HRM 657

Final Written Exam - "Team Zebra"

Tom the new manager for a team of 15 people. The team's company-wide responsibility focuses on installing computer hardware and software throughout a Fortune 300 organization. The breakdown between installing hardware and software functions more informal than formal, but because team members sit in two rows of eight and seven members, one row primarily handles hardware, and the other row handles software installations. Yet, most team members can work in either area.

Disfunction team dynamics has caused the team to lose several managers within the 12 months. The last manager cited that his reason for leaving was because ofthe anger and open hostility between team members. HR attempted to intervein threating to fire people if they didn't treat each other with more respect.

The Team:

Members of the group have an average of 11 years with the company and have work in the software team for much of their tenure.Team demographics are 12 men and three women between the ages of 21 - 59.

Tom sat down with individual team members to understand the situations that cause friction amongst the team.

Fred, the longest serving member of the team shared frequent instances where a few of the women in the organization appear to hold office chatter only to stop talking when a male enters the room. He and other men, view this a discriminatory and have asked supervisors to put a stop to this on several occasions.

Alice, one of the newer members complained the Fred can be condescending and confrontational to others input or ideas, given his seasoned tenure on the team.

Paul, one of the recent hires and graduate of CSULB, complained that "these people don't have basic computer skills and us younger team members spend a lot of our time training them and not serving our customers".

Susan, represented individuals who transferred in from other groups within IT with a broader understanding of IT and established networks. Susan shared that others lack of and breath of understanding of the IT culture prevented the team from acting in accordance with cultural norms.

Lastly, Tom sat down with his manager who told him "Look it is your job to figure this out and fix it". "Let me know if you are not up to the task and I will accept your transfer request". The manager added one last item " You might want to check on the expense reports from your team. There was a whistle blower complaint on a couple of your team members".He then excused himself to join a group participating in a charity golf tournament in the local community.

Tom

Tom came from a local nonprofit. His departure was a shock to his team and his previous company did all they could to get him to stay. He still gets calls at his home from team members checking up on him and trying to get him to reconsider and come back.

Tom came from a large family that promoted responsibility, innovation, empathy, respect, self-confidence and the sense of "if there is a will, there is a way" optimism at all times. He also felt grounded in these behaviors and did not feel comfortable acting otherwise.

As a CSULB MBA graduate, Tom pondered key concepts learned in his seminar in leadership course in addressing the current situation.

1. What leadership behaviors would you advise Tom to take in this situation?

1. What leadership style would you think Tom was likely to have and why?

1. Some appreciate the direct nature of his boss, what could you have done to get a more helpful response?