Team Working Management Assignment for Cadbury's

Introduction

The task set was to 'Evaluate the effectiveness of the management of a branded product or service of your choice'. This task was to be carried out in groups of people 10 people from the AEF117 students, who could work together to interpret the task how they wished. These groups were put together by lecturer Stuart Challinor, based on our results from completing an individual Belbin profile, which was comprised from a series of questions which asked about how we tend to work within a team.

The following students were in Team 5-

* Andrew McQueen

* Philippa Lucas

* Adam White

* James Mellor

* Sarah Williamson

* Victoria Powell

* Laura McEwan

* Richard Stephen Heys

* Phillip Buckley

* Harriet McCann

Summary of Meetings

The following table shows a summary of the occasions on which Team 5 met, where this took place and the topics that were discussed.

Date Location Members Present Topics Discussed

21st October

In the Management Lecture in which our teams were decided

Philippa Lucas, Andrew McQueen, Adam White, Sarah Williamson, Laura McEwan, Harriet McCann

On this occasion those present swapped names and numbers to allow communication

24th October

Campus Coffee

All team members present

Discussion of the task set, and exchange of initial ideas for a product or brand. The main 3 that were discussed were 'Powerade' 'Chelsea Football team and 'Cadbury's'.

28th October

Men's Bar, Student Union

Philippa Lucas, Andrew McQueen, Adam White, Harriet McCann, James Mellor Decision made to look at Cadbury's as a brand and 'Dairy Milk' as a specific product. Because they were such household names, which would allow the audience to relate to our speech. We allocated each member a research topic

Wednesday 2nd November

Castle Leazes Computer Cluster

Philippa Lucas, Andrew McQueen, Adam White, Sarah Williamson, Laura McEwan, Harriet McCann

Pieced together the information and began the creation of the presentation by selecting the key information

Sunday 6th November

In my Flat (16D) in Richardson Road

Myself, Andrew McQueen, Adam White, Sarah Williamson

Last minute checks to ensure that the PowerPoint created ran smoothly and the speech would coordinate with this.

Once we had recognised the workload we felt it was a good idea for us to split the research and delegate different topics to each member (at the 'Men's Bar' Meeting), therefore this would quickly gather a breadth of information. This is how the tasks and research were split between the group:

Sarah Williamson - Research on History of Cadbury's

Philippa Lucas - Creation of the PowerPoint, and special effects and images added

Adam White - General Research

Andrew McQueen - Presentation of the PowerPoint to the class

Victoria Powell - General Research

Laura McEwan -General Research

Richard Steven Hays - General Research

Phillip Buckley - Competition Analysis

Harriet McCann - Research of advertising methods use

James Mellor - General Research

These decisions were made based what we each wanted to look at specifically, and on which we felt our strengths were, for example, Andy, who was a strong public speaker, opted to present to the rest of the class. Or in some cases we had to delegate tasks via email because these members were not present.

The Belbin Model

The Belbin Model of team roles was created based on a series of observations of several hundred groups whilst they performed a set task. From these studies, and through the assessment of personality traits and intellectual styles, Belbin identified nine different behavioural roles within each group. Dr Meredith Belbin identified a team role as "A tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a particular way" The combination of the nine team roles outlined by Belbin were said to create 'effective group formation' . However it was not necessarily compulsory for each group to have each of the nine roles, but a balance between them would affect team dynamics and the performance. The nine team roles outlined were Implementer, Coordinator, Shaper, Plant, Resource Investigator, Monitor-evaluator, Team-worker, Completer, and Specialist .

How the Belbin Model links to Team 5

This model of team roles can be used in application to the operation of Team 5 in the AEF117 Task. The following table analyses how well I felt each team member suited the role they were said to be according to the results of a questionnaire based on team working behaviour. It also evaluates which team role I felt members could be if they didn't fit the one to which they had been allocated.

Team Member Belbin Team Role Did they fit their role? If not, to which did they fit?

Andrew McQueen Coordinator I felt this was a very accurate team role to describe Andy. Coordinators are well known for being mature and confident, and a good chair-person They clarify goals, promote decision making and delegate well2.This is particularly suitable to Andy because he was definitely one of the most organized group members, and was in attendance at every meeting. He helped