Case Study 2: Team Effectiveness?

Colin and Raouf had been having one of their typical sidebar conversations during the meeting when an obviously irritated Henri looked at Colin. "In my 20 years of experience, I've never seen such a shabby hardware design. A first-year college student could do better," said Henri, raising his voice at Colin. "No wonder we're a month behind schedule. Now we're going to have to spend more time and money on redesign. If you were in over your head, Colin, you should have asked someone for help. I'll review the situation with Jack when he gets back on Friday. That's it—the meeting is over. We need to spend more time working than chitchatting at meetings." Everyone else on the project team was somewhat stunned by Henri's tirade, but it wasn't the first time. They all felt badly for Colin, but others had experienced the wrath of Henri in the past. Henri is the hardware systems team leader, and Colin is a hardware system designer assigned to Henri's team. Jack, the project manager, was out of town several days for a meeting with the customer and had asked Henri to run the weekly project meeting in his absence.
After the meeting, Colin went to Raouf's office. Raouf is an application software designer. Colin and Raouf have developed a friendship during the past year. They discovered that they both graduated from the same university, a couple years apart. They are among the younger members of the project team, along with Fatima, the software system team leader. "I'm gonna get that jerk if it's the last thing I do," Colin told Raouf. "Take it easy, Colin. You're right; he's a jerk. Everybody knows he doesn't know what he's doing, and he is in over his head. We all have his number," responded Raouf. "But notice that Henri never behaves like that in front of Jack. Only when Jack isn't around or in meetings when Jack isn't there." "Well, I'm