Celestial's global client team - Discusses issues

下面为大家整理一篇 的essay代写范文 -- Celestial's global client team - Discusses issues，文章讲述文化差异从一开始就阻碍团队合作。尽管法国人习惯了传统的等级制商业模式，但美国人却提倡创新和变革。法国人不愿在商务活动中使用英语，这给美国团队成员获取平等资源造成了障碍。莫里斯不太可能执行他的计划以创建并行的业务结构并鼓励下属之间共享信息。

 

Celestial's global client team - Discusses issues

 

1. What role do cultural differences play in this case? Specify which values are responsible for some of the virtual team problems and for the tension between Celestial and Voila.

a) Cultural differences hindered the team collaboration at the very beginning. While French people were used to their traditional hierarchical business model, Americans advocated innovations and changes. French people were unwilling to use English when doing business which created barriers for American team members to gain equal resources. It was unlikely for Morris to implement his plan to create a parallel business structure and encourage information sharing among his subordinates.

b) Since David Hyde joined the virtual team, the communication network became American-based. Morris communicated directly with Hyde who was at Paris. Voila middle managers felt being kept in the dark and turned insecure to the PFM. And this caused the tension between Voila and Celestial and the direct conflict about choosing which program out of PFM and Nourriture Excellente later on.

c) The traditional French business model follows a strict hierarchical structure and ensures the authority of the leader. The French team members in Celestial team were used to get clear orders and assignments from their leader. However, Morris and Drummond’s leadership imperative was questioned due to their long-standing absence.

 

2. What typical problems of virtual teams can be seen in this case?

a) Conflict as well as cultural and geographical differences can interfere with team performance. As mentioned above, team members came from different parts of the world. Their way of thinking, working habits as well as language preferences can be quite different.

b) Team members are likely to be uncertain about the project, including what it is about or how it fits with their roles and expectations. Since the director and the team leader Morris and Drummond were in the U.S. all the time. The team members in Paris were uncertain of their duties. And it was hard to report their daily working process to their boss. When things went wrong, Morris was not in Paris often enough to help. Later on when the merger happened, the “double heads” situation made it even more difficult for team members to conduct their own work.

c) It’s hard for virtual team members to get to know each other and create trust within the team. The online meeting of the Celestial virtual team was limited by interaction dynamics, which were formal and tightly controlled. Agendas often were rushed, with no time for free discussion. Team members felt they have no space in meetings that they could express themselves and explore people’s ideas. Thus, team members were not bonding with each other or felt a sense of belonging. This would dampen their teamwork spirit and enthusiasm and may probably reduce their work efficiency.

 

3. How effective was Morris in lading Celestial’s global customer team? Describe his leadership style.

a) Morris was experienced in doing international assignments. He successfully leads the Celestial customer team for North American firm, Americart. In 1990s, Americart faced bankruptcy. Thanks to Morris’s team and his Product Family Management (PFM), the business results for both Celestial and Americart were greatly improved.  

b) Morris recommended PFM as a way to improve the relationship between Viola and Celestial Corporation. Later on, he formed a new international team based on the original one and started to implement changes and tried to change the way Viola and Celestial related with each other. He encountered quite a few resistances and eventually came up with a compromising and combining solution.

c) Morris’s leadership style is laissez-faire and democratic. He advocates a task-oriented spirit among his subordinates. As long as they can get the job done, he does not really care about their approaches. Meanwhile, he does not assign specific tasks or provides exact guidance.

 

4. Analyze the role of power and influence in furthering or hindering the acceptance of PFM. Which individuals were powerful and why?

a) Couture possessed a lot of power in hindering the acceptance of PFM. Since he maintained close personal contacts with Voila. He owned the right of speech among Voila managers. He turned to be more convincing and trustworthy than the Americans who wanted a radical change. Besides, both Couture and Voila believed the business ran just well and the change was unnecessary. Besides, Couture even introduced his successor to the “power dinner” to maintain the exclusive hierarchical rights to this power.

b) Drummond spent little time in Paris and barely actually knew her team members. In this case, her legitimacy was questionable. The team members were not likely to trust and respect someone who didn’t want to establish any personal contacts with them, or someone who was never there when problems occurred. Thus, Drummond didn’t really have power in furthering the acceptance of PFM. But anyway, the true problem was Voila was never truly ready for PFM.

 

5. What factors contributed to the initial lack of collaboration on the team? What factors and interventions eventually resulted in successful team collaboration?

a) The conflicting business models contributed to the initial lack of collaboration on the team. While the previous team which was comprised primarily of French nationals did the business following the French model, Morris expected the new team to follow the American business model. The French team generally respects the organizational hierarchy and the team members are used to rely on their leader’s personal contacts within Voila to carry out business tasks. When Morris tried to implement radical changes in the business model of the team, French team members are simply not hospitable to the new “American style”.  

b) The conflicting cultures contributed to the initial lack of collaboration as well. France and the United States have the long-standing tensions among cultural problems. When Americans are consistently advocating their innovations in multiple areas, French people are indifferent or even resistant towards “American Fashion”. They believe Americans are trying to implement cultural dominance. Besides, French people are rather proud of their language and they are way above speaking English. This undoubtedly created much more barriers for the collaboration within French and American members in the team.

c) The scattered distribution of the team members contributed to the initial lack of collaboration on the team. Since all the members can hardly get together for face-to-face meetings, and most of the virtue meetings are highly structured, with no extra time for free discussion, team members are not able to bond and create a sense of belonging.

d) Morris encourages information sharing among team members which urge everybody to learn about PFM and how it successfully worked before. More face-to-face meetings are held to let people get to know each other and form a team spirit.

 

6. What should Morris, Drummond, Couture, and Hanover have done to avoid the PFM-Nourriture Excellente conflict that developed on the global customer team and between Celestial and Voila?  

a) Morris should study the French case respectively, because the customer context and market are extremely different in different countries. The traditional business model and working habits for workers of different nationalities are varied as well. So he shouldn’t simply imitate the successful pattern and force Voila to accept his radical plan and ignore the practical situation.

b) Drummond should spend more time in Paris, to actually get to know her subordinates and their needs. Meanwhile to create a plan that is suitable for the French case. It’s extremely important for her to maintain the leadership authority in a culturally diverse virtual team.

c) Couture shouldn’t plan things like “power dinner” to maintain his power. This would undoubtedly damage the internal relationship within the Celestial team and intensify the conflict between radical Americans and conservative French. Above all, this went against the initial plan of Morris-to create a more multifunctional team and encourage information sharing.

d) I think Hanover did well in resolving the conflict by making contact with each party privately.

 

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