analyse the leadership, organizational structure,organizational culture, and organizational change in this case.Case $9$ THE SHIPPING INDUSTRY ACCOUNTING TEAM

by Steven L$.$ McShane, University of Newcastle $($Australia$)$

For the past five years, I have been working at McKay,

Sanderson, and Smith Associates, a mid$-$sized accounting

firm in Halifax that specializes in commercial accounting

and audits. My particular speciality is accounting practices

for shipping companies, ranging from small fishing fleets

to a couple of the big firms with ships on the St$.$ Lawrence

Seaway.

About $18$ months ago, McKay, Sanderson, and Smith

Associates became part of a large merger involving two other

accounting firms across Canada. These firms have offices

in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver.

Although the other two accounting firms were much larger

than McKay, all three firms agreed to avoid centralizing

the business around one office in Toronto. Instead, the new

firm$-$called Goldberg, Choo, and McKay Associates$-$

would rely on teams across the country to "leverage the syn$-$

ergies of our collective knowledge" $($an often$-$cited statement

from the managing partner soon after the merger$).$

The merger began to affect me a year ago when my boss

$($a senior partner and vice$-$president of the merger firm$)$

announced that I would be working more closely with three

people from the other two firms to become the firm's new

shipping industry accounting team. The other "team mem$-$

bers" were Rochelle in Montreal, Thomas in Toronto, and

Brad in Vancouver. I had met Rochelle briefly at a meeting

in Montreal during the merger. I have never met Thomas or

Brad, but was informed during the integration meetings that

they were shipping accounting professionals at the other firms.

Initially, the shipping "team" activities involved email$-$

ing each other about new contracts and prospective clients.

Later, we were asked to submit joint monthly reports on

accounting statements and issues. Normally, I submitted my

own monthly reports that summarize activities involving

my own clients. Coordinating the monthly report with three

other people took much more time, particularly since differ$-$

ent accounting documentation procedures across the three

firms were still being resolved. It took numerous emails

and a few telephone calls to work out a reasonable monthly

report style.

During this aggravating process, it became apparent$-$to

me at least$-$that this "teams" business was costing me more

time than it was worth. Moreover, Brad in Vancouver didn't

have a clue as to how to communicate with the rest of us$.$

He rarely replied to emails. Instead, he often used the tele$-$

phone voicemail system, which resulted in lots of telephone

tag. Brad arrives at work at $9$ a$.$m$.$ in Vancouver $($and is often

late!$),$ which is early afternoon in Halifax. I typically have a

flexible work schedule from $7$:$30$ a$.$m$.$ to $3$:$30p.m.$ so I can

chauffeur my kids after school to sports and music lessons.

So Brad and I have a window of less than three hours to share

information.

The biggest nuisance with the shipping specialist account$-$

ing team started two weeks ago when the firm asked the

four of us to develop a new strategy for attracting new ship$-$

ping$-$firm clients. This new strategic plan is a messy busi$-$

ness. Somehow, we have to share our thoughts on various

approaches, agree on a new plan, and write a unified submis$-$

sion to the managing partner. Already, the project is taking

most of my time just writing and responding to emails, and

participating in conference calls $($which none of us did much

before the team formed$).$

Thomas and Rochelle have already had two or three "mis$-$

understandings" via email about their different perspectives

on delicate matters in the strategic plan. The worst of these

disagreements required a conference call with all of us to

resolve. Except for the most basic matters, it seems that we

can't understand each other, let alone agree on key issues. I

have come to the conclusion that I would never want Brad to

work in my Halifax office $($thank goodness, he's on the other

side of the country$).$ While Rochelle and I seem to agree on

most points, the overall team can't form a common vision or

strategy. I don't know how Rochelle, Thomas, or Brad feel,

but I would be quite happy to work somewhere that did not

require any of these long$-$distance team headaches.