Cultural differences and values responsible for some of the virtual team problems
It is prudent to mention that there were already well established historical and cultural norms in place before the inception of new virtual teams. In any case, a customer team that used to operate under the Celestial Voila umbrella existed before the new changes were implemented. Most of the members who worked with the initial team were drawn from France. One of the main roles played by differences in culture was the lack of proper coordination among various customer teams. The dominant French language could not permit other dialects to penetrate easily. The French language was used to conduct several businesses. Consequently, a feeling of isolation was gradually created among employees who could not communicate in French.
The terms and conditions that governed the formation of the new global and virtual teams were negotiated beyond the required limit to protect the cultural interests of certain groups. It is not merely the global strategies that were executed. It is also understood that certain cultures (such as Parisians) received more favors than others. Cultural imperialism was largely blamed on America because it appeared to force its cultural ideals even on non-Americans. The American Celestial people were the pinnacle of macro-level tension that existed between the US and France.
Typical problems of virtual teams
The laissez-faire style of leadership was a typical problem in some teams. It proved to be quite cumbersome to manage virtual teams that required close supervision in the course of operations. Some teams were affected by a lack of adequate work. Therefore, certain individuals were expected to depart the team at some point. However, it became difficult to determine who would leave any given team owing to minimal work. The latter state of affairs made several team members uncomfortable with their various places of work. Some of them even described the situation as horrible and unfortunate.
It is also apparent that lack of collaboration was a major problem as envisioned in this case study. It is only the virtual teams that worked under the ICT department that enjoyed some level of collaboration owing to advances in technology. Nonetheless, coordination was quite poor among the rest of the teams.
Virtual teams in this case study also faced the challenge of anxiety in the course of delivering their duties. For example, several contentious managerial issues demanded open forums for solutions to be found. Nonetheless, most issues were solved in board rooms away from the virtual teams. Needless to say, these teams also required forums where they could air their concerns regularly. However, this was never the case.
Morris’ leadership style in Celestial’s global customer team
James Morris had already carried out several international assignments on the leadership of virtual teams. He also recorded impressive success as a team leader in the Celestial customer group. The latter was witnessed during his tenure at American. It is interesting to learn that Morris steered his dedicated team to reverse the hard financial times at Americart when the company was experiencing bankruptcy. His transformational style of leadership was witnessed when he introduced the Product Family Management (PFM) methodology to address the miserable financial situation at Americart. The new merchandising method was eventually successful.
Morris was an innovative leader by all standards. From the PFM approach, his confidence and knowledge were evident. He adopted the best strategic business plan. Since the success of PFM demanded effective cooperation and coordination among different virtual teams, Morris must have employed superb organizational skills to manage diverse teams. Therefore, he was also a democratic and astute leader who understood the needs of workers.
The role of power and influence in furthering or hindering the acceptance of PFM
Substantial improvement in the relationship between Americart and Celestial was witnessed after the introduction of PFM. One of the success factors for this methodology was the ability of team leaders to re-organize and fully convince the customer teams. This implied that no other team leader could have succeeded in meeting the objectives of PFM. The type of power required to implement this methodology could only be derived from an influential leader with some transformational style of leadership.
On the other hand, weak leadership in place would have hindered both the acceptance of PFM and the change of strategic marketing plan. From this case study, Morris is powerful because he managed to lead a large team of researchers in implementing the new approach. Drummond also excelled at Voila after being assigned a duty by Morris. Gerald was a highly skilled individual recruited by Morris. Besides, the global team meetings were skillfully facilitated by Hanover. All these positions were critical in the eventual success of the PFM approach. The individuals were also considered to be powerful because they steered the growth and profitability of Celestial Corporation at a time when the organization had little hope to recuperate.
Factors that contributed to the initial lack of collaboration on the team
Lack of collaboration was mainly caused by the absence of active participation of members during the decision making processes. As already hinted out, most meetings were carried out in closed doors without involving the rest of the team members. This led to serious demoralization. As a consequence, some team members became reluctant to offer their services.
Individuals from different locations were sent in form of subgroups to conduct meetings with customers. The rationale behind such meetings was to address both the long-term and emerging challenges affecting production and marketing activities. Hence, collaboration was enhanced through face-to-face forums with customers.
Measures to avoid the PFM-Nourriture Excellence conflict that developed on the global customer team and between Celestial and Voila
Morris, Drummond, Couture, and Hanover should have adopted a new merchandising methodology through Product Family Management (PFM). The latter could have created a strategic business plan along with specific categories of food products. They could have also created a cordial an r working relationship with customers. The leaders should have adequately and thoroughly studied the preferences, practices, and the overall shopping experience of buyers in the market. The teams were expected to create a close working relationship or collaboration between retailers and producers. Various functions in the concerned companies were also supposed to work cooperatively. When there is a lack of collaboration and coordination, Product Family Management is bound to fail. For instance, employees from different departments such as production, finance, information technology, logistics, and marketing were supposed to cooperate at all times to minimize any chances of a conflict.
The re-organization of customer relationships may have reduced the conflict level in the PFM plan. Also, the customer teams that belonged to the internal operations of the organization required a decent customer relationship. In other words, their internal relationships with customer teams were supposed to be thoroughly checked. Although the above-mentioned roles were of great importance to all the participating teams, they were cumbersome to implement. Adequate or effective coordination of roles and departments would have eliminated the challenges associated with the concept of Product Food Management