Greg james at sun microsystem (rh)

Greg James at Sun Microsystems, Inc.
1. Who do you think is responsible for the HS Holding crisis? Explain.
It seems to me that no one is at fault in particular; this problem shows a big problem of misunderstanding and communication between the teams. First, there is a problem of protocol, no one can get in touch with the US team because they are using the weekdays numbers and not the week endnumbers. At the same time, there is a lack of trust and respect between the teams; Praveen (India) didn’t look very far to find a way to contact Nick Elliott (US) because of his resentment towards him. So he preferred to resolve it himself without the help of the US team. Adding to this problem, the queue created by Jamal (Dubai) wasn’t supposed to be used for emergency requests. Moreover the teamfrom Dubai created this queue based on wrong instructions; each team from the different countries has their own concept of the use of the queue. So as we can see, the big problem here is the system, as a whole, established between the teams. They cannot benefit of the good communication. As Pam Lawry (vice president) said to Greg James: “your team members are all acting like they are on separateteams…” That is why it cannot work on the long term and here we have the example with the problem of H.S Holding. We can notice, as well, that there is a lack of professionalism. First, we have the example with Nick Elliott and Praveen Devilal; because of personal feelings, Praveen let the situation get worse. Secondly, there is Nick that didn’t update the numbers of the client (HS Holdings)thinking that the person in need of this number will directly contact him. So everyone is responsible for this case.

2. What role did diversity play in this team?
It is important for Sun Microsystems and it is one of their strengths to work with global teams. The company has employees and clients all over the world: 35 000 employees in 47 countries. Sun provide complete information technologysolutions such as software, hardware, storage, etc… That is why it is a necessity to be available at all times to resolve problem that can happen with the products. So, having a global team permit to be closer to the customers by being available at all time. As a consequence, the employees can respond to the needs of the customers in time. Moreover, having a global team permit to get “a larger pool oftalent”. It can also complicate the process and the relationships between the co-workers because of the different cultures. The diversity in this team created problem. They couldn’t get a good communication because they have different time-zone. For example, in the Middle East, the days off are on Monday and Tuesday whereas in Europe and United States, they are on the Saturday and Sunday. The factthat the global manager Greg James is from the Unites States, is creating problem as well. Yes indeed, the other teams from the world are feeling a bit excluded respect to the US team. Especially the team from Dubai, the employees feel that they are not as useful as the other team. The responsibilities are less interesting and the communication with Greg James is less important than the rest ofthe teams. Because of the distance and the lack of communication, the teams do not know each other and holding bad feelings towards each other, for some of them. The difference of culture makes some misunderstanding between them. Therefore they are not trusting each other and doing their work in their own way instead of doing it as an identity.
So diversity can be an advantage like adisadvantage, HS Holdings crisis is one of the examples.

3. What should James do in the short and long-term?
The biggest problem in this case is the communication between the team members and the team leader so it seems obvious that James should increase it. In the short term, the company should organize a seminar with the members of the team. Games, activities, cases simulations should be scheduled to...