ONLINEX Is a Large Technology Company,on Its Way to Competing

Essay

ONLINEX is a large technology company,on its way to competing with Yahoo and AOL.ONLINEX acknowledges that its success is primarily due to the performance of its project teams.Unfortunately,project team members have increasingly missed project due dates and customers have complained about the company's products and services.Sallie Masterson,the vice president of human resources,is investigating the use of teams within the company.The CEO is very concerned and has asked Sallie to develop a plan to improve the performance of the company's teams.
Most teams are cross-functional and are composed of vary diverse employees with different values and needs.Many employees also work virtually.Some employees want to work at the company due to its promotional opportunities while others desire the novelty and autonomy associated with work tasks.Once employees are hired,they experience a short orientation that focuses on human resource policies and procedures and the company's mentoring program.There is no formal training regarding group/team dynamics.
Most teams rely on work product produced by other teams.This makes the teams interdependent and prone to conflict.Teams do not have shared goals and team leaders often report to different managers,making collaboration and cooperation a bit more difficult to achieve.The company tries to hire people who have teaming skills and a learning goal orientation.
The company's CEO recently held a town-hall meeting to discuss industry competition and to extol the need for more effective teamwork in order to remain competitive.Some employees left the meeting feeling good about the CEO and the company's vision whereas others were more cynical.These latter employees complained about the lack of team-based rewards and poor hiring.More senior employees find some of the newly hired Millennials to be offensive and ill-prepared to work within the company culture.
Sallie is staying late at work trying to come up with a plan of attack.Should she conduct an employee survey,hold town-hall meetings or focus groups,talk to customers,or implement team training?
Use the 3-Step Problem-Solving Approach and the Organizing Framework to address this situation.