Level 6 Teamwork Sample Item
Scenario:
A daily newspaper is changing from an afternoon to a morning delivery schedule. This change affects every employee, from the editor to the delivery people. The paper will have a 10:00 P.M. press deadline, and the reporters will be unable to write complete stories for many evening sports events, cultural events, and community meetings. The editor has told the team of five reporters to propose a revised schedule of assignments. This schedule should take into account each reporter's area of expertise and still ensure that all important stories are covered by the deadline.
When the team meets to discuss this schedule, a major concern is how to make the evening stories as timely as possible within the new time constraints. Team members offer several suggestions regarding how to shift assignments around to accommodate the deadline. One of the reporters insists on covering only the political stories, which are his particular interest. Another reporter argues that the political reporter should help out the sports writer by preparing background material in the afternoon for the evening's sports stories. The political reporter refuses, saying that he wasn't hired to work on sports and doesn't know anything about them. The sports writer complains that the change to a morning edition is the whole problem, that coverage of evening sports events is going to be ruined, and that management doesn't know what they are doing. The cultural reporter agrees and adds that he is thinking about finding a job elsewhere. The society reporter retorts that he should do just that; she hates doing the society stories and would take the cultural assignment in a minute.
As a member of this team, the sportswriter can best support the team and accomplish the task by:
- suggesting that all of the reporters work on background for all types of stories so that each can do final details and editing in his or her area of expertise.
- suggesting the editor hire several part-time reporters to help cover sports stories.
- suggesting they keep their current assignments and accept a one-day delay in coverage of all evening stories.
- volunteering to tell management that the morning edition change is a mistake and should be withdrawn.
CorrectWhy this is a Level 6 item:
- The work situation involves complex problems and sources of difficulty dealing with scheduling and deadline changes.
- The team goal is to serve the public and accommodate personal preferences; how best to do that is not clear.
- Limited resources particularly include time and, to a lesser degree, labor.
- Team relations are jeopardized because some team members do not respect other team members' responsibilities.
- This situation includes skills in goal creation and revision (individuals must decide how to reassign duties fairly); role flexibility (each reporter must assume new areas of responsibility); and conflict resolution (the individuals must give negative feedback constructively).