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What stage is the team in now? What conflict(s) underlies the team interactions? How could Samantha help the team move forward if she assumes the role of team leader? How does this scenario depict the stages of team development? How might this type of scenario apply to your life?

The Unspoken Conflict
The Situation
Gordon University is a medium-sized public college on the East Coast. The students at Gordon University
are very diverse. Some of them have come to college directly from high school, while others have been in
junior college before starting at G.U. Other students are older. They are coming back to school after being
in the workforce for several years.
Each semester, the Management Department at Gordon University offers a class called “Teams and
Teamwork.” This class requires students to work in groups to complete four case studies over the course
of a sixteen-week semester. The purpose of the case studies is to help students learn to analyze business
situations, but also to improve their interpersonal skills; especially communication, planning, problem
solving, conflict resolution, and decision making. Cases are graded on three areas: 1) quality of analysis,
2) quality of solutions, and 3) team process. Team process grades are based on individual group member
feedback about other group members. Students are also given multiple choice tests of their individual
knowledge of theories.
Students tend to have one of two reactions to “Teams and Teamwork.” If they have been working for
awhile, they know about the kinds of team and communication problems they have encountered in the
workplace, and are eager to learn new skills for dealing with them. These students want to focus on the
case studies, and spend a good deal of time analyzing the team for their team evaluation grade. Younger
students often see the class as “common sense” and they view it as just one more requirement they must
complete before graduation. These students are typically less interested in doing group work, thinking
that if they can just pass the tests, it will be enough to get a decent grade in the class.
It is now three-quarters of the way through the semester, and Team “Sparkle” has a large case (worth onequarter of their grade) due next week.
The Students
Valerie Lee is a 20-year-old student who came to G.U. straight from high school. She is majoring in
Accounting. She has had great success for the past four years at George State University, and currently
maintains an ‘A’ average. From Valerie’s perspective, as long as the case gets written correctly, nothing
else matters. Valerie is taking five other classes in addition to “Teams and Teamwork.” This constitutes a
very heavy workload, and as a result, she doesn’t want to spend any more time than she has to on the class.
The easiest and fastest way for Valerie to get her work done is to do it herself. She often volunteers to type
the final draft of a case study, because that way she feels that she can control the quality of the work. Valerie
doesn’t like conflict, and will often deny that there is a problem instead of addressing it.
Samantha Sobel is 35 years old, and is returning to G.U. to complete a degree that she started 18 years ago.
After high school, Samantha started college, but was soon offered a high-paying sales position. Having
just gotten married, Samantha didn’t feel like she could turn the job down. Now, after 16 years on the job,
she has realized that she needs a degree to advance in the company. Samantha believes that there is nothing
more important than building a good team, and she wants to spend time talking about how the team is doing
things, in addition to just getting the job done. At the beginning of the semester, she noticed that Valerie
and Steve, another team member, were good friends outside of class. Valerie and Steve often sat together
in class (often apart from the rest of the group) and they have left the last two group meetings early.
Samantha is concerned because she sees their behavior as an indication that they are withdrawing from the
team.
Steve Eggers is 25. He worked for a few years after high school at a fast-food restaurant, and then went to
junior college for two years. When he first arrived at G.U. he met Valerie in his Accounting class. He has
tried to take as many classes as he can with Valerie ever since then, because the two of them work well on
their Accounting homework. Steve is a natural communicator – he gets along well with most people, and
always finds something funny to say when he thinks a situation is getting too tense. He likes both Valerie
and Samantha, but he feels like he knows Valerie better because he has been spending more time with her.
Today the group is meeting to discuss their final case study. Their final case is due in two week’s time, and
they need to decide how they are going to write it.

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