Military Arsenal Systems: Preparing To Lead a Team Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Introduction

Military arsenal systems (MAS) located in Vancouver, British Columbia, is the maker of one of the highly acclaimed armored vehicles in the world. The company has been given the project from US army under the name of “Attack Mobility-Ultra Protection (AM-UP)” program. Under this project, the company is supposed to provide XR 16-THOR vehicles to the US army at the project cost of $1.2 Billion. The Company has made a project team of five members for this project under the leadership of Lawrence Gibson. The project team faced the issues pertaining to intra-team dynamics and the communications.

Problem Statement

The team working for the project AM-UP is facing different issues which are hampering the progress on the project. Previous leader of the team left it due to reasons like personal life issues and failing to lead it in an efficient way. Michael Abrams takes over the reins of the team in this challenging situation despite that some team members are also the candidates for this position. The main task he has in his hands is to bring cohesion among the team members so that there is collaboration between the team members, removing problems like poor team dynamics and problems in communication.

Case Analysis

The case basically deals with human resource management issues, in which the team of the project is not able to meet deadlines set in the contract with the US army. The contract demanded that the project should be completed within the shortest possible time in order to provide the vehicles to the combat mission in Afghanistan which will provide safety to the soldiers even from deadly IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) or road-side bombs.

Leadership:

Michael Abrams has some unique experiences to his name which brings dynamism and novel way of doing things to his work. In Lawrence Gibson unavailability, Abrams usually attends the higher management and functional departments meetings. Besides these, he is also given responsibility to travel on foreign trips. He undertakes responsibility of budgeting, scheduling and overseeing departmental performance.

Abrams leadership style is such that he is very easy to work well with, he understands his senior way of doing things and do not find any difficulty in getting along with the different personalities of the seniors. Abrams meets cordially with other members of the team and that’s why, he has a very good reputation within his immediate circle of colleagues, juniors and seniors.

He has a Laissez-faire style of leadership because he is inclined to give his team members the freedom to work, and does not interfere in their work unnecessarily, and wants to give them the chance to share the advices from other team members and get their work redistributed among them by seeing the nature of the problems.

Leading under Pressure:

Abrams has a God gifted ability to lead under pressure. It is due to his that ability; he accepts the daunting task of becoming team lead for this challenging project. He has a very challenging work life balance in which he is doing 55 or 60 hours per week of the work, had a family and was also doing MBA, but he is able to lead this life successfully.

Leading the Change and the Culture:

Abrams is leading the change. He has such a diverse experience that he has a novel way of doing things. He wants to change the way the work was being done under the Gibson leadership. He wants to change the work culture of not meeting with other team members, discusses the issues and redistributes the responsibilities.He wants to increase the cohesiveness among team members to ensure effective team work and there is increase in collaboration among them.

Vision and Priorities:

Abrams vision is to bring in positive team dynamics which would lead to collaborative nature in the work. He is assured that it will bring the team on a single page. His vision is to increase cohesiveness among the team members by bringing in team gatherings.

Collaboration:

The team of the project is facing poor collaboration among its members under the leadership of Gibson. Gibson does not like the idea of Abrams and the team to have weekly or bimonthly meetings which would provide the opportunity to discuss issues and brings in collaboration among the members. The team has poorer communication skills. They are having no energy and poor team dynamics.........................

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