Joseph a plant level worker has been twenty years of experience, in Zeal Zink Ltd, a large scale industrial establishment in Maharashtra. He is hard working, competent, punctual and reliable employee of Binani Zink Ltd. He is having good interaction and interrelation with his superiors, co-workers and other members in the organization. The management has better impression and appreciation about his performance and commitment. The only disagreement the management has on him is his affiliation to one of the trade unions in the organization. Management didn't have any impression towards the existence of trade unions within the organization as they believed that trade unions are to mislead and exploit the work force and a big hurdle in the smooth progress of the organization.
To make Joseph more work oriented, management decided to promote him to supervisory level. The promotion decision is beyond his expectation. He found himself very happy with the situation and felt obliged to the management. Only hard working, competent and skilled employees are promoted to the higher position. The supervisory positions in the organization have better compensation packages, power and authority in relation to the responsibilities. Joseph highly motivated to work for the organization and felt highly obliged towards the management. He acquired better acceptance and recognition in the supervisory position from his superiors and co workers within short span. He performed his duties in accordance with the expectation of the management.
As per the official communication, Joseph met one of the senior level officials Mr. Kiran in his cabin. Kiran detailed new responsibilities and tentative targets to Joseph, inducing management expectation on him. After making some formal discussions, Kiran started informal discussion with Joseph enquiring employee's welfare, satisfaction level and many other topics. He enquired about Josephs family members also. During the conversation Kiran also enquired about Joseph's trade union activities and his strong affiliation to them. He informed Joseph that management is unhappy about his trade union affiliation, as he performs a managerial role in the organization. He demanded the gradual separation from the trade union and asked him to work for the management for better career. Kiran asked him to think about it and take a decision without loosing time. Reserving his comment on Kiran's demand, Joseph returned to his plant.
Kiran's demand to quit the trade union membership was really disappointing to him. He has of the feeling that to protect his rights and privileges; all along trade union has been with him. With the existence of trade union, employees feel safe and secure in their job. Many questions aroused in his mind, that "shall I quit the trade union? Is it fair to quit the trade union as they supported to me in many contingent situations? Will the management support me in my future? Do they follow their promises? Who am I, a Worker or a Manager?... as there is wide disparity between employees and employers? As many employees have similar experience in the past, is it safe to do so? Many conflicting thoughts made him more confused to take appropriate decision in this matter.
Though he had plenty of information about management approach towards employees in the organization, he decided to take a decision in favor of management, considering future prospects. As an initial step he started getting aloof from many of the trade union meetings and activities in the organization. The trade union has close observation about their party men. They observed the changes in the attitude and behavior of Joseph. Trade union leadership demanded clarification from him. Joseph continues to get aloof from the trade union activities by showing some personal grounds and engaging himself more on work activities. He informed management that he started his gradual separation from trade union. Management become quite happy about his decision and extended full support in his occupational career.
Having a peaceful mind, with a decision to involve the work more, as a managerial supervisor, he started his newly allotted task. His new task required more members and that to be accomplished as a team. Supervisors form different department also took part in the task performance. Though the members worked as a team there they had to follow the timely instructions of the senior managers. They don't have that much of freedom and autonomy to take decision on production and to take initiatives to achive the target with better alternative measures. As per the guideline of the top management they have performed their duties and responsibilities. Joseph and other supervisory members worked hard to get the predetermined result, as expected by the management.
The annual production statistics published. The department where Joseph has been working reported low level performance. The inspectors pointed out problems that related to quality level. The top management as usual flayed junior - middle level mangers and supervisors who are in charge of the department, low level performance. While the middle and junior level managers, as usual, redirected those allegations to the supervisors and members in the department, showing their sheer negligence and lack of commitment on their part. The supervisory members especially Joseph who all along worked hard to get better output, disagreed with the allegation made by the superiors. He has of the impression that, after all they simply followed the instructions of their superiors. The supervisory members decided to meet top management to inform them the real facts. They drafted a memorandum and handed over the same to the top management officials, indicating the real situation that went on poor outlay.
After two days top management asked Joseph to meet Kiran, the Senior Manager in the organization for further discussion of the problem with due consideration to the memorandum. Kiran informed the top management decision about the issue that they totally dissatisfied with the performance of the supervisory members. During the meeting, Kiran informed Joseph that, as a step to curb the situation and maintain the quality of the production, top management decided to transfer few of the supervisory members to the other departments and taken decision to transfer a few members from this organization to the sister concern. The transfer list contains Joseph's name also. Kiran informed Joseph that, his knowledge and competency are not sufficient to handle new responsibilities as it require more training and attention that he required to get it from other organization. Kiran also informed Joseph that management decided to withdraw extra incentives that extended to them as the nature of transfer is more of a training program and punishment one.
Joseph shocked to hear management decision in this matter. He got totally depressed about the management decision. He felt that here management has shown their vested interest, partiality to protect middle and junior level managerial members. They try to protect management members from negative consequences and corrective measures from the top. He management decision to transfer him and his fellow supervisory members to different departments in other sister concerns is a measure to marginalize and victimize them. He could not find any justification on the part of management. Joseph felt that instead of understanding the problem in an impartial way management tried to resolve the issue by developing new strategies that safe guard the management and victimizes the members. He felt that the attitudes of the management always behave as 'big bosses' and never going to change. He felt that mangers do not have any intention to support employees in their crisis.
Joseph became more aggressive decided to continue his membership in trade union and forwarded the complaint to trade union indicating the victimization.
Questions
1. Is the management's attitude towards the trade union justified?
2. Does the annual decline in the yearly production reflect Joseph's inefficiency as a Manager?
3. "Business World indulges in Organizational Politics by showing carrots of Career Planning". Comment.
4. Does this case reflect Joseph as a poor decision maker?
5. How theory of equity and theory of expectancy related to this case study?
From India, Bangalore
2To make Joseph more work oriented, management decided to promote him to supervisory level. The promotion decision is beyond his expectation. He found himself very happy with the situation and felt obliged to the management. Only hard working, competent and skilled employees are promoted to the higher position. The supervisory positions in the organization have better compensation packages, power and authority in relation to the responsibilities. Joseph highly motivated to work for the organization and felt highly obliged towards the management. He acquired better acceptance and recognition in the supervisory position from his superiors and co workers within short span. He performed his duties in accordance with the expectation of the management.
As per the official communication, Joseph met one of the senior level officials Mr. Kiran in his cabin. Kiran detailed new responsibilities and tentative targets to Joseph, inducing management expectation on him. After making some formal discussions, Kiran started informal discussion with Joseph enquiring employee's welfare, satisfaction level and many other topics. He enquired about Josephs family members also. During the conversation Kiran also enquired about Joseph's trade union activities and his strong affiliation to them. He informed Joseph that management is unhappy about his trade union affiliation, as he performs a managerial role in the organization. He demanded the gradual separation from the trade union and asked him to work for the management for better career. Kiran asked him to think about it and take a decision without loosing time. Reserving his comment on Kiran's demand, Joseph returned to his plant.
Kiran's demand to quit the trade union membership was really disappointing to him. He has of the feeling that to protect his rights and privileges; all along trade union has been with him. With the existence of trade union, employees feel safe and secure in their job. Many questions aroused in his mind, that "shall I quit the trade union? Is it fair to quit the trade union as they supported to me in many contingent situations? Will the management support me in my future? Do they follow their promises? Who am I, a Worker or a Manager?... as there is wide disparity between employees and employers? As many employees have similar experience in the past, is it safe to do so? Many conflicting thoughts made him more confused to take appropriate decision in this matter.
Though he had plenty of information about management approach towards employees in the organization, he decided to take a decision in favor of management, considering future prospects. As an initial step he started getting aloof from many of the trade union meetings and activities in the organization. The trade union has close observation about their party men. They observed the changes in the attitude and behavior of Joseph. Trade union leadership demanded clarification from him. Joseph continues to get aloof from the trade union activities by showing some personal grounds and engaging himself more on work activities. He informed management that he started his gradual separation from trade union. Management become quite happy about his decision and extended full support in his occupational career.
Having a peaceful mind, with a decision to involve the work more, as a managerial supervisor, he started his newly allotted task. His new task required more members and that to be accomplished as a team. Supervisors form different department also took part in the task performance. Though the members worked as a team there they had to follow the timely instructions of the senior managers. They don't have that much of freedom and autonomy to take decision on production and to take initiatives to achive the target with better alternative measures. As per the guideline of the top management they have performed their duties and responsibilities. Joseph and other supervisory members worked hard to get the predetermined result, as expected by the management.
The annual production statistics published. The department where Joseph has been working reported low level performance. The inspectors pointed out problems that related to quality level. The top management as usual flayed junior - middle level mangers and supervisors who are in charge of the department, low level performance. While the middle and junior level managers, as usual, redirected those allegations to the supervisors and members in the department, showing their sheer negligence and lack of commitment on their part. The supervisory members especially Joseph who all along worked hard to get better output, disagreed with the allegation made by the superiors. He has of the impression that, after all they simply followed the instructions of their superiors. The supervisory members decided to meet top management to inform them the real facts. They drafted a memorandum and handed over the same to the top management officials, indicating the real situation that went on poor outlay.
After two days top management asked Joseph to meet Kiran, the Senior Manager in the organization for further discussion of the problem with due consideration to the memorandum. Kiran informed the top management decision about the issue that they totally dissatisfied with the performance of the supervisory members. During the meeting, Kiran informed Joseph that, as a step to curb the situation and maintain the quality of the production, top management decided to transfer few of the supervisory members to the other departments and taken decision to transfer a few members from this organization to the sister concern. The transfer list contains Joseph's name also. Kiran informed Joseph that, his knowledge and competency are not sufficient to handle new responsibilities as it require more training and attention that he required to get it from other organization. Kiran also informed Joseph that management decided to withdraw extra incentives that extended to them as the nature of transfer is more of a training program and punishment one.
Joseph shocked to hear management decision in this matter. He got totally depressed about the management decision. He felt that here management has shown their vested interest, partiality to protect middle and junior level managerial members. They try to protect management members from negative consequences and corrective measures from the top. He management decision to transfer him and his fellow supervisory members to different departments in other sister concerns is a measure to marginalize and victimize them. He could not find any justification on the part of management. Joseph felt that instead of understanding the problem in an impartial way management tried to resolve the issue by developing new strategies that safe guard the management and victimizes the members. He felt that the attitudes of the management always behave as 'big bosses' and never going to change. He felt that mangers do not have any intention to support employees in their crisis.
Joseph became more aggressive decided to continue his membership in trade union and forwarded the complaint to trade union indicating the victimization.
Questions
1. Is the management's attitude towards the trade union justified?
2. Does the annual decline in the yearly production reflect Joseph's inefficiency as a Manager?
3. "Business World indulges in Organizational Politics by showing carrots of Career Planning". Comment.
4. Does this case reflect Joseph as a poor decision maker?
5. How theory of equity and theory of expectancy related to this case study?
From India, Bangalore
Hi I need helpin answering this case studies? pls help me ..
If you were to walk around one of Transocean Sedco Forex’s oilrigs off the New Orleans coast, you’d see something that might puzzle you. Most of the workers have three stickers on their hard hats. One says, “Start to understand me”. The other two are colored dots. What’s this all about? The colored dots are there to tell co-workers about the personality under the hat. The company believes that workers are better able to understand each other & get along if they know the personalities of the people with whom they work.
Transocean has hired an outside consulting firm to provide personality assessment to its 8,300 workers worldwide. For instance, employees are presented with 28 sets of four words. Each worker picks a word that describes him best and a word that describes him least. A typical set: fussy, obedient, firm, playful. Employees then are shown how to score their test and find out their two dominant colors. For instance, reds are driven. Yellows are emotional, talkative and have a fondness for people.
Reds are strong willed and decisive. And Blues dislike change and can be a little wishy-washy. Rig workers wear their dots on their hats, while land-based employees post theirs outside their office doors. No one is forced to display their colors and some think the program may be too intrusive. Tim Callais, a Transocean advisor for operational safety, says those who question the program’s credibility are “probably blue people.”
A number of employees seem to find the dots helpful. Thom Keeton, a red-green rig manager, keeps a color chart under the glass covering his desk for quick reference.
Tom Watkins, a senior rig hand on a drilling ship who is also a red-green, thinks the colors correctly reflect his personality: blunt, to the point, and not liking to talk much. David Gray, a blue-yellow, says the colored dots help him deal with high-strung red-greens now that he’s figured out that he just has to get to the point more quickly.
This program is not being applied only at Transocean. Similar Personality-based coding systems are being put into place with a number of Blue-collar employees. Assembly line workers in Kentucky are using the system. So are police officers in Kansas, electricians in Texas, construction crews in Florida, and carpenters and plumbers in New York city.
Questions:
1. Are you surprised that oilrig workers would buy into a program like this?
2. How valid do you think color-coded personality ratings are?
3. Do you think having employees “wear their personalities on their hats” is a personal intrusion? Is it unethical?
4. Transocean’s CEO supports the program but says, “I can be whatever color I want to be.” Do you agree with him? Explain.
From India, Madras
If you were to walk around one of Transocean Sedco Forex’s oilrigs off the New Orleans coast, you’d see something that might puzzle you. Most of the workers have three stickers on their hard hats. One says, “Start to understand me”. The other two are colored dots. What’s this all about? The colored dots are there to tell co-workers about the personality under the hat. The company believes that workers are better able to understand each other & get along if they know the personalities of the people with whom they work.
Transocean has hired an outside consulting firm to provide personality assessment to its 8,300 workers worldwide. For instance, employees are presented with 28 sets of four words. Each worker picks a word that describes him best and a word that describes him least. A typical set: fussy, obedient, firm, playful. Employees then are shown how to score their test and find out their two dominant colors. For instance, reds are driven. Yellows are emotional, talkative and have a fondness for people.
Reds are strong willed and decisive. And Blues dislike change and can be a little wishy-washy. Rig workers wear their dots on their hats, while land-based employees post theirs outside their office doors. No one is forced to display their colors and some think the program may be too intrusive. Tim Callais, a Transocean advisor for operational safety, says those who question the program’s credibility are “probably blue people.”
A number of employees seem to find the dots helpful. Thom Keeton, a red-green rig manager, keeps a color chart under the glass covering his desk for quick reference.
Tom Watkins, a senior rig hand on a drilling ship who is also a red-green, thinks the colors correctly reflect his personality: blunt, to the point, and not liking to talk much. David Gray, a blue-yellow, says the colored dots help him deal with high-strung red-greens now that he’s figured out that he just has to get to the point more quickly.
This program is not being applied only at Transocean. Similar Personality-based coding systems are being put into place with a number of Blue-collar employees. Assembly line workers in Kentucky are using the system. So are police officers in Kansas, electricians in Texas, construction crews in Florida, and carpenters and plumbers in New York city.
Questions:
1. Are you surprised that oilrig workers would buy into a program like this?
2. How valid do you think color-coded personality ratings are?
3. Do you think having employees “wear their personalities on their hats” is a personal intrusion? Is it unethical?
4. Transocean’s CEO supports the program but says, “I can be whatever color I want to be.” Do you agree with him? Explain.
From India, Madras
Community Support and Knowledge-base on business, career and organisational prospects and issues - Register and Log In to CiteHR and post your query, download formats and be part of a fostered community of professionals.
Case Study, Transforming HR Through Technology.doc
Case study - HR and technology for better Employee relations.pdf