Reference no: EM132228451

Background:

A growing Biotech company has been in business for approximately three years and is growing rapidly. Over the past five years the lines of business have had unguided and unconstrained approach to dealing with information systems and technology used to support their respective business areas. Each area has their own IT staff all doing their own thing and building systems serving only the needs of that specific business unit with no coordination or collaboration from the IT staff in the other business areas. This ad hoc approach to IT has started to cause operational, security, and cost containment problems. Hence, the Board of Directors of the company has endorsed the CEO's request to hire a new CIO and to address these problems and to establish a world class central IT organization to support their growing business and get things under control. The CEO hired a new CIO a three months ago, who has been meeting with the senior business executives in each of the lines of business and coming up to speed on the business strategy goals and objective as well as how IT is being used and managed to support the business. The CIO met with the CEO and provided his findings and recommendations. The following scenarios below will highlight some of the CIO's findings in which the he has delegated responsibility to you as one of his senior IT managers to resolve.

Situation:
All twenty-five IT staff now report to the senior IT managers in the central IT organization. Being a newly hired senior IT manager within the first couple of days you realize that you have inherited a wildly dysfunctional team! While the IT staff is highly technical team, very intelligent, technically competent and capable individuals. However, they are out of control acting as independent free lancers within the organization with no sense of team. They do have no sense of direction and are working on things that they feel are important to them with no established deadlines or accountability. They come and go as they please, frequently take extended lunches; some chose not to return to the office at all. They're particularly unruly in staff meetings, never providing accurate or concrete information. They commandeer discussions by questioning every move you make. The other senior IT managers perceive your staff as unprofessional, discourteous, and find in very hard to work with them or rely on your staff to provide timely responses but when they do respond it meets their needs. The CIO has taken notice and has asked you to rein them in.

1. What actions would you take to address the freelance work attitude, lack of direction, and accountability with your staff?

2. What approach would you take to establish a team work environment in your department and install this concept with your staff?

3. What actions would you take to address individuals who frequently take extended lunches and/or fail to return to the office?

4. What actions would you take to address the unruly in staff meetings?

5. What approach would you take to address the perception and concerns of your fellow colleagues and the CIO?