You became the new manager for a team of $15$ people. The team$$s work responsible include installing computer hardware and software throughout a Fortune $300$ organization. The breakdown between installing hardware and software for team members reflect more informal than formal processes, but because team members sit in two rows of eight and seven members, one row primarily handles hardware, with a large work area at the end of the row to construct towers, and the other row handles software installations. Yet, most team members can work in both areas, if they choose. The $15$ people membership existed for years, with an average of $11$ years per person on the team. The team composition contains $12$ men and three women.

The last manager lasted for about a year before transferring to another team. He moved to another management position due to anger and hostility among the team members. HR offered no solutions and threatened to fire people if they didn$$t treat each other with more respect. One issue about communication revolves around the three women who talk in the hallway and stop talking when one of the men walks up to or past the three women. The men flat out complain that the women talk about the men and their discriminatory behaviors. For the women, they usually get some free time to talk in the hallway away from the team since they talk about children$$s issues, school responsibilities around the children, dinner, or other household issues.

In addition, Pat can be confrontational with others since he worked on the team the longest. When he talks, everyone shuts down not because he says something importance but because if you do say something he$$ll attack you as if you appear to attack him.

Other communication and group issues revolve around two other subgroups. One subgroup contains younger team members under $35$ years of age, and these four guys believe their technology and computer skills surpass the older team members since as young folks their naturally better at computers and software work. Their belief rests in the older folks on the team didn$$t grow up living with computers, their natural abilities to construct and install computer components and software lack in natural abilities. The older team members subtly resent this impression by the four younger guys, and at times during meetings, tempers and flare up over informal group proficiency. On occasion, name calling can emerge. Of course, Pat will automatically share his commanding perspectives, analysis, and decisions to follow.

The other subgroup contains three folks, one woman and two guys. These three started in another area of IT so they grew up in the organization for years as friends. This subgroup can challenge the team with their broader friendships throughout the organization and their loyalty to this original friendship. You don$$t often see the three of them together, but when tempers flare up and people show aggressive behavior, these three retreat as a threesome.

In a $800-820$ page memo $($paragraph spacing set at zero, zero, single$),$ addressed to the senior$-$vice president position, compose your detailed few initial thoughts about what you read in this situation to begin to improve the key three or four behaviors or actions that need attention to work on group harmony. Describe three initial steps you want to take about how you want to deal with and$/$or work with this team and provide detail in each paragraph. What two$-$three leadership theories and practices do you want to consider using to generate initially an improved work environment for the team, knowing that change takes time. What aspects of teambuilding and$/$or team design do you need to consider to address any strong issues affecting team interaction? Provide detail in explanations and descriptions in your writing, not citing general ideas with a high$-$level explanation that may contain ambiguity.

The third memo will address how the team recognizes dealing with a team of $15$ employees who need internal issues addressed by the executive. Your team will function as a consulting group to the executive to surface a key issue or two from the document about issues transpiring in the team. You will identify the issues$/$problems$,$ analyze them in relation to the camaraderie, production, and customer satisfaction, or for what else the team sees as a key issue to solve. Over the years, the team structure and communication deteriorated, and the executive wants your consulting team to analyze it and provide $2-3$ proposed solutions and one recommendation about where to start in fixing the team.