1. How well is this team performing, and why?

MediSys Corp., a privately held U.S.-based private medical device manufacturer, was
founded in 2002, having annual revenues of $400 million in 2008 and the company has 1750
employees. The company is well known for developing, manufacturing, and selling medical
monitoring systems for the hospital segment. It’s first two products, specialty pulmonary and
renal monitoring were highly successful. Now MediSys is planning to launch of IntensCare,
their new remote monitoring system for use in hospitals’ intensive care units. The company
has intended to invest $20.5 million in the new system, which represented the most ambitious
project in the company's 10-yearhistory, with its’ newly appointed president, Art Beaumont,
who has made it his responsibility to make some changes in the departments and has focussed
to sharpen the company’s strategy, while preserving the innovating culture. With just six
months remaining in the product launch, The IntensCare Product Development Team is in
immense pressure due to two companies, with deep pockets, entering the market and directly
competing with IntensCare.

Team is not performing well. Because firstly, there is a serious motivation problem.
Beaumont’s new policy of cross-functional team to look at the bigger picture did not change
the way of reporting and evaluation of the team members. They were working both in the
project and in their functional area, but they were evaluated only based on the performance on
their functional area. So, there is no indication of extrinsic reward (comes from the job itself,
such as pay, job security, and job title; working conditions; fringe benefits; and relationship)
or intrinsic reward (comes from job itself, such as achievement, recognition, challenge and
advancement), or reinforcement for the team performance. This situation is not motivational at
all as; Performance = Ability X Motivation X Resource.

Secondly, the dynamics of the team is not managed properly, and conflicts are not handled
effectively because of poor communication. Because team performance is a function of team
structure + team dynamics + team development stage, and there is a serious degree of trust
problem in the team also. For example, Merz has not much confidence in team members’
competence and she is not believing in their ability to deliver the product. Therefore, we can’t
talk about a team efficacy for this team. Everyone asserts his/her expertise and experience, but
no one regards and trust each other’s.
 Lastly evaluation system of performance of the employees is a serious problem. While they
were working both in the project and in their functional areas, they were evaluated only on the
basis of performance on their functional area. This situation definitely destroys motivation of
the team.

displays the challenges two employees face while working in a cross-functional development
team, with the common goal of meeting a deadline to launch a product that still requires some
modifications. The newly appointed president, Art Beaumont, has made it his responsibility
to make some changes in the departments and was focused to sharpen the company’s strategy,
while preserving the innovating culture. The pressure was present due to two companies, with
deep pockets, entering the market and directly competing with IntensCare. The issue in this
case was with Valarie Merz, the marketing manager for IntensCare, and Jack Fogel, the senior
production manager. With just six months remaining in the product launch, Merz’s concerns
on the business aspect and long term goal was creating delays on the launch of the product,
while Fogel already expressing his concerns of the delays that already existed, due to the
programs overseas soft ware department, which was overlooked by Dipesh Mukerjee, the
software design manager. Merz was worried that Fogel was looking at the smaller picture for
the product, whereas Fogel was concerned of the delays with the product itself, and the fear
of advising to the team of Merz itself of those delays. Problem StatementLooking at long
term gain for a product is quite important for ensuring success amongst competitors,
however, if it obstructs the goal of meeting a deadline, then it explains that there was a failure
in communication during the planning stage of a product.As the planning phase is the second
phase in the project life cycle, it requires being

prepared for and creating a set of guidelines for your team to follow and execute while
managing a product launch. As Merz failed to communicate her concerns earlier on in
theproduct’s planning phase, lead to her concerns for the product to be more modular, whereas
her college Fogel believed that the product had to keep the focus on the current software
delays it was facing. The plans created during this phase will help you to manage time, cost,
quality, change, risk and issues.Though Aaron Gerson, the R&D researcher who formulated
the idea, firmly believed that the current product was going to outshine its competitors, as he
was well aware of the competitors that were newly entering the market. As MediSys Corp.
already had experience and reputation due to their previous two successful launches, the
companies product, IntensCare had what it takes to flourish without needing modular
changes, and could return its focus back to where it belonged, the products softwar
MediSys Corp.: The IntensCare Product Development Team Questions

1. How well is this team performing? (Scale of 1-5 effectiveness, 5 most effective). Discuss.

Team is not performing well. I can give 2 or maybe 3 at most for its effectiveness. Because firstly,
there is a serious motivation problem. Beaumont’s new policy of cross-functional team to look at the
bigger picture did not change the way of reporting and evaluation of the team members. They were
working both in the project and in their functional area but they were evaluated only on the basis of
performance on their functional area. So there is no indication of extrinsic or intrinsic reward for the
team performance. This situation is not motivational at all. Secondly, …show more content…
However, diversity of the group is not managed properly and conflicts are not handled
effectively because of poor communication. There is a serious degree of trust problem in the
team. For example, Merz has not much confidence in team members’ competence and she is
not believing in their ability to deliver the product. Therefore, we can’t talk about a team
efficacy for this team. Everyone asserts his/her expertise and experience but no one regards
and trust each other’s. Lastly evaluation system of performance of the employees is a serious
problem. While they were working both in the project and in their functional areas, they were
evaluated only on the basis of performance on their functional area. This situation definitely
destroys motivation of the team.

4. Describe and discuss issues in the IntensCare Project Team (goals, leadership, power issues,
design of team and it’s dynamics, conflict).

There are many kinds of conflicts in the team. First of all, there is a serious trust issue in the
team which led to poor communication which is causing information conflict. For example,
Jack and O’Brien didn’t inform Merz on engineering problems about data displays and battery
units or O’Brien didn’t have information whether there is any update about delays with the
software.

Task interdependency is an inevitable outcome of parallel development system and this