Sample Solution

Two key concepts that are affecting the company include team norms and elements of diversity, or lack thereof. Teams norms are influencing Paakkanen’s current issue of being able to retire. As a red quadrant manager, Paakkanen is a micromanager. She oversees every aspect of the company; there is no one else that does all the roles that she does (Mitchell 9). Yes, there are project leaders who designers must answer to, but they do not manage any other aspect of the company. Plus, these team leaders are nowhere near qualified to run the company in the same manner that Paakkanen does. Since the entire company is so used to being managed solely by Paakkanen, it would be against their status quo to begin to look to someone else for all their direction (Hackman 248). This issue also adds to their work being all about the process (CVA 10). They have fallen into a pattern of everyone doing their tasks and calling it a day. They do put out their best work, but it has become repetitive. They could fall flat if they continue with their team norms. Paakkanen may think that without hierarchy, the team functions well but sometimes rebuilding a company without set structure can back-fire (Hackman 252). They must break their norms to move forward with either the expansion or the finding of a successor for Kirst.

Another key issue is the lack of elements of diversity in the company. The company is mostly female based and there are few men involved (Mitchell 7). This is not an issue per say, but in time, the lack of a male perspective in the company about designs starts to change their target market (Grant 1). Female designers may start to only tend to female consumers, which cuts their market in half. With more men involved, more design ideas are generated within the company (Grant 2). Another element of diversity that is lacking is the diversification of people’s backgrounds. The employees are all of Finnish background. This means they all come from the same area, all speak the same language, and this can cause them to think similarly or act similarly. Diversity in a company brings success because it brings new ideas and brings diff