Feuds at Morgan Stanley

Here's the article: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/the-feud-at-the-top-of-morgan-stanley-09222011.html

After reading this article, I could clearly see that co-presidents, Kelleher and Taubman are doing a terrible job of  using proper teamwork and don't truly understand how important team work is in the business field. In the article it is said that Kelleher and Taubman live on opposite sides of the ocean (one in England and one in New York). This distance starts off their business career rocky. I find that it's quite hard for two people to work together when being so far apart. They are forced to do all their meetings via conference calls and emails. There are plenty of companies that have to do that especially with the increase of outsourcing in the recent years. I know that this can work but I also know how stressful this can be. At my mother's company, any employees at a lower status than she is are outsourced to India. This forces her to always be on crazy conference calls at all hours of the day. She is constantly complaining that she is forced to re-do any outsourced work and the time and effort put into the projects is double what it was before.

Throughout the article there were many instances where co-workers of the co-presidents said that they did not work well together. It was said that they disregarded each other completely and that they had completely different views on how the business should be run. One thought it was important to really push hard on a deal with a company interested in stock while the other thought that was inappropriate.  They are said to never be on the same page for remarks during internal presentations. This battle between them has created loss of business and a waist of colleagues  time. Many executives see their fighting as a huge problem.

In January the official position for president of the company meaning one of them could be the head and face of the company.  Both of these employees are very different and give different views to the company. It is important to look at this when deciding who or even if one of them should be chosen for the position. Kelleher is a Cuban smoking, scotch drinking kind of man that enjoys going out with his employees and being more one on one with them. He was also involved in the secret borrowing of money from the Fed. On the other hand, Taubman is more of your business man that finds a strong line between subordinates and managers. He's the type of manager that will have a problem-solving intellectual conversation with you over the more sports related conversations that Kelleher would have.

I feel that the company needs to make a strong decision now on who will be moved up to the presidential position. In my opinion neither candidate is right for the job. If this company is involved in global affairs than the president of the company must be able to conduct business with employees overseas. There is no way that either of these employees can do this if they are unable to communicate between each other. Unless there is a serious change in their behavior and they figure out how to work as a team, I feel that they should be dropped from the company. What do you think the company should do about these individualistic employees?

-Rebecca Doukas

Ford - UAW Members Vote to Authorize Strike

http://www.forbes.com/sites/joannmuller/2011/09/09/fords-labor-problem-and-how-to-solve-it/

There is intergroup conflict between the hourly paid, UAW members and Detroit automakers. If the UAW members at Ford plants and the Detroit automakers do not come to an agreement about a new contract the UAW members will authorize a strike. The hourly workers made sacrifices so that Ford did not have to accept bail out money to avoid bankruptcy and now they want to recoup benefits and wages. White-collar workers were resinstated with raises, tuition assistance, and 401(k) matches. Ford white-collar employees pay 25% more of their health care insurance than UAW members and although white-collar employees' 401(k)s were reinstated, the pensions of hourly workers were never touched during the crisis.

Do you think that the UAW members should authorize a strike if there is no agreement on a contract? If there is a strike, what could be the outcomes of this conflict? What can the Detroit automakers do to manage this conflict?

-Steven Stanek

Zappos - A Teamwork Environment

Tony Hsieh started the online shoe company, Zappos in 1999. Hsieh has always been a strong supporter of teamwork, especially through Zappos. Even though he is now the CEO of the company, he wants his employees to see him as part of the team. He still has a cubical in the middle of the office for easy access to him and doesn’t make over $40,000 a year. By doing this, he thinks that the employees will still see him as a team player, not a team dictator.  One of Zappos’s core values is teamwork and Hsieh makes sure that everyone is aware of Zappos’s 10 core values when they start at his company. He has all of his new employees attend a 4 week class that discusses all of the values, the most important one being teamwork. If an employee going through the 4 week class doesn’t agree with any of the core values, they can then be leave for $2000.

Zappos thinks that teamwork can encourage new ideas that help the company grow. It is also important to Hsieh so his employees can all work together for the good of the company. In the book, Organizational Behavior by Talya Bauer and Berrin Erdogan, it states that a formal work group is made up out of managers and close associates among group members that influence the behavior of individuals in the group. I think that Hsieh was going for this sort of work group with Zappos. He makes sure that he, as a manager, works closely with his employees, or his group members, to influence them to enjoy teamwork and make it work towards the best for the company. Hsieh also wants a high level of cohesion, or the degree of camaraderie, in his work place (Bauer and Erdogan). He gets this by having after work parties and having a high energy work place. Another one of his core values is creative and a little weirdness. This too, works to create a high level of cohesion.

So what do you think classmates…Is Hsieh doing the right thing to create teamwork at Zappos by making himself more available to the workers? Do after work parties really create high levels of cohesion? Could cohesion lead to teamwork? Let me know your thoughts!

 --Kristi Rudin

http://www.asianweek.com/2008/12/04/in-his-shoes-zappos-ceo-credits-success-to-having-fun-2/

Team 2 Introduction

The group members of team 2 include:
Kristi Rudin
Becca Doukas
Kylie Merth
Steven Stanek

We have chosen theme 5, "Dream Teams" Fantasy League, as our focus for our blog. We will focus on how teamwork is effective in work organizations.  We will discuss on how teamwork has made organizations successful and in some cases unsuccessful.