ONE PAGE OUTLINE

T.J is in his second year of his study in business school. One of the courses that he is
studying has got a mix up of both the group and individual performance. His group has total
six members. In one of the group assignments in which he is supposed to compile the
individual efforts of the team members, he realized that one of his team members’ K.C
plagiarized his content online. Worrying about the impact this may have on the team, he
tried to contact K.C. But, it resulted in no response from K.C. To find out if this was the case
with him in previous assignments, he contacted other team members. He found out that he
did the same thing in the past assignment as well. However, worrying about the impact it
may have on the team he had to decide what to do with K.C for a better work from him.

Options
1. Taking the matter up to the professor
2. Use pressure to get the proper work done from K.C
3. Use rational persuasion to motivate and get the proper work done from K.C
4. Ask for a personal favor to work for this assignment so that his work is rewarded
later informally

Criteria for Evaluation

 K.C’ attitude towards the group
 Future of K.C
 Cohesion in the group
 Grades of all the group members
The option of reporting to the professor completely destroys the future of K.C. Putting
pressure on him to work hard might help the team in the short turn but definitely not in the
long run. Requesting him to work harder by showing him the picture of him getting an
informal reward does not go good with the values and ethics of the individual and the team
as well. Rationally persuading him to work hard, showing him the bigger picture of what life
is all about tends to be the best option.
Using these criteria, the option of rationally persuading K.C to work harder helps the most.
This makes him increase his own performance and thereby the group performance as well.
 MAIN REPORT
Situational Analysis
T.J is in his second year of his study in a business school where he comes across a problem.
In one of the courses he is pursuing, assessment on the individual performance accounted
for 70% and the assessment on the group performance accounted for the remaining 30%.
However, there is no confirmation regarding peer review by the professor for this group
assignment. Hence, the group is not completely aware of their performance in the already
submitted first assignment out of total three assignments. Out of 30%, the first two
accounted for 5% each and the last one accounted for 10%.
Right now, the group is in the preparation of the second assignment. It is T. J’s task to
compile the individual contributions which are supposed to be sent by Saturday morning by
each group member and to make a draft report out of them by Sunday. While compiling, he
realized that the contribution by one of the group members’ K.C does not have source for
his information. Doubting if K.C has copied it, he searched online. When searched online,
he found out that the document is highly plagiarized. Not knowing what to do, if this affects
the grading for this assignment, he tried to contact K.C which gave him a negative response.
He felt it would be better if all the group members know the situation rather than him
knowing about the plagiarism as he could not get any response from K.C. Only after him
making a formal mail containing the drafted report to all the group members, K.C
apologized and corrected his work which was still not satisfactory to T.J.
He is worried if this affects the grading of all the group members. He wants to know if this
was the case with K.C even in the past assignments. So, he tried to enquire about K.C from
each one of his team members. The complier of the first assignment(A) reported that it was
the case with K.C even in the previous assignment and asked to him to just remind K.C to be
more mindful. The inputs from the rest of the team members were not that significant as
one agreed with what A has to say, the other was not much worried about the grade.
Hence, T.J is worried about his and the team’s grade in context of the way K. C’s approach
towards the group assignment. Adding to that, it is him who is going to officially compile all
the individual efforts of the team members. So, he wants a genuine effort form each one of
his team members so that the total group is benefited out of it.

Problem Statement
What is the right approach T.J should follow to positively impact K.C, keeping in mind the
consequences his group and K.C have to face in the future?

Options
1. Taking the matter up to the professor
2. Use pressure to get the proper work done from K.C
3. Use rational persuasion to motivate and get the proper work done from K.C
4. Ask for a personal favor to work for this assignment so that his work is rewarded
later informally
Criteria for Evaluation
 K.C’ attitude towards the group
 Future of K.C
 Cohesion in the group
 Grades of all the group members
Since, a group task is considered positive only when each and every person in the group
has a positive attitude towards the group, it is given the top most priority. Everybody
gets into business school for a better future. So, the next important one is the future of
K.C. It is the group cohesion in the team that helps the group members to bond up well
and perform better being the third priority. And if all these are sorted well, a good
grade is obvious to follow up by being the important, but the last priority.

Evaluation of Options
Option 1: Report it to the Professor
This will result in a negative attitude of K.C towards the group as he is at loss if the professor
comes to know about his malpractice.
His future is going to seriously get affected by this option. Since, in many B schools there
are very strict actions against this malpractice.
The cohesion or closeness among the group members is going to come down as K.C is no
longer in a position to treat them as his friends.
This might not impact the team members grades other than K.C as the management knows
who the culprit is in the long run.

Option 2: Use pressure to get the work done

This will again result in a negative attitude of K.C towards the group as he is forced to do
something by his group members.
His future is not going to be seriously affected by this option as at the end, though by
pressure, the team is able to get positive output from him.
The cohesion in the group decrease as K.C is being forced to do something. For being close,
forcing someone to do something does not help.
This will not impact the grades of the team members negatively as at the end, the team is
able to bring positive output.

Option 3: Rational persuasion

This will result in a positive attitude of K.C toward the group as he could see his team
members trying to improve him wholeheartedly.
His future is going to be bright if he could learn from this situation in a positive way because
of the team members’ rational persuasion.
This will increase the group cohesion as one is trying to improve the other in a way it is
beneficial to their individual carriers.
This will positively affect the grade of all the group members by increasing their level of
confidence in themselves and the group.

Option 4: Asking him to do a personal favor

This might result in a positive attitude towards the group in short term but not in the long
term.
His future does not look good if he gets used to this personal favor offering in the corporate
life.
The cohesion in the group comes down as the rest of the team members might not be
happy with these biased personal offerings to a particular person.
The grades of the team members might not vary much with this option.

Recommendation
By evaluating the criteria, the recommended way is to rationally persuade K.C to give his
best and work harder for himself and for the team.

Action Plan
 Have an informal interaction with all the team members informing about your
decision and taking them into confidence
 Have an unofficial chat with K.C regarding his goals, interests to get to know more
about him
 Rationally persuade him by letting him know that, if he could give his best, then he
himself can improve which as well results in the increased group performance
 Try to help him every time when in need, regarding both the group assignments and
the individual assessments
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