Answers to greg james - Summary Transnational Management PDF

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Managing a Global Team: Greg James at Sun Microsystems, INC (A) MGT 4030-01 By: Colin Cook, Eli Kraft, Yasmeen Kheil, Zachary Mieske

1.

We believe there are two people responsible for the problem with HS Holdings. Nick Elliot, application support engineer for the Santa Clara team is the first person we hold responsible. Nick Elliot was the primary contact for HS Holdings and the mistakes he made are as follows: He didn't update the account phone number, he had his cell phone off so he could not be contacted, and quality checking the engineers work underneath him because he is the application support engineer. Nick was also heard degrading the Indian team which hurts the overall morale and culture of the organization. The second person we hold primarily responsible for this problem is Greg James. James did not have an integrated ERP system put in place for his teams. Customer information was not up to date for the system to work properly. Communication tools and protocols between branches were dysfunctional during this time of need. Greg James also overlooked the fact that his team was not understanding of the cultural differences while working together as a unit. Other problems arose from the disconnect with management that originated from the leadership of Greg James. We did not hold Praveen Devilal and Jamal responsible because they were operating under the procedures that were put in place. We put this responsibility on Greg James because he is the manager in charge of these branches. We believe James did not take cultural differences into consideration when the procedures were put into place. According to Hofstede’s Findings different countries have different cultures. We feel that Greg James may have overlooked many of these cultural differences when assigning members of his team. In India, because of their low uncertainty avoidance, they struggle to meet deadlines. The company moved at a faster pace than their culture would allow. This made a disconnect between what the country was used to and what the company demanded. In France, due to their extremely high uncertainty avoidance, it

would not allow them to see things from different perspectives when it comes to customers needs and problems. They need to be able to adapt to different cultures. This makes France unfitting to be the customer advocate for the company. In the United Arab Emirates, they are extremely high in power distance, which means that they need clear leadership and sufficient time to meet with Greg James. He is not meeting that need from them. Finally, in the United States, their power distance score is extremely low compared to the other countries. This is where the other members feeling neglected comes in because in the United States power is shared. The other countries view this as being neglected when they hear how much Greg James meets with the United States members.

2. We viewed Greg James as a Global Business Manager. We believe he fit the criteria highlighted in the book as a global strategist, architectect of worldwide asset and resource configuration, and coordinator of cross border transfers. Due to his role within the company he was faced with issues that someone within this position would encounter. One the biggest challenges we saw Greg James facing is the Time Zone differences. We believe James should come up with a time for the conference calls that work for all of the different countries. We believe the time of the conference call should be changed on a weekly or monthly basis to adhere to each country's needs. This solution would make each country feel as if their wishes are being heard, and it supports the idea of adhering to each country's problems and making them feel wanted. The second problem we saw is attention, neglect, and favoritism between the regions.

Our solution for the first challenge is an example of how to fix our second problem. We believe Greg James should put importance on each branch’s needs and opinions. Putting an emphasis on this problem will increase employee morale and show the importance of each branch working together. We believe working together as a single unit is much more efficient than constant battles between the branches. This would eliminate finger pointing when a problem arises. We also feel that Greg James should not show any favoritism when collaborating with branches on an idea until all groups have made their input. The third challenge we saw Greg James face is the disconnect between compensation in each region. According to our text Top Level Corporate Management has three main duties. By providing this information to each branch Greg James is ensuring continual renewal of his teams mission. We believe he needs to post information updated daily on an easily accessible portal for all team members around the world to access. In order for them to be up to date on all of the various countries costs of living, currency value, exchange rates, and the typical benefits package of every country involved. This would allow all team members to be up to date on the other branches benefits and governmental/cultural variances, and it would allow the understanding of differences between the countries involved. Thus eliminating the discrepancy between pay and vacation between branches.

3. We feel the structure of Greg James' global team was intended to be centralized by using the open work framework. However, it is not operating as a centralized

framework. We feel a solution so a similar incident does not occur again is firstly to centralize decision making so their is a clear chain of command. Another solution to insure that this situation does not happen again is team building within the varying countries. We believe James should visit the other countries more often to build a stronger relationship with management and lower level employees. This will show the importance of each branch of the company. This solution will help with the neglect that each branch is currently feeling. We also feel Greg needs to put more backup protocols in place for each branch of the company. Each branch should have protocols specific to them for the problems that arise within the given country. All corporate employee and customer data should be up to date and easily accessible by everyone involved within company. This will eliminate finger pointing and asymmetric information amongst the branches.

4. Yes, we feel that this was a fair accusation. Although he may have been doing it unintentionally he was playing favorites with the U.S. branch. The reason for this is because this was his home branch and he was spending more time with his team in the U.S. The case also states that sometimes the U.S. branch would make decisions before other regional branches could state their opinion on the issue. This is another example of him incidentally showing favoritism to the U.S. He was aware of the other team's competency such as Ashok who was a highly skilled engineer and manager that got his team working on projects in record time, however he still was perceived as showing favoritism to the U.S. branch.

5. Greg James can get rid of this perception by explaining to each branch that they are important to the company as a whole. This will show the different branches that their day to day tasks benefit the mission and vision of the company. This will eliminate the thought of favoritism to the U.S. because it shows the role that each branch plays in helping the company as a whole. Team wide emails should specifically say “Want to hear all branches input before any decisions are made.” This process may take longer but it will be more effective in gathering input from all branches and avoid this from happening in the future. All branch managers should be responsible for handling their subordinates’ mistakes, and in turn they should communicate with Greg whenever the need arises. This should help Greg follow the rule of eleven by only delegating to the three branch heads, and from there the tasks would be handed down from management to the employees. Greg James should also take into consideration all of the various grievances amongst the branches, and he should deal with them accordingly. All branches should have easily accessible information on costs of living, benefit plans, and compensation packages across the globe, so that every employee is aware of what you receive based off of your country’s norms, and your skill sets/work experience in your given occupation. In addition, all cultural differences must be respected and fully understood. All branch managers should be given training on how to properly and respectfully interact with those of different cultural backgrounds....