Pavan Patel - HW Assignment # 3

pp488@njit.edu
(201) 850-0167

1.

IE 673-851
Professor Paul Ranky
NJIT Fall 2015

Discuss the importance of quality team works, and team building

In the total quality setting, teamwork is a fundamental and integral element of a company.
The reason why teamwork is important is that the collective effort of an organization is what
produces product and services. The rationale behind teamwork consists of several facts: 1)
building teams satisfies the human nature of belonging 2) the group effort of two or more people
is better than one person 3) A team as a whole is worth more than the sum of its parts 4) Being in
teams promotes social networking, communication, and builds trust and 5) teamwork increases
the potential of individual members and produces positive peer pressure. Another important
element of an organization is team building, this consists of a four step approach: 1) Assessing
team needs, 2) Planning team-building activities, 3) Executing Team-building activities and 4)
Evaluating Team-building activities.

2.

How would you handle conflicts in quality teams?

There are conflicts in all sorts of businesses, to handle the quality conflicts that an
organization could be afflicted with, team leaders often respond with 3 categories: personally
negative responses, team negative responses or positive responses. Some examples of strategies
to enforce these categories are as follows: 1) Plan and work to establish a culture where
individuality and dissent are in balance, 2) Encourage and recognize individual risk-taking
behavior that helps the organization. 3) assign people of widely different perspectives to every
team or problem, 4) Provide ways for employees to say what no one wants to say 5) Teach
employees how to manage both dissent and agreement.

3.

How do you reward quality achievements in a team?

With the hard work and commitment of a team, an important step of implementing this
relationship is by rewarding that team. Team compensation can be reinforced by a 4 step model:
1) decide what performance to measure, 2) determine how to measure the performance, 3)
Identify the rewards to be offered and 4) Integrate related processes. All the individuals in the
team are rewarded separately, but the collaborative effort determines the reward received. A
perfect example that illustrates the reward model is by considering the professional sport known
as baseball. If the collaborative effort of the team wins a championship like the World Series, all
the players are all equally rewarded with shares from incentive dollars.

Pavan Patel - HW Assignment # 3

pp488@njit.edu
(201) 850-0167

4.

IE 673-851
Professor Paul Ranky
NJIT Fall 2015

How do you communicate effectively?

As a manager, one of the most important skills you must have, all the others tie into this
skill, is communication skills. A message from management to an employee isn't always clearly
received, for example, what you say is not necessarily what the other person hears and what the
other person hears is not necessarily what you intended to say. To effectively form a line of
communication, one must understand that the message being said is received, understood and
acted on in the desired manner.

5.

Why are listening skills important?

As mentioned before, listening skills are important to ensure that the message being said
is received, understood and acted on in the desired manner. Effective listening involves receiving
the message, correctly decoding it and perceiving what it means. Good listeners listen more than
they talk, this shows that they have the ability to hear what the "talker" is saying and is
processing the information without letting it go in one ear and out the other. Managers are
expected to be proficient in listening skills as their employees have many problems and concerns
which need to be addressed and taken care of right away in the proper manner.

6.

What are the management strategies for quality-focused interpersonal needs?

Interpersonal skills is a set of skills that is important for people to work together in a way
that is beneficial to both personal and corporate success. Some steps that managers can take to
ensure that employees have enough interpersonal relations to be effective communicators is: 1)
Recognition of the need, 2) careful selection, 3) training and 4) measurement & reward. All these
strategies can help managers effectively fill the needs for quality focused interpersonal skills.

7.

What are the principles of overcoming negativity and conflicts in the workplace?

Negativity is essentially any behavior that is shown by an employee at an any level that
works against the performance of the organization. The different types of negative behavior in
the workplace include: control disputes, territorial disputes, dependence and independence
issues, need for attention and responsibility, authority and loyalty issues. As a manager, he/she
needs to look out for certain key words or phrases that can promote negativity in the workplace,
these are but not limited to: "I can't", "They" mentality, critical conversations and blame fixing.
To overcome negativity managers would first identify the negativity and then take steps into
eliminating it, these include communication, establishing clear expectations, providing for
anxiety venting, building trust and involving employees.

Pavan Patel - HW Assignment # 3

pp488@njit.edu
(201) 850-0167

8.

IE 673-851
Professor Paul Ranky
NJIT Fall 2015

How can you manage conflict in the workplace?

Conflict will always have a place in every organization, it is how it is managed will tell
the success or failure of the organization as a whole. the way conflict can be managed is by
following some guidelines: 1) determine how important the issue is to all people involved, 2)
determine whether all people involved are willing and able, 3) select a private place where the
issue can be discussed, 4) make sure both sides understand that they are responsible for both the
problem and solution, 5) solicit opening comments from both sides, 6) guide participants to
propose solutions, 7) evaluate costs versus the gains and 8) reflect on the issue and discuss the
conflict resolution process.
9.

How do you communicate in conflict situations?

In the process of managing conflicts in the workplace, a vital part of the process is
communication. There are different ways to communicate or making there is communication,
such as: controlling the attitude of those involved in the conflict, ensuring there are conflicting
guidelines should be in place before conflicts occur, assessing blame should not be allowed,
having similar solutions to problems should be eliminated and maintaining trust by keeping
promises.

10. Why does quality suffer if there is a major conflict?

If there is a major conflict within a business, this means that the quality of leadership,
quality of teamwork, quality of basically the organization as a whole are all affected in a negative
way. Some ways that an organization can suffer on the quality side is that they can lose
customers from a depreciation of internal quality standards and/or negative impact on morale.
Small changes in quality internally can have a drastic external effect. To recover from the
negative effects from major conflicts, leadership must develop a plan to execute that will regain
the trust of their employees and improve relationships in the workplace.

Social Networking Assignment:

Group Members: Pavan Patel, Matthew Boghdady

Pavan Patel - HW Assignment # 3

pp488@njit.edu
(201) 850-0167

IE 673-851
Professor Paul Ranky
NJIT Fall 2015

IE 673- Discussions

Link 1: All Aboard Energy-Efficient Rail Transportation

Pavan's Comments: In today's modern world, the use of energy saving appliances and machines
are the craze. With a depleting source of natural fossil fuels, the survival our future generation
relies on what steps we are taking to help conserve energy and natural resources. Trains are fairly
prominent source of transportation after Airplanes, so to find an efficient way to conserve power
and energy using ultra capacitors is important to help us switch into an energy efficient world.

Matthew's Comments: Considering the massive amount of power used in the rail lines, reusing
the power to be efficient is a great opportunity for the environment. The transit industry
becoming more efficient shows the public that they are trying to help the environment, which
could help the business attract more people to take mass transit. It is about time technology gets
translated to all industries including mass transit.

Link 2: FCA Recalling 27,520 Dodge Darts

Pavan's Comments: Customer satisfaction and quality of product are very important to a
Manufacturing company. If one's products are defected it is important to get ahead on doing
damage control. Chrysler in this case, has taken a hit on one of their automobiles, which has a
quality defect. This type of quality error can cause a decrease in customers buying their products
and their reputation of prime cars to go down.

Matthew's Comments: Quality is based on customers and if the customer is at risk, quality
declines significantly. Lately, the car industry has been in the news for multiple recalls, including
the Volkswagen fiasco going on. Engineers need to really be careful when it comes to designing
their cars. Quality is on the decline and people will become more cautious in choosing their next
vehicle.

Pavan Patel - HW Assignment # 3

pp488@njit.edu
(201) 850-0167

IE 673-851
Professor Paul Ranky
NJIT Fall 2015

Link 3: Verizon Program Connects Millions Of Older Cars To Internet

Pavan's Comments: In an ever increasing world of technology, we are advancing day by day to
simplify day to day tasks. It just so happens the type of technology Verizon is working on will
essentially help us decrease automobile incidents by tracking service installations and defects in
our cars. From a quality perspective, this would boost the ratings of Car manufacturers that
install this type of electronic system; it shows that they are keeping their consumers safe. A
potential downside of installing this into cars is the ability of a manufacturer defect to the
electronic system that can cause accidents or false service reports.

Matthew's Comments: Similar to Viper and other car security systems, Verizon is releasing a
very interesting technology called Hum. Hum, is different than conventional systems in that it
detects accidents and the data is used in various ways. It connects to wireless cars, it can send for
help, helps track stolen vehicles, among other capabilities. Technology is becoming more and
more widespread and really helps prevent accidents, predict traffic patterns, and reports stolen
cars and tracks them. Insurance agencies should put discounts for customers that use this service
which helps drive down the monthly costs from Verizon.