Should Laura talk with Drew’s manager about the situation now? Why or why not?
Laura Brooks has been asked to be the team leader for a cross-functional project that is designed to improve customer service in her company. Laura is a manager in the customer service department and is highly respected, but this is her first experience as a team leader. The team consists of 12 members from marketing, sales, customer service and accounting. Team members were appointed by their department managers. The team has met at least once a week for the past month and has completed the planning for the project.
On the quarterly surveys administered over the past five years, customers have rated overall customer satisfaction between 8.0 and 9.5 on a 10-point scale except for the past three quarters. The rating for the past three quarters was 7.8, 7.7, and 7.5 for the last quarter. The team has been tasked with developing a plan to increase the rating in the next year to a minimum of 8.5. The plan will be implemented in the departments represented because they have primary responsibility for working with customers.
Laura is especially concerned about Drew, a team member from the marketing department, who does not seem to be engaged in the project. Drew attended all of the meetings except one. He had been asked to present information about how marketing handled a number of situations with customers. He called another team member from marketing and asked her to present the information saying he did not feel well and would not be in that day. He did not have anything prepared to give to her. He told her she worked with those kinds of situations as much as he did and could just talk about them. Drew usually did not make comments in team meetings unless someone specifically asked him a question. Then he answered as briefly as possible. He always agreed with whatever the team said or decided. Most of the team members were very active when tasks were assigned—Drew was not. He simply said okay when others suggested that he should be responsible for a particular task.
The project is now being launched and each team member will assume his or her responsibilities and work independently. The team will meet weekly to report progress and discuss issues. Laura is very concerned about Drew’s participation.
Should Laura talk with Drew’s manager about the situation now? Why or why not?
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