You are the partner in charge of management services for a medium- sized public accounting firm. You have contracted with a local manufacturing system to develop a specialized production control system. Several of your younger staff accountants have been involved in the actual systems design. A problem has arisen. They have reported to you that top management is very enthusiastic about the design of the new system. However, they are very confused about the response of the production managers and other key employees. The major problem is that the production manager and other employees keep missing meetings with the design team. On one occasion, the production manager told the design team that she liked what they were doing but just did not have time to work with them in detail.

Required
Discuss several possible causes for the problems encountered by the design team. What steps might have been taken to facilitate a better working relationship between the design team and management?