Essential of Management
CASE STUDY
A large dry cleaning operation had a central production facility that was fed by 7 regional drop off Pickup locations. The busy seasons (i.e., spring and fall) resulted in considerable customer dissatisfaction and loss of business as product turnaround went from 4 and 5 days to 8 and 9 days. This project involved the use of Job Analysis techniques to improve individual productivity, eliminate bottlenecks in the flow of material, assign to specific people, and increase throughput.
We worked in small groups with employees and managers to brainstorm problems and methods for meeting customer expectations as we needed employees to fully buyin to the implementation. Along with cross training, quality checks at each station rather than at the final station, and proper maintenance techniques that eliminated breakdowns on machines, we were able to implement a production program that guaranteed a 5day
turnaround time throughout the year or the cleaning was free. Most items were returned to the feeder stores in 3 days and the company was considering an additional advertising program for selected times of the year as a result of this new competitive advantage. We also created a series of flash reports for alerting managers to problems in the workflow.
Answer the following question.
Q1. Give an overview of the case.
Q2. Discuss how the flow of materials/ throughput was improved
CASE STUDY
The modern Corporation Limited produces and distributes packaged food products, such as cereals, spices, puddings, jellies, crackers, salad dressings, etc. The company sells nationwide and conducts a very large national advertising campaign. It has 75 plants located throughout the country and markets 65 different products, each under its own trademark. These are all food products, but are not otherwise closely related. They vary from long margin specialities with comparatively small volume to larger volume items with similar profit margins. Different raw materials and commodities are used in their processing. All products, however, have the common factor of being sold throughout retail grocery stores. Gross sales are Rs. 2,500 lakhs and total assets are Rs. 1,250 lakhs. Management is centralized. The chairman of the board, the President, and four Vice Presidents with responsibility for sales, production, purchasing, and law, make up the executive top of the company and operate as a committee on all general policy matters. Sales, advertising, and sales promotion are all under the jurisdiction of the sales Vice President. All plant operations, as well as research and engineering, report to the production Vice President. Purchasing is the responsibility of its Vice President, Who also governs traffic. Public relations, law and corporate functions are under the general counsel. Financial responsibilities are handled by the president, and employee relations are covered by each Vice President in his own area of responsibility. Each plant is operated by a superintendent whose authority is over wages, maintenance cost, output, quality, hiring, inspection and the other normal plant operation responsibilities. Superintendents report to 8 regional production managers who are responsible to the production Vice President. The volume of production in each plant is scheduled by the production control group reporting to the operating Vice President. Final Schedules are set after consulting the sales Vice president. Opportunities for increasing the line of products and expanding the business are being lost because of lack of executive’s time to study them to manage new products. In any business where specialties sold under trademark brands are the major business of a company, it is necessary for that company to continually bring out new products and to study old ones to determine, the point of no return with regard to promotion and advertising expenses. The Modern Corporation management feels that, in addition to lost opportunities for sound expansion, profit opportunities in present products are not being fully recognized. The business may have grown too big for the form of management.
Answer the following question.
Q1. How have changed conditions in this company affected the appropriateness of its organization structures?
Q2. What changes do you recommend to be made in the company organization structure?
CASE STUDY
Two of the leading manufacturers of high end mobile phones, Motorola, Inc. (Motorola) and Research in Motion Ltd. (RIM), had entered into an agreement in February 2008, whereby the two companies had agreed not to poach each other’s employees. In September 2008, Motorola sued RIM and claimed for damages accusing the latter of poaching 40 of its employees in Florida. In December, RIM countersued Motorola accusing the company of illegally preventing it from hiring employees who had been fired from Motorola though the original agreement between the two ompanies had expired in August 2008. While experts are still divided on whether talent poaching is ethical, there has been a steep increase in employee poaching lawsuits across all sectors as employers are concerned with protecting their trade secrets . In December 2008, Research in Motion Ltd. (RIM) sued Motorola Inc. (Motorola) for, what it called illegally preventing it from hiring employees that Motorola had laid off. According to RIM, the two companies had entered into an agreement in February 2008 on not hiring each other’s employees or the newly eparated exemployees. When Motorola announced layoffs in large numbers, RIM, attempted to hire and gain some engineers at a lower cost. RIM considered that the agreement had expired in August 2008 and prayed to the Chicago court for damages. RIM contended that despite the agreement having expired, Motorola had unlawfully extended the contract and prevented RIM from offering jobs to the fired Motorola employees.
Answer the following question.
Q1. Give an overview of the case.
Q2. Discuss talent poaching and give reasons why talent poaching is illegal
CASE STUDY
Bharat Engineering Works Limited is major industrial machineries besides other engineering products. It has enjoyed Market preference for its machineries because of limited competition in the field. Usually there have been more orders than what the company could supply. However, the scenario changed quickly because of the entry of two new competitors in the field with foreign technological collaboration. For the first time, the company faced problem in marketing its products with usual profit margin. Sensing the likely problem, the chief executive appointed Mr Arvind Kumar as general manager to direct the operations of industrial machinery division. Mr Kumar had similar assignment abroad before coming back to India. Mr Kumar had a discussion with the chief executive about the nature of the problem being faced by the company so that he could fix up his priority. The chief executive advised him to consult various heads of department to have firsthand information. However, he emphasized that the company lacked an integrated planning system while members of the Board of Directors insisted on introducing this in several meetings both formally and informally. After joining as General Manager, Mr Kumar got briefings from the heads of all departments. He asked all heads to identify major problems and issues concerning them. The marketing manager indicated that in order to achieve higher sales, he needed more sales support. Sales people had no central organization to provide sales support nor was there a generous budget for demonstration teams which could be sent to customers to win business. The production manager complained about the old machines and equipment’s used in manufacturing. Therefore, cost of production was high but without corresponding quality. While competitors had better equipment’s and machinery, Bharat Engineering had neither replaced its age old plant nor reconditioned it. Therefore to reduce the cost, it was essential to automate production lines by installing new equipment. Director of research and development did not have specific problem and therefore, did not indicate for any change. However, a principal scientist in R&D indicated on one day that the director of R&D, though very nice in his approach, did not emphasize on short term research projects, which could easily increase production efficiency by at least 20 per cent within a very short period without any major capital outlay.
Answer the following question.
Q1. . Discuss the nature and characteristics of the problems in this case.
Q2. What steps should be taken by Mr Kumar to overcome these problems? Explain.
Essential of Management
CASE STUDY
Ajay Sharma is manager SU4, i.e. Sub Unit 4 and is direct uncharged of around forty five workers and ten supervisory staff. The company is ISO9002 certificate holder and the policy clearly spells out objectives for all levels of employees. For the next two years. Each unit has its own production target and any deviation from these targets is reflected in weekly reports prepared by head of units. Ajay however is worried about his unit. Since he joined this new position to weeks ago, he has observed the functioning of the workers and made notes on how they work. Out of 10 supervisors, only 2 of them have been recruited directly. But all the workers show no difference of attitudes for direct supervisors. Ajay realized that his sub unit has defaulted on five occasions to meet the target in the last 3 months. He emphasized the need to tackle this issue urgently. During his observations, Ajay noticed that a certain supervisor, Chander Pal is most vocal and is seen discussing all issues with everybody in free time and is doing his a work very efficiently. Ajay in a formal discussion with all his 10 supervisors raised the issue of failing to meet the weekly targets. He proposed to form 3 work groups within the sub unit, who will be responsible for meeting weekly production targets and also for maintaining performance ratings for individual workers. He suggested that Chander Pal should be the leader of these groups. He also made it clear that there was no provision for performance related compensation or incentives. But based on the performance monitoring, we will select a ‘Performer of SU4’ on weekly basis. Ajay entrusted the following 3 major responsibilities to the groups. (a) Create awareness on production target and quality. (b) Check the production achieved as against the targets on daily basis. (c) Monitor individual performance.
Answer the following question.
Q1. Discuss Ajay’s approach to the situation
Q2. Why Ajay has chosen Chander Pal as leader of group? Discuss the role of a group leader.
Q3. Whether the groups formed will show immediate results or not. Explain.
Q4. Debate the likely differences in departmental promoted and directly recruited supervisors.
CASE STUDY
There were six major banks in the city. All of them were affected in various degrees by a cost squeeze prevalent in the banking industry. Two of the banks laid off several hundred employees. Ajax Trust released 250 people, including 60 officers. Benson Bank released 600 employees, including 90 officers. Rumors permeated the industry and many employees were worried about their jobs. The Cortland Trust, the fourth largest bank in the city, announced the release of 700 employees, 200 of whom were officers. Now the rumors became really heavy. The Hawthorne Trust Company, second largest in the city, had no intention of releasing any employees. Even in the deep depression of the 1930s, no employee had ever been released because of poor business. The senior management of Hawthorne simply planned to let a nohiring rule and normal attrition handle the problem. They were a conservative group and felt that any announcement of their decision might appear to be flamboyant in the banking community, so no mention was made to the press or to the employees of the bank. It was felt the employees would understand the bank’s tradition of no releases due to business conditions, which wasn’t a stated policy but had a long history. Over the next several weeks, many supervisors reported poor morale, jittery employees, and a drop in productivity. All of this was traced to retrenchments in competitor banks and the ever present worry that Hawthorne would be next.
Answer the following question.
Q1. Comment on senior management’s decision not to announce their decision to either employees or the press.
Q2. . Should they have told employees? Explain.
Q3. Was too much emphasis placed on traditional behavior? Justify.
Q4. . If you were employed as a supervisor at Hawthorne Trust, what would you do to cope with the problem?
CASE STUDY
Cliff Morton, a recent college graduate, was hired by the Capital Casualty Company as a trainee in the safety engineering department. After completing a six month training program, his function would be to conduct inspections of prospective policyholders’ places of business to determine whether or not safety practices and equipment were in use and to make appropriate recommendations to the Capital underwriters about the extent of the risk involved. Morton progressed through the program effectively and was now in the last stage. He was being introduced to the territory he would take over by an experienced safety engineer who was being transferred to a larger territory. Each engineer worked out of his home, appearing at the office only on Mondays for a departmental discussion meeting. The requests for inspections were mailed to the experienced engineer’s home, and rush inspections were telephoned to him. Each engineer planned his own daily itinerary of inspections, completing the reports at home and mailing them in to the office each day. Cliff Morton found that by carefully planning his daily route in the territory, he could easily make 16 to 18 inspections and complete the reports in a normal work day. During his first week alone in the territory, he averaged 16 inspections a days. The following Monday, at the departmental discussion meeting the engineer who had introduced him to the territory called him aside and admonished him for turning in so many inspections each. “You’ll ruin it for us; we only turn in 8 or 10 each day. If you want to do 16 or 18 a day, go ahead, but only turn in 8 and then take a day off. No one will know”. Cliff didn’t know what to say or do. He was ambitious, but he also knew he had to get along with his fellow employees.
Answer the following question.
Q1. How should Cliff Morton handle this situation?
Q2. . Is peer pressure to slow down something that management can control? Explain.
Q3. . How can such a situation arise?
Q4. Can a new employee be effective if he resists group pressure? Justify your answer.
CASE STUDY
A manufacturing company was importing raw material for production. The company was incurring huge losses due to delay in import clearance of raw material. Custom had introduced a new system of clearance through EDI. Mr. Rajan, who was an old employee of the company, was the in charge of clearance team. He was very diligent, honest and an asset to the company. But somehow, he was reluctant to switch over to electronics clearance system of customs. He firmly believed in custom clearances of stores through hard copies of Bill of entry. He was due for promotion. But his later performance was denying him the promotion. Company wanted to help him.
Answer the following question.
Q1. What may be the reason for adopting the same old procedure by Mr. Rajan? Discuss.
Q2. As a HR Manager, how will you help Rajan so he does not loose promotion? Explain.
Essential of Management
CASE STUDY
Delta Finance Company wanted to increase productivity in its typing pool operation. There were 300 typists of varying skills and speeds in the operation. Rather than establish individual performance standards, which management felt would be difficult to administer, the Head of the typing pool decided on group standards. Ten groups of 30 typists each were created, and each was given a production quota. Work measurement analysts fully realized that some typists in each group were more rapid and accurate than others. They also were aware that some typists, while slow, were very accurate and that others who were rapid made more errors. They also had to contend with the relatively frequent influx of new typists who would slow group production, since the job had high labour turnover. The ten groups were created with as equitable a mixture of talents as possible, and the incentive system was designed so that when a group reached its quota all members shared the bonus equally. Merit pay increases were continued to allow for and reward individual performance differences. After the system had been in use for six months, the company found that the rapid, accurate typists resented sharing the bonus equally with slower employees. They felt that they were carrying the group and deserved greater rewards. This was the case even though the rapid, accurate typists received higher pay on a merit basis.
Answer the following question.
Q1. Can the company make this type of bonus system work? Justify your reply.
Q2. . How can the resentment of the more efficient typists be overcome?
Q3. . How can team spirit be developed?
Q4. . Should the company abandon the system and use only merit increase? Explain.
CASE STUDY
Mr Singh, president of the Universal Food Products Company, was tired of being the only one in his company actually responsible for profits. While he had good vice presidents in charge of finance, sales, advertising, manufacturing, purchasing, and product research, he realized he could not hold any of them responsible for company profits, as much as he would like to. He often find it difficult even to hold them responsible for the contribution in their various areas to company profits. The sales Vice president, for example, had rather reasonably complained that he could not be fully responsible for sales when the advertising was ineffective, when the products customers stores wanted were not readily available from manufacturing, or when he did not have the new products he needed to meet competition. Likewise, the manufacturing vicepresident had some justification when he made the point that he could not hold costs down and still be able to produce short runs so as to fill orders on short notice, finance controls would not allow the company to carry large inventory of everything. Singh had considered breaking his company down into six or seven segments by setting up product divisions with a manager over each with profit responsibility. But he found that this would not be feasible or economical since many of the company’s branded food products were produced on the same factory equipment and used the same raw materials, and a sales person calling on a store or supermarket could far more economically handle a number of related products more than one or a few. Consequently, Singh came to the conclusion that the best thing for him to do was to set up six product managers reporting to product marketing manager. Each product manager would be given responsibility for one or a few products and would oversee, for each product, all aspects of product research, manufacturing, advertising, and sales thereby becoming the person responsible for the performance and the profits of the products. Singh realized that he could not give these product managers actual line authority over the various operating departments of the company since that would cause each vicepresident and his or her department to report to six product managers and the product marketing manager, as well the president. He was concerned with this problem, but he knew that some of the most successful larger companies in the world had used the product manager system. Moreover, one of his friends in a university faculty had told him that he must except some lack of clearness and some confusion in any organization and that this result might not be bad since it forced people to work together as teams. Singh resolved to put in the product manager system as outlined above the hoped for the best. But he wondered how he could avoid the problem of confusion in reporting relationships.
Answer the following question.
Q1. Do you agree with Singh’s program? Justify your reply.
Q2. Would you have done it diffidently? Explain in detail.
CASE STUDY
The new dean of the graduate business school at Gibson University was anxious to build student morale, which he had found to be rather low due to the autocratic regime of his predecessor. After a lengthy meeting with the governing board of the student organization, he agreed to their request to allow a studentdeveloped and administered faculty evaluation program to be instituted. The students wanted to publish the results, so that they could be used in promotion and tenure decisions and also demonstrate to the faculty where they stood in student opinion of their classroom performance. One of the students’ central arguments was that many faculty members were poor classroom teachers, though they might be good at research and writing. Another was the student opinion that several faculty members were remote and difficult to see after class. The dean believed the idea a good one, and one which
would help establish his popularity with the student government. He didn’t believe the faculty would mind the evaluation, and the results could be used by department chairpersons as a part of the faculty development process, Because the dean thought highly of the idea, he didn’t bother to discuss it with any of the department chairpersons or other faculty members. It was announced in the student newspaper the following week, and the forms were distributed in classes during that week. One of the school’s best known full professors, who had a world wide reputation for incisive writing and provocative research, received a poor rating because of a foreign accent which was sometimes difficult to understand and his impatience with what he considered stupid questions. Many senior faculty members received inadequate ratings. The highest ratings seemed to go to young, no tenured faculty who were close to the students in age, grooming, and behavior. The uproar among the majority of the faculty was deafening, and the dean was confronted by a committee of department heads who told him the rating system had to go or he would lose significant numbers of his most qualified faculty members and department heads.
Answer the following question.
Q1. Did the dean introduce the program effectively? Explain.
Q2. What should the dean do about this ultimatum?
Q3. Discuss the pros and cons of studentrun faculty evaluations.
Q4. What implications are there in these programs for the business world?
CASE STUDY
“Managing by objectives is nothing new in our police department here,” said commissioner AswiniKartak of the metropolitan police. “We have always established objectives toward which everyone in our department strives. Our job is varied and diverse but encompasses the maintenance of law and order, firmly but fairly; in addition, we have to protect human lives and property,: and also to be the conscience and spirit of the general welfare of the millions of people who inhabit our city and call it home. Every man is aware of these objectives in our department and he knows he will have to strive towards it. Now, I am fully aware of that, being a service operation, we cannot measure by the yardsticks of profits, costs, sales, or product output, as is done in manufacturing concerns. However, I reiterate very strongly that this does not mean we are not managing by objectives. Ask anyone in my department!” Commissioner Kartak was speaking to a management consult who had come over to discuss ways and means of improving the efficiency of police force by introducing management by objectives in his department.
Answer the following question.
Q1. Do you think commissioner Kartak is engaging in managing by objectives? What, if anything, is missing?
Q2. What you suggest the commissioner to do?
Essential of Management
Q1. Describe types of departmentation with examples.
Q2. Difference between organization climate & culture.
Q3. Characteristics of the organizational chart.
Q4. What are the factors determining the extent of decentralization?
Q5. What is job analysis? Evaluate its significance in staffing function.
Q6. Explain factors influencing group cohesiveness.
Q7. What is the meaning of leadership? & explain leadership qualities
Q8. What is motivation? What are the different methods that can be used to motivate employees?
Essential of Management
Q1. Name the factors deterring departmentation. Also mention the bases of departmentation and give examples.
Q2. What is decentralization?
Q3. What is the importance of group dynamics?
Q4. Discuss steps of planning.
Q5. Explain modern organizational theory (An appraisal)
Q6. Explain similarities between the line organization & line and staff organization.
Q7. What are the special features of the line organization?
Q8. What are the aspects of the system approach focused attention?
Essential of Management
Q1. What is span of control? Identify the factors determining span of control.
Q2. Write a detailed note on seven out of FAYOL’s 14 principles of Management.
Q3. Explain the various techniques used in selection process.
Q4. What are the various types of functional budgets?
Q5. What is the importance of group dynamics?
Q6. What are the techniques of co-ordination?
Q7. Discuss steps of planning.
Q8. Disadvantages of an informal organization.