Read Article and Give Critical Issues, Problem Statements, and Problem Analysis

CASE STUDY

When people are telecommuting, you can't communicate too much.

How Do ÏOU Manage an Off-Sile Team? by Regina Fazio Maruca

Thursday, April 23message from: allisonscherto: ctaigbedell Craig,

I was very disturbed to learn that you met with Penelope without my knowledge to discuss my perfor- mance. As I said in my memo to you of April 21, the situation between me and Penelope has been building for some time, and it has nothing to do with m̂ y performance.

Here's one example: Last week, when the two of us were meeting with the client rep, she contradicted me right in front of him. I had been

22

explaining the timing of the rollout, and she jumped right in and said, "No, Allison, that's not right. We're using this schedule."And then she handed the client a printout with a schedule I had never even seen, much less agreed to.

That was not the first time that she has made decisions regarding the Pnobscott account behind my back and then embarrassed me in front of the client. At first, I attributed her behavior to the fact that she was not used to communicating from an off- site location. As you know, it has been only two months since she be-

gan working part-time from home, which was just when the Pnobscott project was getting under way. In fact, when I voiced my concerns to her, she said she'd had difficulty with her E-mail, but that she'd con- sulted with the other members of the team and the problem wouldn't happen again.

But as I considered her excuses and thought about her behavior, I re- alized my initial theory wasn't plau- sible. I have been working outside of the office for over a year now, and I know that it isn't that difficult to stay in toucb. And so I must con-

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW luly-August 1998

CASE STUDY

elude that her behavior is not about heing o f f - s i t e - i t is a personal vendetta of some kind against me and other mcmhers of the team. Other members of the team who are off-site feel the same way. If this sit- uation is not resolved soon, I fear that I will have to consider alterna- tive employment. Please respond immediately.

Allison

It was 1:45 on Friday. Maggie Pinto, head of human resources at Impres- sions Corporation, finished reading the printout of the E-mail and whis-

tled softly. Sitting across the desk from ber, Craig Bedell, bead of the business-to-business division, nod- ded. "Of course, I E-mailed Allison right back to let her know that my meeting with Penny was strictly to discuss the Pnobscott campaign. I wrote that we had not discussed Penny's relations with the other team members. And I called her as well and left a similar message on her voice mail. Then I thought about it some and called her again, leaving a message that I wanted to see h e r - with Penny - in my office on Monday at 9:30. Right after I did that, I left a

message for Penny telling her the same thing.

"I have to say, Maggie, I'm at a loss. I mean, sure, I know what to do at the meeting on Monday. I'm going to tell them hoth, gently, that I un- derstand that there has been some conflict between them, and then I'm going to use all of my skills as a facil- itator and manager," he paused, smiling, "to get them to put all their cards on the table and work through the problem."

Regina Fazio Maruca is an associate editor at HBR.

ARTWORK BY VICTOR JUHASZ 23

CASE STUDY HOW DO YOU MANAGE AN OFF-SITE TEAM?

Bedell stopped s m i l i n g . " T h e thing I'm at a loss about is just how the situation got to this point with- out my knowledge. I know that two years ago, when everyone was work- ing right under my nose, I eould tell immediately if something was up.

Bedell stopped smiling.'Two years agO/When everyone was working right under my nosej could tell immediately if something was up."

I could see it in people's stances, hear it in their tones of voice. But now that we're all working off-site part of the time, and eommunicating a lot more by E-mail and voice mail, it's a lot harder to monitor how my people feel. I know the work gets done, and 1 see almost everyone at least onee every other week in our group meeting. I also try to check in with people at least every other day. Clearly, though, when a group of em- ployees tries to manage a eonfliet on its own, as the Pnobscott team has, I'm totally out of the loop until it's either resolved or too late. In this ease, it may be too late."

"Didn't you have any warning that there was tension between Penny and Allison or between Penny and other members of the Pnobseott team?" Pinto asked.

"Not really," Bedell answered. "I mean, I know that there's some bad history between Penny and Allison, but I thought they were well past it. Baek when we were all working out of this building, Allison onee came to me quite upset, saying that Penny had lied to a client about why a cam- paign had come in over budget. She said that Penny had alluded to the client that it was Allison's fault. I talked with Penny alone, then with both of them together, and we all agreed that it had been a miscommu- nication. Penny even offered to write a letter to the client saying that if a wrong impression had been given, she wanted to correct it. But Allison declined the offer-with my support. Bad enough if the client had been

given the wrong impression, but better to let it stand than to go back and pick at it.

"Since then, though, everything has been fine. I mean, the usual onee-in-a-while conflict between coworkers, but nothing to speak of.

In fact, I sort of attributed that whole incident to the faet that Allison was hav- ing marital problems at the time. I thought it was largely a case of displaced anger. She was flying off the handle once a week- about a lot of things of little or no consequence. And her relationship with

Penny since then has seemed pretty solid. Allison and Penny were part of the group that designed the Franco- Line campaign last year, the one that received the AdVice award from the trade association. They were all lovey-dovey during that campaign, and afterwards, too, or so I thought. Now this." He broke off, sighing.

"So there was no indication of conflict?" Pinto prodded.

"Well, I'll show you the two rele- vant E-mails I received before that last one, but keep in mind, I just got those this week as well, " Bedell said. He held out two pieces of paper.

Pinto picked her glasses up off her desk and put them on. "This is clear- ly something I need to be able to read without squinting," she said with a small smile. She took the messages and began to scan the first one.

Tuesday, April 21 message from: allisonscher to: craigbedell Craig,

I'm sorry to dump this on you by E-mail, but I have been unable to reach you in person today by phone, and I'm at the end of my rope here. I find that I will no longer be able to perform my job to the high stan- dards that I generally deliver if I must continue to work with Penelope. Al- though she is not my supervisor, she behaves as if she were, causing stress within our team and making us feel like we're giving subpar service to the client.

She has also insinuated, on several occasions, that my performance re-

view and my bonus will be affected if I do not obey her instructions.

To the best of my understanding, Penelope is my equal in this organi- zation, not my superior. I was under the impression that Penelope and I were to be teammates on the Pnob- scott account. In faet, sinee I have several years more experience than her, I was more than happy to shoul- der the responsibility of being the unofficial team leader.

1 (we) are not going to be able to deliver a seamless publie-relations campaign to this elient on time. I (we) will not be able to deliver any sort of coherent campaign to them at all if I have to spend 90% of my time defending myself in front of the client and responding to allegations that she makes privately and in the team's intranet chat room, and only I o % of my time working.

Craig, I trust that you will deal with this situation promptly. I look forward to hearing from you.

Allison

"That was the first I heard of it," Be- dell said as Pinto looked up. "I had received two voice mail messages from Allison earlier in the day, but neither one said anything more than that she wanted me to call back 'when I got a chance.'"

"But this looks quite serious," Pinto said.

"Yes and no," Bedell answered. "Of course, when I received that message, I immediately E-mailed back and suggested that the three of us-Penny, Allison, and I - m e e t later in the week, face-to-face. I didn't E-mail Penny at that time; I wanted to see w h a t A l l i s o n ' s s c h e d u l e looked like, and I also wanted to get a handle on whether the situation was as serious as it looked in print. You have to know Allison," he said. "Even on a good day, she overreacts. But then she bounces back. She ex- plodes, she cries, and then she's fine. That's how she operates.

"Anyway, in her reply, Allison said that she wouldn't be able to come into the office until next Mon- day. So I thought, fine, she's past the explosion; we'll leave it at that."

Pinto nodded and then looked down at the next message. "This one

24 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW July-August 1998

CASE STUDY HOW DO YOU MANAGE AN OFF-SITE TEAM?

is from Penny," Bedell explained. "I had called her very early Tuesday- long before any of the messages from Allison-and left her a voiee mail asking if we could get together, faee- to-face, to discuss how the team was progressing on the Pnohscott cam- paign." Pinto looked puzzled, and Bedell quickly continued, guessing correctly that she was unsure about Penelope's role. "Penny isn't the official team leader," he explained, "Allison is right. But I do tend to meet with her in person more than I do with the others because she is generally in the office more."

Wednesday, April 22 message from: peneloperyan to: craigbedell Craig,

I'm next in the office tomorrow. Let's plan to meet at 10:00, if that's okay with you. The Pnohscott cam- paign is moving along, hut I'm glad that you checked in because there is a situation I need to discuss with you in person. So that you won't be hlindsided, I think you should know that it has to do with Allison. Her performance has been extremely erratic lately, and I think you will need to step in and at least have a talk with her.

Thanks, Penny

"What could I s a y - ' N o , I won't meet with you until I can meet with both of you?' Rememher, I didn't think that there was real trouble brewing at that point. Anyway, I did meet with Penny Thursday morn- ing, and we talked about the cam- paign. I did not say anything about Allison being upset, hut I did ask Penny ahout the mention of Allison in her E-mail. Penny said that we didn't need to talk about it right then. She said there had been some tension, but she and Allison were working it out. It was much later in the afternoon when I got the final message from Allison."

Pinto looked past Bedell, out the window at the parking lot. She was silent for a minute or so. Then she refocused her gaze on him. "This is quite troubling. Watching you han- dle a group of 20 people working at

different times and from different locations was giving us in the HR de- partment the idea that it was almost time to roll out a companywide flex- time experiment. But now it looks like we may have heen wrong."

"Regardless," Bedell said impa- tiently, "I'm facing a prohlem here, and I don't know what to do. I'm not here to analyze or defend the way my department works. For the record- and you know this is the case - we are doing the hest work we've ever done. But yes, you should consider rolling out a flextime, off-site pro- gram throughout the company. Look at how our account reps work on the road. When they meet with a client, their teammates don't have to wait until they return for a full report. They use the intranet chat room to get caught up and push ahead in real time, and our rep goes back to the client that afternoon or the next morning with a fleshed-out plan or a whole set of new ideas. We're not wasting time anymore, and we have a bigger client load to prove it."

He calmed down and continued speaking, hut slower. "It's just that some d a y s - t o - day being one of t h e m - I do feel as though I am to- tally disconnected from the people I manage, even though I'm more 'con- nected' to t h e m than I ever have heen."

Pinto raised her eye- brows, and Bedell quickly went on. "It's not that I don't trust them," he said. "They're dedicated workers, and they don't take the in- creased freedom they have with this new arrangement for granted. Alli- son is a good example, actually. She has to take care of her father now, and the new arrangement lets her work out of her house most days. Penny has two young children at home, and she says that working at home two days a week has really helped her get more work done and, at the same time, balance work life and family life. Marc Peterson, John Washington, Meredith Lott, and most of the others are the s a m e - their schedules are their own, and they're doing good work."

"The problem is, I don't see them doing their work, and more impor- tant, I don't see them interacting as they do their work," he finished, shaking his head.

"Maybe you've given them too much freedom," Pinto suggested. "As I understand it, each of your em- ployees sets his or her own schedule, save for the meetings you call in the office. Perhaps a more limited flexi- ble arrangement..."

"Sure, if we were starting from scratch," Bedell agreed. "But re- member, our arrangement started two and a half years ago when Bob Rothman's wife started working the night shift at the hospital. He want- ed to be able to see his wife during the day, so he asked if we could give him a laptop and a modem and let him work at home. He stayed in touch daily, and he pioneered the idea of meeting electronically when he was on the road. The arrange- ment grew on a ease-hy-case basis from there. You know the rest of the story."

Pinto nodded. "I do," she said. "And I know that it would he diffi-

Maybe you've given them too much freedom/'

Maggie Pinto suggested. "Perhaps a more limited flexible arrangement..."

cult to hacktrack-to undo a situa- tion that is already rooted." She paused, then continued. "Look, Craig, I'm afraid I don't have a ready answer for you. I'll have to think about this whole situation and solic- it some input from a few other peo- ple. I have a meeting at 2:30, hut let's reconvene at, say, s^oo?"

HBR's cases present common man- agerial dilemmas and offer concrete solutions from experts. As written, they are hypothetical, and the names used are fictitious. We invite you to write to Case Suggestions, Harvard Business Review, 60 Har- vard Way. Boston, MA 02163. ^^d describe the issues you would like to see addressed.

26 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW luly-August 1998

CASE STUDY HOW DO YOU MANAGE AN OFF-SITE TEAM?

Can the rift between Allison and Penny be mended?

Four experts offer their advice on the complexities of managing off-site employees.

Communicating electronicaiiy

will never be as effective

as speaking with someone

in person.

ROBERT M. EGAN is director of international mobility for IBM. He works out of a mobile office near Salt Lake City, Utah.

In theory, the rules of management shouldn't change when you are su- pervising people you don't see face- to-face.

But communieating electronically is not, and never will be, as effective as speaking with someone in person and observing his or her facial ex- pressions and body language. Tele- phone conversations are the next best thing-you can at least hear suhtleties in the other person's tone of voice. The use of voice mail is a very distant third. And E-mail, be- cause of its impersonal nature, is an even less desirable option. It is quicker but no more effective at bringing people together to resolve

complex issues than old-fashioned letter writing.

That's why, in practice, managing people in off-site locations means that a more rigorous management approach is needed.

Craig Bedell clearly did not recog- nize the need for a change in his behavior. He didn't understand that when a team and its manager are not meeting faee-to-face regularly, they are necessarily dependent on elec- tronic communications for most of their interactions. And he didn't foresee that in such an environment, problems that may have been in- significant or easily resolved in the office tend to escalate quickly and spin out of control.

That's exactly what has happened in this case. A mixed-up series of communications by voice mail, E- mail, and in person has blown up and may cost the company in a big way. Craig's wishy-washy approach to the question of team leadership has left Allison Scher hitter and Penelope Ryan the target, although she may not realize its full extent, of the team's enmity. In a flexible environment, the establishment of formal organizational authority and responsibility are critical. Craig's method has heen to meet with- and thus to exchange in- formation with - the team member who is most often in the office. This is poor manage- ment, and he was asking for trouble. Further, Craig reacted too slowly to the various messages he received, and he should not have relied on E-mail to respond to any of them. At least he finally recognized that he

needs to meet with hoth employees face-to-face.

My recommendations are directed at Maggie Pinto. First, she should not abandon her plan to roll out a companywide flextime plan. How- ever, the company should learn from its current difficulties and institute formal training for managers to teach them about communicating in a telecommuting environment.

Second, Maggie should be under- standing about Craig's missteps. He was trained to manage in a different world and has no experience in this one. At the same time, she was right in saying that Craig had given his employees too much freedom. And she and her department also bear some of the responsibility for not foreseeing the kinds of difficulties that would crop up in the new sys- tem. But that's all water under the hridge. How should Impressions Corporation move forward?

Maggie should advise Craig to take the following steps: • First, when meeting with Penny and Allison on Monday morning, take the blame for the current mess, let the women vent their feelings, and lead a discussion about how the team can work together in the best interests of the client. • Second, choose a team leader- based on the person's skills and experience, not his or her accessibil- ity-and make the choice official at a team meeting. • Third, set up a formal review schedule to track the team's progress on its various projects; all the team members should participate in this

Craig's method has been to meet with the person who is

most often in the office. This is poor management.

meeting face-to-face or at least by telephone, and the team leader should direct the discussion. • Fourth, to avoid allowing small misunderstandings to become major conflagrations, resolve to rely on the most effective communication

28 PORTRAITS BY CHUCK MORRIS

HOW DO YOU MANAGE AN OFF-SITE TEAM? CASE STUDY

methods, not just the most expedi- tious ones.

Working in a mobile environment gives employees tremendous advan- tages. Being able to work at home part of the time allows them a better balance between work and home life and can substantially increase both productivity and morale. But those benefits can only be realized by the company when its managers and employees have a clear understand- ing of the rules and a commitment to open and honest communication.

I wouldn't be surprised if other team members express

concerns that are not too different from the ones Craig

has already heard from Penny and Allison.

WENDY MILES is a project manager at Holland America Line Westours in Seattle, Washington. She is also the secre- tary of the International Telework Association and Council, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide education and information on telework.

In the short term, Craig Bedell and Maggie Pinto definitely need to ad- dress the conflict between Allison Scber and Penelope Ryan; they both seem to be valued employees, and the sooner their issues are resolved, the better. But tbe two managers should be careful about how they go

about their counseling. The obvious way to do it would be to mediate a discussion between the two women. In fact, that's what Craig plans to do. But if they stop there, I fear they'll be missing an opportunity to address the larger issue at hand: whether or not this team is organized appropri- ately for the work that they are supposed to be doing. If Craig and Maggie address the larger issue, they will be able to pre- vent s m a l l e r conflicts from occurring between other team members in the future. They'll also take a big step toward understanding the par- ticular management requirements- and participant requirements-of an organization that is made up of tele- commuters and people working flex- ible hours.

How can they address the larger issue even as they deal with the con- flict between Penny and Allison? First, by explaining to each woman that their conflict seems to be a symptom of a larger issue. And sec- ond, by asking them both to partici- pate in a teamwide meeting to dis- cuss the projects at hand, the various jobs that must be done, and the roles eacb team member has or sbould have so tbat everyone will find his or her work productive, rewarding, and unencumbered by others' schedules or work habits. This meeting should include all employees in Craig's group-those who work off-site as well as those who work in the office full-time. The on-site employees are affected, too, even though we haven't heard about them in this case.

I wouldn't be surprised if, at the meeting, other team members voice con- cerns that are not too dif- ferent from the ones Craig has already heard from Penny and Allison-or that he has sensed him- self but ignored. Take Penny's ten- dency to shoulder responsibility whenever and wherever she can. Other members of the off-site team may also resent her actions yet feel powerless to do anything about the situation. After all, Penny is "in"

more than they are. Internally, sup- port staff and other team members may resent her apparent power; they may also feel put-upon by their need to accommodate their colleagues' more flexible schedules.

I'll bet that a good deal of the fall- out from the meeting will point to

Is this team organized appropriately for the work

they are supposed to do?

the need for Craig to reassess his own management style. Do the rules of management change wben people work off-site some or all of the time? No. But in a nontraditional office setting, managers may flnd that they must pay closer attention to those rules than they ever did before. To date, it seems as if Craig bas been coasting along, letting tbe telecom- muting and flextime arrangements of his employees take sbape witbout his guidance, letting his team try to work witbout direction, and letting conflicts take their course witbout his input. It's time for him to re- member his own role. He needs a better understanding of what's going on; be needs to develop a clear work process for his employees to follow; and be needs to improve bis commu- nication skills.

If tbe telecommuting arrangement has gotten out of band, be needs to

How about agreeing that everyone-no matter his or

her location-will be "at work"and reachable between

11:00 and 2:00 every day?

belp his employees find an accept- able compromise. How about a group meeting once or twice a week-or at least a group teleconference? How about agreeing tbat e v e r y o n e - n o matter wbat bis or her location i s - will be "at work" and reacbable be- tween 11 :oo and 2:00 every day?

continued on page 32

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW July-August 1998 29

CASE STUDY HOW DO YOU MANAGE AN OBF-SITE TEAM?

Craig does not need to hacktrack on all the hard work his employees have done to make telecommuting a way of life. However, he does need to make sure that performance isn't suffering.

If some people find that they're most productive early in the morn- ing or late at night, there's no reason they can't continue to work to suit their n e e d s - a s long as their work hahits and styles don't hinder the performance of their colleagues or their group as a whole. From what we know, these are intelligent, hard- working people. Chances are good they know more ahout the problems than Craig does right now; they'll help him find a solution.

All the team memhers should, in fact, be asked for their input on sev- eral important questions. For exam- ple, what would they consider a cor- rect reporting procedure to be? Has the workload heen distributed fairly? And should the group even be con- stituted as a team?

Ironing out the larger problems will probably go a long way toward mending the rift between Penny and Allison. Craig might have a follow- up meeting between the two women, just as an added measure; but after the big team meeting, they should have a better perspective on their work, their conflict, and the possible solutions.

As I reflect on the possible out- comes of the group meeting, it oc- curs to me that Craig may not be the right person to lead the discussion. Especially since, as I've said, I sus- pect he'll take the brunt of the blame for any issues that come up, and also the brunt of the responsibility for fixing the problems.

I would recommend, therefore, that Maggie at least be present and perhaps even run the show. If trou- ble is indeed brewing on a scale larg- er than the conflict hetween Penny and Allison, Craig may react like a deer in h e a d l i g h t s . If Maggie is worth her salt as the company's head of human resources, she'll have fore- seen that possibility. She will be ready to diffuse the tension and give Craig some much-needed time to collect his thoughts and react con- structively, not defensively.

Clients are being poorly

served by a team that is not

communicating, and the employees are being set

up to fail by a process

that doesn't work.

TOHN R. BIRSTLER is first vice president and director of technology at Merrill Lynch in Som- erset, New Jersey.

As a result of the communication breakdowns caused hy the ahsence of a carefully developed alternative- work program. Impressions Corpo- ration suddenly finds itself with the wrong people working at home for the wrong reasons and going about it in the wrong way.

Allison Scher and Penelope Ryan apparently worked well together when they showed up at the office every day. By allowing the two antagonists to work from home w i t h o u t a structured program, the company has permitted them to disengage from the t h i n g s t h a t made them successful employ- ees in the past.

In order for alternative work programs-and their partici- pants - to succeed, they must rest on a firm foundation. The program de- scribed in the case has no foundation at all; in fact, it is an increasingly shaky house of cards. The most obvi- ous problems are these:

• The company bas no assessment process to determine whether an employee is a suitable candidate for an alternative work arrangement. • Employees are permitted - and even encouraged by management's tacit endorsement - to use alterna- tive arrangements to mix work and personal obligations. But the com- pany offers no clear guidelines that explain when people must be "at work" and when they are at liberty to handle personal affairs.

• The program has no process to en- sure at least a minimal amount of "face time." Tbe problem is made worse by the participants' almost to- tal reliance on voice mail and E-mail to maintain contact.

Almost all companies ascribe to a set of governing principles that include client focus and employee focus. In this scenario, both clients and employees are out of focus. In- stead, the lens has been trained on the quantitative gains of the pro- g r a m - s h o r t e r cycle times, bigger client loads-while the program is being undermined by qualitative failures - breakdowns in communica- tion, loss of organizational identity. Clients are being poorly served by a team that is not communicating, and the employees are being set up to fail by a process that doesn't work. It is small wonder that they are fail- i n g - t h e y lack a common agenda based on the company's values and principles.

Although a company's principles and values should remain intact re- gardless of where and when work is conducted, management rules and

The company has the wrong people working at home for

the wrong reasons and going about it in the wrong way.

processes do change as employees begin to work off-site. Alternative work programs call for a heightened level of commitment from both the participants and their manager; such commitment is needed to ensure that logistics and the lack of face-to-

32 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW July-August 1998

CASE STUDY HOW DO YOU MANAGE AN OFB-SITE TEAM?

face contact do not have a negative impact on an otherwise successful work process.

Maggie Pinto and Craig Bedell need to assess the strengths and de- velopmental needs of their telecom- muters and then reconsider their work arrangements. There may be other ways to provide those employ- ees with the work-family balance they desire while allowing them to work together effectively on their current projects. For example, they could job share, work part-time, or work a compressed work week. And telecommuting may still be a viable option if the company takes the proper corrective actions.

By conducting an assessment of their employees and matching the results to an array of work-arrange- ment options, Maggie and Craig will have completed what we at Merrill Lynch refer to as a process consulta- tion. This activity is a fundamental component of a successful alterna- tive-work program.

If a process consultation indicates that telecommuting is the recom- mended option, the employees and their manager should then partici- pate in a structured meeting that will do the following: • lay out the challenges and nuances of working in a nontraditional way; • develop a comprehensive agree- ment on program governance, in- cluding such issues as schedules, mandatory face time, tracking prog- ress, and reporting; and • bring about consensus that there is shared accountability for the success of the arrangement.

Those three points are neither complex nor unique, but they are critical to the suceess of an alterna- tive-work-arrangement program.

Although Impressions Corpora- tion's program is in disarray, creating a viable alternative-work-arrange- ment program is certainly within the company's reach. A greater focus on principles and values, a consulta- tive review to ensure the proper match between employee and work arrangement, and the construction of processes to give shape to its cur- rently ambiguous program is all that this organization needs to turn its program around.

Maggie Pinto should rethink her knee-ierk reaction to

Craig Bedell's dilemma.

She should be thinking about the big picture.

MARGARET KLAYTON-MI is an associate professor of business administration at Mary Washington College in Fredeiicksburg, Virginia, where she teaches a course on man- aging remote workers. She is the vice president of the International Tele- work Association and Council.

The problems in this case have less to do with employees working off- site than with Craig Bedell's man- agement style.

Managing teams that work off-site requires managers to pay extra atten- tion to matters that are often taken for granted on-site. For instance, Craig should never have assembled a team and set it to work without provid- ing clear guidelines on team hierarchy. Who will be the team's contact per- son? If there is no team leader, does everyone un- derstand his or her assign- ment? How are they ex- pected to work together? If Craig meant to have a team with no leader, he should have been meeting with all the members together rather than individually. By asking Penelope Ryan to meet face-to-face with him for a progress report, Craig showed

preferential treatment. He discussed issues important for the whole team with her and may have given her in- formation meant for all of them. That would explain Allison Seher's complaint that Penny is presenting information to the client that she has not seen.

Hindsight is 20/20. And Craig can't turn back the clock. Instead, he must focus on the future-both the short term and the long term. Before meeting with Penny and Allison on Monday, Craig needs to get informa- tion about the situation from other team members. He should find out, for example, if they really do feel the same way that Allison does about Penny. At the meeting itself, he should lead an o p e n - a n d open- minded-discussion with the goal of reknitting bonds of trust and loyalty between the two women and, by ex- tension, among the whole team. In the end, because of the evident eon- fusion over the team's leadership, he may want to tell Penny and Allison that he will be designating an official team leader when the entire team meets again.

In the future, Craig should "over- eommunicate" with his employees. He is frustrated because he doesn't see them in person often enough; nor does he see the team interacting. To alleviate his feelings of disconnec- tion, he should meet facc-to-face every week with the team, instead of every two weeks. In addition, the team members should submit status reports at regular intervals. These meetings and reports will allow him to give feedback at all times, not just

Craig should never have assembled a team without providing clear guidelines

on team hierarchy.

in times of trouble. And he will be better able to sense any major crises that are developing.

In general, Craig's managerial sit- uation is similar to that of managing a sales force in the field. Thus he would benefit from a training ses-

34 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW fu!y-August 1998

HOW DO YOU MANAGE AN OFF-SITE TEAM? CASE STUDY

sion on how to manage a dispersed workforce. In addition, he probably could use a refresher course on de- veloping relationship skills and an- other one on developing communi- cation skills.

Other players in the case need to examine their behavior. Penny, for example, should consider her work habits. She has not adjusted smooth- ly to working off-site. First, although her E-mail is working properly now, she must make use of backup com- munication procedures. She and the other team members should visit the intranet chat room routinely for messages. And they should use voice mail to alert others if they have sent any important E-mail messages. Sec- ond, she comes into the office more often than other team memhers do. She may need a structured environ- ment in which to work; she may also want to maintain high visibility for reward and promotion opportuni- ties. Or she may be feeling frustrated that she is not getting the informa- tion she normally would by going in

every day to the office. A formal screening process would have re- vealed that Penny's work habits and personality make her an unsuitable off-site employee.

Maggie Pinto should rethink her knee-jerk response to Craig's dilem- ma. As the head of human resources, she should be t h i n k i n g about the big picture. If she does, she'll realize that she should no, back oif from her plan to roll out a companywide flextime program For malizing the rough guide- lines that are in place now would help Allison and new tele- commuters feel that they are being treated fairly.

The company's managers need to take part in an extensive training process. The training should include how to establish and communicate clear, realistic ohieetives and expec- tations; how to define what work is due when; how to give ongoing, clear, and specific feedback to their

employees; how to d e m o n s t r a t e openness and loyalty; and how to mentor workers to be self-starters. Off-site employees need similar training in how to communicate and work effectively away from the office. And on-site employees also need

A formal screening process would have revealed that

's work habits make her unsuitable telecommuter.

training to work effectively in the new environment.

When a company has clear poli- cies and guidelines and a strong training program in place, off-site work arrangements can result in increased productivity and higher morale for all concerned. v

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