The auditing department of Brown Enterprises, Inc. comprised 21 professional staff members, two secretaries, one file clerk, and two word processing/computer operators. Bob Nelson has worked for the department for three years. He had been hired after graduating from the University of Pinkham School of Accountancy.

Bob was adequate in terms of his technical skills, and he seemed to get along well with other people, but his verbal skills were terrible. He often said that he went into accounting because that field didn’t require him to write so many term papers at school. He had his roommate edit and help him rewrite the required papers in other classes. In addition, Bob never looked quite right. He didn’t like anything tight around his neck, so his shirts were always much too big, and for some reason he had never learned to tie a necktie properly.

And on top of it all, he had terribly bad breath. Bob always was assigned work that could be done in a private room away from the rest of the team and members of the auditee’s staff. He did a great deal of computations, recalculations of figures, reviewing documents, and the like. Bob was getting restless, however, and had been saying openly that he wants to have more responsibility.

Required:

a. What effect do you think Bob has had on the group’s effectiveness?

b. With your understanding of groups, what effect do you think Bob’s promotion to supervisor would have on his audit teams? (Analyze his effect upon those factors most contributing to a group’s effectiveness. )