James West is the Department Head of Production for Biotech Germany. He has been

Question

James West is the Department Head of Production for Biotech Germany. He has been with the company since 1974 when he came aboard at age 18 as a line worker. He has fashioned the department from his personal experience. He stresses numbers, quality control and meeting goals. He is proud of his success in meeting goals efficiently and with minimal cost to the company thereby maximizing profit. He is known as a strict taskmaster but not unreasonable.

Artemus Gordon, West’s assistant, is 29 years old and has been with Biotech for 4 years. Gordon has been concerned that West is not willing to move with the times. He sees the other production departments around the globe meeting goals efficiently but with lower employee turnover. These companies use new technology.

Germany now has a strict work law that requires that employees must be let go by 5 pm, and overtime is only permissible if the employee agrees. West makes employees work overtime to meet departmental goals and seldom asks the workers about his or her interest in overtime. Gordon also knows that new technology might make the work more efficient.

With these ideas in mind, consider the two Biotech managers mentioned below and the Schools of Thought and theorists they represent... Explain how the Schools of Thought and the theorists reflect the changes in role and business environment shift.

Explanation / Answer

James West, the older member who has been with the company since 1974 and has been the Departmental Head of Production follows a task oriented management style and is focused on getting things done and achieving set targets without much consideration for developing a relationship with employees. This works best wherein the leader has got power of authority and in times wherein organization puts the entire focus on efficiency and results without having consideration for human resource.

The younger Artemus Gordon on the other hand is more relationship focused and he wants to introduce technology to ease the burden on the employees and also make them more comfortable in their jobs thereby reducing turnover. This is in line with modern management practice wherein a lot of emphasis is put on employee welfare and their development to ensure the organization is seen as a progressive one.

The schools of thoughts have evolved as times have changed and business has evolved with the older traditional thoughts placing more emphasis on efficiency and achieving targets rather than adopting a more humane approach. The modern approach talks about introducing technology to be more efficient and places more importance on developing employee skills to manage these technologies and their welfare to promote retention of employees and develop long standing relationships..

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