Leading Teams Assignment | Custom Homework Help

Introduction to Leadership
Leading Teams
Name University ID No.
INSTRUCTIONS: Please read the below case article & answer, the following questions using the
provided resources, your course textbook, PowerPoint presentation, visuals & based on the online
learning sessions/interactions:
737 Teaming up for Take Off
The Boeing 737, a sort to medium-range twin-engine, narrow-body jet, first rolled off the assembly line in 1967.
Here, almost half a century later, it’s the best-selling jet airliner in the history of aviation. As airlines replace their
aging jet fleets, the burden is on Boeing to ramp up production to meet demand and to do so efficiently. As Boeing
managers state, “How do you produce more aircraft without expanding the building?” Managing production of the
multimillion dollar product-a 737-800 is sold for $84.4 million-means “walking an increasingly fine line between
generating cash and stoking an airplane glut.” And Boeing is relying on this employee innovation teams to meet the
challenge.
Boeing has been using employee-generated ideas since the 1990s when its manufacturing facility in Renton,
Washington, began adopting “lean” manufacturing techniques. Today, employee teams are leaving “few stones
unturned”. For instance, a member of one thought of solution to a problem of stray mental fasteners sometimes
puncturing the tires as the airplane advanced down the assembly line. The solution? A canvas wheel cover that hugs
the four main landing-gear tires. Another team figured out how to rearrange its work space to make four engines at
a time instead of three. Another team workers in the paint process restored their work routines and cut 10 minutes
to 15 minutes per worker off each job. It look five years for another employee team to perfect a process for installing
the plane’s landing gear hydraulic tubes, but it eventually paid off.
These employee teams are made up of seven to ten workers with “varying backgrounds” –from mechanics to
assembly workers to engineers-and tend to focus on a specific part of a jet, such as the landing gear or the passenger
seats or the galleys. These teams may meet as often as once a week. What’s the track record of these team? Today,
it take about 11 day for the final assembly of a 737 jet. That’s down from 22 days about a decade ago. The near-term
goal is to “whittle that number down to nine days.”
Source: Robinson, S. and Coulter, M. Management Global Edition, 14 Ed. Page 439
Questions:
1. What type team(s) do these employee teams appear to be? Explain. (25%)
2. As this story illustration, sometimes it many take a long time for a team to reach its goal. As a manager, how
would you motivate a team to keep on trying?. (25%)
3. What role do you think a team leader needs to play in this type of setting? Explain.(25%)
4. In general, what characteristics of effective team would these teams need? Explain.(25%)
You are expected to answer these questions comprehensively with detailed explanation and examples
wherever applicable (at least half a page answer for each question). Please cite relevant sources that
you refer to in APA style.
If you have any doubts or questions, please feel free to discuss the same with your instructor during your
online chat sessions, on forum discussions or via email.