I.

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

T.A. Stearns is a tax accounting firm that has a very good reputation among its clients because it
offers excellent services. The services benefit heavily from four programmers who work as a
team to develop tax analysis programs. The team leader’s crisis stems from the fact that he is
dealing with a very independent and differentiated team compared to the rest of the company.

This team has special working conditions and remuneration packages. They all work from home
using online support systems, and meet only occasionally. The team does very specialized tasks
requiring a high degree of interdependence amongst them. The team is in charge of producing tax
analysis programs that contribute a lot towards the company’s work. The design of the programs
take into account the need for flexibility to allow for quick incorporation of new laws and
changes in the tax system to ensure that the output is credible. This requires an ongoing effort to
track and include changes.

The programs benefit from their diverse experience as lawyers and tax accountants, with a strong
interest in programming. They all work from different locations, with each enjoying the flexible
task based working model that their job encapsulates. This situation sets the stage for the crisis
under scrutiny.

The team has developed a new way of getting work done, that potentially may require fewer of
them to do the work they currently do, but they are not willing to put any of them out of work.
The four members report to Dave, who is the workgroup manager. He accidentally finds out
about what is happening. But he did not tell his own manager about his suspicions, reasoning that
both quality and productivity were up he did not really need to pursue the matter further.

II. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

In the given case study, the following questions arise:

1. Why is this group a team?

2. What characteristics of the team predispose it to making ineffective decisions?
3. What are the characteristics of groupthink that are manifested in the work team?
4. Has Dave been an effective group leader? What should Dave do now?

III. AREAS OF CONSIDERATION

T.A. Sterns utilizes different modes of work for its different classes of employees. Its
programmers use virtual workstations that make it possible for them to work from different
locations while connected by email, conferencing software, and telephone. The offsite teams
comprise the virtual environment work teams.

The one under review has four members: Tom Andrews, Cy Crane, Marge Dector, and Megan
Harris, who report to a manager, Dave Regan. Dave’s role is to monitor the work produced by the
work team and ensures that their work performance meets company’s needs and specifications.
Tom reports to the management on the team’s performance.
 The work team has its own team leader- Tom Andrews. Tom has the most experience and takes
care of the training of new team members and ensuring that the team delivers on its targets. He is
the primary liaison with Stearns. Tom’s team reports to him. The team uses several methods to
get the job done.

They arrange for teleconferencing, they make calls and they use email as modes of sharing out
the work they have. Over and above the official functions, they also use these modes to carry on
informal chatter. They plan to meet for recreational purposes, for instance, at Tom’s ranch, when
they are not working on a project. Once a month they all meet together for lunch.

The team therefore has its formal structures revolving around Dave and Tom, but in addition,
they have an informal one that has space for informal interaction and social support. These two
work structures work seamlessly because they use the same systems. The interaction between a
formal work environment that gets the job done, and an informal one that allows for space for
recreation, provides the team with a relaxed job environment.

IV. ALTERNATIVE COURSES OF ACTION

Given the circumstances in this case study, the following Alternative Courses of Action can be
done:

1. Dave must address the concern of the team members about one of them possibly losing their job
since this should not be the case. Dave could recommend to the higher management that Cy may
be commended in front of her peers or colleagues, and be given additional benefits & rewards
since she invented the macro that greatly helped in shortening the work time, hence making the
accounting firm in being more efficient. Also, it will also make Cy, the innovator, feel good about
herself since she will be recognized for the innovation and research & will be rewarded because
she helped the company’s flow of job. This will introduce the importance for new innovation and
its improvement to the business of the company. Not only will it motivate other members of the
team to develop better programs, but it will also make way for the other programmers to be open
in sharing their innovations in the future and will be acknowledged through the firm’s profit
sharing program. The disadvantage of this course of action is this will cause the company
additional expense on their behalf, and also, there will be some sort of expectation whenever an
employee does something good which, in the first place, is their job in the company.

2. Another proposed solution is that Dave can give additional workload while monitoring the team
performance and result since the programming team members have extra time due to their new
innovation and they can achieve the result for the company in their current project while relieving
the incentive and other interest from company. This may make them feel more important and
trusted for they will get more responsibilities and will take control of more work load. This will
also help open up opportunities, especially with promotion since the additional workload will not
only be credited in the present time but will also be a reference of how much the team knows
about the different responsibilities in the company. The disadvantage of this is that the team
members may feel pressured to do the extra workload and they may also need time in
 familiarizing with the new workload, thus needing extra expense for training. This may also take
a lot more time to implement.

3. Another course of action is that Dave could suggest to the higher management to require the
programming team to go to office at least once or twice a month to have a connection with the
other employees and to not feel isolated for being an independent team. Through this, they will be
able to socialize with others but themselves and to not be scrutinized because of their flexible
hours. This will also possibly make them more open when it comes to sharing their discoveries
since they will be more connected with the management. This can also be a way to get some
suggestions from their colleagues. The disadvantage of this, however, is that the four
programming team members will have to travel from their location to the office in addition to the
travel expense. They will also have to adjust since they are used to having flexible time.

V. RECOMMENDATION

On the Alternative Courses of Action presented, Dave may opt to choose the first course of action
because although this will cause the company additional expense on their behalf, he will be able
to acknowledge Cy’s innovation in making the company’s services more efficient and at the same
time, to motivate the other employees to make the same innovations and developments, at the
same time, clear the air with the group regarding the thought of one of them possibly losing their
job.

VI. CONCLUSION

In this case, Dave must address is the concern that the group has about one of them losing their
job if the management gets to understand the potential the macros have in reducing the time
required to finish a job.

This group seems to have reached a high performance level and it may be beneficial for the
company to retain it as it is. Some options for ensuring that no one in the group looses their job
are by asking them to teach their methods to other workgroups and to take on more work as a
group. This will mitigate their primary fear.

Secondly, Dave needs to institute an external reporting mechanism that will take into account the
individual goals and aspirations of the group members. This may come in the way of performance
appraisals and personal work targets.

The third step that Dave needs to take is to develop a report jointly with the team, detailing the
potential of the macros developed by Cy to save the company money. In this report, the group
may ask the management to retain them as a group because of the threshold of effectiveness they
have attained, and they may propose to handle more work.