by Mohammad Khadim

“Patrice Zagame’s Team Leadership of Novartis Brazil”Case Study for Chapter 11 “Developing and Leading Teams” by Mohammad Khadim

Overview • Novartis Brazil is major developer of products to protect and improve health • 2002 - Patrice Zagame became president of Novartis Brazil

Patrice Zagame • He found the company with • Poor financial performance for two consecutive years • Losing market share following four consecutive layoffs • Low employee moral

Question 1 • What team dysfunctions appeared to exist at Novartis Brazil when Patrice Zagame arrived as the president?

0 Potential Team Dysfunctions Groupthink Free riding PotentialTeamDysfunction Avoidance ofaccountabilityfor results Bad apples effect Absence of trust

0 GroupThink Characteristics ofGroupthink Initial Conditions Groupthink Leadsto Defective DecisionMaking in Terms of • High cohesiveness • Insulation of the team from outsiders • Lack of methodical procedures for search and appraisal • Directive leadership • High stress with a low degree of hope for finding a better solution than the one favored by the leader or other influential persons • Complex/changing environment • Illusion of invulnerability • Collective rationalization • Belief in inherent morality of the team • Stereotypes of other groups • Direct pressure on dissenters • Self-censorship • Illusion of unanimity • Self-appointed “mind guards” • Incomplete survey of alternatives • Incomplete survey of goals • Failure to examine risks of preferred choice • Poor information search • Selective bias in processing information at hand • Failure to reappraise alternatives • Failure to work out contingency plans Conformity- Seeking TendencyofGroup

Team Dysfunctions • GroupThink • Team members agree with each other at any cost, even if it is incorrect • Free rider • A team member who obtains benefits from membership but does not bear a proportional share of the responsibility for generating the benefit • Bad apples effect • Negative team or group members who withhold effort, express negative feelings and attitudes, and violate important team norms and behaviors • Absence of trust • Avoidance of accountability for results • Team members may put their own needs (ego, career, recognition) ahead of the goals of the team when individuals aren’t held accountable

Novartis Team Dysfunctions • Groupthink • Employees all agreed with one person when making decisions, they did not question it • Employees did not like to challenge the authority figure, and the leadership team was not accustomed to challenging others • Usually one person made the decisions without discussing it with the group

Novartis Team Dysfunctions • Avoidance of Accountability for Results • Using top down culture, employees showed low accountability for the overall results • Employeesdid not feel responsible when things did not go well with their projects • Employeesdid not commit to a clear goal or plan of action

Question 2 • What norms appeared to exist upon Zagame's arrival and what norms did he work on changing and adding?

Norms • Rules and patterns of behaviors that are accepted and expected by members of a team • Teams adopt norms to help them attain their goals, which may or may not be consistent with organizational goals

Novartis Existing Norms • Leaderships valued authority and hierarchy • Leaderships did not challenge each other's decision, for example CEO idea was automatically implemented • Teams followed what leaders decided without giving their own opinion

Novartis New Norms • Decisions to be made as teams • Proposed decisions to be challenged by everyone • Different opinions to be discussed in meetings • Meetings to be brain storming only • Leadership model a behavior to promote "speak up"

Question 3 • Why is Zagame an effective team leader?

Effective Team Leader • Effective team leaders influence virtually all the factors that affect team behaviors

0 Characteristics of Effective Teams • Know why it exists and have shared goals • Support agreed-on guidelines or procedures for making decisions • Communicate freely among themselves • Help each other • Deal with conflict openly and constructively • Diagnose its own processes and improve their own functioning

0 Core Influences on Team Effectiveness Goals Teamsize Memberroles Context Teameffectiveness Cohesiveness Leadership Member diversity Norms

Zagame Effective Team Leader • Controlled the team's behavior • Empowered the teams to share their opinion and be involved • Used team leaders to enforce changes • Made the functional and cross functional teams communicate well and have open and cooperative relationships

Zagame Effective Team Leader • Controlled the team's behavior by promoting more open and cooperative relationships using • "Speak Up“ • Openly challenge proposed decisions, and encourage the expression of different opinions • "Four Cultural pillars“ • Leadership team model the culture expected. Four Cultural Pillars included innovation, customer focus, teamwork and fun. These were the expected behaviors by the teams. • Yearly award ceremony was held to honor people who followed these pillars • Workshops • For cross-functional leadership teams. Found out that communicating controversial decisions to the team is important. Found out that in order to improve decision making process one must challenge colleagues ideas. Found out that team based decisions are important compared to one person making decisions • Modeling desired behaviors

Zagame Effective Team Leader • Increased the team's moral and found and resolved Novartis Brazil problems and made the company successful • Exceeded its financial goals and its market share stabilized, for two consecutive years • Became one of the top 100 best companies to work for in Brazil, for two consecutive years • Became one of the most successful subsidiaries of Navartis • Attracted top talent for key positions

Question 4 • How was member diversity valued by Patrice Zagame and Ney Suva, the head of human resources?

0 Team Member Diversity Diversity poses a threat to the organization’s effective functioning Expressed discomfort with the dominant group’s values is perceived as oversensitivityby minority groups Attitudes involving stereotypical false assumptions about team diversity Members of all groups want to become and should be more like the dominant group Equaltreatment meansthe same treatment

Zagame Member Diversity • Allowing everyone to have their own opinions and discussing them openly • Enhancing the effectiveness of the teams by bringing more insights into the causes of problems and the potential solutions • Holding workshops for the 12 functional teams to see what problems they faced within the cross functional teams • Promoting horizontal debate with leadership teams • Modeling the culture that was expected • Following "speakup" and "cultural pillars“ • Respecting others opinion but to be firm with their final decision

Questions?

by Mohammad Khadim