Reference no: EM132796414

Building Trust

Dwight thinks that new managers must know how to createand maintain trust with their employees. He views communication as a major component of establishing trusting relationships. Dwight has set up two real situations that he wants his new hires to evaluate and comment upon in a short three-minute video presentation to the group.

Skill #2: Build trust in INDIVIDUAL relationships both locally and at a distance.

In the recent meeting with the new managers, Dwight at Easy Chairs wanted to emphasize the importance of communication in leading.

Dwight reported an occurrence that happened in the production department just the other day. Sally Hill was sitting alone at the lunch table when Dwight passed by. Saying hello and getting an unusually quiet reply, Dwight stopped to ask if things were alright. Sally said things were fine, but she did not look fine. He wondered if something was wrong. Sally, who runs the conveyor belts on the production line, has been on the job since EC began, and she is very good at her job. 

Dwight was right. Things were not good for her on the production line. She was sitting at the lunch counter rather than going back to the floor and her job. It seems that Sally's new floor supervisor, Jessie, has decided to implement a production efficiency study so that he could measure her efficiency of motion. At first, Sally took Jessie at his word that the study was to see if she could improve her time and therefore get more work completed faster. It wasn't until she overheard him telling someone else that he was thinking of getting a robot to do her job that she lost faith in him and the company. Shouldn't they be telling her about this possible change? Is it fair to just announce the change one day and her be out of a job the next? Jessie just lied to her. Not sure of what she heard, Sally consulted some of the other production workers who do different jobs. The said there had been rumors but they knew Dwight and Ike would never do something that drastic without consulting with them. Sally just wasn't sure. Worse yet, Jessie made her write down all the data for the study and questioned her if she left numbers blank. She lost track often and her work began to suffer. Jessie began to come down hard on her and finally put her on probation. When this happened, she finally confided in others only to find that several felt Jessie did not trust them. Jessie seemed to question what they were doing. Only a week after Dwight began to investigate Sally's unhappiness things came to a head in the department. Jessie had a team meeting to get at the reasons why production rates had dropped. He talked for 30 minutes. He asked for people's opinions and no one would reply. One person asked permission to speak but asked only if the study would take much longer. Finally, Jessie dismissed the team. Jessie did not understand; when he first arrived, everyone was happy and helpful. Hadn't he always been straight with them? Why was everyone so unhappy now? Jessie finally saw that he had a problem, but he wasn't quite sure what it was. 

Dwight approached Jessie a few days after the meeting and asked him if the rumors he heard about using robots to replace some of the production workers were true; Jessie finally knew what was wrong. Do you?

Skill #3: Build trust in TEAM relationships both locally and at a distance.

In week one Dwight and Ike explained that EC expanded into the Asian Market. They are concerned that things could be going better for the distributors if they had better teamwork with the groups in Japan and Korea. The current EC teams report that the Asian teams seem quiet when they meet and are not as quick to respond to the new plans. Personal "chit-chat" is at a minimum and seems to be one-sided. The EC teams are getting stressed out because they are always taking calls either late at night or early in the morning to catch the Japanese/South Korean working hours.  Overall, they just feel that they are being tested and are coming up wanting. Creating trust in a virtual team, especially those with members from abroad, is particularly hard. How can you help the EC team be successful? Show Dwight how you would set up a new international team and how you might help the existing teams now.

Directions: 

• Create a script, to present your conclusions on resolving the issues of trust in the two scenarios.
• Scenario one should seek to comment on the following points: Identify and explain the trust issues that Jessie has with his direct report. How did he createthis problem? What can he do to correct the issue?
• Scenario two should explain to Dwight how to set up a successful team, establish trust in a culturally diverse environment. It should also include ways now to bolster the trust in the existing teams. Explain the influence of cultural IQ in virtual meetings and how and why it can cloud success. In the discussion of the Asian teams, research the cultural differences in creating trust relationships between Americans and the Japanese and South Koreans. Explain specifically how this relates to the experience of the EC team members. Identifying and describing the steps that should be taken by team members to make the virtual experience work. This template should be something that all teams can follow in the future. Be sure to include a step for cultural diversity if these virtual meetings are cross-cultural. Explain why and how these steps will create trust in the relationship.
• Both scenarios should include a detailed discussion of the communications issues present and how best to address them for better relationships in the future.