ORGANISATION BEHAVIOUR CASE STUDIES

1. Using Groups to Get Things done

after years of difficulties and many attempts to change, a Myerstown, Pennsylvania, pharmaceutical plant, part of the commission Care Division of German-owned Bayer Corporation, instituted a teams-based changed program. The facility had been sold several times in recent years and had operated under various organizations. The fifty- year-old factory was staffed at less than 50 percent when it was purchased by Bayer. There has been no plant manager for almost a year, and morale was at an all-time low. Worse yet, the factory was losing money, and the remaining employees feared a shutdown. The outlook was bleak, but in the absence of leadership from the top level, the Human Resource Department, under the guidance of director John Danchisko, decided that the employees themselves could turn the low-performing facility around. First, ninety-three employees were selected at random to participate in seven focus groups. At the meetings, workers brainstormed the answers to open-ended questions such as Why do people work here? and Why do people leave here? Their answers were compiled and sent to every employee for comments and input. Employees were impressed; they liked the new proactive and collaborative management style. Rick Higley, a pharmaceutical operator, says, The thing I really appreciated about the process was that the managers listened to what everyone had to say , treated is as equals, and really valued our opinions. Next, an eighteen-member cross-functional team was formed to recommend and help implement improvements. The team approach was clearly popular because fifty people volunteered for those eighteen slots. The team focused on five key priorities: 1. Define site goals and strategy and communicate them interactive employee conferences. Job security concerns and a need to see how shorter-term goals to fit into the long-term strategy were important to employees. 2. Develop a site communication process. Employees felt that their best option for information was no better than a rumour mill while supervisors often werent given critical information. Having consistency of information from the top to the bottom of the organization benefited everyone. 3. Develop hourly employee and supervisory role definitions and competency profiles. Changing ownership had led to too many abandoned programs, and training has been inconsistent. Decisionmaking authority, span of control, and management roles were just a few of the areas of confusion. 4. Identify areas of perceived inconsistencies in site practices and policies and determine appropriate actions. Employees wanted to ensure that any system used at the facility would be used consistently and that all workers would be treated the same. 5. Developed a performance measurement process (a performance scorecard system). Without some type of measurement system, workers and supervisors were unsure whether goals were being reached.

One of the biggest obstacles to change was the factories past history of failed changes. An employee noted, It would be nice if [managers] were really sincere in this, but weve all been through this before. I think this is going to be another flavour of the month. Employee scepticism began to change as the teams focused on what really mattered to the hourly workers. Employees began by asking, Whats in it for me?but the teams proposed a pay-for-performance system, with employees earning up to an additional 8 percent on top of their base pay when profitability was above target. In its first year, the facility reached four of its five financial goals and became profitable earlier than expected. Employee satisfaction is now up, and accidents are down. On-time completion of weekly production quotas has risen from 53 percent (about average for this industry) to 85 percent. In 2000, the plant received Workforce magazines Optima award for excellence in human resources. Management was so pleased with the results of the program that the teams have become permanent, with rotating membership. Danchisko says, When we first started this, we didnt realize how big it would actually become for our site. Hire We are, a few years down the road, and were still heavily into this. The sites teams process has become a model for other Bayer facilities. Werner Wenning, the new chairman of Bayer, has taken control of the firm at a difficult time. The stock price is declining, new products are slow to reach market, and the company is restructuring its divisional organization. Wenning admits that Bayer was too slow in its response to changing market condition, noting, In the future, we have to act more quickly. Perhaps the CEO ought to consider the team-based methods that were developed by his own employees at the Myerstown facility. Case Questions

1. What type of group are the focus groups that were initially formed at Bayers Myerstown facility? What type is the current eighteen-member, permanent group? What factors led you to make the choices you did? 2. Based on group performance factors, what do you predict will be the likely performance of the eighteen-member cross-functional team? 3. Initially, workers at the Myerstown plant were sceptical about the use of teams and resisted the change. What conflict resolution approach was used to address this problem? Is that the approach you would recommend for this situation? Why or why not?

2. The Most Stressful Conditions

how can effective choices be made when there is no time, when youre employees, your company, and your community are in imminent danger? Decision making under these conditions takes on a different character, as shown in the response of Sidley Austin Brown & Wood to the tragic events of September 11, 2001. The giant law firm was formed in May 2001 when Brown & Wood merged its Wall Street financial law offices with those of Chicago-based Sidley & Austin, corporate law specialists, creating the nations fourth-largest practice, with 1,400 lawyers worldwide. Many of the firms lawyers are headquartered in New York City, with 600 formerly housed at 1 World Trade Centre on floors 52 to 57 and another 100 seven miles away in midtown Manhattan. On

September 11, the first plane struck overhead. Workers noticed the explosions tremors and the smell of jet fuel. Director of Administration John Connelly asked workers to evacuate, helping the frightened and confused employees to the stairs. Being unaware of the extent of the danger, Connelly and others went from floor to floor to ensure that everyone was safely out, then left the building just as it collapsed. Only one company employee perished in the attack. In the aftermath, with damaged facilities and workers in shock, Sidley Austin employees faced the most trying circumstances of their careers. When their attempts to contact the midtown building failed because cell phone towers had been destroyed, many employees walked to the site. At the midtown location, partner Alan S. Weil anticipated the need for additional office space and called his landlord, who granted immediate leases on two floors and also got another law firm to gibe up two newly leased floors. By the end of the day, hundreds of desks, computers, and cell phones were arriving, and contractors were installing computer cables. Its just amazing what you can get in New York overnight, says partner Thomas R. Smith Jr. According to New York writer John Schwartz, The normal rules of business engagementdeliberate negotiation, adversarial wrangling and jockeying for advantagewere swept away. The infamously in-your-face New York attitude was nowhere to be found. The partnerships directors were supposed to meet in Los Angeles on September 12 but were stranded elsewhere as airlines ceased operations. The executives used conference call to begin issue-spotting, according to Thomas Cole, partner. He explained, The lawyers who assembled that day and in the days thereafter were people who had spent their entire working lives engaged in solving complex problems for clients. But that was under normal conditions. Would we succeed under the most stressful conditions? Issues involving people, insurance, and communications were complex; for example, the people issue covered such items as payroll continuity, trauma counselling, and safety and security. The organization pulled togetherstaffers from the Chicago headquarters drove all night to assist. When the firms backup data tapes needed transport from a New Jersey warehouse to Chicago, the storage companies offered to have their employees drive overnight because no planes were flying. Dennis J. ODonovan, head of the firms technology section, says, [Disaster recovery seminars] always prepare you for the worstpeople not being available, people not being cooperative; the opposite has happened. On September 17, firm employees met, and partner Charles W. Douglas told the crowd, The assets of the law firm are not the desks in the offices, the woodwork thats on the walls or the paintings that are hung in the corridors. The assets of the law firm are its people. Smith agreed, saying, Being able to keep the business going is great, but its the people that count. Employees and partners at Sidley Austin have taken on the added work with few complaints; many say that work is therapeutic. The lawyers have completed many financial deals on time, believing that its their patriotic duty to continue working as before. Employees claim that the tragedy drew them closer together, creating intimate friendships. Others are still suffering from stress, and some may choose paid disability leave, Nancy L, Karen, chief information officer, says the firm has learned a lot about crisis conditions. We ought to be able to recover in less than a say next time, she says, adding with a nervous laugh, God forbid! Perhaps Thomas Cole best askedif the disaster has been a setback to the full realization of the anticipated benefits of our merger. I answer that [b]because of the way few have risen to this challenge together, the most important yet most elusive goal in any merger integration, namely the creation of a true partnership, occurred overnight.

Case Questions

1. Using the rational approach to decision making, describe the ways in which these crisis conditions affected each step of the decision-making process. 2. Based on your answer to question 1, what are some potential problems that firm should be aware of when they must make decisions during a crisis? What are some steps that firms can take to avoid those problems or to minimize their negative impact? 3. Due to the extraordinary circumstances in New York City during and just after September 11, many individuals and firms changed their behaviour, acting more altruistically and ethically. In your opinion, why did this occur? Do you think the change is likely to endure for a long time, or is it only temporary?

MANAGEMENT GAME
Assign the students to groups and give them each a business type to manage. This type should be something in the lines of manufacturing, distribution, finance, agriculture and so on; any type of business that will work off other businesses is perfect. Give each business a set amount of mockmoney and a set period of time in which they are tasked to make a make-believe profit from that money. They then have to work with other businesses in the class to mutually beneficial profiting to complete the project. This will help the students get a handle on the actual act of doing business with others.