What should gore do to build effective global teams

Study The Case And Answer The Below Mentioned Questions In APA Format And There Are No Words Limit

Case Study 1: W.L. Gore – Culture of Innovation (page 555).

After reading the case, answer the following questions:

1. Describe Gore’s global organizational design challenge?

2. What should Gore do to build effective global teams?

3. How will Gore’s culture affect the virtual global teams?

4. What is Gore’s strategy for the 21st century?

In the attached document Gore Case Document is the case that needs to be studied and above questions to be answered.

Case Study Example 1 and Case Study Example 2 are completed and reference documents for understanding.

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1. Describe Gore’s global organizational design challenge

Gore’s global design challenge was based on their initial organizational setting. Gore wanted a company that would promote freedom for everyone. It believed in the power of people and that they were to be granted freedom, satisfaction, and motivation. Besides, it also advocated for small teams within the enterprise. Notably, small teams were easy to manage in the free environment as they promoted coordination of the several groups present. Primarily, the establishment worked perfectly at the start, but as the company grew, their organizational design posed several issues. The primary challenge faced by the team was dealing with the global marketplace. The company never applied conventional designs and it had no predetermined communication channels or chains of command (Intergrative Case 1.0, n.d). Each team member had the freedom to communicate with anyone. Since the organization lacked a formal design, the associates were obliged to develop their network using personal relationships. It was every employee's responsibility to grow connections and build their base with regards to their initiative. The relationships were formed at all levels from the associates to the customers, vendors and the immediate community. Their organizational design also affected the running of different departments in the organization. The entity was divided into four divisions, the industrial products, medical products, electronic goods and fabrics. The entity had small business units focused on the products and receiving support from the functions of the entire company to allow smooth operation on a daily basis. Business units were limited to their level of growth. The entity believed in the division to promote multiplication and growth. However, this model of organization was not guaranteed to work in all regions on the globe. The level of autonomy would be affected by different cultures around the world. Besides, intercommunications between the various nations would pose a challenge.

2. What should Gore do to build effective global teams?

Gore should uphold its model of promoting freedom and autonomy. Freedom maximizes the team members' efforts and output when handled appropriately. However, Gore should identify the barriers that exist between national and international boundaries. Some of the obstacles include communication, perception, and harmony within the company. Therefore, since the teams are growing and increasing across the globe, the team members should be separated in different facilities. It means that each division could have team members from various facilities working on the same project. The team members can be distributed across different facilities on the globe (Intergrative Case 1.0, n.d). Since the team has cultivated the culture of freedom and small groups, each group will be capable of managing itself. Also, they believe in the strategy of dividing the entity so it would be easy to multiply or grow. Therefore, operations are likely to run with the level of autonomy where an individual is contributing to a project while in a different facility with their team members. Everyone in the team should be inclined to fulfill the team's culture where individual initiatives influence changes. The philosophy of the team combined with the globally distributed team is likely to promote effectiveness within the divisions. Communication between the associate would be easy and efficient from the web and online services. Online services like emails, social media and face time allows communication of individuals in different locations. However, this model of business requires a team that is dedicated to living the company's culture every day. The associates should highly coordinate their activities in the development, production, and marketing of products to consumers around the globe. The diversification of divisions in the firm allows input of insights from different cultures and backgrounds, which is beneficial for the team. Tasks involving marketing and production can easily be modified to fit different markets around the globe since departments are represented by associates from different cultural background.

3. How will Gore’s culture affect the virtual global teams?

Gore’s culture promotes equity for all team associates. However, it consists of small disciplines and values that may not be well acknowledged across all cultures. There are no channels of communication or hierarchies of command. For instance, if an employee has any query, they have the freedom to approach the associate who they feel has the appropriate answers. All team members are shaped by the entity to become future leaders and entrepreneurs. Therefore, the team members are prioritized, motivated, respected and given full freedom to be guided by their initiatives (Intergrative Case 1.0, n.d). However, there are some behaviors which are not acceptable within the entity’s culture. For instance, the associates are not allowed to use the self-promotion statements like ‘expert’ or ‘consultant'. It would affect the virtual global team with different forms of communication. An independent associate might not identify where to seek help within the virtual community. The associates might lack the knowledge of the abilities and skills of their team members within different geographical locations.

Another common culture in the entity is where each associate has a ‘sponsor’ who watches over them while working to ensure they develop towards maximizing the performance of the entity. The sponsors should report on the progress of their assigned associate and whether their behavior is consistent with the company’s culture. These principles would however not apply automatically on the virtual global platform due to the high level of autonomy. The sponsors might lack the capability to focus on their associates closely. Also, the usual approach of independence would affect the evaluation and report system of the sponsors regarding the progress of their ssocipartner. Associates can only be evaluated based on their output in the entity since they are free in most of the timere frees.

4. What is Gore’s Strategy for the 21st century?

Gore’s strategy for the 21st century is based on its emphasis on globalization as a tool that will promote its overall growth. The entity needs to adjust itself for changes that come with globalization for its future sustainability. By 2010, Gore had its facilities distributed in 30 countries. It was able to achieve its global reach by dominantly supplying artificial vascular grafts to the global medical community. Therefore, to maintain its global dominance, it intends to promote the innovation capability of its associates. Gore has a culture that allows its associates to vigorously pursue, develop and evaluate their ideas (Frank & Charles, 2010). These are the ideas that result in the creation of new processes and products. Gore views this strategy as an organic form of growth. It consistently encourages the development of new products and extensions of the present products. Associates are, therefore, given a lot of free time for this form of innovation. Besides, it allows its associates to ask for the assistance they need in the development of their ideas even if it is raw materials. The strategy has already allowed the emergence of multiple substantial products from random areas within its global community. For instance, the idea of dental floss emerged from the industrial division other than the most relevant medical products division. Also, the idea of ‘Gore Ride On’ bike cables was generated by associates who were passionate mountain bikers from the medical products department. Besides, the ‘Elixir’ guitar strings idea was born in the medical department by an associate who was passionate about music. Gore strategy and culture has allowed its team to lead other companies in innovation. Through the innovation of different products, Gore is expected to dominate the 21st century which demands multiple products for application in our daily lives.

References

Frank, S., & Charles C. (2010). W.L. Gore & Associates: Developing global teams to meet 21st-century challenges. 50 Years of Gore’s History Online, 12.

Intergrative Case 1.0. (n.d). W.L. Gore- Culture of Innovation. Cengage Learning.