Consider yourself as Global Manager for a Medical Company (Medawa) that is leading chain of retail pharmacy in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and United Kingdom

Answer;

Explain what are the limited options that Medawa currently have regarding dealing with the pandemic.

In trying to deal Covid 19 pandemic, the company has a limited option, including;

Working from home: Due to small floor space and open office structure, the company could be running at risk as a result of violating the ministry of health instructions regarding fighting Covid 19, of social distance (Shaw et General meetings, face to face conversation, and consultations are conducted through zoom; google drive is used to work data storage, while Clockify is used to track work time. Revision in labor division: Concerning the reduction of customer base due to clients losing jobs, the company was unable to pay its employees, thereby conducted a layoff by trying to eliminate any suspected redundancy in the organization. Meaning the remaining employees were assigned more tasks besides their known task. Outsourcing: This is in line to reduce the cost of maintaining regular employees for the irregularly needed activities

What is the level of technology urgency Medawa needs to sustain its performance?

A high level of technology is needed for Medawa company to sustain its performance, especially in customer service, which directly affects sales. Addressing the issue of urgency touches on these three key areas: automation of warehouse activities, communication, and transportation (delivery). Automation of warehouse activities involves the usage of different software to replace the laid off human labor. Radiofrequency identification helps give warehouse information automatically and alarming when the stock is almost depleting, which prevents the out of stock costs cases. It will also eliminate the cases of pilferage and theft cases since they will have to be passed through a scanner to get off the store

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Modern communication technologies will including cloud computing and google drive, zoom, doodle, Clockify, basecamp, and 15five technology. Cloud computing will purposely help in managing and storage of data; google drive is also another option. Cloud computing will be used the most due to its advantage of unlimited data storage as compared to google drive, which has limited space. This storage technology will help in the elimination of clerical position, which will benefit the organization since the saved funds from that may be used in bulk purchasing, which will enable the organization to enjoy economies of scale such as free transport and discount that will enable the organization again to gain cost leadership thereby gaining competitive advantage. Again retrieval of data will be easier, as well as the elimination of human error during handwritten order manual entry . Zoom technology will be used to conduct online video meetings, which is one way of conforming to the ministry of health in battling Covid 19. The coordination of these meetings will be achieved through the adoption of doodle technology. On the other hand, Basecamp technology adoption will be used as a conversation platform between the Medawa employees and its customers; this is one of the serious technology since it will be updating the company on its progress, including complaints and compliments, thereby knowing the things to rectify for the success of the organization. Conversely, 15five technology will be used to measure employee engagement; it will keep all the employees on toes in giving excellent services to the clients. Lastly, Clockify will be helping in keeping track of employees' attendance and work times

Transport management software will also be crucial in boosting the operations of the organization and increasing sales. JDA transport software that provides accuracy and openness in transportation. It ensures that no fraudulent activities occur during including pilferage. Installation of the carrier tracker will be another great technology to use; it will help in ensuring that the delivery vans are utilized purely for orders delivery purposes by monitoring the kilometers covered and also ensure that the products are delivered on time and in case of any delay the driver and the management will be explaining to the client the problem and when to expect the delivery. This is a good tool that will increase sales to the organization due to the fact that the clients will not question the Medawa organization trustworthy ).

As a global manager, leading from home involves the leverage of digital capabilities. What are these capabilities? List and explain at least 3.

They have reduced the workload on employees. Digital leverage completely changes how the employees work; due to Covid 19, many employees will be working from home. For example, if the warehouse department had five personnel, all of them will not be able to work on the same floor due to its squeezed nature. The warehouse clerk and loaders will be laid off due to the adoption of the digital systems (Radio-frequency identification and forklift) . Two people will be enough to operate Radio frequency identification, which will be accurately registering the products and showing the stock levels. At the same time, the forklift will be loading and unloading the trucks in the warehouse. This will make the company's data accurate and faster, which will entice clients.

Greatly reduced the cost of placing an order to customers. The customers will be placing orders online, not like before when they used to do it physically and manually. This will as a result of Basecamp technology, which enables direct conversation between clients and the organization. Online operations will save the organization concerning marketing since clients will be able to read about Medawa's products online and again expand the market since the internet is global. It will also benefit the clients since the physical traveling to place an order will have been eliminated .

Faster, timely and accurate deliveries; the use of online to place orders will eliminate the chances of clerical errors during entry. The customers will place an order faster and receive them faster as compared to when they were to do it manually. Safeguarded transport process ensures no interruption on the goods on transit to the client. Radiofrequency identification will provide alert automatically without forgetting, thereby preventing cases of stock out, which can easily happen in the case of humans. Accuracy and fastness is one way of attracting and keeping customers which will increase sales.

Explain what type of virtual management characteristics will be implemented and why?

Networking, managing, product developers and serving characteristics of virtual management will be implemented. Networking team will be useful because the company laid off some members to reduce remuneration cost thus it may need to outsource experts to assist in delivering quality services. Managing teams are crucial for the purpose of managing the organization branches in the world, their work will be purely to make management decisions. Servicing team will be in for customer service, they will be ensuring that the customer need and complaints are met. Product developers will ensure the creation of needed medicine

How the virtual teams will work together?

First, the virtual team will work together through zoom; this will include consultations and meetings that will enable face to face online communication. This platform will support asking question a mong the virtual team members on how to run the organization. Cloud computing will enable the global access of data to produce needed products to the clients (Lockwood, 2015). For example, Service team will interact with clients have note the complaints, they will share it on the company's google drive or cloud save, this report will be accessed by the management team which will contact product developers to develop that given medicine; if not then the management will network and outsource the service. Solving customers complains is one way of increasing sales .

What tools are they using for communications and task management?

The team will use zoom to hold meetings and discussions, google drive and cloud computing for sharing the data among the team members. Team members may also use normal phone calls and mails to reach out. Asana software tool will be effective for task management; this tools will enable the team to manage the assigned task, monitor and track the progress made. The reason for choosing Asana is due availability in Firefox and chrome browser, and again once the teams has added their task in it and define their dead line they will be able to track these dates in its calendar .

How you will manage delivering the new changes within a short time in different locations in terms of language, cultural, time, political, and economical differences?

In different location I will outsource a reliable translator, I can also enroll all the employees in language class for them to learn the basic terms used in that given region, similarly I will advice all employees to speak slowly and use plain language for better listening, understanding and communication. Regarding culture I will advice learning and understanding that given culture so that we get to know the medications that they don't allow in their culture. I will also be accommodative, and try appreciating cultural differences. I will adopt 24 hour wok schedule to accommodate all the client all over the world, this will be one way of being considerate to all our clients worldwide. Being open minded regarding politics and being neutral is a way on dealing with political difference. Producing goods of different quality so that even the poor can afford and settle their needs.

What are techniques that you will be using to create a strong team with a high level of teamwork?

I will clearly communicate the organizational and individual goals to each team member and come up with employees appraisal scheme; to easily assess the team after a given period to know where they need training on and appreciate and motivate excellent performers. I will establish proper communication platform among the team members as already mentioned above. Again I will discourage competition while encouraging contribution among the team members for this will promote collaboration.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of managing a virtual team?

Advantages of managing virtual is include saving money; there will be no office floor to pay, no electricity and Wi-Fi fee, together with office computers and telephones. It also give the employees a better balance between their office and family life, they will having enough time with their family and feel satisfied and motivated to appreciate such kind of freedom. It is easier to have 24 hours working schedule which can increase the company's productivity, since employees in different time zone will be shifting to work during their respective daytime hours. Some of the disadvantages of managing virtual teams are differences in time zone; this can make communication complicated especially online face to face conversation because when the other party is a wake, the other is a sleep. Tracking of the progress can also be a challenge since project progress is always done in a face to face conversation which is this case do not exist, or for it to exist money need to be used. Explaining the task progress may also be too expensive, similarly it may require data bundles for that to happen. Third disadvantage is that staying online can be distractive since there is Netflix, or similarly someone can easily fall a sleep which may introduce the culture of laziness or handling of tasks in rush hours resulting to shoddy work and poor quality that can shun away customers

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What type of conflicts might occur between members? When it happened how will you solve it?

Social conflict is the major conflict here, members may not know each other's personality, may one is lazy and never accomplish assigned tasks in time. This can cause disagreement and fights in the team thereby reducing the effectivity and productivity of the team. I will introduce them to each other and letting them socialize to know each other better . Performance conflict is another one, members may not know their specific roles in the group, and whenever task is given they both rush to handle the easiest task, resulting to redundancy in performance while the tough jobs are left undone. Another question under this is how to do a task; in a joint task, some members may produce low quality as others produce high quality which lead to average or lower performance, this results in wrangles among the team members. It can be solved by selecting team leader to delegate duties among his members. Identity conflict is also considered under this, some team members may not know where they belong to ending up lazing, which can cause chaos among the team hard workers; it is solves by dividing members clearly and informing them about their team members .

As a manager how you will manage the outsourced projects?

I will let the outsourced parties beware of my company's goals and objectives, this will be much on letting them know about our customer base and their expectation so that all their services get channeled towards fulfilling our customers' needs. Sharing with the about our business processes is another means of doing so, this entails the how we handle our operations for example customer services, procurement activities or administration activities. Making sure we are in the same page is another way of handling outsourced activities; this involves making sure that outsourced party operation principles matches with ours' and adhere to our rules and regulations our work. I will treat the outsourced parties with respect and love to show inclusivity and togetherness. Holding regular conversation with them is another way of doing so, friendship is one of the elements that motivates employees. Outsourced party also belong to the team and whenever they feel unappreciated they can do a shoddy job to finish and leave which can greatly affect the company's reputation

What techniques that you will apply to encourage and motivate your team for improvement?

I will pay my team based on the work they have done, if someone performs excellently then I will pay him more than his normal salary. This is due to the fact that employees can leave a job when they spot even a five percent salary increment. Creating a favorable environment for work, this includes purchasing them smart phones that they can use to research ideas to better their job skills and even use to attend zoom meetings. Offer my employees free training to boost their skills in several ways especially in contemporary issues like technology. Conducting mentorship operations instead of punishing failed employees, and give them another chance, by encouraging them to use such failures to learn. Setting and communicating company goals at the start, not waiting until a mistake to communicate the organizations objectives. Allowing the employees to be themselves as long as they don't interfere with the organization's goals. Letting them be themselves allows them to be happy, and removal of bureaucracy of centralized decision making is another way of making employees feel worthy

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Conclusion.

Great performance in global market require creativity and management skills to perform better, this is due varying difference economically, politically, timely and culturally. A lot of adjustments have to be made by adopting modern technologies to facilitate communication, customer service and transport to help an organization maintain its performance. Better management of virtual teams are other ways to promote the operations of global company.