Identify the outcomes
The outcome of the problem identified in the case is that Kassam does not have someone as the mentor to look upon to, who can guide him in the completion of his assigned task. Team effectiveness not exist and no proper guidance is available to the team members. However, the most urgent issue that requires attention is that the client feels that the team sent by Mathews Consultancy is inexperienced.
Identify the OB problem
The most obvious problem identified in the case is that the team that is sent to the Middle East as the representatives of Mathew is not an experienced one. This has created doubts in the management of the company which has acquired the help and services of Mathews. Therefore, the company tries to keep a track of all updates and intervenes in the work Along with this, the lack of communication and distribution of authority is also lacking within the team, which is working as representatives for Mathews Consultancy. No one is there to keep check and balance on the performance of every team member. In fact, they are asked to submit work to the project manager.
Analysis
2.1 Command hierarchy
As the problem identified in the case of a team of five, that has been posted to work as the consultants on behalf of Mathews Consultancy on the new Middle East project. With a team of five Mahfouz the manager and the most senior person within the team was asked to play the role of a person that has to look after all the matters of the team. Although he had 2 case leaders and 2 junior associates, but still Mahfouz the manager had to instruct directions to the juniors also. This was the main problem within the team working in the Middle East. Simply because it is obvious when you have a manager, and he has the task of dealing with the clients and also looking after all the external matters and issues. It is obvious that the internal communication and matters should have been handed over to his case leaders.
As the case states, Mahfouz himself had to deal with all the members of the team. In the situation of Kassam, who was an internee was asked to collect data, meet with the people and in fact do all the research all by himself. Although this should have not been the situation, in fact, Mahfouz should have assigned a case leader to look upon the work submitted by Kassam before he analyses it. In the current scenario, Kassam being a new member within the team did not have experience which made him make mistakes, some silly ones also. Therefore the ideal situation would have been that Mahfouz should have assigned a team leader to guide, support and help the juniors on the project. Along with this, the client was also wary of the fact that the consultancy Mathews sent an inexperienced to work on their project.
2.2 Fish Bone Diagram
The fish bone diagram will be the best mode to identify the root cause of the problem identified in the case. As the problem statement suggests, the problem within the Middle East team was the lack of communication between the team members, especially Mahfouz and Kassam. The reason was simple, Mahfouz has a lot of work to handle and with all this he had to deal with Kassam also who was a new induction in the team which demanded extra efforts. However, Mahfouz did not have enough time to coordinate and communicate with the team because being the only senior member on board, he had to look after all the aspects of the consultancy himself. Not only was he responsible to perform his work, but he also had to deal with the clients with the team members also. The main problem and the lack of communication between the team itself was the root cause of the problem. Mahfouz ideally should have assigned his case leaders to direct and communicate the juniors so that the work could have been done in the best possible manner. However, this was not the case and the overall performance and the situation led to the demotivation of Kassam and dissatisfaction of the client who was not sure about the credibility of an inexperienced team working on their project.
2.3 Impact on organization and stakeholder
The problem identified in the case actually led to the dissatisfaction of the organization and the stakeholders simultaneously. Mathew’s Consultancy image was being affected in such situation where................
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