Chapter 1: Introduction to the Field of Organizational Behavior
Chapter 1: Introduction to the Field of Organizational Behavior
CASE STUDY: ANCOL CORP
Paul Sims was delighted when Ancol Corp. offered him
the job of manager at its Lexington, Kentucky plant.
Sims was happy enough managing a small metal
stamping plant with another company, but the
invitation to apply to the plant manager job at one of the
leading metal fabrication companies was irresistible.
Although the Lexington plant was the smallest of
Ancol’s 15 operations, the plant manager position was a
valuable first step in a promising career.
One of Sims’s first observations at Ancol’s Lexington
plant was that relations between employees and
management were strained. Taking a page from a recent
executive seminar that he attended on building trust in
the workplace, Sims ordered the removal of all time
clocks from the plant. Instead, the plant would assume
that employees had put in their full shift. This symbolic
gesture, he believed, would establish a new level of
credibility and strengthen relations between
management and employees at the site.
Initially, the 250 production employees at the Lexington
plant appreciated their new freedom. They felt
respected and saw this gesture as a sign of positive
change from the new plant manager. Two months later,
however, problems started to appear. A few people
began showing up late, leaving early, or take extended
lunch breaks. Although this represented only about five
percent of the employees, others found the situation
unfair. Moreover, the increased absenteeism levels were
beginning to have a noticeable effect on plant
productivity. The problem had to be managed.
Sims asked supervisors to observe and record when the
employees came or went and to discuss attendance
problems with those abusing their privileges. But the
supervisors had no previous experience with keeping
attendance and many lacked the necessary interpersonal
skills to discuss the matter with subordinates.
Employees resented the reprimands, so relations with
supervisors deteriorated. The additional responsibility
of keeping track of attendance also made it difficult for
supervisors to complete their other responsibilities.
After just a few months, Ancol found it necessary to add
another supervisor position and reduce the number of
employees assigned to each supervisor.
But the problems did not end there. Without time
clocks, the payroll department could not deduct pay for
the amount of time that employees were late. Instead, a
letter of reprimand was placed in the employee’s
personnel file. However, this required yet more time
and additional skills from the supervisors. Employees
did not want these letters to become a permanent
record, so they filed grievances with their labor union.
The number of grievances doubled over six months,
which required even more time for both union officials
and supervisors to handle these disputes.
Nine months after removing the time clocks, Paul Sims
met with union officials, who agreed that it would be
better to put the time clocks back in. Employeemanagement relations had deteriorated below the level
when Sims had started. Supervisors were overworked.
Productivity had dropped due to poorer attendance
records and increased administrative workloads.
A couple of months after the time clocks were put back
in place, Sims attended an operations meeting at Ancol’s
headquarters in Cincinnati. During lunch, Sims
described the time clock incident to Liam Jackson,
Ancol’s plant manager in Portland, Oregon. Jackson
looked surprised, then chuckled. He explained that the
previous manager at his plant had done something like
that with similar consequences six or seven years ago.
The manager had left some time ago, but Jackson heard
about the earlier time clock incident from a supervisor
during his retirement party two months ago.
“I guess it’s not quite like lightning striking the same
place twice,” said Sims to Jackson. “But it sure feels like
it.”
Chapter 1: Introduction to the Field of Organizational Behavior
Questions
1. Please provide the management issues that occurred
in the case study
***- ineffective internal communication, please explain
in Organizational Learning Perspective, please
provide issues with detailed theory apply, for example
single-loop learning and double-loop learning.
***- bad decision making, please explain in decision
making theory, please explain in detail as well, for
example rational model of decision making can
be used.
2. What are the recommendations to solve the issues?
–
* Please explain according to the issues and
apply same theory as well, please provide
solutions that applying organizational learning
using the detail theory, for example single-loop
and double-loop learning for solution in first
problem.
–
* For second problem, please provide solutions
applying decision making theory, please
explain in detail as well, for example rational
model of decision making can be used.
Full file at http://testbankassistant.com
Chapter 1: Introduction to the Field of Organizational Behavior
Page 1-20
© 2016 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any manner.
This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
