By: Virtual Team 5 Melissa Fagerness, Mary Jo McKee, & Jason Rumpza

 To see how teams function within different organizations While studying group meetings and their effectiveness, each of us chose a person in our community to interview regarding group and team meetings in their workplace. We wanted to see how meetings happened in real life, and compare them to the way they are described in the text.

 Jason DiMercurio ◦ Phone:

 Wendy Schneider ◦ Phone:

 Don DeGreef ◦ Phone:

 How many people are generally on your team?  What makes up your team (specialties or personalities)?  What methods do you use to communicate to each other?  How does your team handle conflict?  How does your group decide on the final solution to the problem/issue at hand?

 15 people on the team.  13 Communication Assistants and two Certified Medical Interpreters. The youngest is 25, the oldest 80 years old.  is used for communication, with texting allowed.  Conflict is handled internally, with the involved individuals left to work it out.  The final solution is worked out as a team, and communicated to others via .

 Usually 10 members on the team, provided all are able to attend.  Members are chose by job title, hand-picked by the supervisor.  All participants their agendas to the supervisor before the meeting...the supervisor picks the agendas he/she wants to include, then re-writes an official agenda for the meeting. The group is instructed to follow it, no exceptions!  Conflict is handled as Wendy feels, badly. It is tabled until the next meeting, and will tend to drag on and on. They have no method of solving this problem at this time.  All final decisions are made by the supervisor, even though everyone is allowed their input. Once a final decision is made, no one may question it.

 Generally 5 to 6 people.  Members include: Mechanics, controls people, supervisors, safety, and engineering.  Verbal, non-verbal, , charts and graphs, meeting minutes, and once in a while, instant messaging.  Typically the conflict is talked over and usually comes to a general consensus. Many times it results in meetings going over there allotted time.  Group consensus, trial and error, C&E matrix (six sigma program stuff), or management decision

 Conflict is handled similarly in all three groups. Employees are left to handle personal issues with some supervisory intervention even though one group did not handle conflict effectively.  All three teams had a leader that allowed member contribution to create the final outcome.  All groups had ground rules and an agenda they followed.

 Diverse groups allow for innovation.  is important, but hasn’t replaced face-to-face meetings.  Meeting must have ground rules.  There should be a set plan for conflict resolution.  The team leader must keep the meeting on track.  There is conflict in all groups, no matter what the size.

 These interviews helped us understand how group meetings should and do work.  This will be valuable in our future careers because we can anticipate and prepare for group meetings by understanding the basic steps to making them successful.  We will be better prepared to take the right approach when in a group setting.  We have an awareness of how to handle conflict should it arise, and to watch for the pitfalls that can cause a meeting to run off track.

 The text describes a successful team as small in size, having an agreed upon purpose, procedures, ability to confront conflict, use of good communication techniques, and the ability to collaborate. Acceptance of ethical responsibilities and shared leadership is also important.  It seemed that all three groups used Authority Rule with discussion to resolve issues.  They use face-to-face communication, , or whatever works best for the majority.  Each member is responsible for their part, and they collaborate to make a final product.  Two of the groups had an effective way of dealing with conflict, one did not. Guffery, M. E. (2009) Business Communications. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.

 This was an interesting exercise because while working as a team we individually interviewed one person in our community about group meetings.  We asked the same questions of everyone interviewed.  This allowed us to gain insight into how teams work and make the generalization that team meetings are similar with minor differences.  We learned what makes an effective, or ineffective meeting, and how conflict should be handled.

Guffery, M. E. (2009) Business Communications. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.