Adrian Farley
2/20/2013
COM280 – Org Com
Department 8101 Case Study
Department 8101 was one of the most top producing areas in plant 8. Hank, who is supervisor of dept 8101, is about to retire. Upper management has to de cide who is going to replace Hank. It is important that the supervisor fits well within department 8101 so they can continue their reign of top producing department. What they got, was Rita. Rita came into dept 8101 and immediately there was conflict. Problems upon problems kept occurring between the group and Rita. Eventually there was a falling out between Rita and her employees. The g roup decided to revolt, by making mistakes to bring their numbers down, and got Rita fire d. Now, there is a problem. Department 8101 is without a supervisor and their production has slowed. Upper management has no idea how to fix the problems within the group and has hired an Organizational Consultant to help get department 8101 back on track.
Problems:
1. Conflict of management styles 2. No permeability Background Info:
Hank
Supervisor of Department 8101
Laid Back, Laissez-Faire management style
“As long as the job gets done.”
Well liked by employees, drinking buddies w/ Job Setters
Terry
5 years in department 8101 (Junior Job Setter)
Knew his job and would perform well when left alone
Distrusted managers, except Hank
“We’re going to have to break the SOB in. (New Manager)
Drinks at bar a lot
Denny
8 years in department 8101 (Senior Job Setter)
Informal leader of department
Strong force in labor union & former plant committeeman
Respected by peers and managers, especially by Helen and Terry
Helen
15 years in department 8101
Relief woman, extremely nice when you agree with her
Worked in hand w/ Denny on day to day operations
Dislikes female supervisors
Me –
2 Years in department 8101
General job title
Watches people and does his job
Overwhelmed with everything that happens within factory
Facts:
Rumors about Rita had been floating through the gr apevine before employees met her
Rita is former Marine sergeant
Spent last 6 months as fill in supervisor
Followed the rules to the book
Rita didn’t talk to any employees the first week she was hired in, just observed
Start of second week – Rita calls meeting and says she doesn’t like some things and things were changing. Changes included: o
24 minute lunch, rather than 30 min
o
23 minute breaks, rather than 30 min
o
5 minute wash up time rather that 15
o
Tardiness and Absenteeism will not be tolerated
o
Job rotation (on experimental basis)
Employees have lunch breaks at bar
Group was upset with changes, but dec ided to give the ideas a chance c hance before any ‘radical’ measures were taken
Days and weeks past and Rita stood tall with her strict rules
Rita applied immense amount of pressure on employees to do things her way
Employees were getting written up left and right for tardiness and absenteeism o
Jim, a popular person in the work group, got a one day suspension when he and Rita got into an argument over packing labels
o
Helen was put on notice for failure to clean up her work area
o
Terry was written up for drinking, tardiness and almost anything Rita could nail him with
Rita took on more changeovers during the shift and wouldn’t tell Denny or Terry till the la st
minute
Rita wouldn’t let Denny or Terry see the intershift report to find out the days activities
Rita told Terry and Denny what to do and made sure they knew she was in charge
Terry got suspended o
Terry came back from lunch drunk, Rita gave him a direct order and he refused by saying “I’m not doing a damn thing.” Denny tried to calm the situation down but Rita told him
to stay out of it. Rita suspended Ter ry on spot.
The night after the incident, the group met at the bar. Denny led the discussion and they came to an overall consensus that they needed to get rid of Rita.
They decided to make as many mistakes as t hey can. Mistake upon mistake, a group sabotage
Each group member agreed but ‘Me’ was weary but he knew he couldn’t oppose because he
would be excluded from the group
½ month into their plan and Rita had already lost it, she knew it and so did everyone else
The group was confronted by upper management e very day for one reason or another
Production numbers were reflected by their sabotage and they kept getting worse and wor se
Unceremoniously, Rita was removed from dept 8101 and she ended up leaving the company
Theory Application:
Obviously, there are many underlying problems intertwined within the chaos of Departme nt 8101. Even with all the sub problems, the ultimate reasons that led to the demise of the department were the conflicting management styles and pe rmeability, both in the employees and Rita. Under Hank, department 8101 was pretty close to perfect. They all were friends and they all respected each other. They respected each other in accordance to their work ethic and styles, as well as each member’s individual self. From the interdependence and trust within the department, it makes sense they were one of the top producing departments. When Rita stepped in and tried to establish a hierarc hy the group wasn’t used to, problems started occurring. Rita has a military background, and is a ve ry
authoritative Theory X type leader. She treated the group with little respect, and tried to control way too many aspects within the group. This being said, I see a theory that can help solve some of the problems department 8101 is having. New Science – System Theory: This theory is all about chaos, and well, that’s the situation department 8101 is dealing with. As
soon as Rita took over department 810 1, chaos was everywhere. Inside New Science theory, theorists suggest that the chaotic nature of organizations can result in new innovative forms of organizational processes and forms. There are 4 main ideas from organizational communication that derive from New Science system theory and through those 4 main ideas we can see where the department is exceeding and where it needs to improve. 1. The importance of relationships in organizations: This factor is derived from new science ideas about the interconnectedness and interdependence of entities in quantum physics.
This is an idea that department 8101 excels in. Throughout the group everyone is connected and depended on to do t heir job. Before Rita, this is one o f the main reasons why the group was so successful. Under Hank, department 8101 thrived from the laid back management style and excelled when Hank tr usted and depended on them. Upper management did a horrible job in hiring a replacement for Hank. As soon as Rita was hired, the group already felt distant from their new leader. She didn’t even
communicate with them for a whole wee k. Obviously, when relationships were established inside and outside the organization, this group thrived. For their new leader to come in and not even try to start a relationship until the second week , shows that her management style did not flow with the cohesiveness of the group. 2. The importance of participation in organizational processes: This factor is emphasized because of the participatory nature of the universe.
Going along with Idea 1, t his is another thought that department 8101 flourished on. Participation was expected from every individual organizational member. A big part o f why I think department 8101 was so successful is that they knew what was e xpected of them. Everyone within the department knew what their job was and how to execute that job well. When Rita was institute d as their new supervisor, she didn’t participate or try to mix within the group. Instead of continuing the success of the participative organization that department 8101 was, she decided to try and take an authoritative leadership style and control certain members/jobs. For ex ample, Terry is an extremely hard worker and knows how to do his job well. Rita tried to contro l certain aspects of Terry and his work ethic by writing him up for ‘almost anything she could nail him with.’
When Rita explained that she was going to try and rotate jobs between organizational members, the department started to be unsuccessful. unsuccessful. I think they were unsuccessful because before the rotation process, each group member knew there roll and jobs well. When rotating between jobs, they didn’t know what was expected of them and felt like they were letting the group down. To add to her already long list of problems, Rita would then establish pressure on the organizational member to do a certain job bett er, which only frustrated the group more. 3. The appreciation of organizational change and instability: New Science theorists argue that “organizational change, even in large systems, can be created by a small group of committed individuals or champions.”
This is where I start to hold some responsibility with the group. Yes, Rita is bad and ultimately caused the downfall of department 8101 but some responsibility falls on the organizational members within the department. The individual group members have to realize that when Hank retired, t hey were going to be getting get ting a new supervisor. The group as a whole should have been more o pen to the idea of a new supervisor rather than automatically have a judgment before they even met their new leader. When the
organizational members first met Rita, they we re already comparing her to what was said through the ‘grapevine.’ Instead of making pre assessed judgments on your
potential supervisor, they should have had a more open mind. After things got bad, the group should have approached the problems in a different way rather than immediately thinking of ‘group sabotage’ and trying to get rid of Rita. That being said, something I
find interesting about this idea under New Science is that there can be arguments made for both sides. You can look at it in the direction explained above, where the group should have appreciated the fact that there will be organizational change and accept the fact that some things will change within the organization that they cannot control. Or, you could look it as a New Scienc e theorist Wheatley sees it. “Organizational “Organiza tional change, even in large systems, can be created by a small group of committed individuals or champions.” champions .” Department 8101 is most definitely a “small group of committed
individuals or champions ” and I think they could possibly change the way the re organization runs. They can present their department (8101) as like a guinea pig or trial t rial run to the organization. They can present a case study type presentation of department 8101 under Hank and a separate o ne under the supervision of Rita. This will show upper management how well the group did and how the participative organization management and leadership style works well with this organization. This could potentially change the way upper management views the ir organization. Maybe they would install a new business model or perhaps change the way they run the day to day operations. Like Wheatley says, sometimes large companies are changed by a small rd
group of motivated individuals. After all this analysis, the gist of this 3 idea in New Science systems theory is that all o rganizational members including managers, supervisors and all employees, have to understand that there will be organizational change and instability at times. As analyzed, there a different views people can take on the same theory, which is how many new ideas come into organizations. 4. The importance of being open to the information environment: As Wheatley states, “ We need to open the gates to more information, in more places, and seek out information that is ambiguous, complex, and of no immediate values.”
This idea continues well piggy-backing off topic 3. Department 8101 organizational members and Rita both have problems with r eceiving new ideas. This is a section where dept 8101 is at a disadvantage. In analysis and application above we have stated that
department 8101 has such a cohesive co hesive strong group bond. In this idea about the New Science system theory, theorists argue that in order for organizations to thrive new ideas have to be circulated regularly. While it is great that dept 8101 is a strong group, but that limits there openness to listen to outside members ideas. The department’s permeability permeability is very low. They don’t listen to ‘outsider’ ideas because of their strong -
willed bond and comfortableness within the group. Rita also has issues with permeability. She wouldn’t let anyone express their views, not even individuals inside
the organizational department. Rita has views on management styles as a hierarchy with power flowing downward whereas the management style t hat positively works for the group is power flowing up, down and side to side. New Science systems theory correlates really well with department 8101. The ideas on which New Science theory was founded, as explained above, department 8101 follows that path and your able to see where the group faults. Before Rita, the group was following the New Science theory ideas perfectly. Once you move down to the third and fourth ideas, based on the theory, we can see how the organizational members are misguided and how they can improve individually and as a team. My favorite part and why I chose c hose to rely on New Science theory so heavily is because reading through the description and processes of the theory I remember ideas from other theories that also fit within the boundaries of New Science. Like how or iginally the group had a very Theory Y manager then changed to Theory X under Rita’s supervision. You’re able to see how all the theories intermixed together can kick
start different ideas about the same problem. Solution(s):
There are a lot of different differe nt problems and sub problems within the organization and department 8101 itself. The solution needs to start in the hiring process. In my mind you have 2 different options of how to reinstate a supervisor to department 8101. 1) You hire from within or 2) You have a specific hiring process. The solution that makes sense and would most definitely work within the department would be to hire within. The most obvious choice would be to promote Denny. That being said, there is still going to be a position open in the department, a position to replace Denny’s. That is where a next possible solution comes in. A specific hiring process, for this particular department the organizational members who do the hiring need to set up a specific process to help find the person best for the job. They have to keep in mind things like an applicant’s background, they need to make sure the applicant’s
previous management styles would work well with the department’s successful style currently. Also,
organizational members above department 8101 need to address t he group’s issues with their low permeability. No matter what, there are always going to be new people at an organization and the employees need to understand how to interact and work with those new employees. In conclusion, through application and analysis of department 8101 we have identified and addressed many different problems. Through theory, we were able to see all of the organization’s strengths as well as where th e organization can improve.
