Selecting the global crisis team members requires taking into account a wide range of factors which have a significant impact on the outcome of the team’s work, and the members’ competence, professional experience, style of thinking and negotiating along with preparedness for effective cooperation with the rest of the team are only some of them.
Considering their competence and working experience, Christopher Van Hollen, recognized as a skillful and experienced legislator and Jeffrey Pfeffer, a world-renowned Management and HR scholar, are good candidates for becoming members of the global crisis team.
The competence of Christopher Van Hollen in the sphere of legislature and his research in the sphere of the current economical crisis could be significant for the success of the whole team. He has been holding a position of the US congressman since 2002 and before his election to the Congress he had been working at Maryland General Assembly for 12 years.
Within the recent years, he has been working on the project for making the administration more accountable (The local delegation: Rep. Chris Van Hollen). These attempts to regulate the actions of the upper echelon of the state power prove that Van Hollen is adherent to his principles and is not afraid of sacrificing the interpersonal relationships with his colleagues to the common good.
It would be helpful for reducing the risk of the failure of the group which is defined as group thinking. Levi (2010) noted that “Groupthink occurs when group members’ desire to maintain good relations becomes more important than reaching a good decision” (p. 155). Van Hollen’s devotion to his principles would motivate the rest of the team to concentrate on the outcome of their work.
At the same time, it is significant that Van Hollen is experienced in the sphere of legislature and will be able to point at the opportunities to apply the recognized principles to the current legislature and fill this gap in the competence of the team because the legislative knowledge was missing in the team’s expertise.
Jeffrey Pfeffer is a world-renowned Management scholar and another candidate for becoming a member of the global crisis team whose achievements in the spheres of HR and Leadership would be beneficial for the effective cooperation of the members of the crisis team.
Pfeffer is the author of the popular book Power: Why some people have it and others don’t in which he admitted that “Building and using power are useful organizational skills” (Pfeffer, 2010, p. 5).
Thus, considering the fact that the human factor is significant for overcoming the crisis, his contribution would be valuable for developing the strategies for handling the problem, on the one hand, and for creating the favorable conditions for the effective work of the team, on the other hand. Duarte and Snyder (2006) noted that “Trust requires leadership to set and maintain values, boundaries and consistency” (p. 85).
Pfeffer’s knowledge of leadership and management principles would helpful for enhancing the effectiveness of the teams’ cooperation and would have a positive impact on its outcome. By the way, Pfeffer conducted a specialized research in the sphere of the current economic crisis and could view this issue from a new perspective, contributing to the brainstorming process.
Pfeffer considers the over-reliance on highly-powered financial incentives one of the main causes of the economic crisis (Jeffrey Pfeffer: Over-Reliance on highly-powered extrinsic financial incentives encouraged the wrong type of behavior). Pfeffer’s knowledge in the spheres of leadership, management and the current economic crisis are significant for success of the whole global crisis team.
Taking into account both personal characteristics and expertise in their spheres of knowledge in general and the current economic crisis in particular, Christopher Van Hollen and Jeffrey Pfeffer should become the members of the global crisis team.
Reference List
Duarte, D. & Snyder, N. (2006). Mastering virtual teams: Strategies, tools, and techniques that succeed. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley and Sons.
Jeffrey Pfeffer: Over-Reliance on highly-powered extrinsic financial incentives encouraged the wrong type of behavior. IESE Business School. University of Navarra Website. n. a. 2009. Web.
Levi, D. (2010). Group dynamics for teams. 3rd edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Pfeffer, J. (2010). Power: Why some people have it and others don’t. New York, NY: HarperCollins.
The local delegation: Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) Trascript (2008). The Washington Post. n. a. Web.