Chattanooga Ice Cream Division Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Chattanooga Ice Cream Division

Dysfunctional Team

Absence of Trust

The team was dysfunctional because the level of trust required was absent among the team members. All the team members of Chattanooga Ice Cream Division were reluctant to admit their weaknesses and mistakes. In fact, they were always up for the blame game and instead of accepting the faults within their respective departments; all the teams were blaming others. The level of comfort was missing among the team members without which the existence trust is impossible.

As the case reflects, Chattanooga lost their contract with Stay & Shop which was Chattanooga’s third largest customer. This was a big set-back for the company as the sales accounted from Stay & Shop was 6.5 million. To discuss the future strategy and plan Moore called all division heads to discuss the possible solutions. During the meeting Moore realized that instead of identifying the root cause for the problems all the Division Head’s started to negate each other’s view point for the future and were more focused to identify the loopholes. Production Head and Sales Head were blaming Operations for the loss of contract. Overall, the meeting was conducted to rectify errors and not to discourage other’s ideas. Along with this, the team members had never worked together in the past. The previous manager took decisions himself; therefore the teams never interacted with each other formally.

Charles Moore’s Leadership Style

Steadiness

Charles Moore as the General Manager of Chattanooga Ice cream Division has failed to lead the team successfully. The main reason for this failure has been his over dependence on the team members to take decisions. In addition, Moore has even failed to unite his team and hold them together. He in fact, does not even try to push them to work together. On DiSC assessment Moore lies on “S”. Where he maintains a calm approach and does not like being rushed into things. Basically he prefers collaborative environment and values group decision-making. He is a cautious leader who likes working and making decisions with consensus. Although, Moore is not satisfied with the attitude and behavior of his team members but still he never shows it to them. However, as a leader Charles Moore should evaluate each team member and improve their attitudes. Basically, Moore seeks answers to different problems through his team, although being the General Manager he should take the final decision and remain consistent with it.

Discuss what this group of employees themselves could do to better understand the perspectives of each other and their boss.

As the case discusses, Moore was in meeting with the heads of each division therefore; they themselves should also realize the importance of working together as a team. Hence, first of all each employee should try and listen to one another’s options and respect their decisions. Instead of interrupting while someone is talking, they should first listen to them and then analyze the situation before arguing. This will help the meeting become more productive and positive where agendas will be mutually accepted. Secondly, each team member must clear up all the technical and departmental issues within their respective departments to come up with specific solutions at the meeting. Along with this an action plan by each employee should be developed himself where every employee can self-assess his positives and negatives and discuss them openly without being biased towards the negatives in their decision-making. Along with this, the team members should sit together randomly with one another and discuss the general issues to better understand one another’s view point. Along with this they should engage in debate about ideas with all the group, become committed to the team, develop team accountability, build trust among the teams members and establish dependable and realistic goals for the future. To better understand the boss, Moore who is basically a team-oriented person where he likes taking decision with mutual consent therefore, all the team members during the meeting should give positive and relevant suggestions to further improve the production and operation capacity of Chattanooga Ice Cream Division. While keeping themselves aligned to group decision-making; the company can win back Stay & Shop business once again.

Chattanooga Ice Cream Division Case Solution

Recommendations

First of all, Moore needs to change his leadership style, rather than being dependant on his team to make decisions, he should in fact come up with solutions himself. Taking suggestions is always a good idea but relying too much on others creates problems. Secondly, Moore should manage the situation through TKI model,so that he can put in all the employees over it and test their credibility and compatibility.

The short-term goals for Chattanooga should be to structure plan that can resolve the current crisis where it has lost Stay & Shop’s contract. For this Moore needs a solution for the conflicts that are hindering a decision; that the company should take regarding the issue. However, the mission for the company should be to identify the reason for.............

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Senior officers in the functional (marketing, production, research and development, management and human resources) clash at alternative ideas to turn around the business in decline. General Manager is not only faced with the choice between competing ideas, but also conflict management and definition of its consensus-oriented style suited to the needs of the situation. "Hide
by Carl S. Sloane Source: Harvard Business School 11 pages. Publication Date: July 9, 1997. Prod. #: 498001-PDF-ENG