Summary
The article ‘The Adam Aircraft Work Group/Team’ explores how group dynamics and leadership has been put into practice resulting into amazing achievements. A group of employees from Adam Aircraft Company was aligned to build an aircraft. The building team was tasked with building of an A700 jet in time for the Oshkosh’s big summer air show. The group members coordinated as a team under the leadership of Rick Adam and vice president Dennis Olcott to successfully deliver the A700 plane within the stipulated time. After completion, the A700 aircraft appeared for the summer air show event. Its successfully completion portrayed the true picture of team work against what the critics oppose.
Background
It was most unlikely that building the jet or any other jet would be accomplished by an individual rather than a team. The employees at Adam Aircraft Company knew they had a task at hand whose goal they needed to achieve. The team was to work with speed so that the A700 plane was completed in time to appear for the Oshkosh’s big summer air show. Rick Adam, the president, had batted the idea with his employees emphasizing on the possibility of finishing it in time.
It was on this basis of time constraints that the group had to work with speed. The manager himself was impressed by the company momentum and believed through working together as a team the plane would be through in time. Communication on such circumstance was especially important to ensure effective flow of activities and the group implemented it.
Findings
The team had agreed to move with the speed at the beginning of the exercise. This was a unanimously adhered to by the employees showing much cooperation. There was noticeable progress each day and as clock the tickled the plane was having shape. The team got motivated by the speed with which they did the work and how effectively they did it.
The various departments in the company worked together. The engineers, the quality assurance manager sat in a big room in their headquarters with the president Rick Adam at the center. Rick Adam was able to direct the process and his leadership proved competence and control of the group. This was evident in the end product of a successful building process.
Everyone at the company knew their goal and therefore was accounted in. The employees would mount the parts of the plane together as others painted it or put on the engines. The progress was unbelievable but was all accredited to effective team participation. In case of any problem being encountered communication was indulged any consequently the process went well on until completion.
Reaction to the article
Group work has been well displayed in the article describing how a team building a plane was subjected to limited time to complete an A700 jet. Its members showed exceptional team spirit through coordination. Time will always catch with participants in a team but the Adam Aircraft Company was different. The team members had their goals in mind and hence worked with momentum to achieve them. Despite the disagreements that are likely to occur in team work, the building team overcame them through communication. This ensured an uninterrupted process to completion.
In group dynamics, leadership, communication and participation are the key essentials that are to be observed. Rick Adam’s team demonstrated participation and coordination by working together and making use of communication to agree and disagree. In addition their leader, Rick Adam showed control of the group giving directions from time to time. Any other group needs a leader to act on behalf of the whole group since everyone can’t give authority.
In the current world trend, group work is gaining popularity in working on projects. The article well highlights the importance of a group dynamics, leadership and the essentials for any group to succeed in undertaking a project.
References
Beal, G. M., Bohlen, J. M., & Raudabaugh, J. N. (2002). Leadership and dynamic group action. Ames: Iowa State University Press.
Levi, D. (2008). Group dynamics for teams. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications.
Nile, & Russ (2008). adam a700 aicraft abd its aquisition. group dynamics.
