The Stryker Corporation is one of the leading companies in the worldwide market for orthopedic devices. One of Stryker’s recent orthopedic innovations is a navigation system for hip replacement surgery that permits surgeons to observe via a computer screen the precise positioning of a hip replacement prosthesis. This piece of medical equipment is extremely complex and has many inter-related parts that need to withstand a variety of stresses. Field testing of the navigation system revealed numerous problems that had to be solved as quickly as possible. A team was assembled at Stryker’s Freiburg, Germany facility to address the problems with the hip replacement navigation system. Within this problem context, a significant portion the case focuses on the formation of the Freiburg team, the team members’ characteristics, and the team approach to problem solving.

Chapter 9 focuses on work groups and teams and their usage in organizations. Several topics in this chapter are very relevant to the Freiburg portion of the Stryker case. First, teamwork is essential for developing effective solutions for the navigation system’s problems. Second, the characteristics of well-functioning, effective groups are relevant to how the Freiburg team should operate. Third, the Freiburg team members must effectively perform both task functions and maintenance functions if they are to be successful. Finally, diversity and creativity can make important contributions to the effective functioning of the Freiburg team. 

The remainder of the case focuses on quality problems with Stryker’s orthopedic hip implants and Stryker’s involvement in a financial kickback scheme that rewarded surgeons for using the company’s implants even if a given implant was not the best choice for a patient. The quality issue provides the opportunity to consider how the beneficial teamwork lessons from the Freiburg experience can be extended to other areas of Stryker’s operations. The financial kickback issue provides the context for discussing challenges that can arise when collaborative working relationships become too cozy.

Questions 

1. Discuss the extent to which the characteristics of well-functioning, effective groups accurately describe the Freiburg hip replacement navigation system team.
2. Explain why teamwork is important to effectively solve the problems which field testing of the hip replacement navigation system revealed.
3. Describe how the task functions and maintenance functions are operating within the Freiburg team.
4. Explain why diversity and creativity are important to the effective functioning of the Freiburg team.
5. How could Stryker utilize insights gained from the experiences of the Freiberg team to address the ongoing quality problems with the actual orthopedic implants?
6. Obviously, close working relationships need to exist between companies that design, manufacture, and market surgical implants and the surgeons who use those implants. What impact might the antikickback issue have on the working relationship between Stryker and the surgeons that use its orthopedic hip implants?