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Team Management 1 Running Head: Team Management Team Management: A Case Study of Mann Gulch Fire

Team Management 2 Answer 1 A project manager has a significant place to direct the project on the path of success and achieve the objectives and goals through optimum utilization of available resources (Griffin & Moorhead, 2011). If a project manager expects a team to exercise their own judgment, the project manager must provide the team with decision making experience. In order to give experiences, project manager should develop a strong and positive relationship with the team members by giving value to their perceptions and views in the decision making process (Kerzner, 2009). For giving understanding about project conditions, sharing past experiences, and building a foundation for strategic thinking, firstly, project managers should develop an effective and two ways communication process with the team members, so that project manager can describe the boundaries of the work to associates, who are belonging to the project directly as well as indirectly (Powell & Buede, 2009). Through this, project manager can predetermine the strategy and course of actions within the environment. In addition to this, it can be helpful for the manager to define role and responsibilities of each member of the team. As per the case study, Dodge, the foreman of the team of fire fighters, was not able to give clear directions to all the fire fighters due to their poor sense of decision making. According to Drummond (2001), a person should have the abilities of using sense to respond a critical situation. Thus expectations of both team members and project manager also align with the hear abilities, responding abilities and acts that are done by them. Project manager should have leading abilities to all the team members through establishing direction, aligning people to that direction, motivating them and inspiring them in order to fulfill their responsibilities and implement significant actions and strategies during emergencies and critical

Team Management 3 situations (Thompson, 2004). This would improve the abilities of members to use their senses to face a critical situation instead of waiting and following instructions, which happened in the case of Mann Gulch Fire. As given in the case study of Mann Gulch Fire, the fire fighters had not their own sense to make decision to face the critical situation and they all were not coordinating with each other, and ignored the instructions of Dodge, their leader, they did not have trust on him and they were not able to use their own skills also, due to lack of effective communication and coordination (Rothermel, 1993). Project manager should follow and transformational and participative leaderships style and respect the team members and their talent (Northouse, 2009). It is important to influence the team to work together and respect each other’s point of view. The experiences of own judgment in the team can be developed when project manager discuss a problem with them, ask suggestions and implement the best suggestion given by them. In order to share the past experiences, project manager should organization regular meetings and events with the team members, so that they can discuss their experiences, ambitions, working styles, etc. This will also beneficial to develop trust and confidence among team members (Kerzner, 2009). Sharing experiences and knowledge will also help them to develop their thinking abilities in strategic manner (Griffin & Moorhead, 2011). Lack of effective communication and mutual understanding can create conflicts in the team. If the team members do not have complete understanding about the goals and objectives, the conflict can occur at initial level, which can be a cause of project failure (Powell & Buede, 2009). Thus, project manager should use his transformational skills to take effective contribution of team members in the project activities by defining boundaries of the project and expectation

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Team Management 4 of the manager from the team members. It will also reduce the risk of the risk of project failure. Thus, as per the case study of Mann Gulch Fire importance of a project manager or leader to assist a team in right direction can be understood significantly. Answer 2 According to the given case study, Mann Gulch Fire, Dodge put his best efforts to save his crew team but he failed due to several circumstances and unexpected situations. The big mistake made by Dodge was to behave in subsequent manner and did not a quick decision as per the situation, as he and his crew team expected that the circumstance as ten o’clock’ fire (Drummond, 2001). This was the biggest mistake done by Dodge, which had become a cause his credibility to spiral downward with his team. Another mistake done by Dodge was that he was not able to influence his crew team to follow his instructions, as the team members drop their tools and ran for the ridge instead of following his instructions of lie down in the ashes of escape fire (Rothermel, 1993). With this response of the crew members, it could also be evaluated that the management style followed by Dodge was very poor and ineffective. As Dodge had not used his power as a manager to control the behavior of crew members and did not force them to follow his instructions, his management style could be discussed as free rein style. In the free rein management style, team members can develop their goals, way of working, and strategies without discussing with the manager. The team members make their own decision (Thompson, 2004). According to the management style, Dodge was not capable to force all the crew members to lie down in the ashes. Dodge management style allowed team members to make their own decisions, but the stress among them had been increased and they lost their senses of

Team Management 5 making best decision (Drummond, 2001), which was the cause of their death. Dodge was analyzed the situation, as at the group perspective and applied the best solution with appropriate sense, consequently, he was survived because he had not lost his senses and his mission was to protect his crew team. The other two members were survived because of their power and sense of making correct decision. The team of crew had not applied the power of group thinking and team working. Due to a critical, unexpected and unpredictable situation, they all were so much stressed and they wanted to save their lives at any cost. At that time they were not able to think as group point of view. This was also shown through their acts, when they were trying to escape from fire. Lack of group thinking, ineffective sense of decision making, high stress due to fire, lack of trust, poor abilities of managing emergency and lack of own judgment ability, etc. were the reasons that they lost their lives (Rothermel, 1993). Thus, a manager should have extraordinary and influential management and leadership style, so that he can develop a friendly and sharing relationship with the team members, allow them to use their own skills and judgment abilities as well as control their behavior and motivate them to follow his instructions during crisis and emergencies (Kerzner, 2009). Giving power and authority to team members to make their strategies to achieve the objectives is imperative for the manager or leader, but they should also develop control among team members, so that team members would use strategic thinking and group thinking abilities and their sense for effective decision making (Powell & Buede, 2009).

Team Management 6 References Griffin, R. W. & Moorhead, G. (2011). Organizational Behavior: Managing People and Organizations . USA: Cengage Learning. Kerzner, H. (2009). Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling . USA: John Wiley & Sons. Northouse, P.G. (2009). Leadership: Theory and Practice . USA: SAGE. Powell, R.A. & Buede, D.M. (2009). The Project Manager's Guide to Making Successful Decisions (eds.). Management Concepts Publications. Thompson (2004). Making the Team, 3/e (2 nd edition). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education. Drummond, H. (2001). The Art of Decision Making: Mirrors of Imagination, Masks of Fate (eds.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. Rothermel, R. (1993, May). Mann Gulch: A Race That Couldn’t Be Won . U.S. Forest Service: Intermountain Research Station.

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