Managing a Global Team: Greg James at Sun Microsystems Inc Case Solution

1. Prepare a detailed time line of the events surrounding Greg James’ team’s failure to respond to the HS Holdings problem.

2. Has Greg James failed as a team leader? Use the facts from case to support your analysis and the readings to help you define what a good leader does.

Compensation mismatch was another source of discontent amongst the France team and the US team. Somehow, the compensation information of the US team leaked towards the French team, and that led to the thought that French team work was not good enough, albeit they worked for longer hours. The 30 per cent slack from the American remuneration was a source of much discomfort for the French counterparts. Such loopholes allowing confidential information pass-through is a depiction of James lack of observation.

Similarly, vacations tended to be another point of quarrel, whereby the French team took several weeks of vacations in line with the law, which was a daunting factor for the American counterparts because it led them to believe that the workload was unfairly burdened at their end.

On the other hand, the UAE team had concerns about the lack of face-to-face contact with James, which was leading them to assume that they were becoming a subgroup to the India office. The UAE team requires extensive relationship building before finalizing contracts.

The aforementioned point of concerns is just some vital portions of the discrepancies that became evident, but it all revolved around the leadership of James. The cultural aspect of the team is of paramount importance and must be placed at the forefront of the strategic goal of the team. According to Bruce Bragley, “leadership is the ability to essentially motivate and guide a group of individuals towards a common purpose”. Additionally, according to a research by Harvard Business School on leadership, one vital element has been found in a high degree across effective managers and that was “emotional intelligence”. The primary three elements of emotional intelligence are combined in self-management skills, whilst the last two, empathy and social skills, are concerned with an individual’s relation with others around him/her. Therefore, a good leader must be an individual who can manage people from diverse backgrounds and perpetuate that spark of thought throughout the team while being able to carry him in a manner that becomes a source of inspiration for all under his line of command.

3. What would you recommend that Greg James do to make his team more effective in the future? For each of your recommendations, indicate the problem it will solve and explain why the recommendation will work. Be sure to use class readings as a resource in answering this question.

Greg James has been viewed from a broad perspective covering his weaknesses with respect to the problems perceived through the process of finding a solution.

It is crucial to note that the cultural differences must be delineated from the team. This can only be done through a process of cultural integration. This process can be handled through numerous ways such as allowing the French team to spend their vacations in India, US, or the UAE. Similarly, providing the incentive to the Indian team to spend their vacations in any of the three countries would enhance the know-how pertaining to cultural perceptions. This can also be perpetuated by allowing for the best team player to be exchanged across teams so that the working of other teams can be identified. This would allow for knowledge sharing and grooming of teams while keeping them at a similar standard.