Gordon Institute of Business Science: Team Dynamics in a General Management Development Program

In June 2023, Mike Stonier, the director of the custom programs unit at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) in South Africa, received an email from one of his program coaches that sent him in search of an urgent solution. Since 2022, a cohort of middle managers from the Kraftfahrzeug Company (Kraftfahrzeug) had been enrolled in a custom program and tasked with completing an Action Learning Project and submitting a final report to improve their general management skills. But as their coach explained in the email, some team members had threatened to exclude other team members from the authors listed on the final report—due in just three weeks—because they had not contributed enough to its writing. The excluded team members would not meet the project requirements and thus fail the course. Stonier knew this failure would affect the institute’s relationship with Kraftfahrzeug, as GIBS could be perceived as having failed to provide the training the company had paid for. What could Stonier do to satisfy the aggrieved team members while holding the non-contributing members accountable? How could his solution ensure that GIBS met its contractual obligation to Kraftfahrzeug?

While the case focuses on teamwork in a syndicate group in a business school, it also highlights the interlinkages of different teams within an organizational context. As such, students will be able to learn about teams and team dynamics in different contexts, including in their own organizations. After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to do the following:<ul><li>Understand the value of teams in organizational effectiveness.</li><li>Understand the different stages of team development.</li><li>Understand the value of diversity and inclusivity in work teams.</li><li>Value the importance of accountability and courageous conversations in leading teams.</li></ul>

• teams, team dynamics