Should Carmichael Give the Canadian Team More Autonomy

Should Carmichael give the Canadian team more autonomy? Defend your answer.

Our answer is yes.  The advantages of giving Canadian team more autonomy are very obvious.

First of all, Canadian team has a better understanding of local consumers’ needs and behaviors.  Besides, LB’s Taiwan team has already set a good example. With much more knowledge of the local market and more autonomy, Taiwan team perfectly adapted to the local market and gained a positive launch results.

Secondly, given the fact that OBC has already decentralized, which means OBC local brunch in Toronto will have more authority, giving Canadian team more autonomy could stimulate a close working relationship and cooperation with OBC Toronto in a local level.

Next, we believe many problems stemmed from the approval of a larger team. Giving Canadian team more autonomy could create a simpler and smaller structure, thereby increasing Canadian team member’s motivation.

However, we also realized that at this point, Canadian team has lost its members with the most experience with the Forever Young brand, which became a serious concern of giving them more autonomy.

In conclusion, the Toronto team needs to be self-managing, have un-conflicting incentives, and need to perceive a high level of organizational support. Holding constant for team member ability, the primary difference in team structure between Taiwan and TO was the level of autonomy, and the level of communication. Self- selected teams with higher autonomy, and with aligning interests to the organization performed better than the team that did not share any of those attributes.