MNG82001 Case Study: Analyzing Teamwork Failure at Good Beer Co.

This case study examines the teamwork failure at The Good Beer Company, focusing on a project aimed at increasing sales without raising prices. The study highlights issues such as poor communication, lack of leadership, and social loafing among team members. The team leader's reliance on email for crucial strategy changes caused confusion, while the assessment team identified significant problems. The analysis reveals that miscommunication, lack of individual accountability, and insufficient leadership led to the project's failure. The case study explores possible solutions, such as enhancing individual accountability, improving communication methods, and fostering trust between team members and leaders. It concludes with the importance of teamwork and effective communication for organizational success.

Running head: CASE STUDY
Case Study
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1CASE STUDY
Introduction
There are several cases of teamwork failures that can be traced in the history of various
organizations. Aiming to generate a fair and comprehensive view about a case study where the
teamwork and collaborative efforts failed to meet its objective, this paper provides a reflective
and retrospective account of the instance. This paper also strives to provide information about
the various areas related to the case study.
Case Study
The Good Beer Company in Australia serves to produce for the benefit of the poor and
helpless (The Good Beer Co 2019). This small enterprise is dedicated to generate beneficial
opportunities to those who are in need of help. Due to its strategic goal of helping the poor
citizens, the Good Beer Company strives to generate profit in a manner that allows distribution
of profits to other sections of society. Dedicated to social work, The Good Beer Company
harbors a dedicated team of employees who work together to generate revenue and help others.
With a few employees at work, The Good Beer Company strives to collate teamwork and
prosper through collaborative efforts.
Studies depict that collaborative teamwork assists in the enhancing the performance of
the organizations and assists in amalgamating the efforts (Goh, Chan and Kuziemsky 2013).
During one of the meetings, the managers had decided that the organization had decided to
increase its sales and profit by a margin of 10% without increasing the price of each can. It was
also decided that the distribution team would endeavor to distribute the profit amongst the poor
and helpless. During the meeting, certain concrete plans and strategies were made related to the
achievement of this revamped objective. The team had even decided to distribute equal work

2CASE STUDY
pressure amongst each member. Various marketing strategies were adopted to achieve this
objective. The team adopted implementation strategies such as conducting SWOT Analysis and
implementing the measures.
The team leader had divided the works amongst all the members in a manner that allowed
each member to work independently. Each member was asked to submit a review of the
strategies based on SWOT Analysis. Within due course of time, the team members had
submitted the reviews to the team leader. After three days, the team members were informed that
the review process had identified certain flaws that need to be erased to achieve higher revenue.
The team leader had communicated the changes through email. Due to the medium of the social
media and lack of physical and verbal communication between the team leaders and the
participating members, confusion had arisen regarding the changes in the strategies. The typed
email message failed to communicate the idea that the various strategies for revenue generation
needs to be implemented after taking into consideration the well-being of the helpless. Had the
communication process taken place based on personal interaction, the members would not have
been confused.
The team members had started working on the various strategies such as increasing the
work time to achieve the desired results, accentuating proper connection with advertising
agencies and others. The collated contribution of the team members failed to recognize the
changes that needed to be implemented in the strategies. The lack of proper communication had
led to the team members propagating and implementing the strategies to increase revenue
without taking into consideration the social aspect related to the poor and needy. This had led to
the adoption of policies that did not match to the organizational procedures.

3CASE STUDY
To check the team’s progress, The Good Beer Company formed an assessment team. The
assessment team found that some members did not participate in the various processes of the
teamwork. The assessment team also found that most of the team members failed to comprehend
the communicated policies and strategies. The assessment team had also detected the
malfunctioning within the team that had paved the way for the future failure of the team. The
case of social loafing had led to the team members relegating responsibilities to each other
without properly working on an individual basis (Singh, Wang and Zhu 2018). Studies have
revealed that multiple cases of social loafing leads to team failure (Schippers, Edmondson and
West 2014). Further, it was seen that the strategies that needed to be implemented was not in par
with the business standards. The assessment team also presented the fact that the team is not
progressing in any arena. After the warning sign issued by the assessment team, the team had
decided to revamp the strategies to incorporate the desired changes. Despite the inclusion of the
revamped changes and additions, it was seen that the teamwork did not yield any considerable
result. It was seen that the team leader failed to manage the team and implement proper
leadership qualities. It was seen that while some members had properly understood the changes,
others were not able to interpret the changes and continued following the same path. This had led
to the perpetration of similar ideas. Had the team leader endeavored to implement the various
leadership practices, the team members could have worked in a coherent manner. In addition to
this, it was also seen that the team members did not trust the leader.
However, with the gradual progression of time, we realized that the team effort is leading
to little or few changes. Within three weeks, the production manager had informed us about the
failure of our endeavors. It was seen that the teamwork did not lead to any increase in the
revenue or profit. Our collective efforts did not create any fruitful results.

4CASE STUDY
Relevant Questions and Answers
Q1. Why did the teamwork fail to meet its desired objective?
A closer look at the case study will reveal that the collated teamwork had failed to meet
its objective due to the lack of cohesion amidst the group. Studies reveal that cohesion and
collaboration are extremely important for groups to cultivate and team works to succeed and
meet its objectives (Marek, Brock and Savla 2015). In the given scenario, the team leader failed
to organize the team to achieve the targets of the organization. In addition to this, the individual
team members failed to remain accountable for their own actions. Rampant cases of social
loafing and lack of individual accountability led to the disruption in the team work and
organizational policies. In addition to this, the cases of miscommunication and lack of
transparency in the communication process had acted as a major impediment. The idea and
concept of team works entails the notion of collated and conglomerated efforts and increases the
efficiency of the individuals (Vambe and Okafor 2015). Failure of teamwork occurs due to
various factors such as lack of participation or lack of common goal. The key concepts in the
context of teamwork or team effort are efficient leadership, trust and enhanced communication
prowess amongst all the participating members. Efficient leadership can enhance the quality of
the teamwork (Kumari, Usmani and Hussain 2014). Studies also reveal that effective
communication and collaboration among the team members form an intrinsic part in the team
efforts (Thomson et al. 2015). Further, the team effort did not take into consideration the
warning signs generated by the assessment team. Thus, it can be said that these factors led to the
teamwork failing to meet its objective of propounding and implementing the policies for revenue
generation.

5CASE STUDY
Q2. What are the possible measures that could have been adopted? What are the possible
resolutions to the above-mentioned scenario?
There are certain measures that could have been adopted to resolve the situation and
address the issues of social loafing and sheer lack of coherence. In order to address the issue of
social loafing, it is important to inculcate measures that gauge individual contribution.
Implementing measures such as regularly updating progress in Google Docs can accentuate
individual accountability and is useful in collaborative work (Gosper et al. 2014). Had the team
leader incorporated this strategy, he could have been able to keep track of the participation rate.
In addition to this, the use of online tools such as email should not be used in sensitive cases.
Studies reveal that verbal and face-to-face communication are relevant in cases of exchanging
important information due to the failure of online communications (Przybylski and Weinstein
2013). Had the team leader resorted to verbal communication, the team members would not have
been confused. Likewise, it can also be said that the team members should have vested their trust
on the team leader. Had the team members tried to communicate about the confusing situation,
the team leader could have checked the perpetration of confusion. The above-mentioned
situation could have been resolved if the team leaders as well as the members could have
collaborated with each other. In addition to this, the scenario could have been resolved if the
organization could have impressed upon the team leaders and team members about the
importance of teamwork in relation to the organizational values and procedures.
Conclusion
After analyzing the above-discussed ideas, it can be concluded that team work is
extremely crucial for the organizational values. Fruitful Teamwork is intrinsically connected to
the organization’s progress. In the case study, team efforts have failed to bear any concrete

6CASE STUDY
results. Due to the lack of proper cohesion, collated efforts and rampant social loafing, the team
failed to perform. In conclusion, it can be said that proper communication measures and
monitoring measures must be inculcated in group work to reduce the occurrence of similar
incidents.
References
Goh, S.C., Chan, C. and Kuziemsky, C., 2013. Teamwork, organizational learning, patient safety
and job outcomes. International journal of health care quality assurance, 26(5), pp.420-432.
Gosper, M., McKenzie, J., Pizzica, J., Malfroy, J. and Ashford-Rowe, K., 2014. Student use of
technologies for learning–what has changed since 2010?. ASCILITE2014.
Kumari, K., Usmani, S. and Hussain, J., 2014. Responsible leadership and intellectual capital:
The mediating effects of effective team work. Journal of Economics, Business and
Management, 3(2), pp.176-182.
Marek, L.I., Brock, D.J.P. and Savla, J., 2015. Evaluating collaboration for effectiveness:
Conceptualization and measurement. American Journal of Evaluation, 36(1), pp.67-85.
Przybylski, A.K. and Weinstein, N., 2013. Can you connect with me now? How the presence of
mobile communication technology influences face-to-face conversation quality. Journal of
Social and Personal Relationships, 30(3), pp.237-246.
Schippers, M.C., Edmondson, A.C. and West, M.A., 2014. Team reflexivity as an antidote to
team information-processing failures. Small Group Research, 45(6), pp.731-769.

7CASE STUDY
Singh, S., Wang, H. and Zhu, M., 2018. Perceptions of Social Loafing during the Process of
Group Development.
The Good Beer Co (2019). The Good Beer Co. - The Good Beer Co. [online] The Good Beer Co.
Available at: http://www.thegoodbeerco.com.au/ [Accessed 27 Jan. 2019].
Thomson, K., Outram, S., Gilligan, C. and Levett-Jones, T., 2015. Interprofessional experiences
of recent healthcare graduates: A social psychology perspective on the barriers to effective
communication, teamwork, and patient-centred care. Journal of interprofessional care, 29(6),
pp.634-640.
Vambe, J.T. and Okafor, I.J., 2015. TEAMWORK AS A STRATEGY FOR ENHANCING
PERFORMANCE IN THE NIGERIA PUBLIC SERVICE. GLOBAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED,
MANAGEMENT AND SOCIAL SCIENCES, 8.