University of Charleston: ORGL 430 Developing Teams Workbook Analysis

This assignment is a Learning in Action Workbook for the ORGL 430 Developing Teams course at the University of Charleston. It requires students to engage in discussion questions, analyze team interactions, and maintain a reflective journal. The discussion questions prompt critical thinking and analysis, encouraging students to engage in conversations and provide evidence-based arguments. The teaming assignments involve observing and analyzing team participation, focusing on contributions, and the impact of various factors on team dynamics. The journal component promotes self-reflection, linking course concepts to personal experiences and leadership development. Students are expected to provide overviews, reflections, introspections, and action plans, culminating in a summary of their insights. The assignment emphasizes the practical application of leadership concepts, with a focus on communication, ethical principles, and understanding team dynamics in a workplace setting. The student's analysis of the discussion question explores the qualities of a successful team, emphasizing the importance of communication, goal orientation, equal contributions, and breaking barriers.

Learning in action workbook
orgl 430 – Developing Teams

ORGL 430 Developing Teams – Learning in Action Workbook
Learning in Action Workbook
Instructions
Start your Learning in Action Workbook
You will be using this workbook for discussion notes and analysis, teaming activities,
and journal exercises.
Start by saving this document as YourName-ORGL-430-Workbook.doc and use the
same saved copy for ALL Workbook exercises.
Discussion Questions
Discussion questions provide an opportunity for you to think critically about the concepts
presented and to discuss the concepts with other people within your environment.
Essentially, even though you may be the only student within your physical environment
you engage others within that environment to create your own learning community. You
may or may not choose to make this explicit to the others.
This course activity creates opportunities for you to practice critical thinking and
analysis, articulate and defend your positions, considering different points of view, and
evaluate information.
After considering the discussion question prompt, engage in a conversation with people
within your environment to elicit their thoughts on the topic. Be mindful of using
communication skills such as active listening, congruent sending, framing, and
paraphrasing. Practice engaging in a dialectical discussion without debate or argument.
Make an analysis of (not just a report of) the conversation in a one-page paper including
the perspective and when possible the rationale of all the people involved. APA
guidelines should be followed.
Your analysis will be graded on substance and thoughtfulness, and should reflect
appropriate application of emerging knowledge and vocabulary in the topic area.
University of Charleston encourages frank and insightful dialogue in all online courses.
Diversity has many manifestations including diversity of thought, opinion, and values.
We encourage all students to be respectful of that diversity and to refrain from
inappropriate commentary.
Format for Discussion Questions:
1. Read the question carefully. Consider the question in relation to its theoretical
context. State your answer to the question, “What do you think?”
2. State why you think what you think. Provide clear and credible evidence to support
your response.
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ORGL 430 Developing Teams – Learning in Action Workbook
3. Demonstrate critical thinking and analysis. Discuss at a critical level, don’t just recite
facts from your reading, discussion, or class experience.
4. Examine and reflect upon your own experiences, beliefs, and knowledge that can be
integrated to support your response. Students should seek to elevate the discussion.
5. Identify and cite references or links to scholarly resources to reinforce your position.
Have a conversation:
1. Have a conversation with one or more people in your environment.
2. This is not to agree or disagree but rather to explore the topic. Explore support for
each person’s position and rationale. Always be professional and respectful to your
classmates.
3. Add value to the discussion by integrating real-world experiences, respectfully
challenging individuals, and asking questions. Ask open-ended questions, rather than
questions that can be answered with yes or no. These questions encourage dialogue
and move the discussion forward.
4. Avoid using unsupported personal opinions or generalizations.
Paper Expectations:
1. Your writing must demonstrate your understanding of the topic.
2. Connections between course content, assigned readings, and the discussion topic
should be demonstrated.
3. Critical discussion includes your opinion, the reasons you had that opinion, and why
it may be consistent or inconsistent with what you’ve learned. Justify your reasoning
with facts. How does what you are presenting affect present and future situations?
4. Relate new information with material covered in previous classes, additional
readings, and content learned outside of the class.
5. List all references related to the discussion question or replying.
Teaming Assignments – Observation and Analysis
Although you may be the only UC student in your environment, it is probable that you
will be a member of a work or project team or collaboration. This assignment asks that
you make observations and analysis of your team participation and function.
Many teams support active participation by encouraging members to state and defend
their point of view and make inquiry to better understand the viewpoints and reasoning of
others.
Observation and Analysis Summary - Following team discussions, write a one-page
summary that discusses and analyzes team engagement. This assignment is to help you
see how you team and collaborate with others in context to course concepts. In what way
do you contribute to or detract from the team. Things to consider may include:
 Identity, Ethics, Values & Beliefs, Behavior
 Challenge and Support
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ORGL 430 Developing Teams – Learning in Action Workbook
 Socio-cultural Aspects (Dominant Narrative)
 Vision & Intention, Strategy & Plans, Actions, Outcomes
 Structures, Systems, and Culture
 Interpersonal communication, Conflict, and Problem Solving
Learning in Action Journal (Reflection): Thinking about your Thinking
Journaling is a lifelong learning habit. Each week, you will reflect and think about your
thinking. You will explore how the readings relate to present and past experiences. You
will keep this journal throughout this program, adding a new (dated) entry each week.
You may choose to focus on the option located here at the end of each seminar in the
syllabus or a concept of your own choosing in your journal.
The purpose of writing and keeping a personal/professional journal is to open an
opportunity for you to reflect on this course and its meaning This includes exploring the
new information, the way you relate to the information, and the way you connect what
you apply what you have learned (theory to practice). When writing a journal entry,
consider the reading materials, discussion questions and interactions with other people.
team chats, and discussion questions. Then consider:
1. How have these sessions helped you explore yourself as a person?
a. What habits of mind, points of view, and perspectives do you hold?
i. Where did these come from and who influenced them (parents, friends,
workplace)?
2. What have you learned about yourself because of this self-exploration?
a. Have you become aware of any patterns of expectation based on your
experiences? What can you now see in terms of your intuition, patterns and
pattern contradictions?
i. Where did these come from and who influenced them (parents, friends,
workplace)?
b. How does this relate to your needs, relationships, and values and beliefs?
i. Where did these come from and who influenced them (parents, friends,
workplace)?
3. “How has this lesson(s) helped you grow as a leader?
a. Consider implications or influences to your identity, ethics, behaviors, and
values and beliefs.
4. How will the meaning you have made from this new learning influence your future
work?
a. Consider your vision, strategy and goals.
b. Consider the work environments including structures, systems, and socio-
cultural aspects.
Please indicate both positive and negative experiences; all of your perceptions are
important and can provide you with learning and insights about yourself.
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ORGL 430 Developing Teams – Learning in Action Workbook
Some weeks may include specific prompts while others will be open-ended allowing
students to explore topics that resonated with them individually.
Journal Assignment Expectations:
First paragraph (Overview)
Provide an overview of the assignment instruction or topic from syllabus.
What (Observation and Reflection)
Take one area of your readings, discussions, or experiences and provide enough
background for the faculty to understand the context. Share your reflections of the
situation or event (what happened, who was involved, what was the outcome), and make
connections to your real-world environment.
So What (Reflection and Introspection)
This is the section where you look inside yourself and objectively assess your thoughts,
emotions, words, and actions. Take a balcony view (as if you are in the balcony watching
yourself on stage) in seeing how your perspective, thinking, and behavior may have
affected others. What is the importance to you, to others and to your unit or department.
How does this relate to the context of this class? How might the outcome change if your
actions were different. Explain your reasoning.
Now What (Leader Development)
How has your understanding of yourself and leadership changed? What two or three
actions will you take because of your ‘what’ (observation) and ‘so what’ (reflection and
introspection)?
Final Paragraph (Summary or Conclusion)
Summarize your final thoughts on this week’s assignments and your insights from this
journal.
Additional Guidelines:
1. Use the format above. References and citations are not required but helpful.
2. Your journal should be about one page long with a minimum of 200 and
maximum of 400 words.
3. Correct grammar, punctuation and sentence structure is required.
4. Review the journal rubric for more specifics on how your journal will be graded.
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ORGL 430 Developing Teams – Learning in Action Workbook
Seminar #1 – Reflection: Discussion Question
Discuss with someone in your environment the qualities of a successful team and importance of
member roles.
Discussion Analysis Paper
Building successful team in a workplace is very important as because it helps the while
department in order to complete the given task within the stimulated time frame. Team
building is important due to few reasons like it is known for facilitating better
communication in the workplace as well as in the particular department of the
organization. Regarding the point of facilitating the effectiveness of communication in
the workplace it can be said that activities are known for creating various types of
discussion in the workplace. Open communication is known for bringing close the
management department as well as the employees working in the organization.
Therefore it can also help in improving the office relationship and in turn improve the
quality of work provided to the team. Team building also help in motivating the
employees who have low employee motivation and lowered morale in the workplace. It
has been found out that the more the employees are open minded within the workplace
the more confidently then can delegate their work and express out their ideas to the team
as a whole. Team building also promotes creativity in the workplace, where the
employees when discussing with new members in the team are exposed to new ideas
which helps them in creating new tings and think something out of the box stuff.
Building effective team also helps in developing various types of problem solving skills
among the employees in the workplace. Team building activities are known for bringing
workers closer to the team mates with whom they can consult various types of things
without proceeding further with the problem. This way of working together as a team
helps other members to bring up their social morale and think in a different way so that
they feel they have an equal importance in the team as a whole. Team building is also
known for breaking various types of barrier which increases the trust factors of the
employee in the workplace. Often after various types of research work it has been found
out that there is often a gap between the leadership team and the group of employee
working as a team. Effective team building helps the employees in removing the gap, they
also feel that the leaders are not only the boss in the organization but they are also
employee working in the same organization. This helps them to effectively communicate
with them when needed.
According to the author few of the qualities of a successful team are:
 They tend to communicate well with each other in the team – It has been found
out that effective team members when placed in a team are communicating well
with each other. They tend to share their opinion, thoughts, ideas along with the
team leaders and the members in the team. Therefore communication is an
essential aspect of a successful team in the workplace. It has been found out that
crossed communication in the team often lead to UN left work and UN left
communication.
 They definitely try to focus more on the result than the goals – Successful team
often try to focus over the goals that they have to complete the work given in a
small amount of time or deadline rather than foxcusing on the end result of the
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ORGL 430 Developing Teams – Learning in Action Workbook
work. Therefore they often set a clear plan from the first point so that they can
follow it effectively in order to move on the ladder. It also helps them in getting a
clear direction and set of strategies which directs them towards the achievement
of the goals.
 Everyone share equal contribution in the team work – In a successful team it has
often been found out that all the team members present share equal contribution
to the team as whole. If few of the members are not able to understand something
they tend to help them in terms of need. They feel that they should be committed
to the work provided to them and tries to complete it within the deadline. With
equal share of work load the members in the team try to understand their own
responsibilities and the roles they play in the team.
 They offer each other support – Team members when tend to be happily working
in a team with more members working together. According to the author Spencer,
Dauber and Jordans (2020) after various types of research work it has been found
out that team are often more productive when they are working as a whole and
are provided support from the organizational leaders so that they get the
sufficient access to the resources required to complete the work.
Regarding the importance of the roles of team member sit can be said that small and
large business organizations all have employees who are known for having separate team
role and responsibilities to serve the organization properly. According to the author
Spencer, Dauber and Jordans (2020) team members are known for working effectively in
order to meet the stimulated goal or objective set by the higher department of the
selected organization. It has been found out after various types of research work that the
basic difference between the team failure and the success of the team is depended on the
effective participation of the team members as a whole and understanding the roles and
responsibilities of them. Recognizing various types of roles in the organization allows the
small business owners and the human resource department to effectively manage the
whole process and match the requirements accordingly.
Also understanding the members’ roles and responsibilities is important in order to
achieve the end goals targeted by the business both for the short term as well as for the
long term achievement of the company. According to the author without shared
perspective and set of goals a team cannot be formed in an organization. Therefore it is
very important for each and every team members to understand their roles and act out
accordingly.
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ORGL 430 Developing Teams – Learning in Action Workbook
Seminar #1 – Reflection: Learning in Action Journal
Write about your experience with creativity within teams.
 What are your goals for this course?
Observation and Reflection
Creativity is one of the most important aspect in team work. According to the author
Spencer, Dauber and Jordans (2020) creativity is one of the most dynamic and ever
changing self-expression which is required in a business organization. Therefore being
creative in terms of work will help the team and as well as the person top develop young
mind in order to understand certain situation and act wisely reflecting upon various
types of feeling and experiences.
My experience with creativity within the team can be described with a short experience
when we used to work as a team of 12 people in General Motors under the designing
department. We had to think creatively in order to come up with a design for the
business to launch a car in the Auto Expo 2020. We all in the first process were numb
with the ideas but however the designer leader from the department who was supervising
us came up with a catalogue of different inventions made by the company as well as
designs proposed by the competitors business. I gained idea from those sketches and
develop a design in my mind, later on I portrayed the design to the senior design
manager of the company, where I got selected for making the best design out of the team.
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ORGL 430 Developing Teams – Learning in Action Workbook
Reflection and Introspection
Regarding the reflection of the incident and the introspection of the critical thinking
process in the team it can be said that due to my creative thinking I was able to think and
present a good and appealing design to the company in order to present it to the designs
department. I felt very good that my creative thinking skills worked for the first time.
Leader Development
Leader development is known for referring to the activity which is known for improving
the skills as well as the abilities including the confidence of the leaders associated with
the team. Later on for getting selected as the best design provider in the group of 12
members I was elected as the general leader of the design development team. I had to
guide the other members in the team to provide best design of the car for the company.
Summary and Conclusion
In order to conclude it can be said that creative thinking is known for allowing the
business process and as well as the team members to think something out of the box. It
helps the employees to gain various types of cognitive skills, scientific methods inoculates
with the work process of the team members. They also tend to think in a broad process
with the help of imaginative power. However according to the author Spencer, Dauber
and Jordans (2020) it can be said that one of the most important aspect of the creative
thinking process is that it helps the person or the respective team member to express
themselves more in front of others.
Therefore it is recommended that each and every member associated with the group
should try to indulge themselves in bringing out creativity from within.
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ORGL 430 Developing Teams – Learning in Action Workbook
Seminar #2 – Teams as Human Resources: Discussion Question
 Discuss the ability to recognize and diagnose team problems with someone in your
environment.
Discussion Analysis Paper
Team problem is something which is related with the unwilling ness of the members
associated with the team in order not to do some task which is assigned to them. Team
problem is known for getting its appearances due to various types of reasons like if there
is absence in the team member, or if they are facing any kind of difficulty in making
various types of decision. Team problems can also arise due to inefficiency in proper
communication with the team members in the group. Tea members if found interrupting
or are talking over the leader might face various types of problem. Therefore it might
also lead to a team problem. According to the author Spencer, Dauber and Jordans
(2020) it also has been found out that if there is a noticeable lack of participation the
team members fail to generate diverse fresh ideas which might not be suitable for the
organization. Team problem might also arise dye to lack of creative skills in certain
employees. If they do not bring out their perspective of ideas in the team they will not be
able to turn unexpected things into various events or opportunities in the business.
However it also has been found out that without proper group thinking forces the
employees working as a team are unable to think something fruitful for the business
organization. Last but not the least the author Spencer, Dauber and Jordans (2020)
states that due to ineffective or inefficient leadership skills and style followed by the
leader in the team, the whole team might fall under various types of team problem.
Therefore it is the responsibility of the leaders in the business organization to develop a
set of vision and mission statement and not represent multiple constituencies.
Regarding the ability to diagnose and recognize various of team problem here are few
steps which if followed in the environment f work will be helping members to find out
and rectify the problem in the business.
 Finding out the problem at once – the first step which is required in order to find
out and rectify the team problem is that the problem should be identified at once.
According to the author Spencer, Dauber and Jordans (2020)it has been found
out that the problem is known for existing in the team where there is a difference
in what is happening and what is going to hap[pen at the end of the process. The
members should therefore try to understand the basic problem at once and try to
rectify then and then so that it does not proceed further.
 Defining the problem statement - According to the author Spencer, Dauber and
Jordans (2020) it has been found out from various types of researches that the
defining the problem statement is one of the most important part of rectifying and
understanding the problems arising in the team.
 Describing the problem statement – This is the thirds stage where after
identifying the problem the problem will be analyzed from top to bottom in order
to get details about the problem. The description part of the discussion should be
divided into three successful parts which are identity of the problem, location of
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ORGL 430 Developing Teams – Learning in Action Workbook
the problem statement and timing out the problem statement in order to get a
solution for it.
 Diagnosing the problem – According to the author ********* in order to diagnose
the problem statement it is known for meaning to find out the main cause of the
team problem statement. It is thus known for requiring various types of careful
thinking process regarding the team problem identified in the business. The more
specific and simple ideas formed about the business problem the more easy it will
be to analyze the whole problem.
 Testing the diagnosis – It is the last stage of rectifying the team problem
statement. According to the author ********* once the hypothesis of the problem
statement is identified, time should be given in order to get rid of the particular
theory. If it is required to change the certain perspective about the problem
statement, then it should be changed in this stage only rather than proceeding
more further.
However above all it is recommended that the team members should be capable of
thinking something creative when they are determining any kind of problem which is
faced by the team in the particular department. The team members should also take
leadership abilities so that they can bring down and get rid of any kind of problem which
is faced by the team members. If however it happens that the problem is not getting
solved anyhow the members should try to go back and formulate new ideas and as well
as form new hypothesis for the particular problem statement. This process should be
repeated until the problem gets solved.
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ORGL 430 Developing Teams – Learning in Action Workbook
Seminar #2 – Teams as Human Resources: Teaming Assignment
 Observe the concepts from the readings within the groups and teams in which you
participate.
Observation and Analysis
Human Resources is described as the people who are known for working up with the
workforce of the organization in order to meet the perspective of the business. Whereas
the term human capital is described as something which is used synonymously with the
human resources to narrower the effect and promote knowledge in the organization.
Likewise the term human resources is known for including various types of things like
the man power of the whole organization, talent management, labor, personnel as well as
simply the people working in the workplace.
Few of the concepts of the human resource in team building are that they help people
and as well as employees in engaging towards work for the organization. According to
the author Bolden, Gulati and Edwards (2020) the first and foremost term which is to be
used by the team of human resource in a particular organization is building team
engagement. Engagement is known for leading the employees to give the organization
their full and build responsibilities while they are working for the organization.
According to the author Bolden, Gulati and Edwards (2020) engagement is one of the
most opposite side of the burnout where the employees are known for making various
types of group discussion in order to excel their way of living. It has been found out from
several types of research work initiated by the author Bolden, Gulati and Edwards
(2020) that when the employees are found getting engaged with various types of work
they tend to show more energy, they are mostly found being dedicated towards work and
the work culture they have formed from quite a few time.
Another most important concept of the human resource department is that they propose
job demand resource model to the employees working in the organization. The second
HR concept is known for detailing with the occupational stress relief model which is
known for getting its division regarding the conceptual work of the employees provided
towards the growth of the organization as a whole. The basic model which is provided by
the human resource is known for showing that each and every job in the organization is
known for emitting various types of stress related factors. But however with the help of
the stress relief framework employees do feel that they are being motivated as a whole.
Strategic Human Resource model is known for dealing with various types of value to the
customers, employees as well as the investors who are associated with the operation of
the business.
The next concept of the human resource teamwork is that the HR Analytics. The HR
analytics is known for covering various types of business process which are aligned with
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