Rocky Gagnon
Concluding Case-Rocky Gagnon, General Contractor:
1) It is important to Rocky to assemble a good and qualified team. The team should be able to work together to increase productivity, improve quality and reduce costs. A good team would also be able to enhance speed and be powerful forces for innovation and change. The best team would be a self-managed team. Self-managed teams appear to be more productive, have lower costs, provide better customer service, provide higher quality, have better safety records and are more satisfying for members. These types of teams control decisions about acquiring raw materials, performing operations, quality control, maintenance and shipping. They are fully responsible for the full product. Rocky would still be responsible for hiring and firing team members, and deciding which tasks they should perform.
2) Some problems that the group may encounter include learning the art of diplomacy, tackling “people issues” and finding the right division between encouraging autonomy and rewarding team innovations without letting the team get out of control.
In order to prevent this, teams should be empowered, as the benefit of teams is reduced when they are not allowed to make decisions. The management needs to trust teams with important responsibilities regarding innovation, or they will revert to making safe, traditional decisions. The best teams are those that have been given a performance challenge by management and have reached a common understanding and appreciation of their purpose. In order to maintain cohesiveness in the team, one should recruit members with similar attitudes, values and backgrounds and maintain high entrance and socialization standards.
Managing conflict will also be key. With communication, diverse groups tend to become more cooperative and perform better than homogeneous groups. Managers/Leaders need to facilitate this process and work with teams to encourage communication. Managers also need
1) It is important to Rocky to assemble a good and qualified team. The team should be able to work together to increase productivity, improve quality and reduce costs. A good team would also be able to enhance speed and be powerful forces for innovation and change. The best team would be a self-managed team. Self-managed teams appear to be more productive, have lower costs, provide better customer service, provide higher quality, have better safety records and are more satisfying for members. These types of teams control decisions about acquiring raw materials, performing operations, quality control, maintenance and shipping. They are fully responsible for the full product. Rocky would still be responsible for hiring and firing team members, and deciding which tasks they should perform.
2) Some problems that the group may encounter include learning the art of diplomacy, tackling “people issues” and finding the right division between encouraging autonomy and rewarding team innovations without letting the team get out of control.
In order to prevent this, teams should be empowered, as the benefit of teams is reduced when they are not allowed to make decisions. The management needs to trust teams with important responsibilities regarding innovation, or they will revert to making safe, traditional decisions. The best teams are those that have been given a performance challenge by management and have reached a common understanding and appreciation of their purpose. In order to maintain cohesiveness in the team, one should recruit members with similar attitudes, values and backgrounds and maintain high entrance and socialization standards.
Managing conflict will also be key. With communication, diverse groups tend to become more cooperative and perform better than homogeneous groups. Managers/Leaders need to facilitate this process and work with teams to encourage communication. Managers also need