CASE 1 Consolidated Products is a medium-sized manufacturer of consumer products

Question

CASE 1 Consolidated Products is a medium-sized manufacturer of consumer products with nonunionized production workers. Ben Samuels was a plant manager for Consolidated Products for 10 years, and he was well liked by the employees. They were grateful for the fitness center he built for employees, and they enjoyed the social activities sponsored by the plant several times a year, including company picnics and holiday parties. He knew most of the workers by name, and he spent part of each day walking around the plant to visit with them and ask about their families or hobbics. Ben believed that it was important to treat employces properly so they would have a sense of loyalty to the company. He tried to avoid any layoffs when production demand was slack figuring that the company could not afford to lose skilled workers that are so difficult to replace. The workers knew that if they had a special problem, Ben would try to help them For example, when someone was injured but wanted to continue working, Ben found another job in the plant that the person could do despite having a disability. Ben believed that if you treat people right, they will do a good job for you without close supervision or prodding. Ben applied the same principle to his supervisors, and he mostly left them alone to run their departments as they saw fit. He did not set objectives and standards for the plant, and he never asked the supervisors to develop plans for improving productivity and product quality Under Ben, the plant had the lowest turnover among the company's five plants, but the second worst record for costs and production levels. When the company was acquired by another firm, Ben was asked to take early retirement, and Phil Jones was brought in to replace him. Phil had a growing reputation as a manager who could get things done, and he quickly began making changes. Costs were cut by trimming a number of activities such as the fitness center at the plant, company picnics and parties, and the human relations training programs for supervisors. Phil believed that training supervisors to be supportive was a waste of time His motto was: "If employees don't want to do the work, get rid of them and find somebody else who does." Supervisors were instructed to establish high performance standards for their departments and insist that people achieve them. A computer monitoring system was introduced so that the output of each worker could be checked closely against the standards. Phil told his ive any worker who had substandard performance one warning, then if orkers supervisors to g performance did not improve within two weeks, to fire the person. Phil believed that w don't respect a supervisor who is weak and passive. When Phil observed a worker wastin ple time or making a mistake, he would reprimand the person right on the spot to set an exam

Explanation / Answer

1.There was a contrasting diference between Ben and Phil in how they approached things .Ben believed that it was important to treat employees well and was more involved employee engagement activities wherein he would conduct picnics and other activities whereas as phil was more result oriented in getting things done focussing on the efficiency .Ben was focussed on supporting ,developing and recognising as he was easily approachable to the employees and never looked at reviewing their performance annd would rather let them do the work on their own.He had not interest in clarifying and planning.On the other hand phil was a task master and focused on his goals .He introduced a computer monitoring system and was very focussed on planning and developing and not on supporting the employees

2.Ben made the employees feel that he is like one of us and a supportive employee and hence had no focus on productivity of employees and the ptroduction with no set goals.Phil had clear goals and monitoring system and the job was his uttermost priority since he had a focused monitoring system and goals in mind he was able to improve the productivity.

3.If I was the manager I would take a middle path wherein all the employee welfare/engagement activites would be linked to achiving specific goals.For example if Annual Productivity target is met then the entire team would go for a holiday.This way the team is motivated and looks to perform bettter.Secondly if their is any family issue or exigency I would be the first one to support that employee

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