Q&As on organisational culture and change

Enriching Jobs at Standard Decoy – Questions and Answers

How did the “odd Ducks” program enrich the jobs at standard Decoy?

The “Standard Decoy” company in Witchell was famous for making traditional wooden hunting trap since 1927. After taking the charge of his inherited business, Stewart Alcorn, grandson of Cyrus Witchell, wanted to increase the productivity of individual worker which was staying in a monotonous position for ten years. He noticed that most of his employees worked casually with no improvement and they do not feel any enjoyment and enthusiasm in their work. After surveying the whole situation at the company, he started the job rotation technique and appointed some highly eligible workers to guide and help the co –workers for better improvement and to bring a little bit enthusiasm in their work. But, when all are in vain, he eventually noticed that one of the rough cutter whittling some blocks of wood with an ordinary knife in an incorrect process and it looked surprisingly like a duck in an odd way and the paint that he made make it even odder. When the handmade ducks named as “Odd Ducks” was prepared for selling, the customers were gladly accepted the odd ducks as fine tuning product of handmade. This program gradually increased the net production and the workers made it even better by applying the company’s tools and materials and thus enriched the jobs at Standard Decoy.

What motivated workers to participate in making the odd Ducks?

The process of hand making odd ducks was more simpler than before and it was made at any spare time and the cost of production is very low and time saving and also, the workers also got the opportunity to show their skills in making the crafts and brought them home to display on their mantels in spite of the precise amount of income.

Managing Stress and Work Life Balance – Questions and Answers

What signs of stress was Larry Field exhibiting?

The reflection of signs of stress was began to exhibit on Larry Field when he was plan to marry Alice Shiflette, class valedictorian with over confidence of his low paid job as survey crew under a local surveyor, William Loude. But, a year later when their first child was born, Larry was afraid of how to care the baby as Alice was also doing a full time day job as a secretary in a local company and moreover, he himself wasn’t making much money. To reduce his mental stress, he enjoyed playing basketball and spending some times on the softball field with his high school buddies. But, that was not good enough to reduce his stress and that’s why he asked Mr. Loude for promotion and eventually he got the offer and after two months, he was given the post of the crew chief more surprisingly with a jump in salary. But, it was also scared him as he was neither ambitious or curious nor good enough to run the instruments he handled and every morning when he woke up, it made him terrified. Every night, he was spent with a night mare of insecurity that he was appointed a job which was not suitable for his basic knowledge and moreover, highly educated crew members were appointed as juniors under him. All the time he was so tensed and scared that he was frequently stumble his own words and turned his face red while he was stammering. His co-workers were offended with him as he was addicted to smoking and motivated them to do this. The situation also became tensed at home as Alice have to give up her full time job with a night job to take care the baby and he realised that he had to spend his day at drinking, worrying about the next day and look after his baby at night.

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How was Larry Field trying to cope with his stress?

Larry Field was trying to cope with his stress by playing basketball and spending some times on the softball field with his high school buddies. He was also enjoyed smoking to reduce his work stress.

He should overcome his unhealthy situation by searching a job that was suitable for him in all respect rather than engaging himself in stress of addiction and also a consultation with his wife might be lead to a better life.

Organizational Culture:

How would you describe the organization culture at Plant World?

Definition of organization culture is imparting of the flavour of the concepts. The characteristics of organization are to focus on ideology norms, and customs, share values. It is a kind of pattern of basic assumption that discovered or rather developed by group.

A winning plant culture is simple and introduces following three areas:

1. Serve the customer
2. Grow the business
3. Develop employees

How large can such a company get before it needs to change its culture and structure?

By proper leadership and to maintain some following steps can increase plan culture:

1. Three to four guiding principles defines the position of an employee: Sr. Leader has a capability to define in simple terms about the organization. For example a company have a culture marked by mistrust and destructive internal competition but after coming new leadership will change their work culture in Plant to build up a personal relationship and to think about the customer, about their organization etc.
2. Use principle to guide each and every business discussion and discussion going forward: After implement the new guiding principle use those to all business discussion and decision.
3. By build up the principle to all the employees, will grow the employee’s performance and management system: Leader must be aware of that his people and performance management system measured and reward behaviour consistence with guiding principle. Leadership action is a key to improve work culture of a plant.
4. To create a 2-3 leadership development experience which will reinforce behaviours and values consistent with principle and insist all leader to attend : Leader always have a capability to convert the principle into action which only can reinforce to change behaviour other also.
5. Stay the course with patience: If a leader always do lecture in classroom or any meeting that will not help in practical field to change behaviour of employees or others. A proper leader must have capability to convert his word into work. If attendance saw the leadership principles and values that were discussed in classroom or else being lived out in a daily basis in the field will impact their behaviour and improve the cultural side in a plant.

Organizational Change and Development

Is organizational development appropriate in this situation? Why or why not?

Organizational development in the mentioned case is visible in the endeavor of the introduction of the computer in the working pattern or the system of the project that would not only ensure more systematic way of operations but also at the same time the time of the employees will also be more effectively used. However this development could have been more all rounded had the employees been communicated more elaborately regarding the positive effects of the introduction of the computer system.

What kind of resistance to change have the employees of the project displayed?

The employees of the project had shown considerable amount of negative reaction to the introduction of the computer system. The excerpt clearly reveals the resistance of the employees towards the introduction of the computer. The employees who have been till then acquainted with a working style that was more manual in nature which covered jobs such as mailing, addressing envelopes or work that required typing found it to be rather uncomfortable in getting acclimatized to the use of the computer system in doing in their daily responsibilities. The employees hence were of the opinion that the sue of the computer might could lead to many confusions in their work and many mistakes could be committed in their daily work output if they opted for the use of the computer for their daily work functions.

What can Martin Welk do to overcome this resistance?

The only way that Welsh can actually overcome the resistance is by training the employees of the project in the use of the computer. Once the employees starts getting a hands on training in the use of the machine that they will be able to resolve all the problems that they had thought would appear in their process of getting converted to the sue of the computer in their daily jobs. Once again, only by using the machine in their day to day work functions that will the employees be able to fully realize the efficiency that could be brought into their working style by the use of the computer.