Reference no: EM133905453

Assignment:

Suppose you are the newly appointed CIO (Chief Information Officer) of a medium sized technology company. Your company recruits top graduates from schools of business and engineering. Talent, intellect, creativity- it's all there in your team. If you lined up the crowd for a group photo- credentials in hand- the 'wow' factor would be there.

Your company has offices in every Australian state and territory, with headquarters in Sydney. The talent pool is amazing, across the board, both in Information Technology (IT) and the rest of the organization. But when the CEO hires you, he says 'The company is performing nowhere near its potential. On the surface, we are doing fine. But we should be a Fortune 500 company. With so much talent we should be growing at a much faster rate.'

The CEO also says that you are inheriting 'a super team with a disappointing performance'. His task for you is to pull the IT stars into a cohesive team that will meet company needs for new IT systems and services faster and more effectively.

Without making your superstars feel they are being criticized, or indicating 'there's a real problem here', you want to gather as much information as possible, from the 14 team members (regional CIO's and department heads) who report to you. In the one-on-one meetings you hold, you are surprised by the consistency of remarks and opinions. It appears the previous CIO, Bob, was obviously awed by the talent of the team members. Comments such as 'Bob pretty much let us do what we wanted' or 'Bob would start the meeting and pretty much fade into the background as if he found us intimidating' are typical. The most disturbing comment 'Bob always agreed with me' is expressed by most team members. It is as if most regional heads believe that your predecessor wanted them to succeed by doing as they though best for themselves.

You query team members about the level of cooperation during meetings and uncover areas of concern, including the complaint that others at the table constantly check their phones during meetings. One department head tells you, 'You could turn off the sound while watching one of our meetings and just by the body language and level of attention tell who is aligned with whom and who wishes the speaker would just shut up. It would be comical if it weren't so distressing'.

One team member tells you, 'I recently encountered a problem that a department head from another region had successfully solved, but the information was never shared, so here I am reinventing the wheel and wasting valuable time'. It is apparent that these so-called high performers are territorial and that 'each division for itself' attitude is becoming a cultural norm; unchecked, this has been slowing the team's response to line departments and customers.

This looks like a group that does not know how to play as a team. You don't want to diminish the individual talent, but you are concerned about the lack of cohesion. You need to find a way to help people think less about themselves and more about sharing work and information and achieving collective results for the good of the company.

Question 1. Is this team functional or dysfunctional? Justify your answer. Apply the Tuckman model on stages of team development and identify the level you think this team is at. Explain your answer.

Question 2. Apply the Situational model of leadership to this case and analyze the kind of leadership style that is likely to work in this situation, factoring in the followers' skills and characteristics.

Question 3. Assess the communication channel that is being used here- face-to-face, in terms of its benefits and drawbacks. Which other channels can be used in this scenario to effectively drive home the message that change is imperative? Please explain your choice.

Question 4. With reference to organization design and structure, identify and discuss the kinds of teams that exist in functional structures. What kind of structure does this case organization appear to have- please give it a specific name and justify your choice.

Question 5. Discuss the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Based on your knowledge, analyze which kind of rewards may be better used, with the help of 2-3 clear examples in this case.