Reference no: EM133261032
Assignment:
Cindy, and Jennifer are associates at a venture capital firm. They work as a team in the capital budgeting division under the supervision of Tony, a financial advisor with more than 15 years of experience, who manages the investment portfolios of the firm's biggest clients. During their years of tenure, the firm trained the associates in using its portfolio management software, capital budgeting techniques, and report writing. However, the team feels they learn the most from Tony. Tony likes to challenge his subordinates by delegating complex tasks, but he is diligent in providing them with assistance, feedback and technical guidance. He also likes to empower his subordinates by making them a part of his meetings with clients and reviews with the firm's partners.
One day Tony resigns from the firm leaving some projects pending and the team is assigned a temporary supervisor, Hank. Hank has also been tasked with helping a second team, which is under-performing. Jim, Cindy and Jennifer seem to be overwhelmed by this change as their new supervisor has little availability and tight deadlines are approaching for the projects they are working on simultaneously.
Though the associates seem to be stressed about having to work with little to no supervision, they are able to plan and coordinate the work that needs to be done, they give each other assistance by taking on tasks that each of them excels at, and manage client interactions well, exceeding Hank`s performance expectations.
QUESTIONS
Q1. Define mental models and then describe how the shared mental models the associates adopted while working with Tony helped them maintain team efficacy when their supervisor quit.
Q2. Acting as a management coach, provide advice to Hank for developing a transactive memory system (TMS) for his under-performing team.