Case study Questions

Case study Questions
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Question 1a (145 words)
Challenges that may result due to geographical and cultural diversity of the team include climate changes, poor transportation services, absence of skilled labor from other counties and technological differences (Konetes and Wiggins, 2009). Special approaches used to address these challenges include attraction of skilled labor globally, provision of resources, management attention and avoiding national boundaries (case: p.3). Bright and able workers should be attracted from all parts of the world by providing adequate resources, quality services and good remuneration for the workers. Govindarajan and Gupta (2001) in their research acknowledge that businesses should work globally thus need to broaden talent access also but not only market access. On technological differences, attention of management needs to be improved in order to assist workers who cannot conceptualize the new technology (case: p3). Additional resources should also be given to employees to ensure they meet the requirements of the new technology.
Question 1b (327 words)
To manage geographically dispersed teams crucial things that need to be considered include communication, coordination and task- technology- structure. Filtration Unit needs to have improved on communication, task-technology- structure and its coordination to achieve optimal functioning as seen below:
Filtration unit team needed to have chosen the right technology for communication and its communicators. Due to lack of face to face communication of the employees, reward system should be used to encourage workers to communicate accurately and effectively. Feed back and predictability should be improved in Filtration Unit to encourage trust, effectiveness and better performance in the company (Govindarajan and Gupta, 2001).
On coordination, collaboration norms need to be embraced for the Filtration Unit team to function well. Due to lack of face-to -face meetings, periodic face to face meetings should be encouraged as they are a good way to form relationships among employees and have a good way coordinate activities and to move the project forward. Another alternative when face- to-face meetings are not feasible is the Filtration Unit to develop communication protocols thus helping other parties and coordination made easier (McDonough et al., 2001).
Filtration Unit, require task-technology-structure which will examine the possible fit among various technologies available in the company thus solving the problem of technology conceptualization by making need for management supervision reduced. Individual preference will be used for employs to select technologies they are comfortable with basing on urgency of the task and experiences. Face- to- face meetings and phone calls are advisable for Filtration Unit company when dealing with ambiguous tasks, managing conflicts, managing external resources , working on strategic talks and when brainstorming. McDonough et al. (2001) affirms that for structured tasks such as monitoring the status of Filtration Unit, checking routine analysis, and designing tradeoffs electric communication is vital. This clearly shows that the team needs to adjust the organization to the technology or adjust the technology to its status.
Question 2a (135 words)
Challenges included: technological problems, high population growth rate, agricultural expansion, industrial development and lack of confidence by workers (Case: p4). Basing on technological problems, oxidation technology was neglected and yet it was the most appropriate and promising required by Filtration Unit at ART. Research depicted that population growth rate was twice the demand for water making water pollution high thus posing a challenge to Filtration Unit of ART. Organizational problems which included increasing turnover and low morale negatively affected Filtration Unit at ART as workers were not working as a team. (Case: p5). Filtration unit further face challenges due to lack of confidence brought about by new product failures which further lead to lose by about $ six million yearly by 2006 (Konetes and W...