The Challenge Case “Better Teamwork Makes Numerica Credit Union a Winner” and its related Challenge Case Summary were written to help you better understand the management concepts contained in this chapter. Answer the following discussion questions about the Challenge Case to better understand how concepts relating to groups and teams can be applied in a company such as Numerica.

Data from The Challenge Case “Better Teamwork Makes Numerica Credit Union a Winner” 

When Carla Altepeter took the position of chief executive officer of Numerica Credit Union, she saw some significant problems. At Numerica—which serves borrowers and savers in a region that includes Spokane, Washington, and northern Idaho—employees below the top-management level did not understand the organization’s goals or have a voice in decision making. This lack of communication isolated individuals, and they did not function as a team. Projects then fell behind as the individual charged with project management struggled to keep track of all the work. In addition, employees directed their energy toward fixing problems rather than pleasing customers. These problems ultimately showed up in Numerica’s business performance: Its growth lagged behind that of its competitors. Altepeter decided that Numerica’s employees needed to be better connected with the information that would help them collaborate on achieving shared goals. She brought in a software company to set up a system called Connections Online (COL). With COL, every employee can look up the credit union’s strategy and see all the goals aimed at carrying out that strategy. They can see what projects are under way, who is working on them, and what the status is. Besides making project management more efficient, the COL system shows employees how each of them functions as part of something bigger. The COL system has been especially helpful for projects that span the credit union’s different departments. In a single year, Numerica could be carrying out more than a dozen projects that bring together employees from different departments and levels of the organization. For example, the credit union’s facilities team recently coordinated a project to remodel one of Numerica’s branches. Altepeter notes that collaboration across departments can take extra time but results in higherquality outcomes. In the case of the branch remodeling, use of the COL system helped the team finish on time and under budget because, from the beginning, everyone involved understood the project’s scope and goals.

1. Describe the characteristics of an effective work team at Numerica Credit Union.

2. As a manager at Numerica, what steps would you take to turn a work group into an effective team? Explain the importance of each step