Clear mission, but teams need to work together - Content Developer Cengage Employee Review

Quality content development often seems to be an afterthought in the race to come out with new technology. The pressure is real, as the decline in print sales is significant, and student engagement is critical in overcoming the reluctance to embrace digital. However, the structure of teams (product, technology, and content development as separate groups) enables them to work in silos, which causes serious miscommunication and disconnect when they should be actively collaborating to create quality products. The atmosphere can be highly political as well for this reason, and so there is reluctance to listen when issues are brought up that might affect the customer, for fear of going against “strategy.” If the customer is truly first, management should listen when serious problems are raised that would impact the customer experience, regardless of the person/group who is raising the issue. My hope is that eventually people will put the politics aside and really work together toward the vision and mission set forth by the company.