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

2. Overview
Novartis Brazil is major developer of products to protect and improve health
Patrice Zagame became president of Novartis Brazil

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

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

5. Potential Team Dysfunctions
Groupthink
Free riding
Potential Team Dysfunction
Avoidance of accountability for results
Bad apples effect
Absence of trust

6. GroupThink Initial Conditions Characteristics of Groupthink
Initial Conditions
Characteristics of Groupthink
Groupthink Leads to Defective Decision Making 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
Tendency of Group

7. Team Dysfunctions GroupThink Free rider Bad apples effect
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

8. 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

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

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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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"

14. Question 3
Why is Zagame an effective team leader?

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

16. Characteristics of Effective Teams
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

17. Core Influences on Team Effectiveness
Core Influences on Team Effectiveness
Goals
Team size
Member roles
Context
Team effectiveness
Cohesiveness
Leadership
Member
diversity
Norms

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

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

22. Team Member Diversity
Diversity poses a threat to the organization’s effective functioning
Expressed discomfort with the dominant group’s values is perceived as oversensitivity by 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
Equal treatment means the same treatment

23. 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

24. Questions?