1:

Teams have been used in organizations for many years. As the need to streamline operations to gain or maintain competitive advantage increases, the use of cross-functional or cross-departmental teams is increasing. Coupling this with the common management style of management by objectives (MBO), address the following questions:

• What are the advantages and disadvantages of a cross-functional and a cross-departmental team?
• When resources are scarce and one group in the equation meets their goals at the expense of the other failing due to lack of resources, how would you address the conflict that could arise?
• When creating the objectives for the team, how should the target goals be set? Should the team members play an active role in setting the target goals for each group within the team? Explain.
• What conflict resolution techniques do you believe would be the most effective in a cross-departmental or cross-functional team? How would you alter these techniques for a virtual team?

2:

Discuss the following in your main post:

• Thinking about your favorite company, compile a list of at least 3 competitors within the same industry.
• What organizational changes have the companies made in the last 5 years? What do you believe prompted those changes?
• In looking back at the changes the companies made, what do you believe would have happened if the employees had resisted the change?
• What steps should a company take to minimize the risk of resistance to change by the employees?