Simmons Laboratories Case Study
Simmons Laboratories is an organization that takes a strong approach on small teams to solve problems in studies. The organization has a project head, Dr. William Goh, who sets up the teams to work on a project. Simmons Laboratories team leader for the Photon Correlator is Brandon Newbridge. Newbridge took pride in his achievements of moving up quickly through the ranks at Simmons Laboratories and kept one thing in mind, Dr. Goh telling him “The sky is the limit for anyone who can produce!” This was all threatened by Lester Zapf. Dr. Goh suggested Lester Zapf work on Newbridge’s team to get him familiar with the research and organization. Newbridge noticed Zapf’s competence of the research, some of which Zapf compared to his own research. However, this also made Newbridge feel threatened and in turn, he did not really want Zapf on his team but agreed nonetheless. Often, Newbridge would stay late and look over the research. He felt challenged when Zapf also stayed late and read over the previous reports. Newbridge’s immediate thought was Zapf would find a problem in the reports, however, Zapf only provided positive feedback. Following further review, Zapf found some issues with previous experiments and wanted to present these in a small group meeting rather than the normal morning meeting. During the meeting, Zapf became fond of the team’s mathematician, Link. In the first meeting since discussing Zapf’s findings, Newbridge had stated there had been new findings and that they should reevaluate the idea that there was no way possible in completing the experiment. A group member, Davenport, had spoken up and said that he does not believe there is any reason to reevaluate the previous findings because there is no way possible to find different results. This agitated Zapf. Zapf began by listening to the group’s reasons of why the project was abandoned but dwindled away the rest of the group ideas and stated the problem with the team was group think. This did not help the way that Newbridge had already felt about Zapf. Zapf then decided that he would work alone on his findings and would not adhered to team meetings. As time went on, the meeting leadership switched from the department leader, Newbridge, to Zapf and some members became absent. After some time, Newbridge went to speak to Goh. Goh asked Newbridge if Davenport and Oliver would continue being on the team. It had come to Newbridge’s attention that Zapf had mentioned something to Goh about them but had left out Link’s name. Newbridge approached Davenport and Oliver to see how they had felt about the changes, and they did not seem too fond of it. They felt they could not ask questions about Zapf’s finding without facing some kind of judgement. Newbridge had noticed that Zapf was becoming successful in breaking up the group. After six months of Zapf entering the group there was a meeting with important stakeholders and team leaders of the projects. Newbridge thought it would be best if Zapf took the lead of these meeting even though Zapf was not the team leader, but Newbridge was not aware of all the findings made by Zapf and felt he could not present the ideas as well. Goh thought it would be a great idea to have Zapf take the lead at the meeting. At the meeting Zapf was praised for his work by Goh and Newbridge took part along with many stakeholders. After a few weeks, Newbridge looked for a new job and accepted one without letting anyone know in advance. Newbridge quit his job at Simmons Labs by sending a letter to Goh and explaining that he needed to take some time for personal issues, which was not true. Newbridge also stated that he thought Zapf could supply the leadership the team needed. Goh was annoyed by the letter. Goh had actually already offered Zapf another job. Goh was faced with a dilemma and asked Zapf if he would like to continue on the team or take the other job. Zapf chose the other job, leaving Goh to briefly place Link as team leader which hurt the team determinately.
Simmons Laboratories has a few issues within in this case. The issues range from reward systems, leadership, and group issues. The reward system at the Simmons Laboratories seem to be a more individual reward base versus team base rewards. This can be seen when Newbridge remembers Dr. Goh saying to him “The sky is the limit for anyone who can produce!” Individual rewards in teams tend to lead to self-advancement and not sharing with the team. This seems to be the motivational factor Newbridge but this begins to become threaten with the addition of Zapf to the team. The next issue seemed to be a self-evaluation in the work done by Newbridge. Newbridge was blocking out the possibility of issues with his own findings using perceptual defense (McShane and Von Glinow 191). This became noticeable when Zapf noticed that the work was close to the same work that he had done in the past. For some reason, the relation of the work compared to Jennings surface upset Newbridge because he was unaware of Jennings surface and the reference made him feel uncomfortable. Newbridge had a fear of expressing his feelings to his boss, Dr. Goh. This is represented several times in the case. Once when Newbridge did not want to have Zapf on his team and again when Newbridge was leaving the organization because of the effect Zapf had on the team. There seems to be a lack of truth in the open communication between Goh and Newbridge. “Executives should meet teams to improve moral and transmit and receive information fully and meaningfully” (McShane and Von Glinow 273). Another issue is that Goh did not really include Newbridge in on the decision of the addition of Zapf to the team. Again the individual reward system can be seen when Newbridge begins to fear the addition of Zapf to his team, because he remembers what Goh had said “the man who produces get ahead in this outfit”. This also is affecting Newbridge’s belief that his performance will lead to a particular outcome (McShane and Von Glinow 133). When Newbridge had usually stayed at the office after everyone had went home, he found himself battling with Zapf for being that last person in the office. Zapf had found a problem with the past reports and called to report the issues to Newbridge. Rather than being excited that something could be fixed, Newbridge was more upset that Zapf was able to find weakness of the previous experiments and be able to show how they were inconclusive. This shows that he is more worried about his self-enhancement to the organization rather than the work being done correctly (McShane and Von Glinow 200). Due to the findings the usual morning team meetings were canceled to have a smaller discussion between Link, Zapf, and Newbridge. The problem with this is that the experiment was completed as a team effort and now some of the group is being excluded from this smaller meeting. “Effective team members transmit information freely rather than hording” (McShane and Von Glinow 228). Zapf also started analyzing the previous reports for the next several days by himself. This issue with this is that the whole progression is supposed to rely on the team, and also this shows by adding to the team, resources are now being used to get Zapf up to speed. This made Newbridge weary of what Zapf might find, which could make the line of research unsound or unimaginative. Newbridge even takes it a step further to protect his team’s past findings by explaining in the team meeting that he does not see the point of reevaluating the previous findings. One of the employee’s, Davenport, seemed to agree with Newbridge, that he is satisfied with the previous findings. This is an issue because rather than supporting the findings of Zapf, knowing there was reasoning behind Zapf’s findings, Newbridge disregarded them to protect his leadership. There seems to be a pressure to conform. Davenport tends to agree with the statements of Newbridge while others agree as well, whereas no one disagrees with each other and conforms to the group (McShane and Von Glinow 242). Davenport also stated that they were unable to advance because they could not approach the problem with the equipment and physical capacity of their lab. This shows a restriction of resources. Zapf, after explaining why the experiment was not impossible, went on to say that American emphasis on team ideas as mediocrity. Cultural norms such as the team meetings are vital to the team’s communication channel (McShane and Von Glinow 262). Even though Zapf’s ideas may be true they may be seen as negative. Zapf again wanted to study the problem by himself instead of including the whole team. This is a contradiction to the organization’s culture of small research teams being the as the basic organization of effective research. Newbridge become disturbed because Zapf was beginning to take over the leadership of the team in team meetings. When speaking with Goh, Newbridge was afraid to express his concerns about Zapf because they exposed a weakness on his account, as well as Goh was impressed with Zapf and his contacts. This is an issue because Newbridge is afraid to express his concerns because of Zapf’s centrality. Zapf has started to make the group more interdependent on him by working alone and also creating an issue of the organization relying on him for his work and contacts (McShane and Von Glinow 290). Newbridge started to notice that the knowledge that Zapf brought to the group were not compensating for the evidence of the team continuing to work together. It seems that the addition of Zapf had hurt the team and their work. The meeting began being skipped. The issue is that the meeting are the way that the team effectively communicates with each other on what is happening to advance the experiments. Zapf also began to have low opinions of the team member, except for Link, who he had become fond of early on. When meetings did take place Zapf would diminish other team member’s statements to “people’s ignorance of the facts” instead of debating the information. This is the point where Zapf is now producing self-enhancement and trying to conform the group to his views. This is another issue because he basically called the others’ work stupid. He is hurting the team’s morale, which could lead to the lack of sharing of ideas. Another problem with the communication between Zapf and Newbridge was that Zapf was going directly to Goh and discussing what he thought was incompetency in some of the team members. This is a problem because the issue is not being handled within the group, which can cause distrust within the group. The team needs to trust in one another and develop was to manage conflict within the team (McShane and Von Glinow 233). Zapf never mentioned Links name. The reason why this could be an issue is because now Zapf is using his relation to Goh as an advantage instead of working to resolve any issues or concerns within the team. Zapf is keeping his visibility with Goh by meeting with him sharing his advances and sharing information about the team (McShane and Von Glinow 291). Instead of going directly back to Zapf, Newbridge approached Davenport and Oliver, the two team members that Zapf had suggested were weak links in the group. Politicking begins to become an issue because everyone is starting to talk about each other and the issues instead of coming together and resolving them. A politically charged work environment can hinder productivity, erode trust, and lead to morale and retention issues (McShane and Von Glinow 302). Due to the breakdown of the team and Newbridge being aware of what each person was doing, especially Zapf, he felt Zapf should take the lead at a meeting with sponsors. This issue is that usually the team leader takes the lead in these meetings but because of Zapf doing most of the work on his own, it seemed that Newbridge was unaware of what work and advancements that were being performed. Newbridge also felt that Zapf should take the lead, because he feared Zapf would point out the inadequacies within Newbridge. This starts to show the breakdown in trust of what Newbridge thought Zapf would say about his work and team leadership. Newbridge wanted to Zapf to take the lead at the meeting but was worried about how the team might feel about that being they would not be included in that particular meeting. Newbridge addressed his concerns to his boss, Goh, who then stated that he did not believe anyone would care. This is an issue because in team work these things should be addressed in a group manner, instead of rewarding or recognizing one group’s member. This reward is more of a job status reward which enhances the job status mentality and encourages a more bureaucratic hierarchy (McShane and Von Glinow 160). This will lead to individualizing the group even further. Newbridge began searching for another job without discussing this with anyone. Here is more of the breaking down of team value, and more of a self-approach. Newbridge left the organization by mailing a letter to Goh’s home and stating that the decision was abrupt because of personal reasons. Goh found that this was weird because he thought they had a warm relationship. The problem is the open communication between Goh and Newbridge had been threaten by Zapf. This issues continue because Goh thought that Newbridge had such a high regard for Zapf, which Newbridge believed in Zapf’s work but not in his team work ability. Zapf seemed to also be surprised about Newbridge leaving. Another concern with the communication within the team. The team was left in detrimental health because Zapf was already given another job offer and Link was appointed as temporary team leader. There are many issues referring the team conformation, needs, and information sharing, along with the organization hierarchy.
The options for making the new team more organized and confident in each other could be by restarting the team process. The team should work through team building because they have regressed in their teams. The team could go through a team building activity or intervention. This will rebuild team trust (McShane and Von Glinow 233). The issue is that a team intervention is usually only used for general solutions for general problems (McShane and Von Glinow 233). Team building should continue within day to day activities not just in a team building activity. The team does not only have one issue they also have an issue with communication and politics. The team seems to be more of a reciprocal interdepended. The high task interdependence should get the team back to being motivated to being a part of the team. “The problem is when group members have different goals the team work can cause problems” (McShane and Von Glinow 227). Using the five C’s is a big part of making the team better. Starting with cooperation. The team will need to able to work together rather than alone. Rather than working on the project by themselves like Zapf. This will help the team benefit from each other. The next step would be to coordinate. The team will need to know the work of other team member and not just their own. The third step would be to communicate. Unfortunately the team had issues communicating with each other not only because they feared insults from Zapf but also because they were conforming to Newbridge. “Effective communication should transmit the information freely, efficiently, and respectively” (McShane and Von Glinow 228). This will allow team members to speak about their ideas and listen to others effectively. The fourth step comforting. This will help coworker build each other’s self-worth and confidence. The fifth step would be to conflict resolve issues within the team. The team will need to be able to address any conflict in the team and resourcefully come together and resolve this conflict which in turn will help reduce politicking within the teams (McShane and Von Glinow 228). The problem may be that not every team is able to do this because of the diversity of the team and the back ground of the team members. For example, Zapf thought that Americans team skills mediocre. Once the team has developed these skills there needs to be a way of preventing the team norms from changing even with addition of team members. This can happen by introducing team based norms and clearly state what the team norms are (McShane and Von Glinow 234). When adding a team member the team should make sure the new addition understands the team norms and will be a good fit for the team. Unfortunately this is not always able to happen. For example, Goh had chosen Zapf to join the team and did not evaluate if Zapf would actually benefit the team or fit the team norms. Another way to make the team more successful would to make sure they have enough resources in order to adequately complete their experiments. Unfortunately, this is not the case and Davenport stated that is why he thought they should not pursue continuing the experiment. The team should continue with their team meetings. They should use the meeting to speak up and address any concerns or problems. There are many effective ways of doing this. One way of effectively working together to resolve issues is brainstorming. Brainstorming is where the “group tries to think of as many ideas as possible” (McShane and Von Glinow 243). The problem with brainstorming is that team members can often forget their own ideas while listening to others or conformity affect, when hearing another person’s thoughts might keep others from their own ideas (McShane and Von Glinow 243). Instead, they could also use brain writing which minimizes this problem by writing the ideas down. Electronic brain storming might benefit this group even more because it allows them to write down their ideas anonymously and build off of others ideas. This will keep them from conforming to other’s ideas and backing bad ideas. The issue is that it is too controlled and technological. Communication is an issue this organization faces. The problem is that Goh needs to communicate more with the team members rather than just understanding what is told to him from someone who appears vital to him and is visible.
The team should restructure their team norms and communicate them with any additions to the team. While currently Link is a temporary team member, the new leader needs to be able to fit the team’s norms to effectively advance the team in its research. The communication needs to be more reciprocal throughout the team because the team is working on one experiment and should have the same goal in mind. In order to get the team to work together more efficient the Goh should introduce a more team base reward system for reaching the goals as a team rather than the reward that a person who can produce can get a head in the organization. By introducing a team base reward will also reduce the independent work and help others help each other to achieve the same goal. The team should continue with the team meeting and including everyone, even the secretary, this allows the team members to feel important and with reinforce the employee empowerment. In order for this to be effective all employees must have an open line of communication without fear of judgement. Each employee should have the right to express their ideas respectively. This may appear to be hard if there is a team member who feel they are superior to the other team members, for example how Zapf made some of the team members feel. The team should cooperate with each other and understand each other’s work and not just their own. Team members will benefit from this in team meeting and if this does not work they could always try electronic brainstorming. The electronic brainstorming will protect other emotions and allow for them to get their ideas out while others can even advance or disprove those ideas effectively. The problem with the team was Zapf would just call the ideas ignorant. The team should comfort each other advancing the team members self-worth, especially those team members that had their self-worth damaged, Oliver and Davenport. The team also needs to be able to effectively resolve conflict, this will also help reduce politics within the team. By rebuilding the team through the five C’s the teams would be able to trust each other and work more efficiently. The team will also make better advancements with the correct and sufficient resources.