A group of employees at Spruce Paper Company recently finished a major project that involved multiple departments, from creative to distribution

SCENARIO
A group of employees at Spruce Paper Company recently finished a major project that involved multiple departments, from creative to distribution. The goal of the project was to develop a new line of holiday cards. One of the group members, Ximena, worked on this project from the beginning.
EMPLOYEE PROFILE: XIMENA

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Ximena has worked in creative design for a few years. For the holiday card project, Ximena and the team work together to come up with new ideas for cards. Ximena spends most of her time coordinating with the group on what art will work best for each style of card, making sure they reach a consensus about each design.
The group spends time in each meeting checking in with Ximena on publication updates. Being the only member of the creative team on the holiday card project, Ximena does not have anyone to go to for advice. If an art-related issue comes up, she has to talk to someone outside the group and then report this information back to the group.
As she was born in Spain, Ximena brings a unique perspective to the job. However, she sometimes struggles with American idioms and phrases. To ensure she is understanding the perspectives of other group members, she often asks them to repeat themselves and then restates the main idea she heard.

1. Ximena’s Status
2. Ximena’s Role
3. How did Ximena’s status and role impact how she worked with others to complete the project?
4. What relationship-building strategy did Ximena demonstrate?
5. What are some collaboration strategies Ximena used to work with the team?

EMPLOYEE PROFILE: RITA

Rita has been leading the project from day one. She is a senior member of the marketing team and has been with the company for 15 years. Rita is responsible for managing multiple departments composed of diverse team members with a variety of backgrounds and skill sets.
It is ultimately Rita’s responsibility to set goals for the group, delegate tasks, and ensure the project is finished on time and within budget. Although Rita values the varied opinions, experience, and perspectives of all her team members, she tends to rely heavily on the expertise and opinion of Nimish. Because they have worked together in the past, she trusts him and gives him a lot of responsibilities. Rita relies heavily on Nimish to deliver progress updates on tight deadlines.
Rita’s frequent deference to Nimish makes some of the other team members feel that she favors him. Rita tries not to show favoritism by consulting the whole team before moving forward with the decisions she and Nimish have reached.

1. Rita’s Status
2. Rita’s Role
3. How did Rita’s status or role impact how she engaged and collaborated with others to complete the project?
4. Which type of relationship-building strategy did Rita demonstrate?