict
• Traditional view of group conflict: it should be avoided, no matter
what!
• Updated view: conflict is mostly bad, but certain types of conflict
can sometimes be beneficial

8. Types of group conflict
• Relationship conflict: Personal disagreements, dislike
• Always dysfunctional – reduces commitment and motivation, interferes with task completion
• Process conflict: Disagreements over member responsibilities or roles, about who does
what
• Usually dysfunctional – increases uncertainty and interferes with task completion; however, a little
at the start can be ok
• Task conflict: Disagreements over how to approach the group’s tasks and accomplish its
goals
• Can be beneficial – moderate levels can stimulate creativity, increase learning, and improve decision-
making, under conditions of low relationship conflict
• Risky – can easily lead to relationship conflict

9. Team trust and identification
• Trust: willingness to accept vulnerability based upon positive expectations of
others (i.e., teammates)
• Critical to team performance on tasks that are interdependent and require
coordination
• Identification: sense of belonging, attachment, oneness and pride; importance
of group membership to sense of self
• Associated with reduced conflict and increased trust
• Members who identify are less likely to free-ride, and more likely to place
team goals above individual goals
• Affected by intergroup comparisons and competition

10. Performance over time
• Question: How has the Varsity’s performance evolved over time?
• Downward spiral; “vicious” cycle

11. Vicious and virtuous cycles
• Vicious cycle: Initially ineffective teams tend to get worse over time
• Poor performance -> greater conflict, lower trust and identification, lower
confidence -> worse performance
• Virtuous cycle: Initially effective teams tend to get better over time
• Confidence <-> performance
• Identification <-> performance
• Virtuous cycles within individuals: Pygmalion Effect (Rosenthal &
Jacobson, 1992)

12. Army Crew Team
• Group discussion: What mistakes did Coach P make? What do you
think Coach P could/should have done differently (and when should
he have done it)?
• Provide opportunity for team building for just Varsity
• Provide Varsity with some early wins (and/or easy wins later on to rebuild
confidence)
• Appoint a leader on Varsity / select on leadership
• Don’t emphasize competition against JV so much – allow Varsity some time
to practice on their own
• Emphasis on weight lifting may have exacerbated the downward spiral

13. Army Crew Team
• Debate: With the National Championship races three days away,
what do you think Coach P should do now?

14. What happened...
• One day, Coach P. lined up the varsity crew in four pairs. He told them they
were to wrestle - no punching - for 90 seconds. There were no clear winners:
Each man was discovering that his opponent was just as strong and determined
as he was.
• Coach P. then had them change opponents and wrestle again.
• By the third round they were choosing their own opponents - "One guy would
point at another and say, 'You!'" Coach P. says.
• Finally, one of the rowers started laughing, and they all piled into a general
brawl. Eventually someone said, "Coach, can we go row now?"
• From then on, the varsity boat flew.
• Bringing tensions out into the open and then resolving them is one of the team
leader's most important jobs.