Team Case Study Interpersonal Communication

This case study tells us that the varied perceptions of every individual in a team will give rise to communication barriers (perceptual barriers). Fear, opportunism and mistrust also stops us from communicating effectively with our co-workers (emotional barriers). Knowlton Roberts is collaborative team leader and hardworking man. He is insecure and he generally don’t reveal those insecurities with his boss or team. Dr. Harold is the Director of research and supervisor of Roberts’s team. He has very high expectations of his group and he is not attentive to his team. Rankle is a new comer who is brilliant, aggressive, opportunist and not a team player.
Roberts takes pride in his recently promoted position as project head. However, as soon as Rankle shows up he feels threatened of his position. Roberts was never fond of Rankle, but after seeing that Harold thought so highly of Rankle he decides not to share his opinion. Rankle is confident, aggressive and provides new ideas on certain situations and gets noticed quickly. During the group meeting, Roberts mentioned a problem for which the team already announced as unsolvable. As soon as Rankle hears this he engages himself immediately to find the solution rather than discussing with the team. Roberts emphasized coming to a solution as a team. But Rankle

believed that the meetings are for sharing information and not scientific advancements. This embarrassed few team mates and the team went out of control. At the same time Roberts was very insecure with Rankle’s talent and he did not try to imbibe team spirit. Harold does not directly interact with team most of the time and only interested whether work is done or not.

Harold did not introduce Rankle and did not communicate to Roberts that he is thinking to hire someone new for his team. Rankle lacked affection and he was too arrogant to accept the way team does things. Roberts did not ask his queries and simply assumed that Rankle was there to replace him. He did not consider speaking to his supervisor regarding his problem. Harold did not indicate that Rankle's place in Roberts's team was temporary and also did not give early information regarding Rankle's transfer to another project. Rankle is too much of an opportunist to work in a team with others and remained individualistic until he left to work for another project. All these communication barriers resulted in organization failure.
Harold could have utilized a better interpersonal communication skill.

Harold could have also attended the meetings and taken an initiative to ensure that all employees were happy. Roberts should have focused on his own strengths as a leader and could have identified his areas where he was better than Rankle. This way he would have never thought of changing the job. Roberts could have communicated his concerns regarding Rankle with his supervisor and teammates. Rankle should have taken permission and discuss with others about his new ideas. Base on this case study, it is very clear that effective communication is the key factor in the success of any

organization.