For this week’s application assignment, I interviewed a
human resources manager for a global engineering procurement and construction
(EPC) company focused on the oil & gas industry (she requested that I not use her name or any identifying information about her company). I wanted to get her perspective on conflict
in geographically distributed teams (Hinds & Mortensen, 2005), but as our conversation
went on, I asked about her thoughts on the Nut Island Effect (Levy, 2001).
Q: What is your role?
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Cynthia commentary: I think that it's interesting that her focus on processes and procedures is a solution (at least in this context) for preventing conflict, especially in light of events like the well accident in the Gulf. After that event, it appears there had been a lot of conflict on that project; I wonder if their headquarters leadership assumed that as long as processes were being followed, all was fine.
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References
Hinds, P. J., & Mortensen, M. (2005) Understanding Conflict in Geographically Distributed Teams: The Moderating Effects of Shared Identity, Shared Context, and Spontaneous Communication. Organization Science, 16, 290-307.
Q: What is your role?
A: I’m an HR manager
for a global EPC that provides services to global oil & gas companies around
the globe.
Q: What is your role
as an HR manager?
A: HR managers today
are very different than the HR managers of previous decades. It’s not just about benefits and payroll, HR
has become a strategic partner to the business leadership. We in HR are responsible for employee growth and
development and helping to nurture the company’s culture.
Q: In my assigned
reading this week, we looked at conflict in geographically distributed
teams. Tell me about how teams in your
company are distributed?
A: We have teams around
the globe, in satellite offices, working in customer offices and on-site building
a project or working at a customer production site. We have people everywhere.
Q: That must make managing
the team and communication challenging.
A: Yes. It’s a diverse group, in diverse places, doing
diverse things. All receiving a lot of information
from a lot of sources all the time. Most don’t have a single sense of community,
but many communities. We depend on
strong managers to help us keep employees focused on priorities – especially in
areas where they may see signs of cultural or leadership conflict. Managing teams is an essential skill and one
that we never stop trying to improve.
Q: So back to my reading for this week, one of the things a
study found was that globally distributed teams experienced more task conflict
than co-located teams (Hinds & Mortensen, 2005). In your experience, do your distributed teams
experience task conflict? (Task conflict
defined as “different opinions and viewpoints about the work being performed…
what should be done”(Hinds & Mortensen, 2005).
A: You know, task conflict
is probably pretty low with our teams due to the nature of the work. In engineering, they’re working on highly regulated
projects, with very conscripted and documented processes. We have centralized databases, procedures
books, and regulatory guidelines that help keep the tasks in order. I think probably we see more interpersonal
conflict among teams, due to the global nature and location of team members. Clearly articulated project processes help
that to some extent, but with a US based headquarters, global hubs and onsite
work groups, there is sometimes a power struggle. That’s when we rely on managers to step in
and resolve the issues and keep the project moving to meet the customer’s
requirements.
Q: Ok, so that brings me to another topic we read about this
week, “The Nut Island Effect”. Have you
heard of that?
A. Yes, vaguely. [I
explain]
Q. So how do you
ensure, with these broad global teams working on-site or in an office that the
Nut Island Effect doesn’t occur?
A. Part of it is in
hiring, which is challenging. We’re
often hiring quickly to staff up a project and often pulling in a large number of young engineers
who are just a few years out of college.
The key is to hire a diverse team—diversity in thinking, geography, ability,
experience, not just diversity of race, age, gender, ethnicity. That helps.
Our tendency as humans I think is to hire people like us. Managing people is hard. And I think we all want to avoid
conflict. But my role as an HR manager
is to keep managers focused on the need for some of that diversity. Then the other thing is constant, watchful eyes
on the project and strict adherence to processes and regulations.
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Cynthia commentary: I think that it's interesting that her focus on processes and procedures is a solution (at least in this context) for preventing conflict, especially in light of events like the well accident in the Gulf. After that event, it appears there had been a lot of conflict on that project; I wonder if their headquarters leadership assumed that as long as processes were being followed, all was fine.
-----------------------------------------
References
Hinds, P. J., & Mortensen, M. (2005) Understanding Conflict in Geographically Distributed Teams: The Moderating Effects of Shared Identity, Shared Context, and Spontaneous Communication. Organization Science, 16, 290-307.
Levy,
Paul. (2001) The Nut Island Effect: When Good Teams Go Wrong, Harvard
Business Review, 5-12 (full article)
Cynthia, your post hit on some interesting points. First, in order to avoid the Nut Island Effect, we need to hire diverse individuals or at least a few squeaky wheels. On the other hand, diversity may cause increased conflict in teams. Does Hill (1995) give any useful pointers for managers when faced with this situation? Does this problem fall under one of the paradoxes?
ReplyDeleteHill (1995) offers two paradoxes that the Nut Island Effect might fall under: balancing managerial authority and the autonomy of the team. As a manager, you want your team to have autonomy to grow and execute, however, to ensure that key policies and procedures are adhered to, you have to manage and exert authority. Hill (1995) suggests that managers balance that authority, allowing the team to reach agreement on certain tasks or problems, and reserving that managerial authority for the more critical issues.
ReplyDeleteWhen the HR manager mentioned hiring diversity for group work I immediately thought of my midterm theory (Faultline Theory) and would like to know what her opinions and response to that idea, especially when hiring diversity around the globe. Is it an idea that you think would worry her?
ReplyDeleteYour subject observes that a highly-regulated, process-oriented company may have less of a problem with task conflict than with interpersonal conflict. Hinds & Mortensen (2005) don't come right out and say this, but it seems logical that task conflict and process conflict may be easier -- or at least more straightforward -- to repair than interpersonal conflict. So perhaps the challenge with task/process conflict is correctly identifying it in the first place. In other words, it seems to me that interpersonal conflict is often extremely evident, but hard to fix, whereas task or process conflict may be a more subtle diagnosis but an easier fix.
ReplyDeleteThis HR manager also observes that the manager's role is crucial in resolving conflict. She seems to really know her stuff -- I'd love to hear more about what specific approaches her managers have found successful in resolving conflict.