Sun Microsystems Greg James

• What are the problems facing the global team?

The key problems facing Greg James and his team at Sun Microsystems are as follows:

1. Work processes were not comprehensive and did not adrress the business requirements fully. Some of the tools were faulty and untested in real life which resulted in process breakdown(example: call handling software diverted an emergency ticket to the wrong queue).

2. Team Dynamics were not fully evolved to support global operations acrross multiple countries, cultures and time zones. Specifically,

a. The teams operated out 4 countries working in silos without adequate interaction and co-ordination with other teams. The cultural nuaances resulting formation of subgroups, lack of trust and insufficient formal and informal channels of communication further aggravated the situation. Each team felt that they are treated unfairly as compared to the other teams.

b. While there are instances of inefficiency at an individual level, theere is a larger issue about the adequacy and efficacy systems and processes.

3. Most teams were complaining of long working hours,

4. Lack of Accountability: Everyone would blame the other team if things don’t work out.

• What are the causes of the problems?

The main causes of the problems may be classified under the following categories:

Team Design:

1. Task objectives and sensitivity to timelines not specifically made clear to all the team members. Furthermore, since the big picture has also not been communicated effectively the regional teams were focussed on their respective tasks and not bothered about the collective objectives of the team.

2. Task Interdependencies were not clearly identified and put in the formal team structure.

3. Poorly designed work hours for the India team with long hours required by all employees thereby creating employee dissatisfaction.

4. It also appears that the recruitment process could have been executed more carefully keeping in mind the global team...