e region’s sales department), they were all selected from different regions. Ethnical diversity is had via a breakdown of the population: 8 whites; 3 African-Americans; 1 Asian-American; 1 Hispanic. The male-to-female ratio is approximately 1:1 as there are 7 males and 6 females.
The participants have not worked closely in the past, so their reactions and experiences during the intervention will be valuable due to the necessity of their having to work closely for the first time on their feet, so-to-speak. A supervisor in the sales department of the large insurance company is one of the most challenging management positions. A sales department is often made or broke on the strength of its supervision and leadership, a leadership that is able to create group direction and synergy. The participants were broken into three groups, two groups of four individuals and one group of five. The table below identifies the various members of each group. All of them have the same job function - Sales Department Supervisor:
Debbie Reasy (DR) Pete Mastos (PM)
Dave Ferrucci (DF) Bernice Novak (BN)
Charles Dupree (CD) David Patillo (DP)
The pre-exercise lecture consisted of providing each participant with a problem solving style inventory and the sub-arctic exercise before intervention was to occur. Little information was given to participants at this stage, other than to complete both activities before the intervention was to occur with the instructions not to speak with other participants.
The lecture underlined the importance of Kolb’s problem solving style inventory which theorizes that people develop different learning styles much as they do any other kind of style of behavior. However, before understanding the learning module, participants were informed of the necessity of knowing their preferred learning style and how much this will help them achieve synergy among members of their own sales departments. ...