Making the Tough Team Call

The IMP-2000 software team is a disaster because of the free-riding nature of its team members, the failure to engage within their team and with other IMP participants, failure to diagnose task objectives, and failure to establish functional team norms.

The IMP-2000 software team fails to establish a successful team environment resulting in free-riding by team members. Caldwell contributes the most visible effort to the collective output of the team. He is the only software team member that presents during each of the Modules to the other IMP participants and facilitation team. It is unclear if Meier and Winkel present during any Modules. Most notable, during Module 4, while recommendations and implementation strategies are the primary module component, Caldwell discusses his interviews with managers at Texas Instruments and Teves. While the presentation in Module 4 fails to show any preliminary conclusions, it illustrates Meier’s and Winkel’s lack of team participation and failure to exert little/no effort in the collective success of their team deliverable.

As a collective, the IMP-2000 software team also fails to engage in formal and informal interaction within their team and with other IMP participants. Though Meier and Winkel were of German decent, as members of a global organization and the selected IMP members, it was imperative that their business acumen and cross-cultural communication skills were tested with their colleagues. Meier and Winkel fail to engage in sports or other outside activities with the IMP participants. It is most baffling since Meier states in his initial questionnaire that the “opportunity to network with others” was a personal goal. Winkel states that he wants a business project that requires him to work outside of his current field of experience; yet he fails to engage with his team on this project – a non-legal project. Winkel also does not participate in the historic tour of Hamlin with his IMP colleagues. Caldwell is the only...