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Angela Trillo Trillo Grace G. Downey MAN 3240 April 12, 2012
IBM'S Multicultural Multinational Teams Case Chapter 10
Case Background
IBM was famous for its written and unwritten rules. They mostly focus on individual’s promotions and achievement. IBM is in many countries around the globe, and within time they had change their culture, now they focus more in "Team work" projects, and community services.
Al Chakra Chakra is a manager manager from from the state of North Carolina, Carolina, and together together with other 5 employees from other countries; he was sent to Green forest. Chakra recommended them computer systems that will allow them to increase productivity and exports to Western Europe, plus he explained them how is possible to became a paperless company in only three years. Another team member from England suggest about sales strategies.
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1. If you calculate the person-hours devoted to IBM's team projects, they amount to more than 180,000 hours of management time each year. Do you think this is a wise investment of IBM's human resources? Why or why not?
In my opinion it is a wise investment from IBM for these multicultural multinational projects, because they are helpful for so many places around the world with economic problems. The skilled team, shares their knowledge to help them improve and develop a growing better technology, which in the future they can even become IBM’s potential clients. These projects also allow the managers that participate on them, to improve and develop their own skills, by learning from each other new skills, and strategies.
2. Why do you think IBM's culture changed from formal, stable, and individualistic to informal, impermanent, and team oriented?
IBM's culture changed from formal, stable, and individualistic to informal, impermanent, and team oriented, because team oriented companies have skills variety, diversity, common purposes and goals. According to the Organizational Behavior book, “Team effectiveness is a model that assumes that team oriented companies is better than the ones that only focus in individual work.”
3. Would you like to work on one of IBM's multicultural, multinational project teams? Why or why not?
I will love and enjoy very much to work for IBM's multicultural, multinational project teams, because I like to help people around me at all times, and also I enjoy very much to participate in volunteer jobs (at the moment I have 2 volunteer jobs as a teacher). I
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am also a person open to changes and transformations. I would like to share my knowledge with others, and at the same time learn from others, to help me develop and improve myself.
4. Multicultural project teams often face problems with communication, expectations, and values. How do you think some of these challenges can be overcome?
Culture can help overcome and face problems with communication, expectations, and values. People communicate at all the time, in their homes, workplaces, groups, teams, and in the community. No matter how well we think we understand each other, communication is hard. But culture is often at the root of communication challenges. Our culture influences how we approach problems, and how we participate in groups and in communities.
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References
Organizational Behavior, 14th Edition, Robbins, Judge, Pearson, Prentice-Hall, Print.
