Global Management - Embarcadero

Megan Kuestermann
Managing a Global Team: Greg James at Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Greg James is a global manager at Sun Microsystems, Inc. and is facing a crisis situation caused

by the failure in the system of HS Holdings, an important customer, and the inability of his

global team to respond immediately to solve the problem. As he meets with his team to

understand the situation and find a solution to the customer crisis, he discovers management

issues and conflicts within his team that need to be addressed immediately.

1. How well did James manage his global team?

James managerial position is very challenging, considering that he is responsible for a team

composed of 45 members of different cultures who live in different time zones. James conducts

weekly conference calls with his whole team, but there are scarce in-person meetings. This has

resulted in James lack of understanding of the different sub-teams working dynamics and has

prevented him of detecting arising issues on time, for example the fact the Indian team is

feeling undervalued, the UAE is feeling neglected, some team members are not getting along

with each other, compensation mismatch between teams in different countries is causing

conflicts, there is discontent with open work program, etc.

2. Who is responsible for the HS holding crisis?

Misunderstandings and miscommunication between sub-teams prevented them to give the

appropriate solution service to the client. The cause of the crisis is ultimately a lack of

leadership and of employee engagement.

3. What role did the open work environment play in the case?

The open work environment contributed to the crisis in the case, because it prevented
immediate communication between team members to solve the problem. Additionally, it

limited face to face interactions with the other team members, an important ingredient for

building relationships and trust.

4. What role did diversity play on this team?

Global teams are a priority for the company, because it represents a competitive strategy:

access to more talent options, closeness to the clients and ability to offer service at any hour of

the day in any country. The same benefits were supposed to be reflected in his team, however

diversity represented a disadvantage instead. For example, there was bad communication due

to different time-zones, cultural differences affected relationships negatively and there was lack

of trust.

5. What should James do in the short and long term?

In the short term, James should visit the different sub-teams frequently, alternate workload

and type of work for the different teams and evaluate if the open work environment is

beneficial for his team.

In the long term, James should establish a rotation program, in order for team members from

different countries to experience working in the other locations. Additionally, he should

implement at least one face to face meeting of the whole team per year.

References:

Neeley, Tsedal, and Thomas J. DeLong. "Managing a Global Team: Greg James at Sun

Microsystems, Inc. (A)." Harvard Business School Case 409-003, July 2008. (Revised November
2009.)

Ques.1 Consider a framework for developing a productive relationship with one's boss?

Ans.1 a strong and a productive relation with your manager can be formed by the
followings:

* Develop trust with your manager, with which manager would want you to do all
challenging projects.

* Meet your deadlines.

* Keep your manager Updated about your assigned work, about your priorities; always
update To-do-list.

* Regularly meet your manager, keep asking about your performance feedback.

* Always take initiative to do any work which may help building good rapport between
you and your manager.

* Respect you manager on personal level as well, be friendly and also update your
manager about your personal priorities, this may help building trust.

* If anything goes well or wherever you get stuck email your manager right away,
whether it's your accomplishment or anything troubling you.

* Speak openly and comfortable about your personal issues.

* Always look up to your manager and learn some skills of your manager which you like,
analyze a budget sheet.

* Look for your common ground.

* Be a team player.

Ques.2 who is responsible for the HS holding crisis?

 Ans.2 According to the case, no one is specifically responsible for HS holding crisis.
There was miscommunication among teams to start mistakes from, Parveen D got a call
from HS holding instead of directly calling Nick E at his residence number, he tried to
fix problem with Indian team which resulted in not having HS holdings proper contact
info, because Nick K had not updates the contact number when client contact moved
and due to all this they were not able to fix HS holdings server. Whereas Parveen D and
Rahul A. blamed bad queue for not forwarding the proper contact info Whereas India
itself was suppose to program queue for missing numbers, but this was later
programmed by UAE, and UAE team misunderstood the instructions and assumed not
for emergencies and they did not send to support queue or include automatic page to
managers on call. This was absolute mismanagement and lack of communication,
relying on each other, every team assuming that they are each other's competitors.

Solution Preview
1. James managed his global team poorly. He had virtual team meetings regularly but the concerns of some of the teams
were always considered last. The conference calls meant that some employees had to be on call between 20.30 and 22.00
resulting in very long days. There was dissatisfaction because some employees felt that there was a mismatch of
compensation. They received less than others on the same virtual team. There were imbalances in the work-team because
it was perceived that some members got more vacation time. The UAE team felt that they were neglected. They felt that US
sub-teams were treated as favourites. Overall, the team was not properly managed.
2. The HS Holding company fiasco happened in India and Rahul's team is fully responsible for the crisis. Even though his
team is ...

Managing Distributed Teams

Modifier 0 3
Discussion Questions:
1. How well has James managed his global team?

Prior to Jame's trip, he had not been in touch with his team or their progress. However upon his return, he
instituted several team meetings, one on one meetings and skip level session to bring him closer to his
team and to develop team closeness and trust.

2. Who is responsible for the HS Holding crisis?

Leadership is responsible. It is their responsibility to know what is going on and proactively be aware of
potential issues.

3. What role did (1) the "Open Work" environment and (2) diversity play on this team?

The open work environment built trust and team cohesion. Everyone felt that communication was more
open with faster resolution and clarity of purpose. Diversity on Jame's team created both advantages as
 well as barriers to success. On the up side, diversity created new ideas and brought the level of team
performance up. On the down side, diversity can create communication and cultural issues on a global
team

4. What should James do in the short and long term?

James has done several things right in the short term by establishing team norms, creating opportunities
for the team to interact and instituting a culture of openess.
Long term, James should ensure the team has clear objectives and re-evaluate the team composition
over time to ensure it can continue to meet the objectives.