Author: admin

Discussion Overview

Please read the following Harvard Business Review (HBR) short article ().

Summary: An important leadership problem is that some employees perform well but are not good “culture fits.” These employees may be called “culture vampires” because they negatively affect company culture (see figure below). The authors of the HBR article suggest that you should fire “culture vampires” because culture is crucial for firm success. The following figure illustrates the HBR authors’ core idea:

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Questions & Instructions

1. Do you agree that you should fire employees who do not fit the company culture (“culture vampires” and “zombies”)? Explain why.
2. Do you see any circumstances under which you would not fire “culture vampires”?

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References and Optional readings:

• Sinoway, E. C. 2012, October 15. When to fire a top performer who hurts your company culture. Harvard Business Review.
• Braff D. 2018. Are law firms that place great importance on cultural fit merely perpetuating the status quo? ABA Journal 104(9). Available at:

Examples:

1. Do you agree that you should fire employees who do not fit the company culture (“culture vampires” and “zombies”)? Explain why.

For the majority of cases I agree that employees who do not fit the company culture should be fired if they do not correct their behaviors. Zombies should be fired because they do not preform well and are not team players. This means they do not add value to the team and instead remove value via the way they treat others and their lack of strong work product. Vampires should be fired too, even with their strong work product, because their demeanor and lack of team spirit can actually remove existing and future value/success from the team. While a vampire may be individually successful with their final work product, they are unsuccessful at their approach. When a vampire is successful, the collective group suffers and does not meet its full potential.

I do believe, though, that the poor behavior from vampires and zombies should be directly addressed. It is important to give these people a chance to correct their behaviors, notably vampires since they do deliver strong work. If feedback is disregarded and work approaches do not improve, then the vampires and zombies should be fired for the betterment of the team.

2. Do you see any circumstances under which you would not fire “culture vampires”?

I could see an instance where if a specific project was near completion and the vampire was the key enabler to it then I would not fire the vampire. Instead I would focus on providing direct feedback to try to improve their behavior as the project nears the completion. This is just a short term response, though, because if the vampire completed the project and continued the poor behavior then they would need to be fired. Another instance where a vampire may need to stay would be if the role is specific/niche and they were one of few people capable. I still think and instance like this would lead to the vampire being fired, though, in the long term due to the long term negative impacts they may have on the rest of the team by limiting potential success.

Discussion Overview

I DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO READING, SO READ AND LOOK AT THE EXAMPLES

This week we discussed cultural integration (Ch 10), which is a beneficial leadership approach when you need to create an entirely new set of norms. This approach is often time-consuming because it involves compromising and agreeing on norms and values that are acceptable to all team members. In addition, we discussed some foundational readings on “shared value creation”, which is concerned with integrating economic and social values to come up with entirely new business models in the social/sustainability domain.

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Questions & Instructions

1. Can you share an example from your own experience where cultural integration within a diverse team led to successful (or unsuccessful) outcomes? What strategies were employed to ensure effective integration?
2. Cultural integration requires the creation of entirely new sets of norms. What challenges do you think arise when attempting to establish new norms, and how can these challenges be addressed?

BONUS/OPTIONAL: Michael Porter suggests in his article “Creating Shared Value” that firms/teams may benefit from integrating social and economic values to generate greater innovation and more sustainable competitive advantages. You may also approach the questions above from this perspective, meaning how teams may integrate economic and social values to generate innovative norms and high-performing global teams.

EXAMPLES

1. Can you share an example from your own experience where cultural integration within a diverse team led to successful (or unsuccessful) outcomes? What strategies were employed to ensure effective integration?

On one of my previous teams we had to move our roles to a brand new team in Argentina. Although this team would be replacing the American team (and the Americans would be assigned new roles on different teams), there was a handover period of about 6 months where both the American and Argentinian teams were treated as one global team with quite a bit of work to accomplish. As I reflect, I think the collaboration and handover amongst the two teams would have been more successful if stronger cultural integration took place. Although we needed to be one team, Americans still only saw their fellow Americans as their team members and the same with the Argentinians. As the book mentions, fostering a strong team identity is one of the key ways cultural integration can form. I also think both groups did not do a good job of focusing on behaviors and instead “negatively evaluated” different values. This was exacerbated, too, by the teams only connecting virtually and never in person. This was in the early days of virtual workplaces so truly fostering relationships with others strictly over video call was difficult and seemed disingenuous

In this example, these were interdependent teams where cultural integration would have really made a difference. Clearer communication (especially with the non-native-English speakers), relationship building, and creating a sense of community and team identity all would have made the team transition more effective and even enjoyable for the teams involved.

2. Cultural integration requires the creation of entirely new sets of norms. What challenges do you think arise when attempting to establish new norms, and how can these challenges be addressed?

I believe the biggest challenge that can arise is causing team members from different cultures to potentially feel like their own cultural values are being replaced in favor of the new norms. In a case like this, it is important to directly share with the overall team the shared purpose and “merging” of cultures to create and environment of inclusivity to foster success. Those who have this perspective may need additional support from leadership and their colleagues to help define their sense of purpose and understand the value they bring even if the team approach is slightly different from the home culture they are most familiar with. This is where open communication amongst a team with a strong sense of community is vital. It may take time to get there and make others uncomfortable at first, but candid conversations will help everyone understand intent, goals, and the importance of team collaboration and integration.

As mentioned in the textbook, this communication must take place effectively (slow down, ask questions), potentially remotely, and even in written form. Each of these approaches must be taken with care, especially as cultural integration is in its early stages

EXAMPLE 2

1. Can you share an example from your own experience where cultural integration within a diverse team led to successful (or unsuccessful) outcomes? What strategies were employed to ensure effective integration?

An experience where cultural integration made a diverse team successful was when I was part of a group case study in my senior year of college for one of my supply chain classes. I had been assigned a random group, and the project was due at the end of the semester, so it gave us a big amount of time to work on it. As more of the technical parts of the work were being assigned, some of my team members seemed to have pushed off the project until they absolutely needed to work on it, while others preferred to have it done as soon as possible. This causes misalignment and frustrations around the expectations of the team. To fix this, we had an important group meeting that was only about establishing clear roles, making a group chat with phone numbers, setting shared deadlines, and weekly check-ins. This caused our team to be more cohesive, and we were able to present our project and received praise from the professor. In conclusion, cultural integration requires creating shared norms, and effective communication ensures this.

2. Cultural integration requires the creation of entirely new sets of norms. What challenges do you think arise when attempting to establish new norms, and how can these challenges be addressed?

A big problem that might arise from establishing a new norm would be resistance to change. Once people are used to working a certain way, it is hard for them to get out of that way of thinking and try something new because it might lead to lower performance and confusion. This can become even worse if leadership guidance is not clear, which will cause conflict and misalignment. A way to address this is to openly communicate with the employees and explain the reasoning behind the change in norms, and answer any concerns that might be confusing. It is also necessary to deal with the problem early so that there is not such a drastic change and help everyone get adjusted to it.

EXAMPLE 3

1. Can you share an example from your own experience where cultural integration within a diverse team led to successful (or unsuccessful) outcomes? What strategies were employed to ensure effective integration?
   Something that my team just deployed was a platform that vends Azure and AWS accounts automatically to all of our OpCos and business units. To give a little perspective, all of our OpCos have their own IT orgs and their own cultures within those orgs. We had to come together and build this platform and make sure it fit everyone’s needs from a corporate perspective. How we ended up becoming successful was putting together a center of excellence that had members from many OpCo IT organizations and they were able to give their insight, input, and recommendations to help us be successful. This allowed us to make a flexible platform that fit the needs of all of our OpCos and the many different standards they have throughout their organizations. Although this issue wasn’t specific to culture across nationalities, it was working with different workplace cultures and making sure the product we produces was a best fit for everyone.
2. Cultural integration requires the creation of entirely new sets of norms. What challenges do you think arise when attempting to establish new norms, and how can these challenges be addressed?

I think the challenges faced are ones like losing identity, lack of immediate value, or even over standardization. These are all valid concerns from an organizations perspective, but they can be handled by having the right intent and communication when making these new sets of norms. For example, you can involve stakeholders or companies in initial planning, deliver small wins post change, and define what areas are non-negotiable and which areas have more flexibility. You as leadership have to realize the shift this change is going to make and plan to operate under the lens of the people you are impacting

This assignment is a one-page (double-spaced) description of what you found relevant, interesting, and useful from one of the following: (1) the weeks assigned chapter in the course textbook; the reading of the week; or (3) the assigned video of the week. Please specify in the assignment the content you are referencing. Note that the course is designed for you to think about this content and apply it to yourself; hence, all that you need to submit is a paper reflecting your thoughts about the work to which you were exposed over the week and how it can apply to and benefit you. To receive full credit, assignments should be typed double-spaced, use proper grammar, spelling, etc., and show reasonable personal reflection.