Creating and Managing Effective Teams at Luxurion Auto - Case Study Example

The workplace environment during the last 20 years shifted from designing work task for a singular employee to a team focus. The individual no longer exist and has been replaced by the team as the driver that gets things accomplished within a firm. Some scholars in the organizational management field have gone as far as stating that all work in a corporation should be to be complete by a team of people since this is the optimal work structure that provides added benefits over employees working in an individual basis reporting to a particular supervisor (Robbins, 2005). This paper provides an analysis of a management simulation of a luxury car company called Luxurion Auto. The purpose of the simulation is create an effective team is to assemble a team who’s main duty is discovering the design features and innovation the customer desires by performing market research and generic benchmarking. My team selection among the seven qualified candidates followed a logical strategic analytical selection process to optimize synergy and productivity for Luxurion Auto. The objectives used were for the creation of a cross function task force. A cross functional task force is a team composed of members representing different functional departments or work units in which each member is at a similar hierarchical level (Schermerhorn & Hunt & Osborn, 2003, p.204). As the manager of the company I had to choose five team members and discard two for either being under qualified, not compatible with the interpersonal or project requirements or outgunned by a better player in the group for the particular position the person qualified .The assessor or advisor position requires a person that can understand human behavior and provide information to people in a way they can comprehend the message. The person must have the ability to motivate others as well as being responsible for helping the staff develop their skills and abilities. Petra Diodorus has worked as a training and development manager in the past as well as having experience as an educator in the classroom setting. She is a very poor fit for the position. The creator position requires a person with creativity, self initiative and a vision to take an idea or concept and transform it in to a functional product or service. Harvey Tang was the player selected for this position. Mr. Tang has 15 years of experience as a senior designer in the automobile industry working in designing work on all functional stages of the business. Harvey can become a great asset for the firm since he enjoys traveling and performing on the field market research and networking with other in the industry to gain insight others would not be able to retrieve. Networking is a process that involves establishing mutually beneficial relationships with other business people and potential clients and / or customers (Ward, 2008). The third team position is the controller / organizer position. The job requires a person with managerial & leadership skills. This individual is the key to creating a work environment that fosters cooperation, harmony and unity. He is responsible for the final output the team generates. The chosen one to become the controller of the special cross functional task force is Marcell Collins. Marcell is the ideal person because he has dealt with these types of issues before as a project manager in the industry. The fourth position needed to perform the project work effectively is the promoter or maintainer. This job entails dealing with the external affair that can influence the outcome of any alternative as well as the general external forces that must be consider in the design process such as regulatory concerns or customer concerns over any particular issue. The candidate chosen for the position was Janice Luikens. Mrs. Luikens has experience working n public relations for a competitor of the company, Mercedes, implying she knows the types of things and issues that a luxury car make may have to deal with. The final member needed to create the five person team is linker or producer. This individual is the one who coordinates, integrates and provides direction on how the team should proceed to accomplish the desired goal. The best candidate for this position out of the seven alternative options is Maria de Grassa. This person has an educational preparation in human resources and has worked as a human resource strategist in the past. This background allows Maria to determine the work layout and coordination of human capital needed to guide the firm in the desired strategic direction. Managing a cross functional team requires the commitment of everyone involved in the work task, since the only way the members are going to be able to share the wealth of knowledge in the functional business discipline of expertise of the members is to communicate the information. Scenarios that bring counter productivity such as arguments, unethical behavior, division or conflict should be minimized to optimize the work environment. Conflict is a two-headed monster whose negative consequences can be reversed by the project manager to use the input to improve communication among the members. The Luxurion Auto simulation provided the user with the opportunity to serve the function of the general manager of the organization. During the simulation the general manager had many opportunities to mitigate conflict by applying managerial skills to counterattack conflict. The first stage of the simulation the actions of a team member induce a hostile environment that limited productive communication. The appropriate action taken by the general manager was fostering communication by creating a climate of trust established by implementing elements such a feedback mechanism, daily discussions and empowering the employees. The efficiency of the team was held back by the concern of the members over the lack of a physical presence of the designer who worked on the road and was not able to participate in team meetings The general manager found an alternative to eliminate the constraint and increase productivity, efficiency, transfer of information and overall efficiency of the work performed by them. A technological advanced tool was introduced to improve the communication integrate Harvey into the team meetings. An electronic teleconferencing platform utilizing VoiP technology was implemented with the help of an IT consultant to integrate the missing link into the daily conversation of the team. The performance of the team was optimized by the general manager through a variety of decisions that translated into turning a negative occurrence into an action that adds value to the company by improving the performance of the team. The initial moves of the GM that performed the simulation were very accurate and were backed by the consultant that provided advice and feedback throughout the work schedule. The situations presented in the simulation were common events that are a part of any team formation. The initial storm of constraints and conflict is something that occurs frequently so its occurrence should be no surprise for anyone. The important thing is to keep an open mind about the alternatives that can be used to find the desired result. Tips that can improve the performance of a team include: Smooth and constant sharing of information Balancing the empowering of team members and the ability of the leader to institute work guidelines Allow the members the freedom to make their own decisions Always emphasis that work in not something that one should due an obligation, instead foster a fun work environment Create work task that are challenging and bring out the best in the team member (Johnson, 2007). The results of the simulation show the students or young business persons who had the privilege to run this fabulous learning experience that teamwork is more important than other business aspects since the implication of its proper implementation and managing of human resources can have serious positive effects in the effectiveness of any work setting. Everyone in the workplace must learn that their value to a company increases if the employee is able to adapt their mentality and customs to better serve the needs of the firm through cooperation with other colleagues. In all industries teamwork has become the cornerstone towards build an organization fit for long term success in the business environment of the 21st century. References Johnson, K.L. (2007). Give Your Team a Challenge They Can’t Resit. Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. Robbins, S. (2005). Organization Behavior (11th ed.). Prentice Hall. Schermerhorn, J.R., Hunt, J., Osborn, R. (2003). Organizational Behavior (8th). New York: John Wiley & Sons. Ward, S. (2008). Business Networking. About. Retrieved April 5, 2008 from http://sbinfocanada.about.com/cs/marketing/g/busnetworking.htm Read More