Managing the Virus Hunters

1. Keeping Professionals excited about work that is routine and standardized and chaotic is a major challenge for Vincent Weafer. How could he use technical, human, and conceptual skills to maintain an environment that encourages innovation and professionalism among the virus hunters?

The job of the virus hunters is, round-the-clock, a hectic and chaotic job. With professionals facing new challenges every day, which just keep on getting tougher and tougher, it could be a cause to demotivate the professionals, and demote innovation. Vincent Weafer is in a position, where he has to encourage his team to remain professional, and work with as much innovation as possible; and for this purpose, he will have to utilize his managerial skills.

In a job where all the work rotates around technical elements, it is an essential requirement for Mr. Weafer to be knowledgeable in the technical aspects of the work his team does. He should give priority to the learning and understanding how the world of computer viruses work; how they are made, how they function, and how they are cured and get rid of. Without these technical skills, he will not be able to keep a good watch on the work his team does, and not understand or figure out what quality of the work is being done. This will ultimately become the cause of demotivation among the virus-hunters; when they see the person in charge has no idea of what work his team is doing, and they will start working at a lower quality because they will be able to get away with it. If Vincent Weafer knows everything his team is doing, it will help keep his team at a professional level.

As Mr. Weafer works in a challenging and chaotic environment, it won’t be considered abnormal for his virus-hunters’ team members to feel stressed, depressed or heavily demotivated. To tackle these problems, Mr. Weafer has to be good with human skills. The ability to interact effectively with his team members, both individually and in groups, is essential...