Answer ALL Questions. Case Study 1: A Merger of Accounting Firms Abu have been working at ABC and Friends, a midsized accounting firm in Johor that specializes in commercial accounting and audits. His...

Extracted text: Answer ALL Questions. Case Study 1: A Merger of Accounting Firms Abu have been working at ABC and Friends, a midsized accounting firm in Johor that specializes in commercial accounting and audits. His particular specialty is accounting practices for shipping companies. About 6 months ago, ABC and Friends have merge with another two accounting firms. These firms have offices in Sarawak, Indonesia, and Singapore. Although the other two accounting firms were much larger than McKay, all three firms agreed to avoid centralizing the business around one office in Kuala Lumpur. Instead, the new firm-called 3 Cemerlang Associates-would rely on teams across the country to "leverage their synergies. The merger had affected Abu when his boss (a senior partner and vice president of the merger firm) announced that he would be working more closely with three people from the other two firms to become the firm's new shipping industry accounting team. The other team members were Elias in Kelantan, Farid in Pahang, and Eric in Kuala Lumpur. Abu had met Elias briefly at a meeting in Kota Bharu during the merger but had never met Farid or Eric, although he knew that they were shipping accounting professionals at the other firms. Initially, the shipping team activities involved e-mailing each other about new contracts and prospective clients. Later, they were asked to submit joint monthly reports on accounting statements and issues. Normally, Abu submitted his monthly reports to summarize activities involving his own clients. Coordinating the monthly report with three other people took much more time, particularly because different accounting documentation procedures across the three firms were still being resolved. It took numerous e-mail messages and a few telephone calls to work out a reasonable monthly report style. During this aggravating process it became apparent to Abu that this team business was costing him more time than it was worth. Moreover, Eric in Kuala Lumpur didn't have a clue about how to communicate with the rest of them. He rarely replied to e-mail. Instead, he often used the telephone voice mail system, which resulted in lots of telephone tag. The biggest nuisance with the shipping specialist accounting team started two weeks ago when the firm asked the four of them to develop a new strategy for attracting more shipping firm business. This new strategic plan is a messy business. Somehow, they have to share their thoughts on various approaches, agree on a new plan, and write a unified submission to the managing partner. Already the project is taking most of Abu's time to just writing and responding to e-mail and talking in conference calls (which none of them did much before the team formed). Elias and Farid have already had two or three misunderstandings via e-mail about their different perspectives on delicate matters in the strategic plan. The worst of these disagreements required a conference call with all of them to resolve. Except for the most basic matters, it seems that they can't understand each other, let alone agree on key issues. They also can't form a common vision or strategy. Questions 1. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of this team's context, composition and processes. 2. Assuming that these four people must continue to work as a team, recommend ways to improve the team's effectiveness. 2 3. What type of organisational structure was form here? Discuss the pros and cons of having this structure. 4. What are you going to do in order to overcome the communications problems in the above case? Is it necessary for you to change the organisational structures? Why or why not?