Texting all Teams: Amazon Enters the Cell Phone Market

According to the case study from the text book, Essentials of Organizational Behavior, (Scandura 252).  Lab126 which is Amazon's private lab was given the task in 2009 to develop a new smart which is known as the, Fire Phone today. The case study also stated some features that were brought up during the initial conceptual phase for creating this phone. Such as double touch screens, using the phone as A USB drive, teleconferencing capabilities or infrared cameras. These ideas most likely came up during the, Team Decision Making Methods that the books mention. Brainstorming is one of the most common forms of team decision making (Scandura 237&238). Brainstorming is a conference technique of solving specific problems, amassing information, stimulating creative thinking, developing new ideas, etc., by unrestrained and spontaneous participation in discussion (Dictionary.com, 2018).

The number of ideas generated in the brainstorming process should be filtered by all the group members. After reviewing all these ideas thoroughly Amazon should have split the group into small teams, and according to their field of expertise they are responsible to explore more in-depth features. For instance, one team could have been focused on refining the idea of using the Fire Phone as a USB drive. It also can be very challenging to evaluate the team's success before placing the product on the market. Therefore, one way to see if this product would sell is to use focus groups to test the new ideas, and possible prototypes of the phone. Using focus groups would avoid and doubt or questions before placing this product on the market. Also, Amazon could have tested the new phone inside their corporation but use different employees not the ones that were involved in developing this product. Using your own employees would be an excellent source of feedback to evaluate the team's success before placing the phone on the market for consumers.

As a leader of this highly technical team the best decision-making method for achieving the greatest result for the product would be the Consensus method. This method involves discussing ideas and deferring a final decision until everyone can say they have been heard and will support the final decision (Scandura 238). During this process, team members can convey with each other about other features that could be implemented as they progress forward as a team. The biggest factor in creating this product could be the different personalities of each individual member of the team. Even though, engineers are directed by theories, facts, testing a number in their technical field of expertise; their personality may trigger many conflicts inside the team as they may think that they are right and others wrong (Personailtymax.com,2016).

Also, a leader or supervisor cannot be called all the time to resolve conflict, but when a serious issue comes up it must be taking care of immediately. Leadership should come in the play after discussing the problem and trying different methods to reach a solution. Sometimes though as a team or group an agreement cannot be reached and such prevents the team to progress forward. At this point a leader or supervisor needs to step up and make an executive decision and impose his/her authority to solve the conundrum. A important fact to remember when making a final decision as a leader you is to make sure you do undermine anyone on the team so to don't diminish the teams purpose.           

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