Can you please answer the 7 questions at the bottom?

Management In Action IBM Wants Its Employees Back in the Office International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) started in the early 1900s as a manufacturer of machinery such as commercial scales, industrial time recorders, and meat and cheese slicers. 131 The company invented the first personal computer (PC) in 1981. The PC was a landmark in transitioning the use of computers from the military and government to the desks of everyday people. 132 IBM made a major strategic move into services and software when it sold its PC division to Lenovo in 2004.133 The company had 380,000 employees and revenues of more than $78 billion in 2017.134 IBM has experienced 20 consecutive quarters of declining revenue. It also missed analysts' revenue expectations in 2017,135 and the stock lost approximately 30 percent of its value between 2013 and 2018.136 Although CEO Virginia 2017,135 and the stock lost approximately 30 percent of its value between 2013 and 2018. 136 Although CEO Virginia Ginni Rometty attributes these results to "her selling off legacy businesses and to unavoidable currency hits,"137 others think that group dynamics and teleworking are partly a cause. THE COMPANY SAYS ITS TEAMS CAN'T KEEP UP CEO Rometty is on a protracted mission to make IBM a cloud-based solutions' business,"138 but the transformation is having trouble keeping up with the competitive tech marketplace that has become significantly more agile and nimble over the past decade," said an analyst to NBC News. 139 IBM was already a distant third to Amazon and Microsoft in cloud computing and was losing ground to Google as of 2017.1 140 What's slowing the company down? Some IBM executives blame a lack of team collaboration and innovation due to teleworking. Chief Financial Officer Martin Schroeter told investors in 2016 that it's about get[ting] the teams back together as opposed to so spread out, saying that remote working is not doing IBM any favors when it Page 532 comes to being agile.141 This is an interesting conclusion given that IBM was a pioneer of remote work, according to The Wall Street Journal.142 More than 40 percent of IBM's workforce in 173 countries worked remotely in 2009.143 The company's own Smarter Workplace Institute stated in 2014 that remote workers tend to be happier, less stressed, more productive, more engaged with their jobs and teams, and believe that their companies are more innovative as a result of flexible work arrangements. - 144 IBM again boasted in 2017 that telework works in its Smarter Workforce Blog. 145 IBM gave a surprising ultimatum to thousands of employees a week after the blog was written: Come back to the office in the next 30 days, or leave the company. 146 The organization also released a statement to CNN Technology saying, In many fields, such as software development and digital marketing, the nature of work is changing, which requires new ways of working. ... We are bringing small, self-directed agile teams in these fields together."147 IBM's decision may be grounded in science, especially when it comes to collaboration, creativity, and trust. Studies show that proximity boosts collaborative efficiency, according to The Atlantic: Collaborative efficiency is the speed at which a group successfully solves a problem. 148 IBM wants to see more collaborative efficiency. The company's VP of Communications, Carrie Altieri, told the Huffington Post that For areas of the business where heavy collaboration and co-creation are key for time to market like development or marketing, we want those employees working together." 149 Some experts also say that working in close proximity has a positive effect on creativity and trust. An IBM team needs to exhibit functional conflict in order to be creative, according to Inc. magazine. Functional conflict is based on the premise that teammates can argue passionately about a topic without letting it become personal and emotional. This ability depends on the existence of significant trust among team members, which Inc. argues can primarily be gained in face-to-face interactions.150 IT'S ALL IN THE PROCESS! Critics say IBM got it wrong and that team processes are the issue, not working remotely. Unfortunately, the move is just smoke in mirrors; it's an illusion that they've made progress when all they've really done is shuffled people around into different boxes, said a Forbes consultant. He believes having a set of consistently enforced virtual norms trumps the need to be located in the same space (co-location).151 Virtual norms can include check-ins by team members. A daily meeting (or even two) might be required to ensure team cohesiveness, according to an expert at Entrepreneur Media. Frequent meetings also provide an opportunity for teams to lay down some goals and expectations for each team member and ensure that those expectations are being met. This check-in will promote shared accountability, particularly in remote teams. 152 IS COLOCATION THE RIGHT SOLUTION? Some experts, such as Stephane Kasriel, the chief executive of Upwork, contend IBM's decision will backfire and adversely affect team morale and corporate performance.153 Ron Favali is a prime example. Favali is a 15-year IBM marketing veteran who has spent the last 12 years working from a home office outside Tampa, Florida. His team uses IBM's Sametime instant messaging voice and video chat software to stay connected and on-task, despite being scattered across three states. Favali may not be able to move to Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, New York, or San Francisco-all locations to which IBM invited its marketing team to relocate. His morale dropped so much after the directive that he told Fox Business he is leaving the company. 154 Kasriel believes IBM's move will cause other talented employees to leave, ultimately diminishing the quality of its teams. He says that IBM's... best talent will easily find new jobs with companies that are more open to remote All told, the loss of talent will put IBM further behind its competitors. work."155 A mass exodus of talent would recall the fall of another giant. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer decided to discontinue remote working in 2013.156 That decision ... didn't really help Yahoo," said Sara Sutton, the founder and CEO of Flexjobs.com. 157 Mayer was ranked by CNBC as the least likable CEO in technology after the decision. 158 What would you do if you were Ginni Rometty? FOR DISCUSSION Problem Solving Perspective 1. What is the underlying problem in this case from the perspective of CEO Ginni Rometty? a senior leader from human resources? 2. What are the causes of this problem? 3. What advice would you offer to solve the problem? Explain. Application of Chapter Content 1. What are some virtual best practices IBM could have employed for its remote teams? Explain. 2. Whether or not employees are colocated, describe how IBM can build effective teams. 3. How could IBM stimulate functional or constructive conflict in its virtual teams? Explain. 4. IBM's leadership and many in its workforce may not agree on how to address the company's lagging revenues. What conflict handling style is IBM leadership utilizing to address the conflict