TEAM CASE INCIDENT - A Virtual Team at T.A. Stearns

I must say that the group of Tom Andrews, Cy Crane, Marge Dector and Megan Harris is a “TEAM”. Although having different personalities and personal interests, their profession and career is on working towards the company’s thrust – providing superior and high quality advice on individual tax preparation thru state-of-the-art computer databases and analysis tools. Tom Andrews, a tax lawyer and has worked on the program for 6 years, was a former hockey player who works out in his farm, enjoys hunting and fishing in his spare time. Cy Crane, a computer science graduate and tax accountant, is married with two children who also enjoys biking and fishing. Marge Dector, a tax lawyer, is married with two children who enjoys golf and skiing. Megan Harris, a tax accountant, is single and works out of her apartment. The four member team is always exchanging e-mail messages and their communication is always constant despite guests and family functions. They would even go to Tom’s farm to discuss and converse work related matters while bringing with them their kids and family.
All these four member team of Stearns are employees on salary but they are negotiated separately and secretly with the management. In fact, they were told that they could even work wherever they opted to. They would just have to check in regularly during every workday. Having that clear work arrangement, I believe that each has his own rights to do other things. It is just important that the work is precisely done and in accordance with the company’s policies and mission / vision. Regarding Cy’s innovation in macro, its secrecy to the company is just right. Anyways, both the productivity and quality went up for the management.
Dave Regan, is an effective team leader because he was able to pick-up the innovation despite its secrecy. He wondered how the production time had gone down a bit and that he also accidentally read the email message of Marge to Cy. Having that situation, Dave was able to talk to Cy and responsible enough to told him of his action because bottom line is, Dave would still be accountable to his boss. Dave will now have to report to his boss everything that has transpired to avoid secrecy and promote transparency.