Abstract
Globalization is changing the business world, especially with technological companies. Globalization has made the world a small village; thus, local markets are too small to compete, hence the need for creativity and innovation. To alleviate the pains of tight competition, Sun Microsystems Inc. has to go global, and James Greg is one of the managers of top projects. Under him are subordinates strewn across France, India, and the United Arab Emirates. The introduction of open work allows workers to work from home and attend meetings remotely. However, one of the company’s clients, H.S. Holdings, recently faced a huge information system downtime that threatened James’s glory. James has to find ways to solve the problem, including bringing back his team’s trust in him and each other.
Additionally, James has to solve the problem of unequal workload, time, and pay to eliminate the resentment among his teammates. He has discovered that his teammates do not see eye to eye and that their communication channels are broken. He also discovered that the general communications to the head office in the USA are broken, including the emergency queue system. As a manager, James has to embrace the importance of reflective management and communication. He must understand where he stands and what problems directly stem from him. He concludes that he could either shut down all FaceTime communications or increase them to two times a month, needing deeper scrutiny to come up with a compromise. Using the systems management theory, which proposes that a business has parts that are part of a larger system, this article will examine how jams could break down the problems in his team to an objective management failure and solve the breakdown.
Managing a Global Team: Greg James at Sun; A Case Study Analysis Microsystems, Inc.
Neeley, T. and DeLong, T.J., 2009. Managing a Global Team: Greg James at Sun Microsystems, Inc.(A). Harvard Business School.
Introduction
James finds out three levels of problems, all pertaining to communication. This article will thus sequentially analyze these problems to develop possible solution recommendations for Creg.
Recommendation One: Creation of an Error Notification Algorithm in The Transmission Queue System
To begin with, James finds an email from Ashok, a service manager in Mumbai, detailing a problem with the server systems in H.S. holdings. The problem was found late due to a problem in the queue communication systems. The initial communications were done through a weekly channel instead of a weekend channel, thus the late arrival and misplacement of the information from H.S. holdings. Therefore, there seems to be a breakdown in effective communication. Effective communication entails proper and timely decoding and encoding of messages to pass information through proper channels, a problem that James’s team suffers from (Curtis, Tzannes, and Rudge, 2011). James should devise an algorithm, together with Ashok, to ensure that when the transmission control protocol is the wrong queue, the system rejects the message with a correction notification for the user.
Recommendation Two: Creation of a Chain of Command and Open Communication Systems
The second problem emerges when James travels to find out about a personal conflict between his juniors. He finds out that Ashok, the service manager in India, does not speak with Nick, a primary contact for the H.S. holdings account, citing insults. The breakdown in their communications leaves Ashok disadvantaged since he cannot fix the problem, thus displaying a relationship conflict. In order to deal with this problem, I recommend that James take a proactive approach to resolve the conflict between Ashok and Nick. He should first arrange a private meeting between the two parties and encourage them to discuss the issue and come to a mutually agreeable resolution. James should also provide a neutral platform for both parties to express their opinions.
According to Abiodun (2014), relationship conflicts cause anxiety and mistrust. Conflicts among employees are common. Conflicts are necessary to push employees beyond their comfort zone and help them think beyond their bubbles if handled properly. According to Yuan, Wenli (2010), conflict arise between Chinese and American employees regularly due to cultural and superiority complex problems. However, the authors stipulate two methods to deal with them. The first solution is the installation of open communication channels, and the other is establishing a chain of command. James should lay down a conflict resolution protocol that can act as a reference for the employees. He should lay down a chain of command, including among the managers with an oasis. The oasis in the chain of command should act as a buffer for conflicts that go overboard. The oasis should either be James or a third party, who is consulted to bring arbitration when a conflict cannot be resolved. According to Abiodun (2014), early detection and monitoring is another method for controlling conflicts among employees. James should set up an open debrief communication channel that enables his employees to vent with privacy assurance. Open communication will help in identifying stalemates early and, thus, early resolution.
Recommendation Three: Delegation and Open Remuneration and Compensation Systems
However, the communications problems seem to be the tip of the iceberg as James unearths more problems that may seem trivial at a glance but are deeper and may have caused all the problems. James’s colleagues, while those in the United Arab Emirates, feel side-lined by James’s direct leadership. The France team feels side-lined in pay compared to their USA counterparts, yet their schedules are tougher. The first issue that James should deal with in such a situation is delegation. James is failing in his delegation duties and, thus the insecurities among his team members. According to Drescher (2017), delegation leads to a leader’s growth and efficiency and employee satisfaction. It improves the leader’s image among employees. Through delegation, James should be able to tone down the insecurities among the United Arab Emirates team.
Additionally, to solve the France team’s problem of remuneration and workload, James should work with the finance and payroll teams to create a fair and equitable compensation structure that takes into consideration the different policies in each country or zone. He should also ensure that everyone is aware of the compensation structure and is given the same opportunities and resources to succeed. Additionally, James should make sure that everyone is aware of the expectations and responsibilities of each position and the associated benefits and rewards. This will help to create a sense of fairness and trust among the teams.
Recommendation Four: Task Rota
James also finds out that the team in India feels side-lined and is only preserved for the maintenance task. They want more creative tasks that are not forthcoming and thus are dejected. According to Loukidou, Loan‐Clarke, and Daniels (2009), boredom leads to less job satisfaction and, thus low performance with negative effects on health. The team in India is, therefore, right to complain. While job specialization is important, the introduction of a creative spree is also important to maintain job satisfaction. James should, therefore, introduce a system that assigns the team in India a few creative tasks every month while they maintain the maintenance tasks. The creative tasks should be rotated around the team. Alternatively, James should train a new team on system maintenance so that there is a flow of exchange between Ashok’s team and a second team of the maintenance crew.
Conclusion
A solution to these problems would require a thorough analysis through the lens of reflective management that encompasses effective communication. Applied management capabilities are important tools to look at James’s situation as he works with a diverse team of workers. Management by objectives coupled with the systems theory will be integral parts of this article to provide James with a better solution to his predicament. The article will take a chronological order of the problems as listed to explain why the communication breakdown reflects a deeper disharmonious relationship between the team members.
Bibliographies
Neeley, T. and DeLong, T.J., 2009. Managing a Global Team: Greg James at Sun Microsystems, Inc.(A). Harvard Business School.
Isokariari, T.O. and Daniel, C.O., 2020. Influence of Globalisation on Project Delivery and Organisational Performance. Asian Journal of Business and Management (ISSN: 2321-2802), 8(2).
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