Team Structure

I am going to write about my internship experience in Dow Chemical again, since this is the most recent team experience I can recall.

The summer internship program at Dow includes both an individual project where you learn the specifics of your assigned department, and also a group project where summer interns across departments work together for a business case competition. Summer interns are divided into teams to participate in the case competition and are asked to present their case and proposal to a panel of key leaders from different departments at the end of the internship.  

The scenario is something like this：

Dow leadership team is currently reviewing Dow businesses and would like to further invest in one of them. Each team should choose one Dow business that you think has the largest growth potential and new market opportunities. Based on that choice, each group should develop a proposal with action plan to present to the board members. After the presentation, the board members will select one business to invest in and the team represents that business will receive the “Best Team Performance” award.  

This competition was announced at the first day of internship during orientation. There were 33 summer interns in total, 14 Research & Development (14 boys and 2 girls), 6 Manufacturing & Engineering, 8 Marketing & Sales, 3 Environment Health Safety & Sustainability, 1 HR, and 1 Supply Chain. IS (information system) interns in the apprentice program (6-month part time internship) also participates in the competition with summer interns, about 10. At that time, everyone is new and people haven’t known each other very well yet. They did not assign us randomly into teams but asked us to form our own group based on a few restrictions provided (e.g have to include at least 2 non-R&D members, at least 1 undergrad, 1 master, 1 PhD, etc.). Based on the rules, the teams formed are pretty diversified with interns from different functions and backgrounds.

We had almost no progress for the first 2 weeks. Seeing other groups already started their work, I decided to initiate and organize discussions and meetings. Purely because that I feel anxious if things are not organized and planned ahead. I thought we should have a plan and assign tasks to teammates so that everyone could start their part early. After a few discussion meetings, one of our teammate proposed me to be the leader, coordinating everybody and assigning tasks, everyone agreed, so then I became the leader.  

After a few discussions, we settled the business unit we are going to present and made an outline. We decided what to include and also figured out what we need to work on. We roughly divided our work into 4 parts: policy and macro background, market analysis, R&D technical difficulties, and action plan. We had 8 people in our team, 3 of them from R&D, 1 from Marketing, 1 from HR, 2 from IS, and 1 from ME (remote teammate). Our team structure does not strictly fit in any of the 5 team configurations discussed in Chap5 of B&D, it’s more like a combination of the Dual Authority model and the All-Channel Network model. The technical part was assigned to the 3 R&D teammates, and one of them was pretty proactive, so he is seen as the leader for the R&D sub-team. The other parts are divided and assigned to the remaining 5 team members. The R&D leader represents the 3 R&D teammates and they work separately from others in our team. All other people are more like in an All-Channel Network, we do our own part and discusses with all others in the team to see how to improve and fine tune our direction toward our goals. Another work I was doing was coordinating everyone’s time for discussion meetings, setting up plan and timelines for our project, and making sure everyone is finishing their work on time, and finally integrating everyone’s work for the final presentation.

Actually, having a middle-leader for the R&D team is very effective. I don’t understand much about the technical part and having a middle-leader in charge for that part saves me a lot of time, and they know better than me on how to divide their work and assign tasks. All I have to do is to make sure that everyone is on the right track, adjust their direction of someone is moving away from our goal. I found that people from different functions approaches the same problem differently, and thinks differently. R&D people are very down to earth, and strives for superior results, but they sometimes tend to ignore the market need. Meanwhile, marketing people are very ambitious and market-driven, but they tend to ignore the technical difficulties. Therefore, coordinating different perspectives and persuading different groups to compromise toward our common goal was a difficult task for me. Of course, we as a group figured this out together, not myself. I believe I’m just the one making sure our direction points toward our goal, but the difficulties and decisions, are solved and made by the whole team together. The All-Channel Network helped us to communicate freely and make decisions together with information from everyone.

We are a team with manageable size and a right mix of expertise. We have 8 people in our team coming from different departments with diversified knowledge and expertise. We also managed to define our purpose and translate the common goal into specific and measureable performance goals at the beginning of the project, by creating detailed plans and deadlines. Discussions and detailed plans also enabled us to commit to working relationships. Everyone is clear on their task, and what they need to do, and also agrees on other people’s role, because we made these decisions together as a team. And finally, we have always been working and collaborating closely with team members every step we move forward, so we do hold ourselves collectively accountable. During the Q&A session for the final presentation, we reacted as a team, everyone tried their best to answer the questions asked by the judging panel, even if the question is not related to their assigned part, just to contribute to the team success.

Through this experience, I did think a lot about what a good team leader and good teammate means. For a good leader, I think the most important is to be always clear on the team goal, coordinate everyone, and motivate them to perform their best toward the goal. I’ve also learned that being a leader means taking responsibility. Usually if your team succeed, the team receives the honor. But if your team fail, you’ll need to take the responsibility. Because no one will think that it’s because your team members do not contribute or they are being irresponsible, they’ll just assume that you are not a good leader, and you did not lead the team well. Since you are the leader, you are responsible for the poor performance. For a good teammate, I believe being responsible and someone that others could rely on would be the most important characteristic. Not always insisting on one’s own idea is also important, because things may seem different when being seen on an individual level or a team level. Individuals will need to compromise from time to time to maximize the team performance.

What encourages behaviors of a good team member? I believe team culture and motivation. Good behaviors from other people in the team as well as the team leader will reinforce and encourage team member’s good behavior, and this is a virtuous cycle. Therefore, a good team culture is of critical importance. Motivation is equally important. Good behavior is not out of nowhere, it needs motivation. It could be the compensation, the honor of winning, the recognition, or if the team experience provides them help for their future, etc. From my experience, I find it hard to motivate team members. Some team members are always supportive and reliable. There are also some members that are not interested in the group projects at all, they prioritize their other work on top of the group project. Some feel that this group project is not helpful to them because they are not going to do anything related to business in the future, and it is not included in their performance review so they do not care that much. Although they still do some of the work, they do not put much effort into the group project. If more motivation is created, they will be able to produce much better work. For example, if group presentation is included in the individual performance review, or if there is a teamwork evaluation survey conducted, people will be much more motivated to collaborate and contribute to the team.

Despite all the problems, our team preformed pretty well in the end. We did not win the best team performance award, but we were rated as the second best among the 6 teams. We figured out our own way of working things out and coordinating such a diversified team, with even remote team members that work in the factory site in a different city. Even if we did not win, I would still see my team to some extent successful.

Thoughts on Opportunism from a Film

It was really difficult for me to think of a very appropriate example from me or somebody I know about opportunism. But I was reminded of a movie that I’ve watched before, which includes some very good illustration of opportunism. The film has a scenario where the main character acted opportunistically and also a scenario where the main character chooses not to act opportunistically.  

The film is The Devil Wears Prada. It tells the story of Andy, a smart and aspiring fresh graduate from Northwestern University, who landed a job in a top fashion magazine Runway working as a junior personal assistant to the chief editor Miranda. Andy is not into the fashion industry at all and treats the fashion industry with disdain, but she took the job because 1-year’s experience in Runway working as Miranda’s personal assistant would get her into any magazine or newspaper she wants to. This is where Andy acted opportunistically, she is making use of the job and the magazine that hired her to fulfill her career goal. She is just seeing this job as a launch pad for her future career in the journalism/printing, instead of the fashion industry.

Emily in the film was the original junior assistant of Miranda, and was promoted to a senior assistant after Andy joined. She is very superficial in the film, and have always looked down upon Andy for her lack of fashion sense. She is crazy about the fashion industry and devotes almost her whole life in her work.

Andy went through difficult and embarrassing times at first, but soon figured out her own way of getting things done smartly and impressed everyone, including Miranda. Miranda liked her and intended to replace Emily with Andy, and offered Andy to go to the annual Paris fashion show with her, which was originally on Emily’s schedule. However, Emily did not see this as merely a job, but her whole life. She did preparations for this annual event for a long time and have always been looking forward to it. Although this fashion show is really a highlight of the industry and where Andy would gain valuable networks and opportunities to advance her career, she immediately refused to attend because she thinks this will hurt Emily. This is where Andy had the chance to act opportunistically though she had the chance to take the privilege away from Emily. Actually, she does not have any fault even if she took the opportunity without hesitation, because it’s her boss who provided the opportunity to her, not herself asking for it. Besides, Emily has never been nice to Andy in the past. However, she refused to do so, because she is a good person indeed. She didn’t want to take away the opportunity someone else cherished, and make use of it for her own sake. She cares about other people’s feelings and feels bad if her action hurts others.

In the end, however, Andy still ended up going to the annual fashion show with Miranda, but that was because Miranda said she will be fired if she does not go, and Emily was hit by a car right before the fashion show. This is the dilemma Andy is facing, on one hand is the possibility of losing her own job, on the other hand is hurting her colleague Emily. After struggling for a while, she knew that she had no choice, she has to replace Emily and attend the fashion show. But as long as she has a choice, she will not actively choose to act opportunistically, even if it brings her benefits. On the other hand, Emily did not understand Andy’s struggle at all. Emily was mad at Andy when she heard the news, and refused to listen to Andy’s explanations. Emily insisted that Andy was acting opportunistically and hurting her on purpose.

I believe the deterministic factor for not acting opportunistically is the moral value of a person. Whether this person has his/her own ethical standards and whether he/she cares about others, in other words, conscientiousness. For people in business, to drive maximum profit, it is always rational to act opportunistically, and lawyers make use of law and act opportunistically as well. I’ve seen from films and also heard from my parents’ lawyer friends talking about their doubt about their own career as a lawyer: entering the law school pursuing justice for the world but ended up playing with the law and defending their guilty clients. Economists believe people always act rationally for their own benefit, which is the underlying assumption for many economic models. However, I think people don’t always act “rationally” as economist expect. Human behavior is too complex to perfectly fit these assumptions. Besides Economics, I also study Psychology as a major. I think psychology is the easiest subject since it’s closely related to everyone and daily life behaviors that everyone is familiar with, but it is also the most difficult and complex subject because human behavior is extremely difficult to predict and control. Not to mention the individual differenced among people, just predicting the behavior of a single person is already difficult enough. You’ll never know how a person will change, and even someone that have always been a “good citizen” in his/her whole life is still possible to behave opportunistically in the next second.

I think there is no right or wrong for acting opportunistically or not, since everyone has their own reason and choice. But me myself would try my best not to hurt others’ benefits, and I wish I would never face dilemmas to choose whether or not to act opportunistically, just like what Andy have faced.

Experience in Organization / Understanding of Transaction Costs

This summer, I worked as a Human Resources intern at the Asia-Pacific Headquarter of Dow Chemical in Shanghai China, for about 2 months. I’ll write about my experiences during my internship at Dow, and especially the ones that could link with contents that have been mentioned in this course.

Dow is a huge multinational firm, so its organization structure is quite complex, with different functions operating towards the same goal set by the central leadership team. Operating functions include the following: Research & Development, Manufacturing & Engineering, Marketing & Sales, Supply Chain, Human Resources, Environment Health Safety & Sustainability (EHS&S), Public Affairs, Finance, Legal, Purchasing, Work Place Services, Operations, etc.

Since I interned in the HR department, I had the chance to have a closer look at how HR department is structured, both globally and locally. The HR function is divided into different sub-functions, including Workforce Planning, Talent Management, Compensation & Benefits, HR Site Services (denoted as HR Business Partners in other firms), Mobility, HR Information Systems. There are a few more sub-functions in the global headquarter, which includes Diversity & Inclusion and Engagement, Organizational Effectiveness, while in the local practice they are merged together with other sub-functions. The department is headed by the Asia-Pacific HR Director and the Greater China HR Director, together with 1 leader and 3-5 people in each sub-function. It is not a huge department, plus the team has a flat structure, so communication was smooth. I am able to know and meet with HR leaders, and even get the chance to sit and talk with regional directors, which was really a good experience.

Employees in the HR department collaborates with other business functions, as well as global HRs in other geographic regions to meet the company’s common goal. The company’s mission is “to passionately create innovation for our stakeholders at the intersection of chemistry, biology, and physics”. Not only the Research & Development department is delivering innovative solutions for scientific challenges, but the other departments are also working hard to achieve this goal. During my internship I participated in the “iLead Innovation” project, during which the HR department promotes the “innovation is from everyone and everywhere” mindset through a series of events, encouraging people from all functions to work innovatively. One more collaboration example is that HR site service leaders (HRBP) provides consultation to function leaders from the employee perspective, and also attends function leadership meetings and participate in key decisions.

However, a lot of the times cross-function collaboration was not that easy and the information flow in such a huge firm is pretty slow. A single change/action requires communication with relevant functions and also agreements from several different functions, and actions are usually unable to take place immediately. One of my internship projects is the “New Hire Orientation Revamp Project”, which requires me to develop a revamp plan for new hire orientation and onboarding through employee satisfaction measurement and real need analysis. I studied the real needs of employees and identified the possible improvements areas, but the proposed action plan was not able to be implemented immediately. Because HR department does not have the power to force other functions to follow us and take actions immediately based on our action plan. A good orientation program that has a high satisfaction level among new hires requires collaboration and efforts from all relevant stakeholders. So we have to spare time to communicate with other functions about the purpose of our project, why we planned to revamp the current orientation and onboarding process, and also ask for their inputs if any adjustments should be made in their perspective. We need to communicate with functions that provide training for new hires and functions that participate in the preparation of the orientation program (HR/EHS&S/IT/Admin/Public Affairs) on how they need to adjust their training and services and why so. We also needed to communicate with line managers and supervisors to increase their attention in new hire orientation, explaining their importance in helping new hires to adapt and integrate into the organization, which ultimately contributes to a lower turnover rate and higher productivity. All these communication and adjustments take time, consumes manpower and also resources. I believe this could count as internal transaction cost to carry out a project.  Through this experience, I learned the importance of cross function collaboration in large organizations, but also realized that pushing forward a new project in large organizations is not that easy and could sometimes be very time-consuming.

Another thing I experienced and also studied in this course is collegiality. During my internship, people are always helpful, no matter colleagues in the department or employees in other functions (when doing the employee satisfaction measurement, I needed to work with people outside my function), offered support and advice to me even if I am just an intern and had nothing to do with their own work or performance. I do have a few internship experiences before, and there are companies that do not have this kind of culture. Dow promotes this kind of culture and encourages their employees to help each other, collaborate with each other, and drive for superior results, which is one of the four core competencies of Dow. They also promote the appreciation culture, which enhances these kinds of behaviors. Right after I left, the HR department launched the "Appreciation Week" project, during which they promoted the appreciation culture.

A few more words about transaction cost. Dow Chemical acquired Dow Corning, its subsidiary company, and completed the transaction in June 2016. Dow have also announced to merge with DuPont at the end of 2015. These merger and acquisition actions are intended to achieve synergy, increase revenue while cutting cost. While generating more revenues, these changes generate transaction cost as well. During my time in the company, they were right in the process of integrating Dow Corning. A series of work was carried out in HR department, and I believe are still in the process currently. Including compensation and benefits integration, a roughly 3000 staff cut down globally, redesign of the organization structure, reassigning job positions, and several other related integration projects. The Asia-Pacific HR director was also transferred to the US headquarter as the Dow Corning global HR integration director, which led to a change in the leadership team. Several HR staff are assigned to work on the integration project, and these work take a large amount of time, which means that their time on other projects is largely reduced. I think the human cost, time cost, money, plus the opportunity cost invested in the integration project can all be seen as transaction costs to reach the ultimate acquisition goal.  

Overall, I had a really good internship experience. I feel being valued, and I was given enough autonomy on my work: working on real projects designed for me instead of routine and mechanical tasks. I was lucky enough to have the chance to learn about the organization from inside while gaining some practical experience in the field that I’m interested in for my future career.