Teamwork Challenge at Stryker Corporation

1. Discuss the extent to which the characteristics of well-functioning, effective

groups accurately describe the Freiburg hip replacement navigation system team.

ANSWER:
Finding a solution to the navigation system, the task was assigned to Klaus Welte,
Vice President and Plant Manager for Stryker’s Freiburg, Germany facility. Weilte
believed that the team’s success “would require both a clear view of what had to be
accomplished and a deep understanding of each team member’s abilities”.
Welte assembled a team of the best people at Freiburg in operations, computer-
aided design, engineering, and research.
One team member was talented in structural analysis, communication,
and, follow-through. Another member provided the “social glue” for the team and would
never stop until all tasks were complete. Another team member was an organizer who
helped keep the team on task and from rushing ahead before it was ready. Yet another
team member was especially knowledgeable regarding how a product design will
successfully survive the manufacturing process. Another person was noted for highly
innovative, indeed visionary, product design ideas.

2. Explain why teamwork is important to effectively solve the problems which field
testing of the hip replacement navigation system revealed.

ANSWER: Welte believed that the team’s success would require both a clear view of what
had to be accomplished and a deep understanding of each team member’s abilities.
Although each team member’s abilities were important, how those abilities fit together
was equally important. Welte also believe that creating an effective team requires
more than just filling all the job description with someone who has the right talent
and experience, by no means can we substitute one engineer from another. There are
really very specific things that they are good at and how well the team member’s abilities
combine is as important as the abilities themselves

3. Describe how the task functions and maintance functions are operating within
the Freiburg team.

ANSWER: Welte’s first challenge was assembling a team to work on solving the
navigation system problem. He assembled a team of the best people at Freiburg in
operations, computer-aided design and engineering. One team member was talented in
structural analysis, communication and follow through. Another team member was
an organizer who helped keep the team on task and from rushing ahead before it was
ready. Although each team member’s abilities were important, how these abilities fit
together was equally important.
TASK AND MAINTENANCE ROLES OF TEAM MEMBERS
There are many roles that people perform in teams. Some of these relate to helping the
team perform its tasks. Others relate to maintaining the team and relationships among

TEAM TASK ROLES

Initiator Contributor Propose goals, new ideas & solutions, defines problems
Suggests procedures: points out benefits
Information Giver Offers facts and relevant information or experience
Opinion Giver States belief about alternatives: focus on values rather
than facts
Information Seeker Seeks clarification of suggestions based on facts relevant
to the problem.
Opinion Seeker Asks for clarification of values which the group holds in
relation to the problem
Coordinator Clarifies the various suggestions, ideas & opinions and
coordinates them
Summarizer Summarizes and restates back to the team: draw
member’s activities together; offers conclusions
Clarifier/Elaborator Interprets, gives examples; defines terms; clears up
confusion or ambiguity
Evaluator Subjects the team’s activity to some criterion, for example
practicality, logic etc.
Orientor Tries to show the team the position it is now taking and
may raise questions about its direction
Procedural Performs routine tasks for the group such as
Technician secretary/treasurer; timekeeper
Energizer Stimulates the gp to action leading to closure

TEAM MAINTENACE ROLES

Encourager Praises good points, exhibits acceptance and group solidarity
Harmonizer Attempts to mediate differences among members or their points of
view; reduces conflict and tension; attempts to reconcile differences
Opinion Giver States belief about alternatives: focus on values rather than facts
Gatekeeper/ Attempts to encourage communication, bringing persons into the
Expediter discussion who have not given their ideas, keeping the discussion
to the point etc.
Standard Setter Expresses standards for the group to attempt to achieve and
& applies applies them to evaluating the group process.
Compromiser Is willing to compromise or yield his or her idea or point of view or
admit an error
Group Observer Keeps records of the group process in action and brings much data
into the discussion as seen pertinent
 Follower More or less a passive and accepting person; going along with the
ideas of others

4. Explain why diversity and creativity are important to the effectiveness

functioning of the Freiburg team.

ANSWER: The positive image of diversity in work group derives from the effects
of deep-level diversity among group members in terms of abilities,
knowledge, and skills (cognitive diversity). In contrast to homogeneous teams,
cognitively diverse work groups are superior to cognitively homo- geneous
teams with regard to the prerequisites of innovation gathering, processing, and
applying information. More specifically, they have more absorptive capacities at their
disposal they are characterized by higher requisite and ne twork variety, and
they are less prone to groupthink). Each of these four aspects will be addressed below.

Absorptive capacities:
Comprise the “ability to recognize the value of new, external information, assimilate it,
and apply it to commercial ends” (Cohen & Levinthal, 1990). The higher and
more encompassing an individual’s prior knowledge, the more easily he or she
will assimilate new knowledge and utilize it. According to Cohen and Levinthal,
high
absorptivec a p a c i t i e s g i v e r i s e t o c r e a t i v e i d e a s , a s t h e y i n c r e a s e a n i
n d i v i d u a l ’ s a b i l i t y t o d e t e c t n e w linkages between previously unrelated uni
ts of knowledge. Transferring this reasoning to the group level suggests that
cognitively diverse work groups have a greater pool of resources at their disposal when
it comes to generating novel ideas.
Requisite variety

(e.g. Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995) results from high absorptive capacities, as it
relates to the availability of knowledge and skills within an organization to deal with
unforeseen incidents that might require innovative problem solving strategies.
Network variety
.
Higher levels of communication and information gathering are associated with higher
levels of innovation in research and development (R&D) project
groups(e.g. Kanter, 1988; Tjosvold & McNeely, 1988). Additionally, the patterns of
communication and information flowing in organizations are related to successful
innovation (Monge, Cozzens,
&C o n t r a c t o r , 1 9 9 2 ; K a t z & T u s h m a n , 1 9 7 9 ) : F o r e x a m p l e , f a c i n g
c o m p l e x p r o b l e m s , m o r e effective innovation was associated with widespread face
to face communication within research groups but also with external professionals outside
the group (Katz & Tushman, 1979). Access to an external diverse knowledge pool, i.e.
network variety, enhances a group’s innovative potential and diverse work groups will
outperform homogeneous groups in this regard, as they are likely to have a higher
network
5. How could Stryker utilize insights gained from the experiences of the Freiburg team to address
the ongoing quality problems with the actual orthopedic implants?
Answer 5: To fix issues with Hip Replacement Navigation System, Frieburg team used
the strategy of addressing the most critical issues first and moving to next one only when the first issues
was fixed. Though it was time consuming, but the results were wonderful, with no issues reported in the
final product. The same approach should be used to address the ongoing quality problems with the
actual orthopedic implants.

6. Obviously, close working relationships need to exist between companies that design,
manufacture, and market surgical implants and the surgeons who use those implants. What
impact might the antikickback issue have on the working relationship between Stryker and the
surgeons who use its orthopedic hip implants?
This is a issue of values/ethics resulting out of such complex product developments. Stryker (and other
such organisations) need to work closely with surgeons to create the best products which will eventually
benefit the patients. However, such close work relationships can produce unintentional preference for
these organisations among surgeons. To avoid kick back allegations, surgeons may be wary of
recommending a same product to multiple patients even if they think it is the best option. This will
obviously not serve the patients well.