Case Study - Ethics and Diversity
Janell is a 38-year-old African American female with a respectable drive for success and a natural ability to inspire her employees. Beating out many of her colleagues, she recently was promoted as the lead project manager in a large, global, technical corporation, called Worldtron, Inc., which is headquartered in the United States.
After only a few weeks as a lead project manager, Janell was called for an emergency teleconference with members of a small technical firm, Jupiter, Inc. located in Japan, that Worldtron, Inc. had newly acquired. The teleconference was called because Jupiter, Inc. missed a deadline for a critical element needed in project production. It appears that the Jupiter, Inc. project manager, Ami, had misunderstood the communications regarding the scope of work required. As a result, Janell immediately flew to Japan to temporarily help Ami with operations at Jupiter, Inc. The news of her arrival was not well received by Ami or her team, because they attributed the miscommunications to Janell.
After three weeks of working with Ami and her team, Janell, concluded that there was resistance on the part of Ami and her team to accept project management directives from Janell. As a result, the project is rapidly falling behind and is in danger of missing the deliverable date, which would cost Worldtron, Inc. millions of dollars. Janell is feeling pressured by these complex issues, but thinks she needs to continue to strengthen Jupiter, Inc. so that their work on the project can be completed. To do this, she needs to access her leadership skills, recognize the problem, and encourage the strengths and capabilities of this site. Also, she needs to find a way to work collaboratively with Ami and her team.
Worldtron, Inc. hired you in the past as an external executive coach to work with Janell over the course of 8 months. A senior executive at Worldtron, Inc. called you recently to hire you to work with Ami and Janell in this matter. Most of your global executive coaching is done virtually, via telephone or Web conferencing. The senior executive also asked you to describe some of the past details regarding your work with Janell. How should you proceed?