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“Patrice Zagame’s Team Leadership of Novartis Brazil”

Case Study for Chapter 11 “Developing and Leading Teams”

by Mohammad Khadim

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Overview

Novartis Brazil is major developer of products to protect and improve health

2002 - Patrice Zagame became president of Novartis Brazil

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Patrice Zagame

He found the company with Poor financial

performance for two consecutive years

Losing market share following four consecutive layoffs

Low employee moral

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Question 1

What team dysfunctions appeared to exist at Novartis Brazil when Patrice Zagame arrived as the president?

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Potential Team Dysfunctions

PotentialTeam

Dysfunction

Groupthink

Free riding

Bad apples effect

Absence of trust

Avoidance ofaccountability

for results

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High cohesiveness Insulation of the team from outsiders Lack of methodical procedures for search and appraisal Directive leadership High stress with a low degree of hope for finding a better solution than the one favored by the leader or other influential persons Complex/changing environment

Illusion of invulnerability Collective rationalization Belief in inherent morality of the team Stereotypes of other groups Direct pressure on dissenters Self-censorship Illusion of unanimity Self-appointed “mind guards”

Incomplete survey of alternatives Incomplete survey of goals Failure to examine risks of preferred choice Poor information search Selective bias in processing information at hand Failure to reappraise alternatives Failure to work out contingency plans

Conformity- Seeking

Tendencyof

Group

Initial Conditions Characteristics ofGroupthink

Groupthink Leadsto Defective DecisionMaking in Terms of

GroupThink

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Team Dysfunctions

GroupThink Team members agree with each other at any cost, even if it is

incorrect Free rider

A team member who obtains benefits from membership but does not bear a proportional share of the responsibility for generating the benefit

Bad apples effect Negative team or group members who withhold effort, express

negative feelings and attitudes, and violate important team norms and behaviors

Absence of trust Avoidance of accountability for results

Team members may put their own needs (ego, career, recognition) ahead of the goals of the team when individuals aren’t held accountable

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Novartis Team Dysfunctions Groupthink

Employees all agreed with one person when making decisions, they did not question it

Employees did not like to challenge the authority figure, and the leadership team was not accustomed to challenging others

Usually one person made the decisions without discussing it with the group

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Novartis Team Dysfunctions

Avoidance of Accountability for Results

Using top down culture, employees showed low accountability for the overall results

Employees did not feel responsible when things did not go well with their projects

Employees did not commit to a clear goal or plan of action

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Question 2

What norms appeared to exist upon Zagame's arrival and what norms did he work on changing and adding?

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Norms

Rules and patterns of behaviors that are accepted and expected by members of a team

Teams adopt norms to help them attain their goals, which may or may not be consistent with organizational goals

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Novartis Existing Norms

Leaderships valued authority and hierarchy

Leaderships did not challenge each other's decision, for example CEO idea was automatically implemented

Teams followed what leaders decided without giving their own opinion

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Novartis New Norms

Decisions to be made as teams

Proposed decisions to be challenged by everyone

Different opinions to be discussed in meetings

Meetings to be brain storming only

Leadership model a behavior to promote "speak up"

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Question 3

Why is Zagame an effective team leader?

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Effective Team Leader

Effective team leaders influence virtually all the factors that affect team behaviors

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Characteristics of Effective Teams

Know why it exists and have shared goals

Support agreed-on guidelines or procedures for making decisions

Communicate freely among themselves

Help each other

Deal with conflict openly and constructively

Diagnose its own processes and improve their own functioning

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Context

Leadership

Teameffectiveness

Goals

Teamsize

Memberroles

NormsMemberdiversity

Cohesiveness

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Zagame Effective Team Leader

Controlled the team's behavior

Empowered the teams to share their opinion and be involved

Used team leaders to enforce changes

Made the functional and cross functional teams communicate well and have open and cooperative relationships

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Zagame Effective Team Leader Controlled the team's behavior by promoting more open and cooperative

relationships using "Speak Up“

Openly challenge proposed decisions, and encourage the expression of different opinions

"Four Cultural pillars“ Leadership team model the culture expected. Four Cultural

Pillars included innovation, customer focus, teamwork and fun. These were the expected behaviors by the teams.

Yearly award ceremony was held to honor people who followed these pillars

Workshops For cross-functional leadership teams. Found out that

communicating controversial decisions to the team is important. Found out that in order to improve decision making process one must challenge colleagues ideas. Found out that team based decisions are important compared to one person making decisions

Modeling desired behaviors

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Zagame Effective Team Leader

Increased the team's moral and found and resolved Novartis Brazil problems and made the company successful

Exceeded its financial goals and its market share stabilized, for two consecutive years

Became one of the top 100 best companies to work for in Brazil, for two consecutive years

Became one of the most successful subsidiaries of Navartis

Attracted top talent for key positions

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Question 4

How was member diversity valued by Patrice Zagame and Ney Suva, the head of human resources?

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Attitudes involving stereotypical false assumptions about

team diversity

Attitudes involving stereotypical false assumptions about

team diversity

Diversity poses a threat to the organization’s effective functioning

Expressed discomfort with the dominant group’s values is perceived as

oversensitivityby minority

groups

Members of all groups want to become and

should be more like the dominant group

Equaltreatment meansthe same treatment

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Zagame Member Diversity

Allowing everyone to have their own opinions and discussing them openly

Enhancing the effectiveness of the teams by bringing more insights into the causes of problems and the potential solutions

Holding workshops for the 12 functional teams to see what problems they faced within the cross functional teams

Promoting horizontal debate with leadership teams

Modeling the culture that was expected

Following "speakup" and "cultural pillars“

Respecting others opinion but to be firm with their final decision

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Questions?