Management III (MAN 301)

Question 1 [22]

CASE STUDY SHELL ENHANCES TEAM PERFORMANCE AND CROSS-CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING

Shell is a major global energy organisation that has operated in Australia since 1901. Shell finds, develops, and supplies about one-third of Australias petroleum requirements to over 50,000 customers. It is a challenge to enable members of a multicultural oil refinery team to achieve stronger engagement and affiliation and improved performance. The challenge involved addressing factors influencing the effectiveness of the team, including misunderstandings arising from differences in communication styles, decision-making preferences, and cultural background. The team required an engaging learning framework, which would enable them to develop an agreed set of goals to improve team interactions and performance. The team participated in a process involving individualized assessment and feedback of their personality profiles, an experiential workshop designed to address team interactions, and agreed approaches for communicating, managing conflict and utilizing diversity within the team to achieve business objectives. The team gained insight into their strengths and addressed the challenges they identified through the process. Trust increased between team members, enabling them to make constructive use of personality-type differences within the team and improve the performance and efficiency of the team, resulting in tangible cost savings.

Rob Hart, the manager of Shells learning division in Australia and the Oceania region, is aware of the challenge of achieving optimum performance with work teams comprising people from diverse backgrounds. He conducts development programmes and interventions that not only improve individual and team effectiveness but also have an impact on the bottom line in a measurable way. Almost 75% of Shells consulting work focuses on investigations into team dynamics. As a global organisation, Shell employs over 104,000 people in 110 countries from a diverse range of cultural backgrounds, personalities and skills. On any given assignment, Rob can be working on-site at an oil refinery with highly technically skilled operational staff and on another occasion in a corporate office with white-collar professionals. Moreover, like most organisational development specialists, he needs to be flexible in the solutions he offers, as occasionally he encounters a lack of enthusiasm or resistance from groups who may view him as another headofficebased consultant.

Source: Hellriegel, D., Slocum, J., Jackson, S.E., Louw, L., Staude, G., Amos, T., Klopper, H.B., Louw, M., Ootshuizen, T., Perks, S. & Zindiye, S. 2012. Management: Fourth South African edition. Cape Town: Oxford University Press Southern Africa.

1.1 You are requested to assist Rob and advise him on how to ensure the success of the global virtual team at Shell. What advice will you give Rob? Explain.

Note: Use examples from the case study to indicate your understanding of the subject matter. (7)

1.2 Comment on the advantages of global virtual teams. (5)

Note: Use examples from the case study to indicate your understanding of the subject matter.

1.3 In an adaptive organisation such as Shell, which type of team would be the most suitable? Explain. (2)

1.4 Normally, at the performing stage, strategies are developed for improving performance. Effective teams such as Shell can become inactive over time, with initial enthusiasm dwindling or suffering from groupthink.

Explain what is meant by groupthink and under which circumstances groupthink will be likely to increase. (8)