Team Collapse At Richard, Wood And Hulme LLP Case Solution

1. Lack of Team Effectiveness and Cohesion

There were several serious issues related to lack of team effectiveness and cohesion within Richard, Wood and Hulme LLP. The first instance that shows organization was facing a lack of team effectiveness come in the case when poor planning was mentioned. Since Ellis was on leave that responsibility was given to Watson. This was clearly not the right thing to do and especially troubling when no one in the team had first tried to make her comfortable in the new environment. This lack of goal-oriented approach, the team suffered a setback when Watson left the company and planning process was stalled.

Michael also showed a lack of cohesion when he did not voice the concerns regarding completion of the audit in limited time considering the economic environment. Effective teams are those where members feel free to discuss opinions and argue different views to achieve clarity of purpose (Langton, Robbins, Judge, & Breward, 2016). If this had been done by Michael, the team might have been better prepared and done planning in advance to handle the situation.

Cohesion issue was also present when the first interaction between Spector and the audit team did not yield in obtaining any new information. If the team had tried to address this issue in early stage and increase cohesion among not only the team members but also between audit team the task might not have gone out of control. It is also clear from the case that Noth and Patel had the habit of shirking work. This is not a sign of effectiveness in teams because a good team cannot be created unless all the members share a common goal and put all their efforts towards the achievement of that goal (Langton, Robbins, Judge, & Breward, 2016).