Problem-Solving Case: Refereeing the Referees of the Atlantic Coast Conference W

Question

Problem-Solving Case: Refereeing the Referees of the Atlantic Coast Conference

When basketball teams from Duke, Georgia Tech, and the other 13 members of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) play, most eyes are on the players and the scoreboard. Some avid fans also watch the referees, sometimes challenging their calls. Few would notice one important observer: John Clougherty, supervisor of the ACC’s officials. To carry out his job, Clougherty attends dozens of games every season and watches the rest on DVDs at home. At the ready is a legal pad, on which he takes notes about the number of fouls called on each team and data about particular calls he needs to discuss later with individual officials. When they make a mistake, Clougherty lets them know right after the game. In fact, quick feedback is one of this supervisor’s priorities. Right after he became supervisor, he began requiring that each game be recorded on DVD and that a disc be delivered to the officials minutes after the end of the game. If there is a disagreement about a call and Clougherty is at the game, he might review the recording immediately with the officials. The information also helps him communicate effectively with team coaches. Clougherty uses his DVD recordings as an important resource for teaching the referees. Occasionally, they also provide a record in sup- port of disciplinary actions. For example, during a game between Florida State and Duke, a crew of officials improperly called a technical foul on a Florida State basketball player and then failed to review the play on the courtside monitor. Clougherty responded with a suspension. In addition to training and discipline, Clougherty is also responsible for hiring. He has brought several new officials to ACC games. For his hiring expertise, he draws on his extensive experience: “After 30 years [as a college referee], I think I have a pretty good eye for talent.” In fact, he has plenty of firsthand experience. During those 30 years of officiating, Dougherty worked at a dozen Final Four games and four national title games.

Questions

1. Which supervisory skills seem to be most important to Clougherty’s jobs? Why?

2. What types of responsibilities does he undertake?

Problem-Solving Case: Peer Groups Help Eastman Kodak Employees Resolve Disputes

When employees have difficult disagreements at Eastman Kodak Company, they can get help from a team of their peers. Kodak offers a peer/ management dispute-resolution process. Frontline and management employees volunteer to serve as panelists who hear complaints and recommend solutions. Generally, they offer to serve because they are attracted to this approach to problem solving and they want to help; many think of themselves as eligible because they consider them- selves good leaders, listeners, or problem solvers. The peer/management dispute-resolution process brings together a panel of employees and managers, with the employees being in the major- ity. The panel cannot change company policies or work rules. Rather, they address whether the people in the situation they are reviewing were correctly applying company policies and rules. Kodak agrees that it will abide by the panel’s decision; the employee who brings the complaint need not abide by the decision and may pursue other remedies. Peer/management review is part of a larger conflict-resolution system at Kodak. The system’s former director, Mary Harris, said the ability to choose peer/management review added to employees’ satisfaction. Some managers, however, were nervous when Kodak introduced peer/management review. The company had to reassure them that they would not be punished if a review panel overruled decisions they had made. Rather, the company explained that the process was a resource avail- able to managers and employees alike. Experience with the process convinced Don Franks, an operations manager at the Kodak Park manufacturing facility. An employee used the process to challenge a decision Franks had made. Franks explains that he initially “wasn’t too thrilled” to have one of his decisions publicly questioned, but he felt “ready for help” in resolving the problem with the employee. In the end, the panel upheld Franks’s decision, and the employee was satisfied. Franks believes the employee would have continued to question the decision if the procedure had not been in place to give the issue an airing. Harvey Caras, whose consulting firm helped Kodak set up the peer review system, says only a small percentage of supervisors need to be convinced that the system will benefit them. And in Caras’s experience, they see the benefits after they understand how the system will work. He tells about the manager of a manufacturing plant who told him the dispute-resolution process has been a positive learning experience. According to Caras, the manager said, “Every time we get overruled [by a panel], we learn something that helps us make this a better place to work.” At Kodak, then supervisor Patrick Teora had participated in several panels. He found that employees from the shop floor contributed a valuable firsthand perspective, and the managers who participated contributed to gaining a grasp of required documents and procedures. He believed the two kinds of participants worked well as a team because all the team members took their role seriously. Teora also discovered that serving on a panel made him a better supervisor. Because he’s “not crazy about someone picking apart my decision,” he was more careful about how he used his authority.

Questions – 1. What challenges could arise from bringing together employees and managers to work as a group on a dispute resolution panel? How can Kodak address these challenges?

2. To staff its peer/management review panels, Kodak requests volunteers. What are some advantages and disadvantages of using volunteers instead of another approach such as hiring people for the job or requiring employees to participate?

3. Imagine you are the leader of a peer/management panel such as the one described in this case. Your panel is being asked to hear an employee’s complaint that her supervisor unreasonably turned down her request to participate in a training program. Prepare an agenda for the panel’s meeting to hear the complaint. Whose viewpoints will you need to hear? How will you ensure that all those viewpoints are heard? How will you set up the meeting to ensure that the whole panel participates in the decision?

Problem-Solving Case: Cultural Diversity in a Cookie Factory

Lori Madden, a teacher of Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American culture, uses her cultural knowledge to help employers bridge language and cultural barriers with Spanish-speaking employees. One of her business clients was a cookie producer where about one-third of the line workers were Hispanic, mostly of Mexican origin. A union was attempting to organize the workers, and the company wanted to present its side of the decision more effectively. Looking at the longer term, the company also saw the union-organizing effort as a sign that it needed to ensure that workers were satisfied. The manager who hired Madden as a consultant took her on a tour of the factory. During that time, a Spanish-speaking janitor approached Madden and asked her to translate a question: when would he get a raise? The manager could only remind the janitor of the company’s wage structure and policies for granting raises, but the janitor already knew the policies. As she translated the exchange, Madden realized that something else was going on. The janitor was concerned about his family role. His wife also worked for the same company, but as an office worker, she earned more than he did. According to the janitor’s cultural view of family roles, it was an embarrassment that he earned less than she did. In this kind of situation, restating company policy would never lead to worker satisfaction.

The manager could not expect to change his employee’s entire understanding of proper family roles. Nor could he violate company policy to make the employee happy. However, he could identify this janitor as an employee who would be highly motivated to work overtime or gain the skills that would qualify him for higher-paying positions at the factory. This problem came as a surprise to the manager. Although he was able to bridge the language barrier with the janitor through an interpreter, the Hispanic employees generally did not speak up to air complaints or to put forward their opinions. They had a culturally based understanding that such behavior would be disrespectful. Madden’s presence on the factory floor provided an opportunity for the janitor to raise the issue indirectly, as a question. Her cultural awareness gave her the insight that something lay behind the question, and she was able to probe for a greater understanding. Besides playing this role as interpreter, Madden suggested other ways that the cookie company could create a more positive environment by addressing the needs and culture of its Hispanic employees. One step the company took was to create Spanish-language versions of instructions written for factory workers. Madden noted that translating English into Spanish was only part of the need: the instructions used highly technical language. Simplifying the writing in both languages would help all the factory workers understand instructions. She also encouraged the company to improve language skills by offering both Spanish instruction for supervisors and English instruction for the Hispanic workers. Furthermore, Madden noted that apprenticeship is a valued part of the Latin American work environment, so she encouraged the company to incorporate counseling or mentoring relation- ships into the development of employees. Why go to all this trouble? The company where Madden consulted valued these employees. The manager who hired Madden described the Hispanic workers as typically hardworking, reliable, and willing to follow instructions. Of course, workers from other ethnic groups could also offer these or other strengths, but it was to the company’s advantage to draw out the best from the talent it had.

Questions - 1. In what ways would prejudice and stereotypes make it more difficult for the supervisors in this cookie business to improve relations with employees? How do the language differences contribute to the challenge?

2. The manager in this factory brought in a cultural expert to improve understanding of the Hispanic employees and enhance communication. Do you think this effort was more likely to improve communication or just reinforce prejudices? Why?

3. What else might supervisors in this factory do to improve the way the company manages diversity?

Problem-Solving Case: Is Thor Industries Organized for Growth? Thor Industries is the largest maker of recreational vehicles in the world. If you have never heard of this company, that fact may have something to do with the way it is organized. The company’s principal executive office is located in Elkhart, Indiana. Here, president and chief executive officer Bob Martin oversee the activities of a company that recently enjoyed more than $3.2 billion in sales. The rest of the work occurs throughout North America at the company’s 17 recreational vehicle (RV) factories. Thor makes RVs sold under many brand names, including Airstream, Keystone, Dutchmen, Outback, Four Winds, and General Coach. Wade Thompson (deceased) and Peter Orthwein originally built Thor by purchasing RV and bus manufacturers and letting them operate independently. In effect the RV companies that Thor has acquired continue to compete with one another under the corporate umbrella. And brands within a division operate independently. At Keystone, for example, there are 29 brands, and they have separate factories, each with its own manager in charge of that brand. Within a facility, there are different functional groups, such as cabinetmaking, plumbing, electrical, and finishing. Each group has a floor leader. The leader and the group together have the responsibility to improve efficiency, including the authority to eliminate unproductive workers. In addition to operating independently, the divisions are rewarded independently. The president of each division receives a portion of that division’s pretax profits, and some of them earn more than the corporation’s chief executive. The financial rewards at lower levels also are linked to performance. Factory workers in some cases are paid a rate based on the amount of production, rather than their hours worked. Also, the entire workforce at a facility earns a percentage of its sales. Each functional group within the facility—for example, plumbing or electrical— receives a given share of that amount. This structure encourages innovation and customer service. The basic parts for any RV are essentially the same. Brands distinguish them- selves by style, service, and special features. Thor executives believe that when each division handles its own sales, manufacturing, and research and development, they will have more incentive to outdo the other brands. Also, the smaller divisions can more readily hear and respond to customer feedback than a centralized corporation could. A Michigan dealer explains, “They don’t have to go up this giant chain of command to get something done.” In effect, this is the structure that General Motors (GM) once had, with different organizations for each of its makes. However, GM eventually became more centralized because it couldn’t afford to continue duplicating so many functions. When a division is slipping, he gets involved.

Questions – 1. Does this description of Thor Industries sound more like a functional, product, geographic, or customer structure, or some combination of these? Explain. Is Thor Industries highly centralized or decentralized? Explain.

2. Is Wade Thomson a good example of a manager delegating authority? Why or why not?

3. Imagine you are a production supervisor in one of Thor’s factories. Suggest how you would handle each of the following challenges within this company’s organizational structure:

a. You want to improve the quality of cabinet installation, and you would like to get ideas from supervisors at a division where the quality is very high.

b. You want to cut the cost of electrical work by operating more efficiently—building the same number of RVs with fewer workers. You want the electrical team to accept responsibility for this challenge.

c. You like to camp, and based on an idea you heard from some campers in a park you visited, you want to try building RVs with a new feature: computer workstations.

Problem-Solving Case: Improvement Ideas from a Costco Cashier

Steve Heller, an assistant manager at Costco Whole- sale Corp.’s store in Carlsbad, California, had a problem to solve. The store’s cashiers were not pro- ductive enough. Specifically, they were processing customers through checkout stations more slowly than Costco’s standards. Heller wanted to find ways to help the cashiers work more efficiently. To solve this problem, Heller called a meeting with the other store managers. Together, he and the other managers listed possible solutions and discussed the merits of each. As Heller left the meeting, he passed a bulletin board featuring the store’s top-performing employ- ees. He noticed that a cashier named Pam LaBlanc had earned a spot on the board for the first time since she had been hired. Heller walked over to the register where LaBlanc was working and thanked her for her contribution to the store’s performance. Then he asked how she had done so well. Heller learned more than he had expected from such a simple question. LaBlanc explained that she needed to work as a team with the assistants, so she made it a habit to ask them for suggestions. She also gave assistants suggestions for how to help her. From day to day, she worked with different people, so the process became a kind of network of idea sharing. Heller asked LaBlanc for specific examples, and she offered many. Heller discovered more ideas for productivity improvement from this quarter-hour conversation than he and his management colleagues had thought of in their hours of brainstorming and discussion. Heller decided the best way to improve produc- tivity would be to have LaBlanc teach what she had learned. She passed her ideas on to the other cashiers. After that, more than half the cashiers in the Carlsbad store were surpassing the company’s productivity standards. Heller believes that listen- ing to and acting on a cashier’s ideas has also improved the attitudes and work relationships of his employees.

Questions - 1. How did Steve Heller define the problem described in this case? How did Pam LaBlanc define the problem? How did the problem definition affect the way these two people initially solved the problem?

2. What advantages and disadvantages of group decision making does this case illustrate?

3. Working alone or in groups of three or four students, list ways that Heller can apply what he learned from this experience to continue improving cashier performance. In other words, how can Heller continue enabling employees to improve productivity and quality of service? How might he continue to include them in problem solving?

Explanation / Answer

Clougherty uses a number of supervisory skills to be successful in his position. He needs to set clear expecta tons for the officials and provide honest, Timely feedback on performance. In an environment lied with big egos and intense competition, it is important for Clougherty to be unbiased and unemotional when assigning officials’ and providing feedback. His prior experience and success as a collegiate referee probably give him credibility and respect

What types of responsibilities does he undertake?

He has a responsibility to provide the officials’ with an opportunity to grow, and also a responsibility to the ACC to provide officials’ who are well trained and consistent. He also must deal with any negative situations that may occur in games. In today’s world of social media, 24-hour sports coverage on television, and You²ube, every negative situation is readily available for the world to see and comment on. He has a responsibility to manage those situations

What challenges could arise from bringing together employees and managers to work as a group on a dispute-resolution panel? How can Kodak address these challenges?

Bringing employees and managers to work together as a group could cause a vast array of challenges; managers may be afraid to be a part of this activity due to having their authority tested. Although a mangers are suppose to ensure their employees actives as such will not affect their employment, and use this group activity as a way to develop relationships outside of their comfort zone.

To staff its peer/management review panels, Kodak requests volunteers. What are some advantages and disadvantages of using volunteers instead of another approach, such as hiring people for the job or requiring employees to participate?

The advantage of taking volunteers makes it aware that no one is being forced to do it and those who volunteer are there to work and are concerned about the wellbeing of the company. One of the disadvantages is that sometimes you get employees and managers to volunteer who have their own agenda and are they to cause trouble. Sometime most companies know who these people are and can take measures to prevent them from joining.

Imagine you are the leader of a peer/management panel such as the one described in this case. Your panel is being asked to hear an employee’s complaint that her supervisor unreasonably turned down her request to participate in a training program. Prepare an agenda for the panel’s meeting to hear the complaint. Whose viewpoints will you need to hear? How will you ensure that all those viewpoints are heard? How will you set up the meeting to ensure that the whole panel participates in the decision

Agenda for Panel Meeting

1.Welcome

2.Introduce Panelist

3.Present Topic of Discussion

4. Invite Panelist and/Audience to Present Questions or Concerns

5. Address Concerns

6. Supervisors / Employees Remarks

7. Q & A

8. Thank Attendees

9. Close

In what ways would prejudice and stereotypes make it more difficult for the supervisors in this cookie business to improve relations with employees? How do the language differences contribute to the challenge?

If a supervisor is trying to improve relations with employees, they may encounter prejudice and stereotype behavior; both actions causes inequality between members of different groups resulting in division. The supervisor was aware of the language barrier; however, they failed to realize it was more than that, it was culture related; contrarily, it is important for the supervisors to become familiar with other cultures to gain a better understanding

The manager in this factory brought in a cultural expert to improve understanding of the Hispanic employees and enhance communication. Do you think this effort was more likely to improve communication or just reinforce prejudices? Why?

Workplace communication is vital to an organization’s ability to be productive and to operate smoothly. There are at least three major benefits to effective workplace communication. They are as follows:

Workplace communication improves worker productivity. Research shows that effective lateral and work group communication leads to an improvement in overall company performance. It has also been discovered that employees who were graded highest in productivity had received the most effective communication from their superiors. Consider the following example

What else might supervisors in this factory do to improve the way the company manages diversity?

Managing diversity requires that managers should recognize certain skills that are vital for creating an effective and successful diverse workforce. Leaders and managers must understand that understanding discrimination and its consequences will always prevail in the organization. Managers must recognize their own cultural preferences. They must see diversity as the differences among individuals and support the fact that each individual is unique in a special way

Does this description of Thor Industries sound more like a functional, product, geographic, or customer structure, or some combination of these? Explain. Is Thor Industries highly centralized or decentralized? Explain.

Based upon the description of Thor Industries, they sound more like a combination of product demarcation; however, within each sector functional teams are relevant. I have also noted this organization is decentralized and each division is managed independently; although they are one company the CEO only gets involved when needed

Is Wade Thomson a good example of a manager delegating authority? Why or why not?

Wade Thomson is a good example of a manager delegating authority, allowing the divisions to operate independently, compete with each other, innovate, and excel in performance.

Imagine you are a production supervisor in one of Thor’s factories. Suggest how you would handle each of the following challenges within this company’s organizational structure:

a.      You want to improve the quality of cabinet installation, and you would like to get ideas from supervisors at a division where the quality is very high.

It would require simply talking it out with the other division supervisor. If due to competition, the information is not shared then the division presidents or the CEO may have to be involed. The company thrives on decentralization and innovation.

b. You want to cut the cost of electrical work by operating more efficiently—building the same number of RVs with fewer workers. You want the electrical team to accept responsibility for this challenge.

Communication with the team and incentives may work here

Steve Heller defined the problem as the cashier not being productive enough; however, Pam Leblanc indicated the stores problem was the assistant needing to be able to work as a team. Both individuals approach to solving the problems was based upon the sole advancement of the company. Pam stated that she needed to work as a team with the assistants; whereas, Steven brought the issue to other managers.

What advantages and disadvantages of group decision making does this case illustrate?

The advantages of group decision making include: better at defining problems, better at thinking of more alternatives, and groups can access and find more information than individuals alone. The disadvantages of group decision making include: groupthink, one or more dominant personality members controlling the group, and the considerable time it could take to get things done cohesively.

Working alone or in groups of three or four students, list ways that Heller can apply what he learned from this experience to continue improving cashier performance. In other words, how can Heller continue enabling employees to improve productivity and quality of service? How might he continue to include them in problem solving?

. Productivity tasks. In productivity tasks, everyone in the group is doing the same thing. The outcome of a productivity task is the total of the individual members' products. For example, we might assign a three-person group the task of typing addresses on envelopes. One person types 200 envelopes, the second types 150, and the third does 100. As a whole, the group types 450 envelopes. Along with productivity, we will also evaluate the groups' performance according to its speed.

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