BUS 370 MEMORANDUM
TO: Andreas Udbye
FROM: Gabe Chaikin
DATE: April 10, 2018
RE: Case 7: Managing a Global Team, Greg James at Sun Microsystems
The underlying issues behind Sun Microsystems problems are their lack of direct communication, cultural misconceptions, and the open work environment is not the same for each culture. In addition, one could say that Greg James is as fault. There were many technical mistakes that occurred primarily due to lack of communication and little face to face contact with team members. This lack of communication lead to zero collaboration between managers which ultimately caused the company to have these problems. The different members from each region also feel undervalued and are being undercut. The India team’s concerns are always reviewed last, and are not involved in innovative jobs. The France team’s salary is 30% less than their American peers and have a 50 hour week work schedule. Clearly, the alignment and structure of the company is disorganized and needs to be reexamined. The cultural differences between each region have not been considered. Greg James needs to realize the differences that exist, and change the structure and style of how he manages each team to meet their needs.
The 45-person multi-country team is highly disorganized and unstructured. Currently, there is a lack of communication and collaboration between each region. As a manager, James should establish more frequent video calling, phone conferences and face to face contact to strengthen and integrate the different branches. Additionally, James needs to take into account the cultural differences that exist. While diversity creates a variety of ideas and innovation, it...
