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EFFECTIVE TACTICS OF TEAM MANAGEMENT: A CASE

STUDY ON VOLVO CAR CORPORATION

Hafez Shurrab

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Abstract: Project execution is essentially based on a project team

performance. A team passes through phases of development from a forming

phase to results delivery and learned lessons. Along with primary tasks

dedicated by a project team to deliver a project results, there are some

strategies and tactics whereby the effectiveness and interaction of team work

are kept in high levels. This study discusses the effectiveness of particular team

management tactics in practice. Volvo Car Corporation is the company used

as a case to investigate some followed practices that may correspond to those

tactics. The theories discussed are in relation to how to secure the right project

team members, motivate team members effectively, and facilitate smooth

communication flow within a team. Activities of monitoring the development a

team performance in practice are also discussed.

Human resources in project management are one of other elements needed to get tasks

done. They are commonly referred to as a project team. They are in fact deeply essential

from a project management perspective. The way a project team is managed may end up

with either extraordinary performance, or catastrophic results. In other words, if the

human behavior is taken into project managers’ account while managing team

development from the beginning, they will better understand project team members

individually, and quickly explore the imbalance and deficiency related to a project team

performance collectively. However, it is not enough to detect the causes of performance

deficiency, project managers need to come up with corresponding solutions and

treatments. That could be a way easier to be done for machines and regular systems, as

the behavior of them and the reaction of their internal elements, overlaps and

surroundings are to a large extent expectable. Thus, systems and machines behavior could

be simulated in a way that helps managers to make the right decision, which results in

higher performance, better quality and lower costs. Unlike that, human behavior and team

chemistry are quite difficult to be expected beforehand. Moreover, the combinations of

teams makes it tricky to come up with solutions that work smoothly for everybody. There

is always a micro-scale and macro-scale for the reaction between team patterns.

Therefore, making the right decision is not a cushy job for team management. Boddy

(2003) proposes particular strategies and tactics whereby common problems in team

management are most likely to be resolved or avoided.

Theoretical Framework

Securing Team Members

Boddy (2003) described gathering and securing the right team members as not a simple

easygoing task for many organizations. The organizational structure makes it more

complicated to have the luxury of choices as available unchangeable skills for a project that

are already in place may not fulfil the required balance of preferred roles indicated by

Meredith Belbin's theory. Moreover, there is another challenge in resolving the dilemma

between involving the right skill and right commitment as time plays a significant role,

especially for those with required skills. Additionally, the size of the groups that involve

more than 12 people may also complicate the coherence of team performance as it

becomes harder to reach agreement and find proper solutions productively. However

there are some special solutions to that slowness and that may include dividing the big

group in sub-groups, rotating the membership to keep numbers down, and/or inviting

excess people to join the steering group. The last one may affect the pace of decision-

making process (Boddy, 2003).

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Motivating Team Members

The influence of motivating team members may result in significant difference in team

performance. Project team can be motivated extrinsically (to achieve objectives

irrelevant to the work boundary) and intrinsically (to achieve objectives in which

increase personal satisfaction from doing the work) (Amabile, 1997). In projects, several

intrinsically motivating practices are considered to ensure commitment and high

performance. That may include taking staff concerns seriously to reinforce the moral of

the project staff and hence keep their commitment high during the project period,

generating excitement to raise the profile of the project by organizing events such as

brainstorming sessions and kick-offs with a top management presence, and publicizing

success by promoting successes and responsibilities of project members and their

individual contributions. Publicizing success is effective when “Quick Wins” strategy is

considered. The direct influence of planning for “Quick Wins” is that the sense of

achievement becomes easier to gain for project staff and board members whom can then

see a return on their investment. Besides, the success of a project becomes easier to be

claimed by management (Boddy, 2003).

Common Approach

Tuckman and Jensen (1977) suggested a model for team development whereby project

teams experience different phases throughout the project including forming, storming,

norming, performing and adjourning. Only successful project team can passes through the

storming phase when conflicts and disagreements usually emerge. There are

administrative and social aspects required for team members to agree on to be regarded as

operating in the norming phase. Three main agreements are important in that respect and

those are related to who is going to do what, which skills should be developed of whom,

and how the decisions are made and modified within the team. However, for further

enhancement of the team success, there should be a more holistic common approach as a

framework. In addition to deciding how the skills of a group should be integrated to it to

cooperatively react with advance performance, a common approach includes integrating

new members into the team and supporting them, and practices of summarizing and

circulating group discussions and agreements. The main benefits of having a common

approach for a team could be gaining more mature mutual trust and effective constructive

conflict. Therefore, the time needed to develop a common approach should be consistent

with the time required to develop a shared purpose (Boddy, 2003).

Planning for Effective Meetings

Meetings are quite common aspect of organizational communication. People

communicate with each other very often using electronic devices, but they feel good

about physical meetings. However, if meetings are not planned and executed well, they

maybe unproductive to hold. The success of meetings are basically associated with five

factors. Meetings more likely to succeed if they are scheduled well beforehand and have

duration limits for the whole meeting and each item involved. Moreover, successful

meetings are meaningful to hold in the first place, and their relevant agendas and papers

are distributed beforehand, while the resulting decisions from them are recorded and

circulated within 24 hours (Boddy, 2003).

Pattern of Content of Communication

Organizational communication are to some extent similar to communication within a

project context. Communication processes should be identified by observing who needs

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to speak to whom and in what frequency. Each project type and its related mother

organisation impose particular structure of communication to result in advance

performance. Centralized communication networks are found to be more productive in

simple and routine tasks, while decentralized communication network are required in

complex and uncertain tasks. On the other hand, communication networks usually need

facing up disagreements and providing direct physical support by the project manager

(Boddy, 2003).

Monitoring Progress and External Relations

Project team members should be observed thoroughly, especially in critical tasks. A role

imbalance could be recognized early and then corrected. A working method maybe

found ineffective to be altered. The satisfaction of members may experience some

inconveniences need to be eliminated. Any inappropriate aspect of team chemistry and

interaction or even surrounding conditions could be recognized early if there is a proper

monitoring system and wise project manager (Boddy, 2003).

Purpose of the Study

Projects are basically managed by teams. Therefore, project team development is very

crucial to a project results. As a project team proceeds, significant failure potentials may

show up because of team members themselves. However, project teams have some

common enabling ground wherever a project maybe executed, and whatever a team

culture could be. This study is dedicated to investigate the correspondence of team

management approach adopted by Volvo Car Corporation with theories of effective team

management practices proposed by Boddy (2003).

Method

The study is based on theories related to project team management discussed in the course

literature of Boddy (2003). The theories are discussed as tactics or enabling practices for a

project team success. Other theories involved are “Employee Motivation” discussed by

Amabile (1997), and a model for team development suggested by Tuckman and Jensen

(1977). Volvo Car Corporation is used as a case to investigate the addressed theories in

practice. An interview with Christer Petersson, VCMS-HSE Development Group Leader

and Senior Specialist Machine Safety, is used. The interview questions investigate the

theories in practice for Volvo Car Corporation. Answers of the interview are used to

analyze and discuss the company’s case in relation to the addressed theory (see Appendix).

Results

Securing and Motivating Team Members

The interview conducted with Christer Petersson, VCMS-HSE Development Group

Leader and Senior Specialist Machine Safety, revealed many facts related to the team

management and development in Volvo Car Corporation. Mr. Petersson confirmed that

they manage big teams to introduce a new car from the first step. Those big teams are

divided into functional and cross-functional sub-groups. In many cases, members are

reassigned to different project. However, any lack of specific skills are compensated by

either external consulting companies, or trainees that are more ready to blend in projects.

Cross-functional teams overlaps with different functional teams to join them together.

As Mr. Petersson said, the required skills for critical functions such as chassis design

and safety controlling are not compromised. They only rely on teams that are led by

experts. Yet, committed team members seem to be given chances to be involved in many

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projects, especially if the uncertainty levels are acceptable.

In the discourse of motivation, Mr. Petersson confirmed that they in Volvo Car

Corporation try to benchmark relevant motivating practices. He said that they strive to

let employees feel at home in the company. Along with enabling their employees to have

a good life, they also pay high attention to the value of individuals and take their concerns

seriously. The project managers are asked to discuss personal issues of other team

members if necessary and they try their best to resolve them. For excitement, some senior

managers are involved in some sessions of brainstorming and other sorts of activities.

Furthermore, short-term goals are integrated properly so that project members get the

sense of achievement and look forward more future success. Mr. Petersson talked about

internal periodic magazine that is distributed within the company and promotes some

success stories of project teams and individuals that contributed in significant progress.

Effective Working Methods

When asking Mr. Petersson about having common approach in team management, he

mentioned levels of common background that teams are expected to be reacting

accordingly. When the big team is divided into function and cross-functional sub-groups,

the boundaries of each group are agreed on. However, each group have the choice to

decide which approach they will be using. Mr. Petersson justified this way of working

by an example of some functional subgroups of whom prefer to function in some specific

ways for problem-solving processes, from identifying problems to getting agreement on

best solutions.

In the context of communication and meeting holding, Mr. Petersson discussed the

transformation that Volvo Car Corporation aim to reach. He said that meetings are

becoming more integrated and effective than ever. The communication patterns they use

is more centralized, except some cases of functional sub-groups. However, they strive to

integrate more decentralized communication, especially in problem-solving tasks.

Another facet of communication within team management Mr. Petersson discussed is

how Volvo Car Corporation deal with disagreements. He said that everybody is

encouraged to speak out when it comes to disagreements. They pay attention to

everyone’s opinion and reveal all possible disagreements stuck in minds. They use the

power of rationality, transparency and common sense to absorb disagreements. Mr.

Petersson agreed that may take longer time than ignoring disagreements, but the negative

effects of disagreements are least likely to appear. Moreover, once resolved, most of

disagreements are not repetitive.

Finally, Mr. Petersson talked about how team members are monitored and observed in

Volvo Car Corporation, and that is by adopting Gemba Walk principle whereby project

managers and coordinators are expected to spend around 80% of their time observing

and assisting other members, and then suggesting particular improvements (Womack &

Shook, 2011).

Discussion and Conclusion

The results show obvious convergence between effective tactics for team management

suggested by Boddy (2003), and correspondent practices adopted by Volvo Car

Corporation. Boddy (2003) discussed ways to resolve the dilemma of securing the right

team members by setting a well plan to integrate both skilful and committed members in

right manners. In Volvo, that plan is based on priorities, as the areas with high

competitiveness records, such as safety, are not compromised by assigning any

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committed members. On the other hand, they may assign some good committed trainees

to routine tasks. According to Boddy (2003), group size should not accept more than 12

members to operate coherently. He suggested that big groups could be divided into

smaller subgroups to overcome that challenge, which is the strategy adopted by Volvo

Car Corporation. Boddy claimed that along with extrinsic motivating practices, there are

four effective motivating practices including taking staff’s concerns seriously, generating

excitement to project teams, publicising project team success, and integrating short-term

achievements. Mr. Petersson confirmed that individuals’ concerns and opinions are

highly considered, and nobody is left out even if they have hard time with their private

lives. Additionally, the sense of urgency and excitement are triggered and heated up by

conducting many activities such as kick-offs whereby the profile of the project with team

members and their departments are raised. Publicising project team success are done in

Volvo Car Corporation through distributing periodic internal magazine that promote team

successes in details. Moreover, the plan of each team work is based on short-term

milestones (from three to six months). Having a common approach is another enabler

proposed by Boddy (2003), which is remarkably applied in Volvo Car Corporation by

first creating a common approach for the big team, and then leaving enough space for

each subgroup to determine their own suitable approach. For enabling effective

communication within a team, Boddy (2003) emphasizes on holding effective meetings,

aligning effective pattern and content of communication, facing-up disagreement, and

observing the team. Likewise, Mr. Petersson claimed that meetings in the company are

effective than ever and disagreements are always encouraged to be visible and discussed

using the power of rationality and common sense. Furthermore, he said that the

communication pattern are in a transformation to be more decentralized for problem-

solving tasks. Finally, Gimba principle is being applied in the company to have better

observing performance and results.

It can be clearly understood why the employees of Volvo Car Corporation are highly

committed to the company. Crister Petersson spent 40 years in the company, and he still

enjoys it. That reflects how friendly the working conditions are, and how challenging and

interesting to be a team member is in there. The effective intrinsic motivation, honesty,

flexibility, rationality and challenge are all attractive aspects to technical skills found in

Volvo Care Corporation. However, the changing environment of the global market should

be highly considered for the dynamics of working teams.

To conclude, the effective tactics proposed by Boddy (2003) are significantly found in

practice. Volvo Car Corporation as a successful company in terms of complex team

management greatly considers those tactics including securing the right members,

intrinsically and extrinsically motivating their teams, and facilitating smooth flow of

effective communication within the company. However, they need to be responsive to

the global market by accelerating the pace of team development.

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References

Amabile, T.M. (1997), ‘‘Motivating creativity in organizations: on doing what you love

and loving what you do’’, California Management Review, Vol. 40 No. 1, pp. 39-58.

Boddy, D. (2003). Managing Projects – Building and Leading the Team. UK:

Pearson Higher Education.

Tuckman, B. W., and Jensen, M. A. (1977). ‘Stages of small group development

revisited’, Group and Organizational Studies, 2, 419- 427.

Womack, J. and Shook, J. 2011. Gemba walks. Cambridge, MA: Lean Enterprise

Institute.

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Appendix Interview with Mr. Crister Petersson, October 4th, 2013.

Mr. Petersson has been working at Volvo Car Corporation for 40 years. He is a VCMS-

HSE Development Group Leader and Senior Specialist Machine Safety, Head of 3 project

teams (Health & Safety, Energy management, Environment). He has quite long experience

in project and team management (around 20 projects).

1. There is a difficulty in which the project manager may not have the luxury of choice,

as the team may already be in place; there may be existing staff who cannot be moved; a

department's nomination may be unchangeable. As well as skills, members also need the

time and commitment to do the work. Project managers, if they have a say in the matter,

can face a dilemma between those with the skill and those with commitment. A similar

dilemma is between someone less skilled in the content or subject matter of the project,

but makes up for that in their ability to exercise process skills. How do project managers

in VOLVO resolve this dilemma to secure the project team?

Projects associated with cars and automotive industry are generally required broad set of

high skills. It is difficult to employ the best of them for all project you have. We have

priorities for resolving this issue. For example, for some critical projects related to one of

famous competitive advantages such as safety and comfort, best skills are always

assigned. For some routine projects, we may accept some good trainees to do the job

under the supervision of more experienced members.

2. It is difficult to operate a coherent team that involve more than 12 people, what

strategies do project managers in VOLVO follow to overcome that sort of difficulties?

To produce a car, you need a very big team engaged with design, quality, safety,

manufacturing … etc. However, we divide that big team into subgroups operate

coherently. Furthermore, cross-functional subgroups work in parallel with them to make

them one coherent big team.

2.1. Project teams are motivated through intrinsic aspects of the work or extrinsic

rewards. If both dimensions are met, it is believed that the practices of taking staff

concerns seriously, generating excitement and publicizing success will further enhance

the group progress. How does VOLVO react in that respect?

2.2. How do project managers in VOLVO take staff concerns seriously?

Nobody is left out in Volvo Car Corporation. All members are taken seriously whatever

small or non-critical their contributions to the company. An example could be discussing

their hard times in their private life. We strive to let everybody feel home at Volvo. We

believe that spending 8 hours a day working in a company makes it as same important as

being home. Project managers are encouraged to get involved in all members’ concerns

whether they are relevant or irrelevant to the work.

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2.3. How do project managers in VOLVO generate excitement to project teams?

We have unique ways of driving activities similar to brainstorming sessions and kick-

offs. Some senior managers and board members attend these kind of activities. Their main

mission is underline the significant of the project and clarify its contribution to the overall

long-term success. The atmosphere are well prepared to generate and create challenging

spirits and raise the profile of the project with team members and their departments as

high as possible.

2.4. How do project managers in VOLVO publicize success of project teams?

Along with personal rewards, Volvo Car Corporation distribute a monthly magazine

whereby all details related to the progress of project teams are promoted. We are keen

that the successes of our members are made as visible as possible. By this, we try to tell

that we are aware of everybody’s contributions and appreciate them.

2.5. How much does VOLVO consider and integrate Quick Wins?

All projects are planned in a way that the requirements are fulfilled in short-term as well

as long-term manners. High effort is paid for the early planning stages to come up with

tight milestone so that project members as well as project managers become more

comfortable to promote and claim the progress of the project. Besides, it makes it easier

to more accurately estimate the overall time and cost of the project.

3. How do project managers in VOLVO create a common approach to how they will

work together to accomplish their common purpose?

As I said earlier, to produce a car, you need a very big team engaged with design, quality,

safety, manufacturing … etc. Each one of these functional subgroups operates in

particular ways. Therefore, we prefer through cross-functional teams to come up with

general approach for all subgroups, and leave a space for each functional subgroup to

determine the way they prefer to be working with on their smaller scale.

4. How frequently meetings are held in VOLVO projects?

Project teams have different types of meeting. There is a daily status quick morning

meeting whereby project members indicate their progress. Moreover, the regular meeting

that may take from 2 to 5 hours are held weekly to resolve the pending issues and update

the overall progress of the big time.

5. From your experience, how successful meetings should be planned and held?

First of all, meetings should be meaningful and aligned with the strategic need of the

progress. Besides, good meeting and planned and scheduled finely in advance. Everyone

invited to a meeting should be aware of the topics and subtopic addressed for that meeting,

which means that any relevant documents should be also circulated beforehand. Effective

meeting organizers highlight outcomes and results of a meeting and distribute them to

whom is part of the relevant decision making process.

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6. Which patterns of communication (centralized or decentralized patterns) are more

considered within VOLVO project teams? How these patterns are suited to appropriate

types of tasks?

The current communication form seems to be more centralized. Each project member is

asked to report the progress to two managers, the project manager, and the senior

manager. However, we are in a transform to have more decentralized communication,

especially where complex problem-solving tasks are aligned.

7. What do you deal with disagreements in Volvo Car Corporation?

We use the power of rationality, transparency and common sense to absorb

disagreements. That may be slow sometimes, but the negative effects of disagreements

are least likely to appear afterwards. Moreover, once resolved, most of disagreements

are not repetitive.

8. How the progress is monitored and evaluated in VOLVO projects?

We started recently to adopt Gemba Walk principle whereby project managers and

coordinators are expected to spend around 80% of their time observing and assisting

other members, and then suggesting particular improvements.