Procter and Gamble. Essay

The Goodman Company is the manufacturer of small rubber automotive parts. Robert Goodman plans to expand his business to enhance the company productivity. However, he can’t afford to purchase new equipments. Therefore, the company had hired Ann Bennet, a production analyst to improve the efficiency of current equipments. After the implementation of the new manufacturing process, Mr. Goodman starts to question his decision of hiring Ann Bennet. The below will be discussing the overall problems which lead to the failure of Ann Bennet’s proposal. 1.

What changes took place at Goodman, and what contributed to the difficulty in implementing them? Before Ann Bennet’s proposal was implemented, the entire production process is operated by a single worker. The employees are paid according to hourly rate. Ms. Bennet suggested a mass-production format whereby each worker will be assigned to one job only. After the plan implementation, the wages is paid under a piecework system. Ms Bennet believes that by using piecework system as a motivator, the production of the equipments will increase. In the first shift, the quality and production dropped after the changes.

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Previously, they produced top-rated quality products among the 3 shifts. Cleverson Anthony is the supervisor of the first shift. He is respected by most of the worker after working for so many years in Goodman Company. Before the plan implementation, he had been planning for retirement. However, he had asked for earlier retirement after working under Ms Bennet’s plan for only two weeks. When the leader cannot adapt to the changes, workers will feel demotivated. Nobody in the first shift likes the changes. Workers complained that products are not being readied properly for another process.

They tried to organize a union because they felt that the company looked down at their abilities when their job is simplified. This leads to the proposal failure. Overall, second shift seem to be a productive group. Norm Leonard, the supervisor had worked for the company for just three years. When his workers encountered with problems, they will not seek for his help. However, they will find Jim Fask, who is a senior man on the shift. Jim knows how exactly every machine works and how the shift should run it. Problem arises when Ms. Bennet assigned Jim as the shift set-up man and mechanic.

All the workers have no choice but to seek for Norm’s help when facing with difficulties. However, the only one who knows how the operation works is Jim. This leads to lower productivity as the one who knows exactly everything well does not have the authority to control and direct the workers. Norm feels that he had tried his best to follow Ms Bennet’s plan and he sees no problem in Ms Bennet’s plan. However, the production still dropped dramatically in this shift due to the above mentioned problem. The main objective of hiring Ann Bennet is to increase the production without acquisition of new equipments.

Since the first and second shifts are unable to meet the production after the plan took place, most people assumed that the third shift had done the best. However, their assumption brings them disappointment as the production of third shift still remains the same as before after the changes took place. Actually, they can do better and produce more than the normal production volume. However, due to the leadership of Bob Jackson, the supervisor, the workers are satisfied with what the production requires them to do. They are not motivated by the changes.

In addition, the supervisor and the workers of third shift did not fully follow Ms Bennet’s plan. In fact, they make their own changes and did not inform to the company about it. 2. What problems in communication, motivation and leadership can you identify? Before Ann Bennet’s plan was implemented, the first and second shifts are having poor leadership problems. The first shift leader, Cleverson Anthony is lack off leader-participation (Vroom and Yetton model) which requires him to participate in order to make operation decisions (Changing Mind, n. d. ).

Although he knows the company very well, he did not improve and enhance the productivity of his shift. Apparently, the department can run by itself without any instruction from him. His existence in the department is not really needed and the workers don’t really see him as their leader. Norm Leonard, the leader for the second shift is lack of management by exception and laissez-faire (Changing Mind, n. d. ). The worker will look for Jim who is one of the senior workers whenever they have problems even though he doesn’t really have any formal authority. In other words, Noam doesn’t interfere with the workers work or decision making.

For the third shift, as a leader, Bob Jackson did not push his men to perform their best. Bob is actually lacking path-goal theory (Changing Mind, n. d. ). After the changes are made, Cleverson asked for early retirement while the other two leaders try to adapt to the changes. However it didn’t go well for the second shift as Jim was taken out of the regular production. In term of communication, the workers in the first shift get along well doing work but they go separate way after working hours. They don’t really socialize with one another. This might due to cultural relativism developed in the first shift culture.

In their culture, they don’t interact with each other and they do not think that it is necessary to communicate after working hours (Martin Ryder University, 2010). While for the second shift, it is more towards lateral communication (Martin Ryder University, 2010). Since Norm doesn’t socialize much with his men at work or after working hours, workers will seek for Jim’s help. On the other hand, third shift has no problem as they are very close with each other, even after working hours. This is because Bob Jackson has good interpersonal communication skills when interacting with his workers.

When it comes to motivation, all three shifts have setbacks. Motivation is the process by which a person effort are energized, directed and sustained towards attaining a goal. It is a strong force which pushes people to do their best which Goodman Company failed to emphasize. For instance, the first shift feels the company has mistreated them with unfairness by not appreciating their abilities. Besides, the company didn’t care for the needs and welfares of their workers. Therefore, the second and third shifts’ workers didn’t perform their best as the company failed to emphasize on McClelland’s theory of needs (Gibson et al, 2002). . Discuss the role of informal groups in the Goodman Company. Often, people can excel in their work without any formal structure. Informal organization refers to the relationship between people in an organization based on behavior, emotion, prejudices, likes and dislikes, etc (Open Learning World . Com, 2007). The role of the group is served as an agent for establishing and testing social reality (Accel-Team, 2010). Given the example in first shift, John Malone likes to discuss and share new things which he had learnt in lunch time.

Peer chatting enables the members to reduce the worry associated with their job by developing a consensus about these feelings. John should have cultivated their goodwill and cooperation and made use of the informal group leadership. Indeed, it is an interest groups. The workers stay together to get the same benefits and they cooperate only for the sake of interest, working and union. In addition, they don’t meet each other after the working hour. Informal groups have a powerful influence on the effectiveness of an organization. In second shift, Jim is the person in charge of informal group.

He is one of the experienced senior workers. Although Norm is the supervisor, the workers tend to trust and like Jim more. He didn’t like to socialize with his workers because of his concept: workers should do their jobs and he should do his. It is said to be a combination of interest and friendship group. They work with Norm just for sake of working whereas everyone approaches Jim when there faced with problems. Third shift shows that there are five full time employees and seven part-time college students. They have built up very strong relationship loyalty among each other. According to Kibiya (n. . ), the system of informal group can lead to a better working environment, and good teamwork leads to higher productivity. As a result, the production of the company improved. Unlike the stifling initiative on the first shift, third shift’s employees will hangout and socialize after work. Thus, it is considered as a friendship group. When workers are happy, they will be productive workers. So, the employees will be motivated and enjoy their work and resulting in greater productivity and satisfaction on everyone’s behalf. In short, informal group seems to play an essential role in an organization.

Although members’ informal roles are not “official,” they often exert a much greater influence on their group or team colleagues and the group or team process than do the formal roles Thereby, employees will all contribute towards improving enthusiasm and continually enhance their performance and the productivity of the business because people are more motivated to do things they enjoy than things they do not enjoy. 4. Was hiring Ann Bennet as a production analyst had been a mistake? Hiring Ann Bennet as a production analyst can be considered as a mistake.

First of all, as an experienced production analyst, she should know whether the plan is working under the specific condition and organization environment. Indeed, Ann Bennet’s proposal will increase the motivation and production, but with condition of good supervisors and good teamwork are provided. This is justifiable that teamwork is greatly needed when only the third shift was able to achieve the goal of the new plan. As an experienced production analyst with magna cum laude, Ann Bennet should understand that a plan will not work in every situation.

By referring to the case study, it is obvious that the failure of Ann Bennet’s is due to the bad attitude of the supervisors, the incorporation of workers, and the wrong interpretation of the plan. Therefore, Ann Bennet should think of a plan that will work even there are bad attitude supervisors. Besides, she should at least do some analysis on the environment and the relationship of Goodman Company before she comes out with a successful plan. Undoubtedly, Ann Bennet should be responsible for the failure of the plan. The plan is just too “fresh” and new for most of the employees.

For example, Clev from the first shift had asked for early retirement after the plan was implemented. There was also constant complaining over the new process from first shift. This has reflected that the employees cannot adapt to the new plan. Before the plan implementation, Ann Bennet should take this situation into account. Plans should always be back-up by solution if problems arise. For example, Anne Bennet can come out with a better plan which is suitable for the organization if she takes initiative to visit, observe and analyze the workplace.

In short, a plan should always design based on the real-life situation of the organization. Since the plan had been implemented in Goodman Company, the only solution to overcome the problem is to rearrange the authority within the organization. For example, Anne Bennet can reorganize the position of the organization by giving the right authority to the right person. Overall recommendations Although Ann Bennet is blamed for the failure of the new strategy, if we take a closer look, everyone in the organization plays crucial roles to make the plan a success.

Firstly, Goodman Company should have a set of clear objectives and goals. This is because goals are able to define the organization, provide direction and avoid chaos (USD CASA, n. d. ). Goals are good motivators besides acting as communicators to the employees on what the organization is striving. Besides, goals provide a basis of recognizing accomplishments and successes. Secondly, a good leader is able to communicate and motivates the workers to perform continuously for the organization. In addition, workers should also be optimistic and accept the new challenge. For example, they should not complain about the new plan.

They should actually accept it and accomplish it to achieve self-satisfactions. In addition, this will bring benefits to both parties as the company with has high productivity with outstanding employees’ performances (Gibson et al, 2002). All in all, Goodman Company will be able to adapt to the new plan if and only if the company set organizational goals, trains potential leaders to guide the workforce and promote good working environment to the employees to promote employees’. This will ensure the productivity of the company to increase in no time as what Robert Goodman hopes for. Reference List

Accel-Team (2010) Informal Group Dynamics [Online]. Retrieved on 16 March 2010 from: http://accel-team. com/work_groups/informal_grps_01. html Changing Mind (n. d. ) Leadership theories [Online]. Retrieved on 21st March 2010 form: http://changingminds. org/disciplines/leadership/theories/leadership_theories. htm Gibson, Donnelly, Ivancevich, and Konopaske (2002) Organizations: Behavior, Structure, Process (11th. ed. ) Mc Graw Hill Irwin: Boston Kibiya, A. S. (n. d. ). Informal groups [Online]. Retrieved on 16 March 2010 from: http://74. 125. 153. 132/search? q=cache:MR6D0sgwLpsJ:sctweb. emu. edu. r/gursev/CSIT362%2520LECTURE%2520NOTES/INFORMAL%2520GROUPS1. ppt+informal+groups+in+organization=4=en=clnk=my=firefox-a Martin Ryder University (2010) Communication Theory [Online]. Retrieved on 21st March 2010 form: http://carbon. ucdenver. edu/~mryder/itc/comm_theory. html Opening Learning World . Com (2007) Formal and informal organization [Online]. Retrieved on 16 March 2010 from: http://www. openlearningworld. com/olw/courses/books/Organisation/Organizations/Formal%20and%20informal%20organisation. html Rahim, M. A. (2001) Managing conflict in organizations [Online]. Retrieved on 16 March 2010 from:

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