Assessing and Improving Team Performance: An Ethical Approach

Assessment of Team Members

You have been brought in as a consultant to assess a team. You immediately notice that the team members refer to each other in a stereotypical manner. This workforce team consists of John, a 75-year-old Caucasian who describes himself as 'hip, street, and tech savvy'; although the team sees him as old and forgetful. Jill is a 22-year-old African American who describes herself as shy and feels she is too young to bring anything productive to the group; the team reports that s her youth implies that she does not have the experience to do what the job requires. Joe, a 35-year-old immigrant with limited English language proficiency reports that he often feels misunderstood and teased because of his heavy accent; the team reports that it has great difficulty understanding him and sometimes teases him, in a 'good-natured' manner, about his accent. Mary is a 30-year-old with an ADA accommodation due to childhood trauma (which her family denied ever happened); the team reports that she is often preoccupied. Ahsan is a 50-year-oldwoman who is strongly committed to her Indian culture; the team reports that it feels that she has not fully embraced the American culture. As a consultant, the organization has asked you to assess the team, and then offer specific suggestions and guidance to help this team to become more functional and productive. As a consultant, you must assess the team on the following: Identify team members' affective cognitive functioning in relation to their stereotypical thoughts and opinions. Determine how their affective functioning may affect their interaction with the entire team. Explain how their cognitive functioning may be influenced by their own, as well as others' bias regarding culture and age. Indicate how team members might perceive other team members. Share the creative ways in which you could offer suggestions and guidance that are ethical, sensitive to each individual, and use language that will not offend anyone or make anyone defensive. Describe the ethical decisions you must make in your final recommendations to the organization. Compose a final report that is 8-10 pages in length that addresses each of the points above. Support your findings with the five peer-reviewed articles found in Week 6 plus an additional five peer-reviewed articles for a total of 10 articles. Use attachment as a model