| Course | MGT 500 Management |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 5 |
| Paper type | MBA people and teams paper |
| Length | About 1,037 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Aspen University |
| Program | Master of Business Administration |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MGT 500 Module 5
One Newsroom From Two: People Practices and Team Building at a Public Radio Station
Student Name
Master of Business Administration, Aspen University
MGT 500: Management
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
One Newsroom From Two: People Practices and Team Building at a Public Radio Station
WSRN, a composite public radio station in Madison, Wisconsin, has two news groups. Its eight radio reporters and editors produce newscasts and longer stories for broadcast. Its six digital staff run the website, three podcasts and a daily newsletter. The groups sit on different floors, report to different managers and rarely plan together. Audiences are shifting: radio listening is steady but aging, while online audiences have doubled in three years. The station's leaders want one news team of fourteen that covers each story for every platform. Both groups are nervous. Radio reporters fear losing time for in-depth stories; digital staff, who are younger and paid less, fear being treated as junior. This paper plans the merger.
What Successful Organizations Do With People
Pfeffer (1998) argued that organizations gain lasting advantage by how they manage people, and he identified seven practices common to successful firms: employment security, selective hiring, self-managed teams and decentralized decision making, comparatively high pay contingent on performance, extensive training, reduced status distinctions and extensive sharing of information. He stressed that the practices work as a system, and that organizations often adopt one or two while undermining them with others.
Groups and Real Teams
Katzenbach and Smith (1993) distinguished working groups, whose members share information and help each other but remain individually accountable, from real teams, small groups with complementary skills committed to a common purpose, specific performance goals and an approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. They warned that many groups called teams are not, and that becoming a team requires a demanding performance challenge rather than team-building exercises.
What Drives Team Effectiveness
Mathieu et al. (2008) reviewed a decade of team research and organized it around inputs, such as team composition and structure; mediators, including processes like coordination and emergent states like trust, cohesion and shared mental models; and outcomes, such as performance and member satisfaction. Their review showed that emergent states like psychological safety and trust shape how inputs turn into results, so structure alone is not enough.
Current Practices
| Practice | Current state | Decision |
|---|---|---|
| Employment security | Unstated; staff fear cuts | Add: written commitment of no layoffs from the merger |
| Selective hiring | Strong for reporters; informal for digital | Change: same hiring standards for all news roles |
| Decentralized decisions | Editors assign all stories | Change: story teams pitch and plan their own coverage |
| Pay | Separate scales; digital paid 15% less for similar work | Change: one scale based on role and skill over two years |
| Training | Good for radio craft | Keep, and add cross-training in audio and digital |
| Status distinctions | Radio seen as senior | Change: one title structure; mixed seating |
| Information sharing | Separate meetings | Add: one daily editorial meeting |
Why the Merger Is Needed
The case for one team rests on audiences and stories. Listeners increasingly hear WSRN's reporting through podcasts and smart speakers, and readers find it through search and newsletters. When a radio reporter covers a state budget fight and a digital producer separately writes a web story on the same topic, the station spends twice the effort and produces two weaker pieces. A single team can plan a story once, gather sound and data together and publish in each form its audience needs.
What Each Group Fears
Interviews with all fourteen staff revealed fears that the plan must address. Radio reporters worried that daily web demands would end the long-form stories that win awards and donor support. Digital staff worried that they would become assistants to radio reporters rather than partners, and that the pay gap would persist. Both groups worried about layoffs, since mergers elsewhere had been followed by cuts. Pfeffer's emphasis on employment security and reduced status distinctions speaks directly to these fears; without addressing them, staff would protect their own turf instead of cooperating.
A Six-Month Plan
In the first month, the news director will announce the merger with a written commitment of no layoffs and meet each staff member individually about concerns. Both groups will help write the team's purpose: serving Wisconsin audiences with accurate local news on every platform they use. In months two and three, staff will be paired across groups on stories, so a radio reporter and a digital producer cover each major story together, and a single daily meeting will plan coverage. In months three to six, the team will set shared goals, such as twelve cross-platform investigative stories a year and growth in podcast listeners, and begin moving to one pay scale.
The News Director's Role
Katzenbach and Smith stress that leaders of real teams must clarify purpose, build commitment and get out of the way when the team is ready. The news director will lead the daily meeting for the first two months, then hand it to rotating editors drawn from both former groups, keeping her own role to setting priorities and removing obstacles.
Building Trust
Mathieu and colleagues' emphasis on emergent states suggests that trust must be built deliberately. Pairs will rotate monthly so everyone works with everyone. The news director will ask the most skeptical radio reporter to co-lead the daily meeting with a digital editor.
Protecting In-Depth Work
To answer the radio reporters' concern, the team will reserve two reporter positions each quarter for long-form projects, rotated so that digital staff also lead investigations. Daily coverage will be shared across the rest of the team, so no one is pulled from deep work for routine posts.
Costs
Moving to one pay scale will cost about $42,000 a year once complete, phased over two years. Cross-training will use existing staff time and a regional journalism network's workshops. The station's board approved the cost after seeing that audience growth online had already raised digital underwriting revenue by more than that amount.
Measures
Progress will be judged by cross-platform stories completed, shared goals met, staff turnover and a quarterly survey on trust and whether staff feel part of one team.
Conclusion
Merging WSRN's newsrooms is a people challenge more than a technical one. Pfeffer's practices show which systems must change, Katzenbach and Smith show what separates a team from a renamed group and Mathieu and colleagues explain why trust and shared understanding must be built alongside structure.
References
Katzenbach, J. R., & Smith, D. K. (1993). The discipline of teams. Harvard Business Review, 71(2), 111-120.
Mathieu, J., Maynard, M. T., Rapp, T., & Gilson, L. (2008). Team effectiveness 1997-2007: A review of recent advancements and a glimpse into the future. Journal of Management, 34(3), 410-476. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206308316061
Pfeffer, J. (1998). Seven practices of successful organizations. California Management Review, 40(2), 96-124. https://doi.org/10.2307/41165935
What the MGT 500 Module 5 instructions ask for
People and teams are the subject of Module 5 in Aspen's MBA management course. Most submissions apply research on managing employees and building teams to an organization facing a specific people challenge. The classroom prompt sets the exact requirements; this example plans the merger of two news groups. Describe the people and groups involved and the challenge they face, including their concerns. Use research on people management practices. Distinguish groups from teams and explain what makes teams effective. Audit the practices already in place and say which should stay, which should be altered and which are missing, giving a reason each time. Recommend a plan with steps, timing and measures that show whether a real team is forming.
Inside the MGT 500 Module 5 example
The paper opens with WSRN, a composite public radio station whose radio reporters produce broadcast news and whose digital staff run the website, podcasts and newsletters. Audiences are moving online, and management wants one team covering stories for every platform. Pfeffer's California Management Review article lists seven practices, including employment security, selective hiring, self-managed teams, contingent pay, training, reduced status distinctions and information sharing. Katzenbach and Smith's Harvard Business Review article defines real teams by a common purpose, specific goals, complementary skills and mutual accountability. Mathieu and colleagues' Journal of Management review organizes team research around inputs, mediators and outcomes. A table keeps the station's training, changes its separate pay scales and adds a shared daily editorial meeting. The plan promises no layoffs, pairs reporters across groups and sets team goals.
MGT 500 Module 5 rubric: what earns full marks
People and team papers are graded on accurate use of research, a careful assessment of current practices and a plan that builds a real team rather than renaming a group. This example uses Pfeffer's practices to audit what the station already does well and where it falls short. Katzenbach and Smith's distinction shows what must change for fourteen people to become one team. Mathieu and colleagues' review supplies the process and trust factors many plans miss, such as rotating pairs and shared leadership of meetings. The table and the six-month plan connect each recommendation to a practice or a team condition, and the plan answers the specific fears each group raised.
MGT 500 Module 5 help from the desk
Team papers often recommend team-building events without changing the structures that keep people apart, such as separate goals or pay scales. Look at practices as a system. Another weakness is calling any group a team; explain what would make it a real team. Use research on people practices and team effectiveness. Address status differences and fears about jobs openly, since mergers raise both. Make the plan specific, with dates and owners. Finally, measure whether a team is forming, through shared goals met, cross-platform stories and staff surveys. Ask each group what it fears and answer those fears in the plan.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Aspen University document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
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MGT 500 Module 5 questions, answered
What does MGT 500 Module 5 usually ask for?
Aspen's MGT 500 covers managing people and teams in this module, so an MBA paper applying research on people practices and teams to an organization is typical. Read your classroom prompt.
What are Pfeffer's seven practices?
Employment security, selective hiring, self-managed teams and decentralized decisions, comparatively high pay contingent on performance, extensive training, reduced status distinctions and sharing information.
What is the difference between a working group and a team?
Katzenbach and Smith describe working groups as individuals sharing information, while real teams share a common purpose, specific goals and mutual accountability.
Where can I find a free MGT 500 Module 5 sample paper?
The example above plans how a public radio station can merge two news groups into one team using research on people practices and team effectiveness.
What makes teams effective?
Mathieu and colleagues' review links team effectiveness to inputs such as composition, processes such as coordination and emergent states such as trust and shared understanding.