Jim Towne: A Case Study Of A Multi-Cultural IT Team
Introduction
This article reviews a case study of a multi-cultural IT team with members located in different global locations across different time zones. It evaluates the team against a list of eight characteristics of team excellence, and discusses what is the approach Jim Towne, the team manager, should take to overcome the challenges facing the team. It also explores specific leadership functions which would help improve the team, such as performance management, team development, contingency leadership, and human resources management.
Analysis
A group consists of two or more freely interacting individuals and has collective norms, collective goals, and a common identity. The IT team in this case has 20 professionals who live and work in …show more content…
Its strength is a diverse work force, which enhances creative problem solving, and innovations.
However, it is lacking in principled leadership and unified commitment. The team has difficulty getting off the ground, problem in prioritization with frequent business travels affecting productive work, and inability to show organizational value; team members have never worked together previously on any projects and some recently joined the company through a corporate merger, requiring socialization into the organizational culture.
Moreover, standards of excellence and results-driven structure are lacking, as evident from each member replies to all on every message resulting in one member having 500 unread email messages, while the norm seems to be starting as many projects as needed but not finishing them. There is also no external support and recognition, with only minimal non-dedicated secretarial resource. In addition, the team is lacking in morale, self-assessment, and operations metrics, which are important for team …show more content…
Finally, the results of the action loop back to the first step in making leadership decision.
Since the individual morale is low and the team is under-performing, Jim should not wait to intervene, with internal actions from the team. As team members are competent and are not delivering because of work overload, the mitigation actions would be relational instead of task oriented. On the other hand, effective team leadership should always have collaboration and support from sponsors outside of the team. The team’s output needs to be valued by external stakeholders, in order to garner required resources for team’s success.
Leadership Functions to Improve the Team
To make this virtual team work, Jim need to be effective in the following leadership functions: performance management, team development, contingency leadership approach using effective leader-member exchanges, and human resources
This article reviews a case study of a multi-cultural IT team with members located in different global locations across different time zones. It evaluates the team against a list of eight characteristics of team excellence, and discusses what is the approach Jim Towne, the team manager, should take to overcome the challenges facing the team. It also explores specific leadership functions which would help improve the team, such as performance management, team development, contingency leadership, and human resources management.
Analysis
A group consists of two or more freely interacting individuals and has collective norms, collective goals, and a common identity. The IT team in this case has 20 professionals who live and work in …show more content…
Its strength is a diverse work force, which enhances creative problem solving, and innovations.
However, it is lacking in principled leadership and unified commitment. The team has difficulty getting off the ground, problem in prioritization with frequent business travels affecting productive work, and inability to show organizational value; team members have never worked together previously on any projects and some recently joined the company through a corporate merger, requiring socialization into the organizational culture.
Moreover, standards of excellence and results-driven structure are lacking, as evident from each member replies to all on every message resulting in one member having 500 unread email messages, while the norm seems to be starting as many projects as needed but not finishing them. There is also no external support and recognition, with only minimal non-dedicated secretarial resource. In addition, the team is lacking in morale, self-assessment, and operations metrics, which are important for team …show more content…
Finally, the results of the action loop back to the first step in making leadership decision.
Since the individual morale is low and the team is under-performing, Jim should not wait to intervene, with internal actions from the team. As team members are competent and are not delivering because of work overload, the mitigation actions would be relational instead of task oriented. On the other hand, effective team leadership should always have collaboration and support from sponsors outside of the team. The team’s output needs to be valued by external stakeholders, in order to garner required resources for team’s success.
Leadership Functions to Improve the Team
To make this virtual team work, Jim need to be effective in the following leadership functions: performance management, team development, contingency leadership approach using effective leader-member exchanges, and human resources