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Golden Plaza Hotel Sandra A was recently promoted to General Manager of the Golden Plaza Hotel. She had previously been an assistant manager at the corporation’s hotel in Denver. The Denver Hotel as truly a team-based organization. Sandra had seen the benefits from teamwork that propelled the Hotel to the top of the corporation in customer satisfaction ratings. In fact, it was one of the reasons she was asked to take over the San Francisco Property. The previous General manager’s policies had created large turnover among the staff and continuing loss of market share that led to his firing. Sandra was reviewing the notes from a meeting with all the hotel’s supervisors and assistant managers. The meeting tried to identify why many employees were reluctant to be “team players” or even to participate on teams that she was trying to initiate based on her experience in Denver. Among the reasons that surfaced were the following. Child care, obligations, classes, and other outside commitments made it difficult for some associates to meet before or after shifts. • Many of the custodial workers who were functionality illiterate seemed to be uncomfortable in interaction with other associates. • Several associates feel that their current jobs are simply too demanding to take on the additional meetings that would be necessary. One assistant manager felt that some of her people preferred to work alone and usually disrupted meetings in which they are involved. Because of the precious general manager, there was a lot of cynicism among the associates and many didn’t trust management. They felt that teams were simply a political ploy to get support for unpopular decisions. the previous general manager had established some teams that had failed miserably and many associates were bitter and had conflicts with other departments. There seemed to a widespread attitude of “what’s in it for me? Some associates thought that the expectations of team processes would be overwhelming and were afraid of the team failed, they would be held personally 38 39 responsible and their careers would be in jeopardy. Others thought that their jobs might be eliminated. Sandra stared at the list and wondered what she had gotten herself into. What recommendations would you make to her to address these issues?