Reference no: EM133294495

Your first stop as a Senior Managerial Consultant is at a coffee shop where you meet Uma. Uma is the owner of R and R Designs, a designer furniture store in downtown Montreal that is very profitable. Her store specializes in luxury furniture that uses high-end materials and emphasises beauty and style. Uma currently employs 30 full-time and part-time employees. Employees have a diverse set of skills, knowledge, and abilities. Five employees are industrial designers with extensive experience in furniture design; four employees are responsible for marketing; three employees manage the human resources of the company; three employees are in charge of sourcing materials for product design; 10 employees build the furniture; five employees work in sales.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Uma has noticed a greater demand for products that fit the "work-from-home" lifestyle. Many of her customers now spend more time at home and want furniture that is not only beautiful but also functional. For example, it is not enough for an armchair to look great in someone's living room; it also needs to be comfortable enough to work in for eight hours. Uma wonders whether she should create a new speciality line of products called "the WFH - line" to better meet those demands. On the one hand, it makes sense to adapt to customers' current lifestyles and, given the loyal customer base, she is confident that if executed effectively, such a move would be very beneficial and profitable to her business. There might even be an opportunity to stand out among other designer furniture brands as a company that strikes a balance between luxury and practicality. On the other hand, Uma knows little about the practical and functional side of furniture design, and she worries that, if not done well, such changes might be a costly waste of time that harms the brand she has worked so hard to build. She is also uncertain about how long this demand will last as organisations shift back to more in-person work. In five years from now, will her customers still be working from home?

Question 1.

To help Uma make this decision, you determine that she should not be making this decision on her own. Instead, you believe that the first step to solving some of her questions is to tap into the unique skills, knowledge, and abilities of her employees. You decide Uma should bring together a team of her employees to help answer these questions. However, bringing a team of employees together is not that straightforward; you have to consider team characteristics to enable greater team success. In order to help Uma, provide her with three recommendations that she should consider related to her team's composition. For each recommendation, be specific in identifying what component of team composition you are considering, what specific recommendation you're making to Uma, and why. Provide Uma with actionable suggestions that she can implement as the team leader.

Question 2.

Though teams have many benefits when working together, you know that simply composing a great team will not automatically help Uma realize the benefits of teams. Specifically, you know that some teams experience difficulties when making team decisions that are important to the team tasks. Based on your knowledge from this course

(a) What is a team decision-making issue that has the potential to arise in teams and why?

(b) Provide two recommendations that you would provide to Uma to prevent this issue from arising?