Week 10

While the halo effect could affect the validity of our team peer evaluations of shared leadership, our group does not feel it will. Our team is dynamic and each person picks up and does what needs to be done. The team is cohesive in its approach to weekly assignments. There don’t appear to be any hidden agendas or personality conflicts on the team. Because our personality types are very similar, we’ve not experienced some of the challenges other teams with more diverse personalities may encounter. We have shown great first impressions and have carried out good work throughout the semester. We have maintained open communications and work well together.

But if the question is to be hypothetical, each group member could control your grade if a bad impression was made. The contact hypothesis (McShane & Von Glinow, 2010, p. 81) “states that, under certain conditions, people who interact with each other will be less prejudiced or perceptually biased against each other”. “The halo effect is most likely to occur when concrete information about the perceived target is missing or we are not sufficiently motivated to search for it.” (McShane & Von Glinow, 2010, p. 78). To avoid a bad effect to our ratings, more interaction with group members would help and missing information would be needed. Since our team is very good about gathering the data and information needed before we discuss the problem, we proactively negate the halo effect before it arises.

We have evolved and have made our team successful. After completing the Team Roles Preference Scale again, our roles are the same as note on ‘Week 6 Update’ of our blog. We have grown in our trust of each other and ourselves. The assignments are an opportunity for the group to discuss what they have learned during the week. We also have mutual respect for each other. The team is dynamic and there is no distinct leader. Each person fills in where they are needed.

Our shared leadership was established quickly after our first team meeting. We continue to communicate well and definitely have built trust knowing each others contributions will be completed on time. Each member’s contribution is valued and made part of the end product.

As we head into the final stretch of the course, our group needs to continue to be understanding of personal schedules. We will also need to continue to communicate and be as flexible as possible with each others needs. Along with these team commitments, each of us has made the following personal commitment on areas to improve on / remain consistent with:

• Ellen plans on fulfilling the needs of the assignment with the help of the team.
• Kara will continue to consolidate individual responses which will be used to post our team’s collaborative response.
• Randy will continue to work towards getting assignments in on time.
• Simon will work to improve his information gathering and try to improve his timely submissions to the discussion.

References

McShane, S. & Von Glinow, M (2010). Organizational Behavior (5^th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill