Group Members and Leaders

Group Members and Leaders

Every team is made up of a group of individuals and has a team leader. It is of vital importance that group members need to know and be identified with their individual task role for the group. Members need clear and concise guidance from the leader concerning the task roles to achieve the group mission. When these roles are not clearly identified conflict can occur in the group. This paper will provide an analysis of the Team simulation concerning the conflict and the resolution to the conflict.

Lead Agent:

I chose Sam Somerfield for this position because of his experience with the FBI on national drug regulation. His current position as a Special Agent in Arizona, his 12 years' experience with the FBI, and his fluency in Spanish played a factor in my choice. I was impressed that he was the Lead Agent on four successful assignments, thus proving he has a strong work ethic. I believe his knowledge on national drug regulation will benefit the group's efforts in discovering the drug trafficking organizations responsible for bringing drugs across the United States border.

Assistant Lead Agent:

I chose Ricardo Gonzales as the assistant lead agent because of his 16 years of experience with the FBI. I believe his fluency in Spanish and that he was born and raised in Arizona can be useful to the group. He may also have connections in Arizona from his work on illegal immigration that could be useful in discovering who the drug trafficking organizations may be. I believe his ability to follow directions and be a team player will prove useful in the group.

Intelligence Agent:

I chose Emily Marum for this position because of her past interaction with other agencies. I was impressed with her level of experience and that her current position with the DEA is an Intelligence Research Specialist. I believe her past as a college psychology instructor for 10 years will bring a new dynamic outlook and understanding of drawing up profiles of these drug traffickers, and the fact she has published in forensic research and did consulting work for other government agencies.

Field Specialist:

As field agent I chose Antonio Johnson a Special Agent for the DEA for the past 15 years. The fact that Antonio grew up in the inner-city LA area and sold drugs in his neighborhood as a teen makes in the perfect undercover, penetrating agent as his experience on ground level is exceptional. As a result of his friend passing away makes him determined to fight the good fight. What makes him perfect for field specialist is that he has led a task force on the neighborhood watch program for the past three years, and knows how to work with the locals. Antonio is passionate and extroverted, and makes friends easily.

I chose to address Antonio first as to get a better understanding of where the problem area is that he is facing and to determine if it is true discrimination or just a power play from Sam the Lead Agent. I have found that getting feedback from field agents usually clarifies misunderstanding from senior managers as the communication process is not adequately followed. Communication is the process whereby there is a sender of a message and a receiver of this message and this can be fraught with misinterpretations and errors during the encoding and decoding of such messages. Problems arise when people are put into roles where they have considerable "position power" but feel out of their depth and under-confident. What starts to happen is that they feel a need to cover their discomfort and they begin to do this by abusing the power they hold. Over my years of working with organizations, I have heard and seen so many examples of poor or inappropriate behavior from various levels of management and leadership. This is despite the amount of training which many of these people have participated in. I will use the open door method with Antonio whereby he can confidently address the problem areas and help brainstorm solution that will best suit him.

I chose Antonio to be the chairperson of a meeting, as to give him the opportunity to have tremendous influence over, and responsibility for, the success of the meeting. In addition to conducting the meeting, he also may create the agenda and schedule the meeting. A well-planned meeting, clear agenda, and skilled chairperson are prerequisites for a productive meeting. However, none of these elements prepares a group for the interesting mix of member behaviors. In previous chapters, we address how member needs, personalities, and communication styles affect group interaction. Here, we examine specific behaviors that can distract members, disrupt a meeting, or lead to misunderstandings (Engleberg & Wynn, 2012).

This will allow me to see his leadership qualities. This role playing comes in handy when you have a diverse group that thinks that one party is not pulling their weight. It also allows me to see if a consensus can be reached by the process where all those who have a stake in the outcome work together to reach an agreement acceptable to all parties. Consensus is sometimes spoken of as "more or less unanimous", or "virtual unanimity", True consensus brooks no such dilution. Every party thus has a veto power, and unanimity may seem an unattainable goal, but consensus when achieved creates commitment to the agreement, and that is a powerful motivating force. Either all parties support a settlement or there is no consensus. Although they may not regard all aspects of the agreement as ideal, consensus is reached if all participants are willing to live with "the total package."

The biggest risk that has been taken here is by undermining Sam and his leadership role.

Now that Sam is aware of the concerns of his team members corrective steps of action can be taken. Sam is still the strongest team member with his experience that is counting in his favor. The risk here is that Antonio may retaliate the decision and there may be a hostile confrontation between Sam and Antonio and this may cause animosity between them. Personally I think