As a team leader for C & C Engineering, Colin needs to choose the best possible candidate to head up a sensitive project. The client had worked with another engineering firm whose inexperience resulted in structural defects that need to be corrected, and now they have brought the project to Colin's firm. They want someone who can get up to speed on the project quickly and make sound decisions on the job. With little room for error, Colin's best choice for project manager would be
A) Wayne, who is known throughout the industry for his hard-nosed commitment to his ideas and his "my way or the highway" stance as a team leader.
B) Tori, who has proven to be a solid worker with the ability to work well with others, and who has shown up for work every day without fail for the past ten years.
C) Gayle, who graduated from one of the finest engineering programs in the country at the top of her class, and who has been a stellar performer with C & C ever since she joined the company two years ago.
D) Deborah, who has worked for the company for two decades and performed flawlessly, making herself known as someone who consistently delivers within her particular area of expertise.
E) Roland, who experienced a number of failures early in his career two decades ago, but went back to school and set out to learn his trade from the bottom up, taking on new and different projects along the way.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Learning reflects relatively permanent changes in an employee's knowledge or skill that result from experience. The more employees learn, the more they bring to the table when they come to work. Learning is important because it has a significant impact on decision making, and an ability to make good decisions is crucial to the role of team leader on the new project. Although several of the candidates are reasonably good choices, Roland would be the best one. It is often said that failure is the best teacher, and Roland clearly learned from his mistakes, whereas none of the others has shown a great propensity for learning. Wayne is not open to new ideas, Tori is apparently comfortable in her role as a mid-level performer, Gayle is relatively inexperienced, and Deborah, despite being a strong candidate, has a narrow range of experience with few of the mistakes and failures that often provide the best opportunity for learning.

As a Team Leader for C & C Engineering, Colin