Organisational Behavior Case Study Report thoeires

User Generated

nyvohxunev

Business Finance

Description

Please see the attached file for assignment details. I only need the body of report - do not include introduction, conclusion and recommendations. Body of report to be 800 words with at least 5 references from peer reviewed journal articles in Harvard style.

In body of the report, we need overview of case study and issues identified - linking them to organisational behaviour theories.

From the case studies file, we are working on case study number 3 : Steel plant accident.

Please do research on the case and provide a quality report.

Produce a report drawing on two or three of the OB theories.

Body (800 words)

  • Overview of the case study.
  • Issues identified (an issues statement).


Unformatted Attachment Preview

ONLINE CASE STUDIES CASE STUDY 1 WANDERING AROUND THE WORKPLACE ANANDA WICKRAMASINGHE, CENTRAL QUEENSLAND UNIVERSITY Dr Dias is the CEO for a large private hospital located in the capital of a South Asian country. This hospital is a franchise of an international hospital chain, and the main hospital and office is located in India. Dias is a qualified MBBS doctor with additional administrative qualifications. Before he accepted the current position, Dr Dias functioned as the head of a large state hospital for children and maternity. The hospital of which he is currently CEO is somewhat different from his previous workplaces. It is managed by a board of directors appointed by major shareholders, and the business is publicly listed. There are 700 employees in this organisation and there is a considerable number of doctors who are consultants or who work on either a contract or a job-availability basis. When Dr Dias assumed his job as CEO, the hospital was making losses and its ownership was transferring from an overseas company to a local businessman. Within a year, ownership of the organisation changed again, this time to a powerful politician who owned several businesses. Dr Dias has a unique style of management and he always interacts with employees at all levels, whereas the culture of management is usually based more on hierarchy, favouritism, social class and patriarchy. Surprisingly, Dias was also educated and has experience within such a culture, even though he obtained his postgraduate training in Australia. Dias usually comes to the office early in the morning to organise his work for the day. Before finishing his day he habitually completes all incoming work, and then plans for the next day. He is a very organised person and he has open-door policy towards his employees. One doctor commented: ‘he is such a dedicated character, like I haven’t seen anywhere else I’ve worked’. As a practice, Dias visits places in the hospital without prior notice. He chats to all staff and people informally. At first when he started managing like this, employees did not like it because they thought he was coming to observe closely how they were working. However, gradually he managed to change this perception, and employees even started waiting for him in order to talk to him and even discuss their issues and grievances. In this way, Dias managed to create an environment that motivated people to engage in productive work practices and which enabled him to stay in touch with employees at all levels of the organisation. Even a cleaner once commented: ‘When he started to visit regularly and without knowing, we were so scared and thought he is coming for inspection and check whether we are working, but later we realised we can talk to him personally, and tell our concerns. We did not have that in anywhere we worked.’ A doctor also commented that: ‘I observed that he frequently comes around five minutes before we finish our 1 shift. He seems independent in his management practice and walking around routinely. When I asked him about his practices one time, he said that he believes that being in touch with his employees on a daily basis has remarkable impact on his capacity to understand and getting to know what is going on the hospital. He didn’t want to be sitting in his office as “the boss”; he wants to be with the employees to grasp and feel what they are doing, and how they are doing, and what difficulties they are having. Only then can you know your employees and operations, and only then can you help to make them better.’ Nonetheless, most senior managers of the hospital are working as usual and do not seem to follow what the CEO is doing. While they support his direction and actions as the CEO, and they align with his commitment and passion for excellence, they do not share Dias’ style or hands-on passion for the workplace. A senior manager stated that: ‘…as he is being an exemplar and walking around in the hospital, we sometimes feel ashamed, it is obvious that we probably should follow his example. Beyond this, when he asks us to do things we can’t say no, even we want to because he is twice effective and productive as us and we would look like poor employees.’ Another doctor who worked for this hospital also recalled: ‘He goes around talking to people: patients, families and employees. While he is working, he is also looking for poor work behaviour and observing the quality of work. I saw many times that he purposely touches staircases and beds and even goes to toilets to see whether they are well cleaned. Normally others cannot easily notice what he is really doing. For example, one day while going to the surgery section, I saw him touching the staircase and look at his hand, and then he courteously called for a cleaner and asked to bring cleaning stuff. The cleaner was scared and brought them as instructed. Dr Dias started to clean the staircase and the cleaner was so embarrassed and begged to be able to continue the cleaning herself, but he maintained a very warm smile and completed the cleaning. I was so surprised about that situation and how he did it. I never saw cleaners doing a half job after that. Now they are very serious about their responsibilities, and their work quality’. As time went on, employees became used to the CEO’s daily routine. In fact, they now feel that the CEO is friendly and supportive, and that this really helps them to undertake their work roles in the best way that they can. Within the first year of his employment at the private hospital, Dias succeeded in making the business profitable. The customer orientation of the business has also dramatically improved. A significant number of overseas surgeons and consultant doctors are now working for the hospital and continue to be attracted to apply for positions there. Although the workplace is not free from internal and national politics, Dias takes a strategic approach to these issues in order to meet the expectations of internal and external stakeholders, and more often than not creates a positive and lasting change in problem areas. He is an inspirational, down-to-earth and friendly character who works with respect and dignity. 2 ONLINE CASE STUDIES CASE STUDY 2 ADVERT CO. BY RACHEL MORRISON, AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Sue Yan and George Thong were transferred on a two-year contract from the Indonesian office to the Auckland (NZ) office of Advert Co., a large graphic design and advertising company. Both Sue and George very were enthusiastic about their new role in Auckland. They were also happy with the pay increase they would receive. They would continue to get their usual salary, which was equivalent to NZ$260 per week, as well as an accommodation allowance of NZ$200 per week and a one-off relocation bonus of NZ$3000. However, not long after arriving in New Zealand, Sue and George find out that the local New Zealand employees in the same department, doing exactly the same job, are earning nearly NZ$900 per week. Within a few weeks of realising the difference in the pay scales, Sue begins to post personal items home to Indonesia using the company postal service. She also surfs the internet during work time and takes long lunch breaks. Sometimes she delegates part of her workload to her local colleagues, reasoning that if they are being paid more, then they should also do more work. George, on the other hand, is very impressed with the level of relevant qualifications held by the locals. Most have at least a business degree, whereas George and Sue only finished high school in Indonesia. He is also aware that what his colleagues do is really helped by the fact that most have English as their first language. George continues to work as hard as he can for Advert Co. Another reason why George feels grateful for his job is that, on his first day in Advert Co., he was given a general intelligence test, in which he scored very poorly. The test was in English (George’s second language) and he spent much of the time during the test making sure he correctly understood the meaning of the questions. Consequently he did not complete much of the test. George has always been very good at arithmetic and has a sharp and logical mind, yet he got many of the numeracy and reasoning questions wrong due to his confusion with and misunderstanding of the wording of the questions. Sally Jones was hired at the same time as George and Sue. She is the sort of person who gets stressed easily and worries about things. She really wants to make a good impression in her new job and is keen to make the most of this new opportunity. In the first few weeks in her new job she often turns up to work half an hour early and is happy to stay late in order to make sure that she keeps on top of her workload. She is surprised that others in her team often seem to complain about their own workloads and regularly miss deadlines. Most arrive at work late and, though they seldom leave early, they will take very long lunch breaks, chat with each other, talk on the phone to their friends and surf the internet. Although they keep themselves separate from the rest of the organisation, they all get on very well together, and there is a pleasant and friendly atmosphere in the team. They will cover for each other if someone is ‘pulling a sickie’ and exaggerate to management about how long tasks really take so that they can work slowly and take plenty of breaks. Sally really wants to be liked by her workmates; she is a naturally shy person and sometimes finds it difficult to make friends. It does not take long for Sally to realise that she has to fit in with the rest of her team if she wants them to like her. She particularly admires Olive, a fun-loving, vivacious and popular designer who always seems to be surrounded by friends. As a result— although it goes against her nature—Sue soon begins to relax about her own deadlines and to go out for extended lunches with her colleagues. She and Olive become firm friends, and although she is not happy about not being very productive at work, she decides that she loves working for Advert Co. more than ever. Two months later Management begins to notice that the members of Sally’s team are not working very hard. The managers meet to discuss what might be done to improve performance. They decide to renovate the office in which the team works. They improve the lighting in the office, put in new air-conditioning units and give all the staff new computers. Although Sally’s team works a little more efficiently for a few weeks, the change doesn’t last long and the staff soon go back to their old ways. Four months later Because performance still has not improved significantly in Sally’s team, management decides to initiate a performancebased reward scheme. A system is set up whereby goals and expectations are communicated to the team with a memo on the noticeboard in the hall outside the office. The goals that the team is required to achieve in order to get rewards are not only significantly more challenging than the level at which the staff are currently performing, but they also include more ambiguous requirements such as to ‘improve work quality’ and to ‘try hard’. For example, the staff are expected not only to design new layouts for many of the print advertisements of Advert Co.’s clients, but also to learn how to use the brand new computer software required for the redesign. No proper computer training is given and not a single team member manages to master the new computer software before the first deadline passes. Although some members of Sally’s team really did try hard to learn the new software and meet the targets set by management, the only way that performance is measured is by whether or not the final product arrives to the clients on time. The quality of the work and the time required to complete each job is not taken into account. Eventually, after a lot of hard work, the team does manage to meet a set of goals. However, when it is time (a month later) for staff to receive their rewards, the team discovers that, to create a perception of fairness, all employees receive exactly the same reward: an alarm clock with the company logo on it. Not only can the team members now spend all day at Advert Co., but they can also wake up to the company first thing in the morning! Sally’s team members are so upset that all their hard work has come to nothing more than an alarm clock each that they decide to send a letter complaint to management via email. The staff try to be reasonable in their email. They outline all the extra work they have had do to learn the new computer software and they explain that the clocks are not very ONLINE CASE STUDIES rewarding. The person who receives the email is Tom Jones. Tom is already quite frustrated with Sally’s team and before he even opens the email he thinks to himself about all the extra time and energy that has been expended on the team, and how irritating it has become. The staff don’t work hard and always seem to be moaning. When Tom reads the email and sees that these same employees are complaining yet again—about a special reward, 3 no less!—he angrily writes a reply and sends it off to the whole team without really thinking or reading it over. The team is so surprised and outraged to receive the negative reply that the staff all walk off the job, resulting in the loss of two very valuable accounts for Advert Co. The conflict soon escalates and Advert Co. is considering taking action against several members of Sally’s team, including Sally. 4 ONLINE CASE STUDIES CASE STUDY 3 STEEL PLANT ACCIDENT BY ROBIN CHENG, TAYLOR’S UNIVERSITY, MALAYSIA Ian Seah, the production manager, was still in mourning. The conscientious manager of an established steel company in Malaysia had tendered his resignation three months ago. Until then, Ian had taken great pride in the fact that the steel plant had remained accident-free during his 15 years of service. In the last five days of Ian’s tenure, the process of melting scrap metals was in progress as usual. All the employees have to cope with intense heat at work, as aluminium melting furnaces burn at a temperature of 1000°C. The job is very perilous, as even a 0.0001 mm drop of liquid from the furnace will burn right through human skin. Then, the steel plant situated in the northern region of Malaysia exploded. This was the last thing that anyone had expected to happen under the watch of the meticulous plant manager. The magnitude of the explosion was so great that it had caused a big hole in the roof of the plant. When the incident happened in the late afternoon, there were more than 89 employees working in the plant. Many employees suffered minor burns despite wearing safety glasses and gloves. One of the employees, from China, did not recover. He died as a result of 60% burns to his body. The steel production halted for one month. The relevant authorities, consisting of the police and the Energy Information Agency Administration (EIA), conducted a thorough investigation of the explosion. However, nobody could ascertain what actually happened during the production process. Despite the psychological trauma of the experience, all the employees resumed work. The employees worked in three shifts: 7 am–3 pm, 3 pm–11 pm and 11 pm–7 am. Of all the three shifts, Ian was most troubled by his night-shift employees. As the supervisor was not strict, the night-shift employees would get their colleagues to punch their attendance cards for them. Many of them would log in on time, but they would leave the plant and come back at 5 am. Ian had conducted several rounds of consultations with the employees and encouraged them to rotate the work shifts. However, no one was willing to take up the offer as the night shift allowance was higher than those for the day shifts. Ian proceeded to assign the uncooperative employees to the day shifts anyway. However, every time Ian rescheduled his employees’ work plans, the night-shift workers would retaliate by complaining to their union. The night-shift employees blamed the company for victimising them. The union would then contact the company to find out how the company had discriminated against its employees. The meetings between the union, Ian and the HR manager were unpleasant and unfriendly. There was always an air of tension, as the union would tend to protect its members. On a few occasions, the union would conduct demonstrations in front of the factory together with the group of unruly employees. These events attracted a great deal of interest from the news media in Malaysia, causing much embarrassment to the company when it was then accused of discriminating against its employees. The steel produced by the company was to be delivered to the construction and property development industry in Malaysia, the Asia–Pacific region and Middle Eastern countries. However, the coordination between the purchasing and delivery departments was poor. There was always a delay in the delivery of the raw materials due to the company’s suppliers or because of late payments to suppliers by the company. This caused the production schedule to be interrupted, the company to suffer ‘down time’ as the employees would be idle while waiting for raw materials to arrive, and additional costs to be incurred when employees were then required to work overtime. Yet when the sales orders were received, the delivery of steel was required within the same week. It was therefore difficult for Ian to plan the production schedule. As a result, the company’s clients would receive their goods one week later, and the company would be charged a 0.1% liquidated agreed damages (LAD) penalty per day on each purchase order. ONLINE CASE STUDIES CASE STUDY 6 RESONUS CORPORATION BY STEVEN L. MCSHANE, THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA, BASED ON AN EARLIER CASE WRITTEN BY JOHN A. SEEGER Frank Choy is normally a quiet person, but his patience has already been worn thin by interdepartmental battles. Choy joined Resonus Corporation, a hearing-aid designer and manufacturer, eight months ago as director of engineering. Production of the latest product has been delayed by two months, and Choy’s engineering services department (ESD)— which prepares final manufacturing specifications—is taking the heat as the main culprit for these delays. Similar delays have been occurring at Resonus for the past few years. The previous engineering director was fired after 18 months; the director before him quit after about the same amount of time. Bill Hunt, CEO of Resonus for the past 15 years, responded to these problems by urging everyone to remain civil. ‘I’m sure we can resolve these differences if we just learn to get along better’, he said whenever a dispute broke out. Hunt disliked firing anyone, but he felt the previous engineering director was too confrontational. ‘I spent too much time smoothing out arguments when he was here’, Hunt thought to himself soon after Choy was hired. ‘Frank, on the other hand, seems to fit into our culture of collegiality.’ Hunt was groomed by the company’s founder and took great pride in preserving the organisation’s family spirit. He also discouraged bureaucracy, believing that Resonus operated best through informal relationships between its managers. Most Resonus executives were similarly informal, except Jacqui Blanc, the production director, who insisted on strict guidelines. Hunt tolerated Blanc’s formal style because soon after joining Resonus five years ago, she discovered and cleaned up fraudulent activity involving two production managers and a few suppliers. The organisational chart shows that Frank Choy oversees two departments: ESD and research. In reality, ‘Doc’ Kalandry, the research director, informally reports directly to the CEO (Hunt) and has never considered the director of engineering to be his boss. Hunt actively supports this informal reporting relationship because of Doc’s special status in the organisation. ‘Doc Kalandry is a living genius’, Hunt told Choy soon after he joined the business. ‘With Doc at the helm of research, this company will continue to lead the field in innovation.’ Hunt’s first job at Resonus was in the research group, and Choy suspected that Hunt still favoured that group. Everyone at Resonus seems to love Doc’s successful products, his quirky style and his over-the-top enthusiasm, but some of Choy’s ESD staff are also privately concerned. Says 11 one engineer: ‘Doc is like a happy puppy when he gets a new product idea. He delights in the discovery, but also won’t let go of it. He also gets Hunt too enthusiastic. But Doc’s too optimistic; we’ve had hundreds of production change orders already this year. If I were in Frank’s shoes, I’d put my foot down on all this new development.’ Soon after joining Resonus, Choy realised that ESD employees get most of the blame and little of the credit for their work. When production staff find a design fault, they directly contact the research design engineer who developed the technology, rather than the ESD group that prepares the specifications. Research engineers willingly work with production because they don’t want to let go of their project. ‘The designers seem to feel they’re losing something when one of us [ESD] tries to help’, Choy explains. Meanwhile, production supervisors regularly critique ESD staff, whereas they tend to accept explanations from the higher status research department engineers. ‘Production routinely complains about every little specification error, many of which are due to design changes made by the research group’, says one frustrated ESD technician. ‘Many of us have more than 15 years experience in this work. We shouldn’t have to prove our ability all the time, but we spend as much time defending ourselves as we do getting the job done.’ Choy’s latest troubles occurred when Doc excitedly told Hunt, the CEO, about new nanoprocessor technology that he wanted to install in the forthcoming high-end hearing-aid product. As with most of Doc’s previous last-minute revisions, Hunt endorsed this change and asked Choy and Blanc (the production director) to show their commitment, even though production was scheduled to begin in less than three weeks. Choy wanted to protest, knowing that his department would have to tackle unexpected incompatibility design errors. Instead, he quietly agreed to Hunt’s request in order to avoid acting like his predecessor and facing similar consequences (i.e. getting fired). Blanc curtly stated that her group was ready if Choy’s ESD unit could get accurate production specifications ready on time and if the sales director would stop making wild delivery promises to customers. When Doc’s revised design specs arrived more than a week later, Choy’s group discovered numerous incompatibilities that had to be corrected. Even though several ESD staff were assigned to 12-hour days on the revisions, the final production specifications weren’t ready until a couple of days after the deadline. Production returned these specs two days later, noting a few elements that required revision because they were too costly or difficult to manufacture in their current form. By that time, the production director had to give priority to other jobs and move the new hearing-aid product further down the queue. This meant that manufacturing of the new product was delayed by at least two months. The sales director was furious and implied that Frank Choy’s incompetence was to blame for this catastrophe. 12 ONLINE CASE STUDIES CASE STUDY 7 FINDING A HOME FOR DIGITAL IN THE CREATIVE ENTERPRISE BY STEVEN L. MCSHANE, THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA A few years ago, TBWA Worldwide’s hired Colleen DeCourcy to fill its newly created chief digital officer position. Soon thereafter, she unveiled a new organisational unit, TBWA\Digital Arts. DeCourcy’s announcement came in a decidedly new-school way: she tweeted it. With this unit, TBWA would use its roving band of digital geniuses as a centre of excellence and thereby catapult the organisation’s traditional creative talent into the digital age. In DeCourcy’s words, it was to be ‘advertising at the speed of culture.’ What DeCourcy and chief digital officers at other megaagencies failed to anticipate was the number of barriers. DeCourcy’s Digital Arts group never integrated well with TBWA, beset as it was by the typical agency bureaucratic infighting, turf wars and the realisation that injecting digital into hulking organisations like TBWA would need more than just hiring a crew of hotshots. According to one source, ‘I don’t think everyone in the company had clarity about how it was to work.’ Even the CEO of TBWA Worldwide Tom Carroll acknowledged that Digital Arts hit some bumps in the road. ‘We played with certain things, we experimented with certain things, and some of it has worked and some of it hasn’t’, he noted. ‘We get better every day. We learn more every day.’ But perhaps the most important thing that Carroll and other corporate heads learned was that chief digital officers do not fit easily into traditional creative giants. DeCourcy recently left TBWA, as did her counterparts at the creative agencies Ogilvy & Mather and Young & Rubicam. None of the companies has since filled these positions with new staff. The remaining digital geniuses have been folded into existing media departments. In effect, the experiment of creating an organisational structure with an elite digital SWAT team has come to an end. Perhaps the main problem with a chief digital officer and a team of digital geniuses is that the unit will never match a sprawling organisational structure. DeCourcy’s Digital Arts group operated at the worldwide level, as part of the Media Arts unit. Thus, financial questions arose when it plugged in to local agencies, such as whether billing for the wellcompensated digital artists would come out of a local office’s budget. The New York-based digital units also faced resistance from local offices that were wary of losing client revenue to headquarters. They appeared to ‘parachute in’ on projects and take too much credit. Another problem was that the digital leaders found themselves pulled in different ways. It was unrealistic to expect a single digital leader to take responsibility for the entire agency’s digital success or failure. ‘It’s just one person,’ said Ogilvy North America CEO John Seifert. ‘What I think the flaw has been is that too much has been assumed or made of a single person in that role’, which meant that the digital chiefs were ‘just stretched in a million directions’. Finally, digital was never a centrepiece in the competitive strategy of traditional agencies. Although they wanted greater digital know-how, such all-purpose shops mainly tout their breadth of services, not their digital prowess. ‘The reality is there is a degree to which these agencies feel the need to get digital’, said one source. ‘And if we remember at their heart that they’re advertising agencies, then there’s probably only a certain degree [of digital expertise] that they need to have as creative services companies.’ This reality seemingly has sunk in. Chief executives claim that their agencies no longer need chief digital officers, and they assert that digital is ‘not all or nothing’, in TBWA’s Tom Carroll’s words. ‘Our guys get closer and closer to doing what [digital agencies do]. We get closer every day—and that’s enough.’ In response, Ogilvy’s John Seifert argues for closer digital integration rather than a distinct corporate structure for digital experts, because the rank and file ‘have to be part of this digital revolution’. The chief digital officers who have departed generally agree, noting that ‘Digital needs to be so integral to the organisation that it’s not distinguished by a group or individual leaders’. In effect, traditional creative agencies are taking a bottom-up rather than top-down approach to their digital transformation. Sources: B. Morrissey and A. McMains, ‘The Twisting Path to New Agency Models’, AdWeek, 10 May 2010; A. McMains, ‘New Strategies Replace Solo Acts’, AdWeek, 28 June 2010. ONLINE CASE STUDIES CASE STUDY 9 PROFITEL INC. BY STEVEN L. MCSHANE, THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA As a formerly government-owned telephone monopoly, Profitel enjoyed many decades of minimal competition. Even today, as a publicly traded enterprise, the company’s almost exclusive control over telephone copper wiring across the country keeps its profit margins above 40%. Competitors in telephone and DSL broadband continue to rely on Profitel’s wholesale business, which generates substantially more profit than similar wholesale services in many other countries. However, Profitel has stiff competition in the mobile telephone business, and other emerging technologies (e.g. voice over internet protocol, or VOIP) threaten Profitel’s dominance. Because of these threats, Profitel’s board of directors decided to hire an outsider as the new chief executive. Although several qualified candidates expressed an interest in Profitel’s top job, the board selected Lars Peeters, who had been the CEO of a publicly traded European telephone company for six years. This was followed by a brief stint as CEO of a mobile telephone company in the United States until it was acquired by a larger organisation. Profitel’s board couldn’t believe its good fortune; Peeters brought extensive industry knowledge and global experience, a highoctane energy level, self-confidence, decisiveness and a congenial yet strongly persuasive interpersonal style. He also had a unique ‘presence’, which caused people to pay attention and respect his leadership. The board was also impressed with Peeters’ strategy to bolster Profitel’s profit margins. This included investing heavily in the latest wireless broadband technology (for both mobile telephone and computer internet services) before competitors could gain a foothold, cutting costs through layoffs and the reduction of peripheral services, and putting pressure on the government to deregulate Profitel’s traditional and emerging businesses. When Peeters described his strategy to the board, one board member commented that this was the same strategy Peeters had used in his previous two CEO postings. Peeters dismissed the comment, saying that each situation is unique. 17 Peeters lived up to his reputation as a decisive executive. Almost immediately after taking the CEO job at Profitel, he hired two executives from the European company at which he had previously worked. Together, over the next two years, they cut the workforce by 5% and rolled out the new wireless broadband technology for mobile phones and the internet. Costs increased somewhat due to downsizing expenses and the wireless technology rollout. Profitel’s wireless broadband subscriber list grew quickly because, in spite of its very high prices, the technology faced limited competition and Profitel was pushing customers off the older technology to the new network. In the meantime, however, Profitel’s customer satisfaction ratings fell. A national consumer research group reported that Profitel’s broadband offered the country’s worst value. Employee morale also declined due to lay-offs and the company’s public image problems. Some industry experts also noted that Profitel selected its wireless technology without evaluating the alternative emerging wireless technologies, which had been gaining ground in other countries. Peeters’ aggressive campaign against government regulation also had unintended consequences. Rather than achieving less regulation, criticising the government and its telecommunications regulator made Profitel look even more arrogant in the eyes of both customers and government leaders. Profitel’s board was troubled by the company’s lacklustre share price, which had declined 20% since Peeters was hired. Some board members also worried that the company had bet on the wrong wireless technology and that subscription levels would stall far below the number necessary to achieve the profits projected in Peeters’ strategic plan. This concern came closer to reality when a foreign-owned competitor won a $1 billion government contract to improve broadband services in regional areas of the country. Profitel’s proposal for that regional broadband upgrade had specified high prices and limited corporate investment, but Peeters had been confident that Profitel would be awarded the contract because of its market dominance and existing infrastructure with the new wireless network. When the government decided otherwise, Profitel’s board fired Peeters, along with the two executives he had hired from the European company. Now, the board had to figure out what went wrong and how to avoid this problem in the future. 18 CASE STUDY 10 ONLINE CASE STUDIES TAMARACK INDUSTRIES DAVID J. CHERRINGTON, BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY Tamarack Industries manufactures motor boats that are primarily used for water skiing. During the summer months, a third production line is normally created to help meet the heavy summer demand. This third line is usually created by assigning the experienced workers to all three lines, and hiring university students on their three-month summer holidays to complete the crews. In the past, however, experienced workers resented having to break up their teams to form a third line. They also resented having to work with a bunch of university students and complained that the ‘kids’ were slow and arrogant. The supervisor, Dan Jensen, has decided to try a different strategy this summer and have all the university students work on the new line. He asked Mark Allen to supervise the new crew because Allen claimed that he knew everything about boats and could perform every job ‘with my eyes closed’. Allen was happy to accept the new job and participated in selecting his own crew. Allen’s crew was called ‘The Geek Team’ because the university students were always talking about computer technology. Allen spent many hours in training to get his group running at full production. The students learned quickly, and by the end of the first month their production rate was up to standard, with an error rate that was only slightly above normal. To simplify the learning process, Dan Jensen assigned The Geek Team long production runs that generally consisted of 30 to 40 identical units. Thus the training period was shortened and errors were reduced. Shorter production runs were assigned to the experienced teams. Within six weeks, a substantial rivalry had been created between The Geek Team and the older workers. At first, the rivalry was good-natured. However, after a few weeks the older workers became resentful of the remarks made by the students. The Geek Team often met its production schedules with time to spare at the end of the day for goofing around. It wasn’t uncommon for someone from The Geek Team to go to another line pretending to look for materials, just to make demeaning comments. The experienced workers resented having to perform all the shorter production runs and began to retaliate with sabotage. They would sneak over during breaks and hide tools, dent materials, install something crooked and in other small ways do something that would slow production for The Geek Team. Jensen felt good about his decision to form a separate crew of university students, but when he heard reports of sabotage and rivalry, he became very concerned. Because of complaints from the experienced workers, Dan equalised the production so that all of the crews had similar production runs. The rivalry, however, did not stop. The Geek Team continued to finish early and flaunt their performance in front of the other crews. One day The Geek Team suspected that one of their assemblies was going to be sabotaged during the lunch break by one of the experienced crews. By skilful deception, they were able to substitute an assembly from the other experienced line for theirs. By the end of the lunch period, The Geek Team was laughing wildly because of their deception, while one experienced crew was very angry with the other one. Dan Jensen decided that the situation had to be changed and announced that the job assignments between the different crews would be shuffled. The employees were told that when they appeared for work the next morning, the names of the workers assigned to each crew would be posted on the bulletin board. The announcement was not greeted with much enthusiasm, and Mark Allen decided to stay late to try to talk Jensen out of his idea. Allen didn’t believe that the rivalry was serious enough for this type of action, and he suspected that many of the university students would quit if their team was broken up. 26 CASE STUDY 14 ONLINE CASE STUDIES TALENT DEVELOPMENT AND CAPABILITY AT SUNNY OPTICAL BY PETER LOK AND JO RHODES, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA In late 2007, John Wu, CEO of SUNNY Optical in Shanghai, was struggling to retain talent in his firm. He expected that the new policy of ‘life employment’, 1 to be introduced by the Department of Labour in China over the next few months, would impact negatively on attracting and retaining the right talent for SUNNY. In order to sustain the number-one position in optical retailing in China, Wu took up the challenge to retain and develop human capital as a strategic priority in his company. China’s looming talent shortage In 2003, China had roughly 9.6 million graduates with up to seven years’ work experience, and an additional 97 million people who would qualify for support-staff positions. Despite this apparently vast supply of graduates, multinational organisations and top domestic service companies were finding that few local graduates had the necessary skills for service occupations. By 2007, this problem had become even greater. As a result, these companies were confronting many challenges in retaining quality employees. Job-hopping was common among successful managers, and above-average wages and benefits were needed to retain talent. Company background SUNNY Optical originated in 1956 as a small watch and clock retailing store in Taipei. By merging with other similar retail outlets, by 1981 SUNNY had established its name in Taiwan. The company initially entered mainland China in 1997. With only four shops, SUNNY lay its footing in the four ‘tier two’ cities of Wuhan, Xiamen, Fuzhou and Guanzhou. Once they were consolidated, SUNNY expanded quickly into other cities. By 2007, SUNNY had become the biggest Chinese retailer for optical products in the world, with 610 optical retail outlets in Taiwan and 1118 outlets (staffed by 7700 employees) spread across all the major cities of mainland China. Its sales revenue had grown exponentially to 1.8 billion yuan (US$300 billion) per year, and it was projected that SUNNY could be one of the biggest optical retailers in the world within three years. Leadership style Although SUNNY was a family-owned company, it had a flat organisational structure. Senior executives consisted of John Wu (CEO), Lee Chu (CFO) and Ming Chen (COO). There were five other heads of departments responsible for sales, research and development, human resources, operations and finance/accounts. A total of 32 other employees were 1 The life-employment policy in China requires all companies to provide life-employment contracts to individuals after their second contract renewal (i.e. after two years of continuous full-time employment). stationed at its Shanghai headquarters. Department heads and executive members were involved in regular weekly meetings, and monthly staff briefings were conducted for all staff. John Wu maintained an open-door policy and encouraged staff to voice their ideas and complaints directly to him. He ‘modelled the way’ for his employees. He liked informal exchanges and showed great emotional intelligence. Despite difficulties and setbacks in the past, he had great resilience and the ability to pick himself up and go again; he treated setbacks as lessons to be learned. He had good insight into the business environment and the industry, and identified with his staff, which earned him much respect from his employees. However, one of Wu’s weaknesses was his inability to say ‘no’. When asked about this aspect of his personality, he simply concluded that he liked new challenges too much! SUNNY’s philosophy and value system From the first day the business started, SUNNY considered product quality, innovation and professional service to be the cornerstones of its business. All the products on its shelves went through a rigorous quality assurance system to ensure the highest technical standards. SUNNY guaranteed that all of the products it sold were entered into its tracking system, along with all the buyers’ information. If the buyers were not satisfied with the products purchased, they could exchange them for other products. The mission of SUNNY was ‘to become a world leader in the retailing industry for eye-care optical products and services’. John Wu believed that the key to success was reliable service, high-quality products and superior customer value. Furthermore, he considered that these activities could be enhanced by structured employee learning and development programs to ensure continuous innovation. Continuous innovation would require systematic programs and support from the firm, and Wu realised that learning involved trying new ideas and making mistakes. He made his employees comfortable in working on new ideas by modelling an honest response to failure: ‘My idea did not work so well and I have wasted time, energy and resources. I’m sorry for that, but I have learned from this and hope you can do the same.’ Wu found that this approach generated some excellent ideas. One new idea suggested by an employee was enthusiastically received by the organisation. The idea was to use information technology and internet interfacing to allow customers to try on different spectacle frames from the company’s online catalogue (different style, sizes, brands, colours, and so on), then submit orders to the nearest outlet for fitting and purchase. Although the online experience was still in its developmental stage, this innovation had the potential to expand the company’s market share even further. SUNNY implemented a structured mentor system; work teams were encouraged to hold informal functions in order to build up collaboration and support for each other. A special ‘collaborator fund’ (small seed money) could be used for any of these informal functions to enhance the company’s networking capabilities. Overall, the organisation had a ‘people-first’ policy whereby employees who performed well would always be retained by the company, even when downturns occurred in the industry. The company had experienced three major downturns in its fifty-year history, yet had limited its redundancy rate to only 4% in total during these hard times. ONLINE CASE STUDIES Current HR practices at SUNNY John Wu was fully aware of the critical importance of the company’s employees. He considered them to be strategic assets of the company. From its earliest days, SUNNY focused on employees’ training and made great efforts to improve employees’ professional skills and abilities. The professional skill and competence of SUNNY’s optometric technicians ensured the company’s competitive position in its markets, and gave it a cutting edge when competing with other businesses in the same industry. Wu always maintained full commitment to developing talent in his company. His human resources department had fully integrated systems in recruitment, selection, training, mentoring, career development, team reward systems and bonus packages, performance management and leadership 27 development. For example, SUNNY spent 3.9% of its overall payroll on training, and each employee received an average of 224 hours of training per year. Although SUNNY’s staff turnover rate was around 16% per annum, this was below the industry average of 22%. Wu was keen to maintain and improve on the level of staff retention and development. Current challenges With the introduction of the new life employment policy, and the continuing shortage of quality managers in the service sector, John Wu wondered what new strategies he could use to sustain his growth and expansion ambitions for SUNNY Optical in China. Sources: D. Farrell and A. Grant, ‘China’s Looming Talent Shortage’, McKinsey Quarterly, November 2005. 30/12/2017 Assignment 2: Case study team report Teaching period 3, 2017 ORG20003: Organisa onal Behaviour Assignment 2: Case study team report Word limit: 2000 (+/­ 10%) Weighting: 25% Due date: 5pm AEDT Monday 22 January 2018 (Week 10) After you have read this information, head over to the Assignment 2 Q&A discussion board to ask any questions and see what your peers are saying about this assignment. Assignment overview Reports are used in many fields to communicate information in an organised and structured way. They are prevalent within business environments and thus form an authentic assessment task. An employee who can analyse issues and provide solutions, backed­up by evidence, is a valuable asset for any organisation. Assignment 2 is a team assignment. The teams are made up of four to five students. You will use a team discussion board to collaborate on assignments. Your eLA will ensure that you know how to access your team discussion board. Working as a team to produce this report will provide you with an opportunity to hone your teamwork skills. These skills are directly transferable to workplace environments where individual and team accountability is expected. Successful completion of this task will lead to partial achievement of the following learning outcomes: 1. Identify the basic determinants of individual behaviour, group dynamics and organisational processes, and explain how they impact on organisational performance from both an efficiency and well­being perspective. 2. Identify, describe and evaluate varied managerial approaches and organisational behaviour theories, concepts and models as applied to real­life management situations (exemplified by personal experience and case studies) and determine their relevance at the level of the individual, group and organisation. 3. Explore different disciplinary approaches to organisational behaviour and understand how each approach explains individual and group behaviour in the workplace. 4. Develop skills in group work and reflective learning and explore the importance of these skills in managing self and others. https://swinburneonline.instructure.com/courses/83/assignments/420 1/9 30/12/2017 Assignment 2: Case study team report Assignment details As a team of four to five students, you will draw on your understanding of Organisational Behaviour (OB) theory and apply it to a case study. The following eight cases (McShane et al. 2016) form the basis for this assessment. You are required to choose one of them, as a team, and produce a report drawing on two or three of the OB theories you have covered during this unit. You can access them via the link below: Online case studies (PDF 136 KB) You should thoroughly research the issues you consider relevant to the case and link them to associated OB theories providing recommendations. Your report should cover the following items: An overview of the case study. A summary of the key issues in the case study. An explanation of these issues and recommendations to address them (supported by relevant OB theories). The team charter you developed during the Week 6 activity is an essential part of establishing a common focus for this task. It should be appended to your report to attract an automatic 5% of the overall mark for this assessment. Please note: the team charter is not included in the word count for this assessment. Please draw from the following suggested structure to guide your report development: Title page Executive summary Table of contents Introduction Brief overview of the case study. The purpose of the report. Your methodology (including the scope of the report). Body Overview of the case study. Issues identified (an issues statement). Conclusion Highlighting what has been learnt from the case study. https://swinburneonline.instructure.com/courses/83/assignments/420 2/9 30/12/2017 Assignment 2: Case study team report Recommendations The issues you have identified should be addressed here using relevant academic literature to support your decisions. References All sources used should have in­text citations and should be properly referenced using Harvard­style referencing. Appendices Including the team charter (WORD 64 KB) (not included in word count) you created in Week 6 as well as any relevant information (such as tables, graphs, etc.) that supports your findings. The Study Resources area of the Student Portal has a section on Report writing (https://portal.swinburneonline.edu.au/study­resources/report­writing) and a document on Tips for successful teamwork (https://portal.swinburneonline.edu.au/study­resources/tips­successful­ teamwork) that may help you with this assessment. Submission details overview This assignment will be submitted via Turnitin. You will find the relevant submission point below. Please allow a 24­hour turnaround for an originality report to be generated. See the Turnitin originality report (https://portal.swinburneonline.edu.au/study­resources/turnitin­originality­ report­0) area of Study Resources for several guides to assist with the submission process. Assignment support Don't forget that in addition to your eLAs who provide discipline­specific content advice, you can access the 24/7 draft writing service from Studiosity. If you need assistance with academic feedback on a draft of your assignment task see Assignment support: Studiosity. Assignment criteria 1. 2. 3. 4. Structure and format of report (including referencing). Content knowledge. Critical analysis. Written communication. https://swinburneonline.instructure.com/courses/83/assignments/420 3/9 30/12/2017 Assignment 2: Case study team report 5. Team charter. Your work will be assessed using the following marking guide: Criteria Structure and format of report (including referencing) No Pass Did not meet criterion. (15%) Pass 50­59% Credit 60­69% Distinction 70­79% High 80­1 The report contains most required sections, although each section could be better developed or detailed. The report contains all the required sections, which have been adequately developed and detailed. The report contains all the required sections. The cont requ The majority of sources used are correctly cited and referenced according to Harvard style. There are fewer than 5 errors in the referencing. A reasonable number of reporting verbs have been used to introduce and integrate the ideas of others. All s are and acco Harv The erro refe All significant issues in the case study have been identified. The case been These issues have been addressed in the recommendations section using a range of relevant, The have addr reco An attempt has been made to correctly cite and reference all sources used. There is an over­ reliance on direct quotes (>10% of total word count) and the integration of others' ideas with the writing can at times be awkward. Most sources used are correctly cited and referenced according to Harvard style. There are fewer than 10 errors in the referencing. A limited number of reporting verbs have been used to introduce and integrate the ideas of others. The reference list adheres mostly to Harvard style. Content knowledge (35%) Did not meet criterion. Some significant issues in the case study have been identified. https://swinburneonline.instructure.com/courses/83/assignments/420 Most significant issues in the case study have been identified and discussed with appropriate and 4/9 30/12/2017 Criteria Assignment 2: Case study team report No Pass These Pass issues have been 50­59% addressed in the recommendations section using some relevant academic literature and OB theory. Nevertheless, some unclear and irrelevant content remains. The conclusion section mostly highlights what has been learnt from the case study. Credit 60­69% Distinction 70­79% High 80­1 accurate detail and description. current and highly credible resources, showing a consistent and sound understanding of OB theory. sect wide relev and cred reso show cons soun unde OB t These issues have been addressed in the recommendations section using a range of relevant and reliable academic literature and OB theory. The conclusion section highlights what has been learnt from the case study. There is a consistent justification of answers to identified issues and the learning reflection. The conclusion section clearly highlights what has been learnt from the case study. The cons conf dem accu and com unde the r theo expl deci thes clea thor of th and litera The sect and high has from stud https://swinburneonline.instructure.com/courses/83/assignments/420 5/9 30/12/2017 Assignment 2: Case study team report Criteria No Pass Critical analysis Did not meet criterion. (30%) Pass 50­59% Credit 60­69% The writing is largely descriptive with statements of theories provided. Critical analysis requires greater analysis of the applicability of these theories and considerations to the particular case study, so this needs to be evident. Information from more relevant and reliable The relevant theories are correctly identified, defined and applied to the case study example. There is some comparative evaluation. The writing questions some assumptions in the literature. It identifies several relevant contexts when presenting a position. Distinction 70­79% High 80­1 The report demonstrates the ability to construct an issues statement based on the relevant theories with evidence provided of the most relevant contextual factors. However, the issues statement could be more complex. The state com com writi dem attrib critic critic and thro repo and supp illust sources could be presented, so that greater points of view/approaches are presented. Proposes recommendations that are difficult to evaluate because they are vague or only indirectly addresses the case study situation. https://swinburneonline.instructure.com/courses/83/assignments/420 6/9 30/12/2017 Assignment 2: Case study team report Criteria No Pass Written expression Did not meet criterion. (15%) Pass 50­59% Credit 60­69% Distinction 70­79% High 80­1 There is some evidence of appropriate word choice in terms of academic and professional standards. Nevertheless, this is inconsistent throughout. There are >10 significant errors in grammar and punctuation. These can prove intrusive and disruptive for the reader. There is some evidence of appropriate and deliberate word choice. Nevertheless, there remains half a dozen significant errors in grammar and punctuation, some of which require reformulation of the sentence by the reader. . Word choice is appropriate to both an academic as well as industry context. There are fewer than 5 errors in grammar and punctuation, none of which significantly impact on the readability of the writing. Wor delib high to bo acad indu The sign care gram punc The report has little evidence of final editing so some careless, ambiguous and/or inappropriate language use is evident. https://swinburneonline.instructure.com/courses/83/assignments/420 The review has some evidence of editing as demonstrated in some sections of the writing. Editing is obvious in the final preparation of the critical analysis as demonstrated by the high professional standard of the writing. Edit obvi key the p the r dem the e prof stan writi 7/9 30/12/2017 Assignment 2: Case study team report Criteria No Pass Pass 50­59% Credit 60­69% Distinction 70­79% High 80­1 Team charter Did not submit charter. The team charter has been submitted providing evidence of skill development in teamwork. Successful submission of the charter guarantees the awarding of 5% of the total mark for this assessment. The team charter has been submitted providing evidence of skill development in teamwork. Successful submission of the charter guarantees the awarding of 5% of the total mark for this assessment. The team charter has been submitted providing evidence of skill development in teamwork. Successful submission of the charter guarantees the awarding of 5% of the total mark for this assessment. The has subm prov evid deve team Suc subm char guar awa of th for t asse (5%) Assessment declaration and statement of authorship By submitting my assessments below I declare that: This is an original piece of work and no part has been completed by any other person than signed below. I have read and understood the guidelines on How to avoid plagiarism (https://portal.swinburneonline.edu.au/study­resources/how­avoid­plagiarism­0) and no part of this work has been copied or paraphrased from any other source except where this has been clearly acknowledged in the body of the assignment and included in the reference list. I have retained a copy of this assessment in the event of it becoming lost or damaged. I agree and acknowledge that: I have read and understood the Swinburne Assessment Declaration. I accept that use of my Swinburne account to electronically submit this assessment constitutes my agreement to the Swinburne Assessment Declaration. If I do not agree to the Swinburne Assessment Declaration in this context, the assessment outcome may not be valid for assessment purposes and may not be included in my aggregate score for this unit. Further information relating to the penalties for plagiarism, which range from a formal caution to expulsion from the University, is contained in the Student Academic Misconduct Regulations 2012 and at the Assessment declaration (http://www.swinburne.edu.au/current­students/manage­ course/exams­results­assessment/submit­work/assessment­declaration/) page. https://swinburneonline.instructure.com/courses/83/assignments/420 8/9 30/12/2017 https://swinburneonline.instructure.com/courses/83/assignments/420 Assignment 2: Case study team report 9/9
Purchase answer to see full attachment
User generated content is uploaded by users for the purposes of learning and should be used following Studypool's honor code & terms of service.

Explanation & Answer

Attached.

Organizational Behavior 1

Organizational Behavior

Name of the Student
Name of Professor
University Name
State/City
Course
Date

Organizational Behavior 2
Overview of the Case
The Steel Plant Accident is a case study of a Malaysian steel factory that is headed by Ian
Seah, a production manager who has tendered his resignation after 15 years of serving in the same
capacity. For fifteen years, the company had efficiently performed, and no one had expected an
accident like the one that had occurred on an afternoon when the plant exploded. More than 89
employees were injured, and the company lost one employee during the incident. The company
then resumed operations but with a lot of challenges. Workers seem not to be committed to
working and this problem is faced mainly by the group of workers that are working the night shift.
Ian is troubled by the night shift that is managed by a less-strict supervisor. Therefore workers
report to work early but leave only to come back at 5 am when their working hours is almost over
(Cheng, n.d). The situation is even made more difficult to manage since any move to change the
shifts is met by resistant workers who claim that they are discriminated. Consequently, workers
strike, leading to delays in company process and hence loses through liquidated agreed damages
(LAD) penalties.
The Case As Relates To Scientific Leadership Approach
The first issues that have been identified and that which stands out, it the employees’
resi...


Anonymous
I was stuck on this subject and a friend recommended Studypool. I'm so glad I checked it out!

Studypool
4.7
Trustpilot
4.5
Sitejabber
4.4

Similar Content

Related Tags