(3) Selection by each section
Advantage
・It promotes a sense of participation among the relevant sections.
Disadvantage
・They may not be able to gather together employees with appropriate knowledge and experience.
Which one of the above three methods is most appropriate depends on the organizations' situation and relations between the project team and the relevant sections. Since no information on these matters is provided in this case, it is difficult to tell which would have been best. The process in which the Planning Department asked each section to choose a member, however, was completely inappropriate.
The Planning Department issued a letter to each department head requesting that a member of staff from that section be assigned to the team. In addition to this, they should have explained to the Directors of each relevant section the basic concept behind the idea of placing a ban on hazardous waste, the purpose and objectives of the team and the role of its members. With explanations such as these in advance, section directors might have been more cooperative with Mr. Ishida's plans.
3 Operation of the project team
Members were required to attend meetings once or twice a week, while continuing their regular work within their sections. It is understandable that they put the work of their sections above their duties as team members. Unable to divide their loyalties, it proved impossible for them to keep a distance from their section's interests and to express their opinions frankly. They could never develop a sense of unity or the comradeship of belongings to the same team.
The volume of work undertaken by this team has not been made clear. It might have been more efficient, however, if the involvement of the Planning Section had decreased and team members had been employed as full-time staff for the project.
4 Action to take when the team had difficulty in reaching a consensus over the draft
Mr. Ishida created a draft plan by himself when he realized that it would be difficult to reach a conclusion on several points. This was met with a negative response from different sections. When a project team has difficulty in reaching a consensus among its members, depending on the nature of the problem, it is sometimes effective to ask the opinions of staff outside the team. In this case, for example, Mr. Ishida could have consulted the relevant sections about the points on which they had totally disagreed, instead of presenting the entire contents of the draft. He might have asked the Head of the Planning Department to consult other departments' heads about how to break this impasse. Frequent consultations with people outside the team over points of disagreement among team members, however, would discourage them from participating to the full.
