Discussion items 1. Is Dale ’ s final statement justified? Why or why not? 2. Wh

Question

Discussion items 1. Is Dale ’ s final statement justified? Why or why not?

2. What are the key problems in the case? Would you do anything differently to solve these problems? What would you do differently?

3. What are the key factors for promoting team effectiveness when implementing virtual team?

We Do Not Speak the Same Language Diane Yates Dale Rodriguez thought she had it all figured out. Having the team in Egypt create the web training would free her instructional designer to do other, more urgent, projects. Like many managers, Dale is forced to do more with less-less people, ss mone less time. Even so, her instructional designers are not able to update all of the train ing. Each instructional designer is able to create one or two new courses a year, and update two to three courses a year, depending on the length of the class and difficulty of the course. With all of her team working full time, they create or maintain 25 to 30 courses a year. This means that Dale must look for other ways to update courses. Sometimes she has the customer support teams update classes. Sometimes product teams or documentation teams update classes. For this particular web-based training, she decided to let the Egyptian team create the training. She would use Aidan Quinn, one of her on-site instructional designers, to review the training the Egyptian team created, checking it for tech- nical and grammatical accuracy. The two teams would work in tandem, with the bulk of the work being done by the team in Egypt. Aidan liked not being over involved with the project; because he was busy creating a brand new course that was taking up much of his time. Dale was proud of the fact that she could get things done in a creative and cost-effective manner. Another big plus to having the Egyptian team create the training was that they worked more cheaply than the Americans did. Dale had used virtual teams before, with much success, so she was certain the arrangement would work well for this project. BACKGROUND Dale has five full-time instructional designers that work at the company head- quarters in the United States. They are part of a mid-sized software company that creates electronic design automation (EDA) tools for chip makers, PCB board designers, electric harnesses, and other high-tech disciplines. The company posted S920 million in sales in 2007, and employs 4,000 people worldwide. Dale manages a group of employees whose job is to create tool training classes for cus- tomers. The company owns the licenses to about 400 software tools, and is adding

Explanation / Answer

Answer 1:

In my opinion Dale’s final statement is totally justified. As it was Aidan efforts that made this training module successful. Aidan really worked hard on the project, he went beyond his duties to overcome the defects he identified in the module. Even though he did not received any support from Massoud, he started directly contacting his team members and over come the errors he identified.

Therefore, when Dale mentioned in his final statement that the Egypt team would not have worked in smooth way without the support of Dale. And dale overcome the hurdles of time and distance to work on this project and also despite of his own project deadlines he managed this project wonderfully. Crediting Aidan for his efforts is completely justified.

Answer 2:

The key problems identified in this case include lack of communication between Aidan and Massoud, the cultural differences and the difference in timezone. However, cultural differences and the difference in time zone can be overcome if there is proper communication between Aidan and Massoud.

If I were in place of Dale, I would have tackle the situation in different way. In order to become an effective manager, the first step is to collaborate with the team mates and subordinates. Both Aidan and Massoud worked under the supervision of Dale.

After Aidan discussed the matter with Dale, she should have first contacted Massoud in effective way and must have identified that Massoud thought that Aidan was disrespectful. If she stepped ahead and determined the real problem, she could have built a bridge to overcome this communication gap between Aidan and Massoud.It would have saved Aidans time and efforts.

Answer 3:

The key factors that help in promoting team effectiveness when implementing virtual teams include:

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