Assignment 4: Discussion Assignment The discussion assignment provides a forum f
ID: 448050 • Letter: A
Question
Assignment 4: Discussion Assignment
The discussion assignment provides a forum for discussing relevant topics for this week based on the course competencies covered.
For this assignment, make sure you post your initial response to theDiscussion Area by Saturday, April 9, 2016.
To support your work, use your course readings and also use outside sources. As in all assignments, cite your sources in your work and provide references for the citations in APA format.
Start reviewing and responding to the postings of your classmates as early in the week as possible. Respond to at least two of your classmates. Participate in the discussion by asking a question, providing a statement of clarification, providing a point of view with a rationale, challenging an aspect of the discussion, or indicating a relationship between two or more lines of reasoning in the discussion. Complete your participation for this assignment byWednesday, April 13, 2016.
Simulations and Multifunctional Teams
Simulations are used as learning tools for replicating competitive environments. The course simulation requires you to perform as a member of a multifunctional team.
Discuss the following topics about performing in a multifunctional team:
What is the purpose of multifunctional teams in business decision making?How should decisions be made to obtain the benefits of multifunctional teams?What can simulations do that case studies cannot?Why are simulations used so widely in so many professions?
Explanation / Answer
Multifunctional teams are formed, when organizations bring people from different functional areas into one team to work collectively for a problem or a process. Multifunctional teams bring the expertize of many functional setups into one team, hence it has far more knowledge and skill set than the conventional team setups, and also multifunctional teams, helps the team members cover the gaps in the knowledge that the assigned tasks required by utilizing the xpertize of the other team members. Hence, in business decision making, multifunctional teams project a huge benefit of bringing forward the view points, ideas, opininions and concerns form the point of view of all the functional departments involved or affected by the decision being made.
to obtain the benefits of multifunctional teams, the potential decision, its outcomes, and the probable options should be communicated simply and clearly across the team. It should be made sure, the team size is kept small enough to be easily manageble. Then, all the team members should be invited for their reviews and critique. Here, the team leader or the organization's management should make sure healthy conflicts and discussions should be invited and motivated to avoid groupthink possibility. Once, all the opinions and ideas are on the table, brainstroming should be done, and the team should collectively come to the decision.
Case studies offers the reader a scenario or a problem faced by some organization or indivisual or a group of indivisuals, and the reader reads, discusses, and brainstroms to understand their situation, and how the organization in question reacted, and what were the outcomes. It does give the reader an actual issue to understand, but since the reader is actually not facing those issues directly fails to understand all the nitty gritty and outcomes of it. At times the solution in the case study is all the reader thinks about, and fails to identify and find other possible solutions to those issues discussed. Whereas, in simulation, the person involved is in the life like situation, where the decisions made by him/her actually help them the various possible outcomes, and hence motivate them to find other solutions and options for a single problem. Hence, in a case study we study about someone else's problem and solution, whereas in simulation we make the decisions, that affect the outcomes.
Simulations are so widely used in so many professions, because simulations give the indivisual a virtual reality, where the person understands the weight of his decisions and outcomes. Hence, it helps in effective training, education and analysis across different professions.