The  Army  Crew  Team                        Case  Analysis  

 

Z447-­‐  Professor  Bradley      Due:  November  9,  2015          

 

 

     

Sloane  Hochgesang    

“The whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts.”

“The whole is greater

 

 

Situation

Colonel Preczewski (Coach P) is the coach of two rowing teams, Junior Varsity (JV) and

Varsity. Both teams were constructed with a selection process that tests systematic data of each

athlete. The criteria for selection include rowing technique, psychological dimensions, as well as

strength and conditioning. One week before the National Championship, Coach P realized that the

JV team has been outperforming the Varsity team during practice, and numerous races. He needs

to determine what strategy to pursue in order to give West Point the greatest chances for success.

Dynamics & Major Issues

The Varsity boat contains the top eight scoring individuals, with two exceptions, who possess

the greatest sheer strength. They seem to be stuck in the “storming stage” of development;

displaying conflicting working styles with problems arising from low team cohesion, trust, and

spirit. They express a skeptical perception of CEP training and use neutral/interchangeable slogans;

which can indicate low task significance. There are also communication and collaboration barriers;

very few are willing to admit their mistakes and receive constructive criticism. There does not

seem to be a prominent leader, but there are several team disrupters. In addition, they display low

accountability; they send complaint emails directly to the coach, blame others, and point fingers.

On the other hand, the JV boat contains the bottom eight scoring rowers. This group has passed

numerous stages of development, and formed a team with high rankings despite low individual

scores. They have optimistic opinions of CEP training and possess motivated and committed

attitudes. Members use the same slogan, which is group focused and cohesive. In addition, the JV

boat has no disruptors or individualized complaints. Instead, they are unified in their comments and

tend to consolidate personal success and opinions as belonging to the whole team. They say things

like, “We’re rowing for every guy in that boat because we don’t want to let him down.”

Major issues within the dynamics stem from group dissention, being unreceptive to change,

poor team development, lack of trust, low motivation, and lack of clear and specific goals. The

 

 

Varsity team is comprised of eight star athletes, who do not necessarily have team harmony or

cohesion. The team was built upon individual performance and physical strengths; with little to no

consideration put on the psychological factors. Goals are not team oriented; each person wants to

win, but it is apparent that the members are only focused on this goal, as it relates to their own

success. In addition, social loafing is perceived; several members felt that they had to compensate

for those who were slacking off.

Solutions

There are three options for Coach P to decide: intervene to improve performance on the Varsity

boat, switch individual members between the two boats, or promote JV boat to the Varsity level.

Intervening to try to fix the Varsity team is an option, but this option will take a significant amount

of time and energy; the Varsity boat has spent the whole season developing the poor dynamics.

Since there are a limited number of days until the National Competition, it is not feasible for the

Coach to intervene within team dynamics at this time. The second option is to switch up individual

members between the teams. This would keep the “best performers” competing. But since Coach P

has noticed many disruptors in the Varsity team, switching some of the members may not help. In

addition, the time constraint would prevent the members from properly adapting to the changes.

The final option of promoting the JV boat is the most realistic in the short term. Although the JV

members will face increased pressure and they may not have the greatest individual talent, they do

display resilient teamwork, motivation and accountability—which give them tremendous advantages.

Though this option makes sense in the short term, it is not a permanent fix. Next season, Coach

P will need to make new teams. He will have to rethink team development and approach the team

member decisions holistically in order to increase team accountability and build healthier team

dynamics. In addition, he will need to become a better transformational leader by giving members

better direction, appropriate feedback, and work on constructing cooperative teams, instead of

simply combining all the top individual performers and expecting them to be compatible.